Page 22 - Life and Death of the "Aspy"

ISSUE : Issue 14

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1976/8/1

started to run from Sydney. And you see, the way the landing job worked, you didn't have a permanent job for life. It was vdienever the government would go over. Paw was a liberal. Soon as the tory govern? ment would go into power the jobs would change. Then Norman MacAskill would get it, and Jiraray Curtis. Ihey had it a few years. Ihe tories weren't getting in too often that time. But ray father didn't like it. Especially in the nighttime. It'd be rough and that time when you were getting 500 a lot of people would expect you to go out for freight, especially the storekeepers- even if you'd half fill your boat they'd say you're getting paid for it, you'll have to go. Capt. MacDonald was pretty good, and if it wasn't fit to come out he wouldn't wait. But it was hard work. If you couldn't catch a horse for to hoist up. We didn't have pasture fence. Some? times you'd have to go a raile looking for a horse the day the Aspy'd be coraing. And if we couldn't get a horse we'd have to hoist it by hand. Two guys could hoist a barrel of gasoline 300-400 pounds. When we used to hoist a punchion of molasses we'd put the horse ahead and 8 or 9 guys behind, pulling. But in the nighttime, you take it there. Paw was getting old. He was 70 when he got the old age pension. He used to work hard fishing in the day? time and then that boat would come in the night. Audie Morrison, Cape North: I remember when we used to figure on a thousand bags of flour here for the winter. That's 100 pound bags. There'd be some 200 pound barrels • 196 pounds in a barrel. And there'd be corn meal and bran, maybe 600 bags of oats. Feed wheat for hens. Rolled oats in 80 pound bags. No packages at that time. 40 or 50 bags. That's 4000 pounds of rolled oats. That's porridge. Used to figure anywhere from 40 to 50 punchions of molasses. And kerosene. Whatever the back end held was in there and the rest was rolled outside on a plank and would be taken in during the winter as it was needed. Everything was quite safe leaving out. We only had two horses and a truck wagon. In 1928 got the first 2 l/2 ton truck. And even at that there was a lot of hand? ling. A load that came on the Aspy on Tuesday -you'd pretty well have it hauled by Friday. Because Friday there'd corae another load. (So men would be hauling pretty much all the time?) At that time, yeah. During the summertime the swordfish fleet was in and you'd have to have bread for the swordfishermen, Dingwall was a big place for swordfish. Boats would be packed in that cove in Dingwall some nights • gyp? sum boats in, Aspy in • you could pretty well walk anywhere you liked around the cove, on the boats I mean. It's hard to believe the number of boats that used to be in some nights. The loaves of bread came in boxes • I think it was 40 loaves in a box. And they would just open the box and be passing them out and somebody would be taking the money • John Neilie MacDonald that time • someone on the truck would pass out the bread and holler so much • and that store woula be packed. Bread and baloney and eggs. It's hard to believe the araount that did go. Rt. 19, near Inverness/* Inverness Enjoy your favorite seafood C>|>e Eretcn's Magagine/2a

Cape Breton's Magazine