Page 22 - A Talk with Donald Johnny Murdock: The Blind Man's Seventh Son

ISSUE : Issue 68

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1995/6/1

side, and he told me, "Now you go back to bed." He took off up the road, as he al? ways walked, just like a soldier. He was one in the First World War. I went back to bed. About a month or month and a half af? terwards, one of the Gillises in Port Hood--he's dead today--asked me, "Were you scared that night?" I said. "What night?" "The night the priest took you to the church with him." "No. I wasn't scared." I said, "why?" "Did you know," he said, "that the priest couldn't get into the church that night?" "He didn't say a word to me." "Well it's true, that priest tried three times to get in the door, and each time something pushed him back, so he came back and got you. and you went over. I thought he told you." "No. he never told me." I said. I would have been scared if he had. Laughter. No. he never said a word to me, and it's a good thing he didn't. As myself and my brothers got older, we used to go to work in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. We followed the lumbering. My older brothers went, and then all of us went, working in the lumber woods. We had to hitchhike. bum our meals from house to THE CAPE BRETON Si4MiMertiMe 'IRRESISTIBLE" The Kingston Whig Su "A BOAT LOAD of MARITIME FUN- SPARKLES WITH ORIGINAL WIT AND FINE MUSIC" JUNE 3 9-15 CALGARY EDMONTON HALIFAX 17-18 TRURO 19-20 PICTOU 22-24 26-28 ANTIGONISH GLACE BAY Singer Theatre Horowitz Theatre The Cohn C.E.C. deCoste Centre St. F. X. Savoy Theatre AUGUST 7-10 SYDNEY 12-14 BADDECK Centre 200 Centre Bras d'Or 15-17 PORT HAWKESBURY S.A.E.R.C. 20-22 HALIFAX The Cohn 24-26 GLACE BAY Savoy Theatre CAPE BRETON .. ' , isi'ND Canadian • AirAtlantic "Zm'''/zy'iupM' THE lOTH ANNIVERSARY NATIONAL TOUR '95 house, as we walked the highway, looking for work, all over Nova Scotia. We never liked the hoboing. It was going on. but we didn't do it. except for once. We hoboed one time from Antigonish down to Orangedale Station. We walked up to a mountain there but there were no jobs. We got a meal there and then we tried to walk, headed for home. We got as far as South West River over by Angus John the Tailor's, and we couldn't make the hill. There was snow, frost on the ground, so we began digging into old snow, into haystacks trying to keep warm. But we made it home the next day. We had pretty good luck in the lumber woods. If we got into a camp we stayed there, and if there was work the following year we got it. It was pretty well known after awhile, that if we went there, we stayed, and we worked pretty hard. Never came out till the following- spring. When you came out then you were like a bunch of wild horses, jump? ing in the air. Laughter. From time to time, we also made a bit of moonshine. Ah, it was good stuff! Laughter. We had a lot of fun. we didn't do it for harm. (What are your brothers' names?) There was Murdock, John Angus, Finlay, Al? lan, Angus, myself, and John Willie. How many is that? a (So there were seven sons.) Twwi.X4 PRIMED 1 Wooden Screen Doors K) f||fQQQ[||| Screen Doors Experience the sounds & warmth of spring and summer...enhance your home and open it up though a Fraser handcrafted wooden screen door by Nova Scotian craftsmen! IVIanufacturecJ in Bear River, Annapolis Valley, N.S. I'XcXoVJlEZFT''''jL-iXoXoX Mon-Thurs. 8-6 'a? M'AREHOIJSE PORT HAWKESBURY Business Park 625-5555 Mon-Thurs. 8-5:30 Friday 8-8 Sat. 8-5

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