Page 64 - From Visits with Alfred P. MacKay of Big Harbour Island

ISSUE : Issue 66

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1994/6/1

My father was a real expert at that. He could keep a bone in the air. You'd have to sweep fast (with your knife) to do it! Before (one bone) reached the ground, the next one was going up! (Must have been a terrific pile of bones somewhere at one time.) They made fertilizer of it. The day's fishing, you'd cover it with eel- grass, and the next day, well, you'd cover that (with eelgrass). Eelgrass that came ashore. It made a powerful mixture, you know. Every Saturday you'd spread it on the field. If it was a windy day, you couldn't go to church Sunday because the smell of this stuff that'd be flying at you! It was pretty powerful! Laughs. People ate different then. We had meat and potatoes or fish and potatoes. And then you had tea and bread or something, after? wards, for finishing up. At the tables. When I'd eat my po- From UCCB Press New Titles Forthcoming in May, '94 An Underlying Reverence: Stories of Cape Breton Edited by Dr. James O. Taylor This is an anthology of ten short stories by Cape Breton authors about Cape Breton. Included are: The Burnt Forest by the late R.J. MacSween Green Grow The Grasses O by D.R. Macdonald The Glace Bay Miner's Museum by Sheldon Currie An Underlying Reverence by Angus MacDougall Prayers by Ellison Robertson God's Country and Her Father's Daughter by Joan Clark Winter Dog by Alistair MacLeod The Innocent by Tessie Gillis Events by Beatrice MacNeil ISBN:O-920336-52-3 Cape Breton And Its University College: Symbiotic Development by Dr. Benjamin Higgins This essay is concerned with the role of the University College of Cape Breton in the economic and social development of Cape Breton. Co-published by the University College of Cape Breton Press and the Canadian Institute for Research on Regional Development. ISBN:)920336-54-X Ethical Decision-Making: A Survey Of Cape Breton Nurses by Donald Dunbar and Charlotte Musial Steele This study investigated generational differences among nurses in their attitudes toward a range of moral issues identified from the literature and personal interviews as important to the nursing profession. For more information contact: 'i:' UCCB Press j', P.O. Box 5300 1'' Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada '''' B1P6L2 1974-1994 Tel: (902) 539-5300 Ext. 604 20t?? awtOietttti. Fax: (902)562-6949 UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF CAPE BRETON tatoes and meat, when (my mother would) come with the tea, she'd have to wake me, that was how sleepy I'd be. I'd fall asleep at the table! Laughs. And she'd be Murdock MacKay, Alfred's father telling my father, "You're getting him up too early...." (A man) came to the shore, and he bought fish. And he was on the Grand Banks all his life--he was an old Grand Banker. And my father was there, too, and they knew each other. But I remember, he bought $5 worth of fish. And he was trying his pockets. And my father said to him, "You don't have to pay it today, you know. Any time will be all right." "Oh," he said, "I always carry a few--6 or 7 hundred--in my pocket!" Laughs. Just a kind of a joke he was say? ing. (But did he actually pay for the fish, in cash?) Yes, yes. A dollar and a half or something, you know. That was a big sale. There was an island down here. And there was a fisherman there, a MacPhail from River Denys. His son is living yet--he's a minister, IMacPhail. • 5'' .. there's no catch about the catch .'JW!"....::; of the day. '''i' Is there anything that packs ??.v.:.:.:.v.v.v...w.' 'Qre goocj eating, mope great : flavor and more of the things i we lookto for proper nutrition : than Nova Scotia fresh or processed seafood? | Nova Scotia seafood is at the | heart of many great meals, j Try some.. .ifs easy on the | eye, tempting to the taste j buds and good news for ] calorie counters. | June is Atlantic Seafood Days Rev. A. C. Anyway, he had 7 or 8 boys. And he had a rowboat, he rowed down there. And he sold the fish at home, in River Denys. And he put every one of them through college. They were all law? yers or something. He did it all with a hook and a handline. You see. That was something.... We even did a little farming. But we nev? er made any money on it. We had our own beef and milk and butter. And we didn't have to buy very much of any? thing. I didn't see it done, but my grandfather took the oats and had it ground to make their

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