Page 4 - Gwennie Pottie of West Tarbot

ISSUE : Issue 67

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1994/8/1

And as far as I'm concerned a lot of it was in me, too. I wanted to do it, I didn't want anyone else to get ahead of me. I wanted to do everything that anybody else would do. The men would go out.,,. Of course, one of the men died two years after I came there so then I had to help Uncle Dan, as I always called him. And, of course, the other fellow. Uncle Murdock, I felt really bad when he went because he was really nicer in one way than Uncle Dan be? cause, oh. if I wanted a box of chocolates, he'd go to the store and he'd get them for me. Or if I wanted something, if he had the way or means of doing it he'd get it. So this day, I was about 11 1/2, I guess-- the following summer after I came there, they had an old grey mare and she was just like--I don't know, she was quiet. Easy to do anything with. So he went and he was going to mow some hay. And I went out be? cause I used to go out with them and get _ the fork to keep the swaths away from the mower, especially when they had big swaths of hay. And I said, "Un? cle Murdock, can I go on the mow? er? Can I mow?" "Oh," he said, "darling, I don't know. Will I dare?" Well, I said, "The mare is so slow you can walk behind. Just show me what to do," I got onto that just the same as I did washing THE BEARPAW GIFT & CRAFT SHOP Local Crafts to Tickle Your Fancy Photographs • Knitting • Crocheting Painting • Quilts • Weaving/Hooking Gifts to Test Your Resistance • Beautiful Souvenirs • Attractive Tartans • China and Glassware • Numbered Icono Celtic Prints PLUS OTHER ARTISTS And: • Celtic Jewellery • Tapes and CD's CENTRAL AVE. INVERNESS PHONE 258-2528 Keltic Lodge, The Spirit of the Highlands A resort on clifis overlooking the ocean, commanding a view like no other. Romantic Ititeriude The champagne is chilled and waiting for you. Fresh flowers, fruit and our own Keltic-made chocolates are already in your room. Get ready to make your escape! Both packages include two nights accommodations phis dinners and breakfasts. For information and reservations, call or write: KELTIC LODGE "A tradition of excellence the dishes in the sink. So then he let me mow the next day. I went out with him and he let me mow this field. And, oh, was I proud of myself mowing this hay. He went in and, of course, he started telling Aunt Mary. "Oh my goodness," she said, "you didn't let the girl on the mower!" But that was my chores. And, of course, when he died I used to go out with the other guy, with Uncle Dan, and we always used to make the hay together. I'd do the mowing and the raking with the mare, you know, and help plow. I'd drive while he'd do the plowing. I sowed oats and I planted potatoes and I planted a garden. You name it, I did it. And proud of myself to think that I could do it while the other kids were running wild, most of them. Of course, those days no kid was running wild. Most of the girls then, like D.J. Smith's sister Annie Mae, she was only 14 when she went to work to Baddeck. Of course, then I was working home on the farm. I could never even think of going away to work to earn money for myself. I was 24 years old before I ever earned a dollar. (Not that you didn't work.) No, not that I didn't work! I worked. But that was the first time I earned a dollar that I could call my own. I used to knit with the old lady. She used to knit socks, and oversocks, and mitts and gloves for the guys to go working out in the lumber woods and she'd get paid. And when I think of it, God love her, if she was living today she'd be a millionaire, you know, for the price, A pair of mitts, 25C and 50C. Today you get $5 and $10 for them a pair. (That still doesn't get your time.) No. It still doesn't get your time. And sometimes it barely pays for the yarn you put into it. See now, me, when I spin my own yarn and then knit it, I'm not get? ting anything for my labour. But anyway.... (Tell me more about what it was like to live in West Tarbot as a community?) Well, between our place and old Murdock Morrison's out there, there were around 35 fami? lies one time. They were neigh? bourly. It was a neighbourly com? munity. I mean, no matter what one did, if you didn't have your wood home ready for the saw mill everyone would gather to? gether to help to Golf Getaway Are you up to the challenge of the famous Highland Links (3olf Course? Designed by Stanley Thompson, it's a par 71 walking course. Keltic Lodge, Middle Head Peninsula, Ingonish Beach, Nova Scotia, Canada BOC ILO Tel: (902) 285-2880 Fax: (902) 285-2859

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