Page 77 - George Leonard & the Fish Business

ISSUE : Issue 69

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1995/8/1

obviously were responsible for. And we used to pay everybody in cash. And in those days on the Cabot Trail, there were no paved roads. It was all lit? tle narrow dirt roads. In fact, it used to take three hours and a half to go from North Sydney to Baddeck. You had to cross a ferry. And the north country was even ruggeder. We used to have t night--or, every evening-- from Ingonish--or, I used to carry the money--Ding? wall. And that wasn't on the road that's there now. That was on the road that goes away in the back, around Mary Ann Falls and so on, way back in through there. And, you know, you were--talk about the chanc? es of getting robbed! (But were you ever robbed on those trails?) No. No, you never thought anything about carrying money around, the same as you'd carry a bag of flour. Never thought anything of it. And liquor was--there were no liquor stores in the north country. I've forgotten about Cheticamp; there cer? tainly wasn't in Ingonish. And swordfish buyers, of course, used to like to have a little bit of beer around, as a little incentive for the swordfishermen coming in. So that was part of the deal; you always had to get some beer. And the beer used to come in quart bottles then. Down from North Sydney on the trucks that used to take the fish back. And get that out to the fishermen. These were swordfish we were talking about. And the average weight of a sword- fish is interesting--it was 266 pounds dressed. That's with the head off, the gut out, the fins and so on--in those days. And that's when they used to harpoon the swordfish, on the surface. And then they eventually got into--in fact, my fa? ther started the first guy on this coast--and set his boat up, a longliner--with hook and line. We got the hooks and the line from Ja? pan- -well, hooks for sure. Maybe we bought the line lo? cally. Set it up. And he was only gone a few days and he got--I'm quite sure it was 47 swordfish. Big ones. They were worth a lot of money--as they are today--at that time. So that started them all switching over to hook and line. Very, very shortly after that, the size of the swordfish started to go down. Smaller and smaller. And we had o drive every one--I can distinctly remember--brought in Noonecomes outthesame. The YMCA has a way of changing people's lives. And it doesn't seem to matter if you're young, old, or somewhere in between. For example, with our fitness programs you might have a change in your body. Or because of our youth, family and volunteer programs, you might feel a change inside, about yourself and your relationship with others. In any case, the Y affects different people in many ways. With all kinds of different programs and activities. Yet one thing doesn't seem to ' change. And that is, when you go into the YMCA, you don't come out the same. You come rpi x/it/'i f.) p up outaMkbetter. IneYMCA. Itsforallofyou. in ail Km Y For Further Information, Call the YMCA 539-7880 399 Charlotte Street • Sydney Ask about our new Weight Programs & Aqua Fitness Programs

Cape Breton's Magazine