Page 88 - A Visit with Ray "Mac" MacDonald: In Honour of the 50th Year of CJFX Radio

ISSUE : Issue 64

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1993/8/1

up at the radio station and car? ry on a conver? sation. But if you can be in love with a whole ball team, then I was. Be? cause they were good kids! (Will you tell me about your brother Harold's death?) Ah, well. Harold was born in 1926. He was the oldest in the family and he was quite a skit, really. His nickname was Twit, if that tells you any? thing. But he was popular with the girls and all the rest. When I was grow? ing up they called me Twit the Second, and I kind of liked that. But he was never a great scholar. He got to work very early. He went to work at the Halifax shipyards. He was really good-natured, whistling all the time. He wore one of those hats turned up. I remember one time he came home from the Hal? ifax shipyards and he had a few dollars and he asked one of our sisters to press his pants. She was going to do it for the dime or quarter or whatever it was, but she pressed them on the side. Ray laughs. He Kell's Angels • the 1974 Nova Scotia and Maritime Intermediate "B" Ladies' Softball Champions. Bacl( row, left to right: team sponsor Hughie Kelt, Bernadine MacEachern, Martha Durant, Cathy Kennedy, Carole Broussard, Hel? en Layes, Muriel MacGillivray, coach Ray MacDonald. Front, left to right: Gail MacDougall, Delia Farrell, Betty Car neli, Biddy Cameron, Donna MacEachern, Joanle Hasey, bat girl Mary K. Layes. paid her and wore them to the dance. It didn't bother him one bit and he had a great time. Then he worked in Ontario for a long time. But he was always trying to get back home. So he came home and they were doing some renovations at Harbour View Hospital and he worked there for awhile. Then he got the job in the pit. He was married with five children when he died. WE BUY AND WE SELL AND WE'RE AS NEAR AS YOUR TELEPHONE Sid's Used Furniture Phone 564-6123 436 Charlotte Street, Sydney CATERING TO ALL YOUR HEALTH FOOD NEEDS • Herbal Remedies & Teas • Vegetarian Foods • Free Range Chiclcens & Eggs • Nut Butters • Dairy Free Ice Cream & Cheese • Tofu • Body Care Products • Juices & Grinders • De-Alcoholized Wines & Beer • Bulk Foods ??.ciaG'in' in ''zat 'DxtL & U'aixtf 'xll Uoducis. nanCL l naturat foodi 156 FALMOUTH ST., SYDNEY C/'' HfiQI. (NEAR CENTRE 200) 30Zr" / 300 The accident happened--it was kind of a railroad accident. Now, I'm not a miner, but I think what happens is the empty coal cars go down on one track and the full coal cars come up on the other track. There is a very short distance between the two tracks. By short I mean two or three feet. So his job that day was to couple coal cars. They used a steel bar which might have weighed 8 or 9 pounds and was called a grab. You put that in and gave it a twist and the empty cars were coupled and they went down and the coal was put in them. What happened was the grab stuck and he tugged at the grab. He pulled at it to try to get it loose and he fell in front of the full ones com? ing up. It was a closed casket. My fa? ther was in the pit that day. He had survived the Princess disaster earlier on. He was in the pit that day but wasn't hurt. This was the same pit. I was in Bathurst at that time, and it was all very, very sad. He was born in '26; '34. What is that? I was born in About 8 years.

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