Page 12 - From Visits with Alfred P. MacKay of Big Harbour Island

ISSUE : Issue 66

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1994/6/1

I took (that mail) to this house. You went up there and they'll give you the mail bag. Took it over to the other fellow and they took the mail out of the bag. (And in the wintertime.) Horse and sleigh on the ice. You had to go around the road if it was storming. Mail had to come anyway, twice a week.... Well, they gave you a break. If it was an awful day. they wouldn't expect you to go out in it.... That was all the income--the cash--my fa? ther really had. So he used to keep that to one side to pay the tax.... It wasn't very good, but he wouldn't want to lose it, because of the cash he got. You needed some money for certain things. (Like tax? es.) And if you were sick, you had to get a doctor or something. (You couldn't give the doctor trade.) No. Well, some of them. I guess they would, pretty near.... ORTH STAR INN NORTH SYDNEY capebreton Nova Scotia s Friendly Seaport • Gateway to Newfoundland Travellers to Cape Breton "Unpack Once" Centrally Located to Most Attractions • 75 Rooms - Kings, Standards, • Fishery Restaurant and Suites' • St. Pierre Rum Bar • Luxury Suite - Jacuzzi Bath • Indoor Pool and Whirlpool • Harbour View - Air conditioned • Kids free with parents • Seniors Discount Overlooking the Newfoundland Ferry Terminal (Exit 21, Highway 105) Tel: (902) 794-8581 Fax: (902) 794-4628 39 Forrest Street, P.O. Box 157, North Sydney, N.S. B2A 3M3 -800-561-8585 (Atlantic) (So to pay your taxes, you'd have to work on the road?) I was on the road. There'd be some repair work, you'd get paid for that. If you put your team of horses, I think you got--I don't know what you got-- 8 or 9 dollars a day. You took your team out and mended holes on the road. Hauled gravel off a beach or something. Three or four days a year. After my father gave me the place, and he was gone, I didn't have to pay poll tax. When you paid property tax, you didn't have to pay poll tax.... (Years ago, when you were fishing--you must have earned some actual money then.) You'd make a little. There'd be folks up in River Denys there, back from the shores. They would buy some fish from you. There was no fish company then. Not here. We rowed up the river with the rowboat--put the pickled cod in it. We'd row up there in the fall and sell it here and there. At the houses. You went to every house. Eden, and River Denys. Valley Mills. I stopped one time, there was an old fel? low in Valley Mills. And I asked him, "Do you want any fish?" And he was driving fencing alongside the road. He said, "How much is it?" I said, "It's 3C a pound." "Dear eating!" he said, and he went back hammering the fence--he wouldn't have any! Alfred laughs. You buy a fish now, they want a dollar a pound for it. (So, when you told me you were a fisher? man, you didn't mean that you were fishing for a big company, and that the smack was coming around every day....) No, no, no. No, I never had that advantage when we were fishing. Just for ourselves. And we sold our own. Except when the lobsters (came)--the first lobsters I caught. I had to cook them to sell them. And I sold.... Our Visit with Alfred P. MacKay Continues on Page 63 CO-OP CO-OP Building Supplies OPEN MON. - SAT. 8 A.M.-5 P.M. 870 King's Road, Sydney 539-6410 WE ARE MORE THAN JUST LUMBER!!! I PRESSURE TREATED LUMBER I PAINT/STAINS I FLOOR COVERINGS I GYPROC I BATHROOM FIXTURES I VINYL REPLACEMENT WINDOWS I INSULATION I ROOFING MATERIALS I LIGHT FIXTURES I PLUMBING SUPPLIES I HARDWARE I COUNTER TOPS I VANITIES I SHOWERS I ROOF TRUSSES I DOORS I EAVESTROUGH I LUMBER I HOME & GARAGE PACKAGES I ELECTRICAL SUPPLIES I HEATING SUPPLIES I PLYWOODS HARBOUR HOIUIES MIH> EXPERIENCE ON YOUR SIDE OVER 40 YEARS EXPERIENCE

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