Page 7 - Cape Breton Dragerman at Westray: George Muise, New Waterford

ISSUE : Issue 62

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1993/1/1

I in ALL T4E ORAr&??R- I It il mas ttf' *?> i*' Mill Gt'f Wiipe I Schoolchildren Sent Cards of Hope to the Dragermen George Muise: While I was up there, some of the grades in school made up their own cards on construction paper and made big posters and they sent them to the mine site. And kids were putting on their stuff like "Don't give up" and "Dragermen are our heroes" • and it was just hundreds and hundreds of cards and posters. And I can remember walking into the mine for our last shift, and these cards were plastered all over the wall. And mine su? pervisor at the time, Nick Calloway up there, he came up to me and he said, "Did you see these cards?" I said, "No. I don't want to see them. Don't show me anything till after this is over..." Like Karen said about keeping my distance from her (in my phone calls home). Not so much keeping my dis? tance from her, but I tried to keep my distance from that. I mean, we had things like • we were staying at the hotel right next to where some of the guys who had died were being buried. I mean, you take them up out of the mine one day and a couple days later Another card read: Hang In there Don't Give up We are with you all the way • signed Caria K. you're there watch? ing their funeral. And then an hour from that you may have to go down in the mine again. And the kids with the cards. And we had relatives that sat at the mine site, on the surface, from Day One to the last day • that worked at Westray, like brothers or uncles or fa? thers, whatever • sat there, and never moved, and every time you went over there • boom • there they were, sitting there, waiting for word. That's the kind of stuff that I tried to keep myself and the guys on my team clear of until after everything was over. And once it was over, then we could read some cards. I even brought a couple home with me.... We n'iade up a little poster ourselves, and signed it, and sent it over to the school. (Announcer: On the second day after the ex? plosion all of the bodies were removed from the southwest main. The area was sealed off to block the methane gas accumulating there. That way rescue teams could move farther down the mine to the other working section where 15 miners had been on shift.... George told us that hope remained an important factor to the rescue team that had to return down the mine. But as the rescue wore on, he began to question that.) George: At that point, I mean, everybody was hoping that we were going to find somebody alive. People were coming down-- so-called experts were coming down and giving hopes to the there. And they real they were talking ab' they were comparing ray, and it was just things. I mean, they the fact that they mean, the guys at Sp bump, they were seal didn't have to deal people that were ly didn't know what out to begin with. And Springhill with West- two totally different were talking about ight be still alive. I ringhill with the ed off. But they with the force of the DR. LOCK Cape Breton's LEADING LOCKSMITHS _ 473 Townsend St. (behind the Provincial Bidg.) OPEN SATURDAYS 9-NOON for the convenience of out-of-town customers ALL THE KEYS YOU'LL EVER NEED! 24-HOUR EMERGENCY SERVICE: 562-4556 THE TREASURE COVE GIFTS AND HANDCRAFTS High quality gifts and crafts from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and abroad 1-902-564-8158 Children's books and toys - pre-school to 12 years 1-902-539-3035 Open Mon.-Sat. 9-6, Thurs.-Fri. until 9 74 Townsend St., Sydney, N. S. B1P 5C8

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