Page 59 - A Visit with Clara Buffet, Glace Bay

ISSUE : Issue 68

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1995/6/1

Can you teach that? (Well, you've tried it.) Oh, yes, I've tried. You can, to some--yes, you can. And it is very surprising. And in every lesson--there were at least a thousand people that I gave--and this was one of the biggest things that I pounded into them. "Do your job well. Don't do something that you don't know how to do it. You're not going to fool anybody. Find out how to do it. Don't be afraid to say, 'I can't do that. I don't know how to do that.' But when you're sure that you know how to do it, then you stand on your rights...." Of course, I came from a long line. My mother was a teacher, and her mother was a teacher. So perhaps you get it in the bloodstream, I don't know. They knew how to teach. My mother never raised her voice, that I ever heard her raise her voice. Not that she and my fa? ther didn't have arguments, and I know they did. But to her children, never raised her voice. I remember I got a spanking when I was age 3, for stealing somebody's rings. And that was a spanking in front of all the kids in the neighbour? hood, and over her knee--spanking on the bottom. Laughs. I'll always remember that. And I never stole again, of course. That's the only time, I think, she ever put her hand on any one of the children. My father was upstairs crying, I think. Laughs. Grandma Moffatt was highly educated for that day. She came from Acadia, from the Valley, and went through Horton Academy, which was the forerunner, of course, of Acadia. And when I think that she started out by horse and carriage from Canard to Canso. And then took a sailing boat from Canso to North Sydney. And she was 18. Would you do it? Would you be brave enough to do it, in those days? I don't know what the roads were like, because that would be 1840, I guess, or '45--something like that. (What did she come to do?) Teach. At North Sydney. North Sydney was the big place then in Cape Breton. It was the port that went to Newfoundland. And it had a big, big farming district around it--Bras d'Or, all that area. And of course, most of the time it was ice-free. Sydney wasn't any? thing then. Nor was Glace Bay--it was just little coal mines, I think. So, she taught in North Sydney, and married. And went to Bras d'Or to be a farmer's wife. And she went--and I just think now: His mother was there, who was a widow. And I think there Cape Breton Auto Radiator co RADIATOR HOSES • REPAIRING • CLEANING • RECORING cior- . COMPLETE CYLINDER HEAD SERVICE _ . 5i8Ciranci auto * truck * industrial Sydney Lake Road Complete Line of Gas Tanks 564-6362 • NOW DOING AUTOMOBILE AIR CONDITIONING • BIHTERNUT Butternut time EASTERN BAKERIES LTD. Complete Range of Quality Bakery Products for Retail Restaurant & Food Service 564-4531 1-800-565-4532 FAX 564-1288 JOHNSTONE STREET • SYDNEY WAYNE MacDONALD - SALES MGR. Overlooking the Margaree Valley at the Junction of Route 19 and the Cabot Trail A full-accommodation Lodge featuring: DINING ROOM LOUNGE SWIMMING POOL SPACIOUS ROOMS Take advantage of nearby recreation: BEACHES GOLF FAIRWAYS CAMPING FRESH AND SALT WATER FISHING HIKING The best of Nova Scotian musicians entertain in our lounge every w'eekend. Check with us to see who is playing, and drop in for an enjoyable evening' P. O. Box 550 MARGAREE FORKS Nova Scotia BOE 2A0 Phone (902) 248-2193, William F. Maclsaac, Manager RELAX IN THE BEAUTIFUL MARGAREE VALLEY

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