Page 65 - Gwennie Pottie of West Tarbot

ISSUE : Issue 67

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1994/8/1

I'd have to go to milk the cow or that. Well, I always put the baby to bed before I went, anyway. But the other two, they'd sit around her knee and listen to her singing Gaelic songs, or tell them a story or something like that. Of course, Rosanna was around 5 years old then. She was pret? ty wise for her age.... But when I came home from the Annapolis Valley. I said (to Lauchie). "If you're going to work any more away from home, you're going on your own." I said, "No more packing for me--I'm staying right here where I'm at." So I never went. He was in the Valley, and he was up at Haw? kesbury. and he was down Dingwall (in northern Cape Breton) and all that, but I never--I stayed right here. He always followed construction. But when we came home from the Valley--the Valley, I think was the last place. Or was it? Anyway, when he came home from where he was, he said, "This is it. I'm going on my own." And we went down the Shore for a drive on Sunday afternoon. And the first little boat he bought--it was more or less going to be for a little pleasure boat. He bought it from this Sandy Morrison down the Shore. Took it home. Made a few traps, and went lobster fishing. And that started the fishing business. And then he put up that building over there for welding and that. It used to keep him pretty busy, be? tween welding and between fishing. (So fishing would have been very new to you. Different hours.) Different hours-- don't mention the hours! You'd get up at 3 o'clock in the morning to get his lunch and breakfast. Be all day. What a life! I told him, "If I'd have known I was going to marry a farmer or a fisherman, I'd have got married before I ever left Tar? bot!" I could have. (You didn't marry too early--27 years of age--considering probably a lot of your generation married a lot younger V>ref)mjh's TrM/iAAgenof We plan it all for you. 794-7251 158 QUEEN ST., NORTH SYDNEY /' than that.) That's for sure. But. I didn't want to come back to live around here. I didn't want to come back to Tarbot, actually. (Had you thought of returning to England?) Oh, I did, I did, but it was just a dream or--I never got there. Well, I didn't ever get the money to go. You know, pretty hard with children and that. After I got mar? ried, I wouldn't go and leave the children behind. My brothers tried to get a pass for me to go, but I just didn't. (But you were able to maintain some sort of contact with your younger brothers.) Oh, yeah. My two younger brothers, I was hearing from them all the time until Moth? er died. I still heard from my younger brother after Mother died. But when he died, I lost contact with everybody. I don't hear from any of them any more. But I always heard from my mother every month. Oh yes. Mother kept in touch with me. Mat? ter of fact, I've got the last letter she ever wrote to me. I don't know--I always had the idea of Riverside Cleaners Cape Breton's Only Drive-Thru DryCleaning KINGS ROAD • SYDNEY Lowest Drycleaning Prices in Town! Industrial Cape Breton Board of Trade Serving homes and businesses ttiroughout Cape Breton Island Distributing the Wtiite .'''M'' ''B'i''' .''' ''''. Mapie Leaf Products of svnco' ENERGY FUELS 38 Lewis Drive Sydney River 539-6444 FURNACE OIL • STOVE OIL • DIESEL • GAS • LUBRICANTS

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