Page 48 - Leo Aucoin, Acadian Traditional Singer

ISSUE : Issue 63

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1993/6/1

pit props. That were going to England. There wasn't too much work. But then in 1939 the war started. Then in 1941 I went to work for Joe MacDonald here, Mira Road. Yarding, with a horse-- yarding logs. I stayed there for a month. You have to have a chain, on a horse. And somebody was cutting. And I was taking the logs to a yard. And then the big truck used to take it to the mill. (How long were these logs?) Twenty or 12, 10, 14, 15, 16. (For) boards. And then, I had a friend, he was working in Gillis Lake. And they came one night, if I want to go there. Because I didn't like the horses. You had to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning, feeding the horses and everything. I would have stayed there, but I didn't like it. So he asked me--one of my friends, they came to see me. So I went to see the foreman and I told him. "If you want to give me 15 0 more a day, I'll stay here. If you don't...." I had $1.35 a day. He said, "How come you're leaving?" "Well," I said, "I'm going to have a job, helper on a truck, on a big truck. And here I have to get up at 5 o'clock in the morning, feeding a horse. WORKING TOGETHER FOR OUR FUTURE! TRAVAILLER ENSEMBLE POUR NOTRE FUTUR! take care of the horse. And," I said, "over there I don't have to do that. And I got 15C more a day." That was quite a thing, those days, in 1941. Before I got hired to the steel plant. So, that was the first of July, I think. Or the first of August. So I was helper on a truck. Oh, my God--it was perfect. But then I had my name in the steel plant here. October the 18th, I had a call. And then my sister was working at some place here in Sydney. They phoned her. So she came to get me, with a taxi or something like that. So I went to the steel plant, for 4 years. I worked everjrwheres (in the steel plant). I had a (General) Yard number. I worked everywheres. But there was too much stress--I had a sore stomach. And I think maybe that's what it is. Too much--gassy. (In Toronto....) I was working in a rubber factory for two years. And there wasn't too much money. I moved where they were making plates for planes (during the war) in Mississauga. (When you were working in Sydney, was there a community of Acadians for you there?) Oh, yes, yes. From Cheticamp, Margaree, where I'm from--St. Joseph du Moines--yeah. (Did the same kind of parties...?) Over here? Yeah, we had parties, too. (Like Cheti? camp?) Yeah. Not so many, often, because it was different. Here there was a dance in Carpenters Hall here. There was another one in Ashby, near the church. And there was another one--you know where's the Journey's End there, below the St. Rita Hospital. (Oh, at Nelgah Beach.) Yeah. In the winter? time, we used to hire a taxi when we were going. In the summertime and in the fall and in the spring, we used to go--a bunch of girls and the boys--walking on the track. Railroad track. But when we were coming home, we used to hire a taxi. We went (to Nelgah Beach) very often. Like the Carpenters Hall. Every Saturday we Need a Radiator? Muffler? Shocks? Brakes? RAD-PRO Specializing in Radiator Repair & Recores Heaters Water Pumps, Etc. TWO LOCATIONS: Sydney i 349 George St. - Downtown i AND Port Hawkesbury Maclnnes Road at Specializing in Mufflers Brakes Shocks 'MASTER MUFFLER Springs '|j'LL!ij| Sydney: 562-2300 • Port Hawkesbury: 625-3781 Port Hawkesbury Centre Sydney: 539-6691 • Port Hawkesbury: 625-3781 ~ 40 YEARS OF SERVICE TO CAPE BRETON ~ INTAKE HOME STUDIES PROTECTION FOSTER HOMES ADOPTION' probiem identification; referral support services; crisis intervention ail ages, in permanent homes CHILDREN IN CARE I Suite 7, Provincial Building, 360 Prince Street, Sydney, Nova Scotia BIP 5L1 (562-5506) I SINGLE MOTHERS counselling; support I THE COMMUNITY'S RESPONSIBILITY IS TO PROTECT OUR CHILDREN I counselling; support b8| "A UNITED WAY SERVICE AGENCY"

Cape Breton's Magazine