Page 82 - Allan MacLeod: Stories and Gaelic Songs

ISSUE : Issue 74

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1999/6/1

just didn't want to go to bed if he was in a strange place, I guess, or whatever. (Maybe he just felt like he was putting them out or something. That it'd be a bother to give him a bed so he'd just....) No, I don't think. He disliked the idea of getting undressed and going to bed in somebody else's house. Because when he did have his own shack, he never had a bed in it, he had a bunk in it, made on the wall. He'd sleep in that. I don't know if he ever took his clothes off or.... He just slept on that. And then got up in the morning, early, and make his own tea, and he'd be gone.... (Did he have any family?) No, no. He was never married. Never had--lived alone and he just lived around. Like, if you had a place and you were going for the winter-- if you wanted to, he'd stay at your place, keep the heat on and stay there. But even then I used to talk to different people: if there was a cot in the kitchen or any? thing, that's where he slept. He'd never go--between all the bedrooms and all the beds you want, they'd show him his bedroom and everything. He'd never go in it. He'd sleep on the cot. He'd use the kitchen. K% TAYLOR'S DENTURE CLINIC dentures"] D.V.A. & Dental Plans Accepted SPECIAL DISCOUNTS FOR SENIORS Registered With "TAPS" (Services lor Veterans) CONSTRUCTED, RELINED & REPAIRED J. B. TAYLOR • LICENSED DENTURIST 92 Charlotte St., Sydney 564-9111 We've got IT! They bring ideas to life.,, magical lands of Paladon, Oceans of Mystery and the Aftermath Crew. Talented designers, animators and authoring technicians on the leading edge of digital entertainment. Virtual Media Productions Coll for your view on Cope Breton Island, Canada's I nformationTechnology genius. 1-800-705-3926 www.cbisland.com ' and that was it. He'd sleep on the cot, or whatever. Probably half the time on the floor. He went for years and years. And that's how he always lived. (So he's long gone.) Oh, long gone, yeah. Not so terri? ble long, but quite a while now. I guess. Twenty years or more. Maybe even more. I don't know if he died before I got married or not. I think he did. Yes, he did. Over thirty years now. But he was a nice old fellow. Oh, he was comical, though. Oh, he was terrible for talking to himself. Shouldn't be talking about him, I guess. But, he'd--oh, you'd hear him. We used to as kids.... When we were kids we used to watch for him. Espe? cially going to school or coming from school. If you'd hear Sandy on the rounds, you'd be listening until you hear the walk, and coming, the talk. Hide on him then. Hide alongside the road and listen to him. You wouldn't believe the talk. Stories. And loud. Yeah. And tearing on the trees like he was going to box with the trees. That's another thing that was in the song. The braces'd be off him like that. He'd be boxing with his shadow. But that's the way he was. You'd hear him, oh, coming • how loud he was talking. And then if you caught him he'd cool right off, you'd never think he ever said a word at all. Talk to himself • you never heard any? thing like it. And tearing on trees and stuff, I mean. Like, the tree was you or me and he had nothing to do with you so he'd square off with the tree. And then he'd go over and snorting and • you wouldn't believe it. Come and have tea, and if it was dark and cold • well, he had nowhere to go, real? ly. I mean, the last going-off, the last few years he had a shack, but I don't think he ever had a home like.... He came from way back on French Road some? where. I guess he had a home in the begin? ning. But ever since I could remember him, and long before that, he just went from place to place. And slept in the woods or slept wherever he could. (No income.) No, not a thing. Just whatever he got to eat at your place or at my place. Shoot the odd rabbit. Always carried a gun. And he had a shack way out in Ben Gall. Well, he always had that one. It was made D ' THE IbROIMTO-DOMINION BANK Your Bank. Your Way Comer of Charlotte & Pitt Streets P. O. Box 117 Sydney, NS B1P6G9 Phone 567-3610 or 539-6637 • Fax 539-6337

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