Page 48 - Islands in the Strait of Canso

ISSUE : Issue 17

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1977/8/1

eryone dug for an hour. They got sick of it and finally said to hell with it. We tried right in the old cellar. We should have waited until summer, when dry. The frost was coming out of the ground. It was too mucky. The old superstition was you couldn't get pirate money unless you went at night. Rab? bit is supposed to have treasure too. No one ever got anything. Everyone was going at random. / ' River and come to our house for Sunday din? ner. They would row in from the island. They had to wait on the tide to leave, otherwise the row would be too hard. They did everything together • even fishing. He carried the axe while she carried the cross-cut saw. They had no horse and had to haul firewood out on a hand sleigh during the winter. About once a week, whenever they had enough eggs, they both rowed the boat up river, all the way to Cleveland • about eight miles one way • where they sold eggs at the two stores, Dave McLeod's and W. R. Morris? on's. They sold herring to James Wlker's store, who would sell the fish in Halifax. James Walker picked up vegetables, geese, young pigs, and pork carcasses from P.E.I, in his schooner. John and Susan would get winter supplies at Walker's. They sold lobsters to the lobster smack, a boat like a large sloop. The smack came up river and bought lobsters for the Hawkesbury fish plant. I only heard John speak three times in my life. The first words I ever heard him speak Annie Cloake, Port Hawkesbury: All the Macs was when the price of flour was given as were Irish Catholics. The-priest used to $16.95 a barrel. "Gees, oh," he muttered, come by boat from Arichat to say mass and christen their children. Everything traveled All the Macs believed in fairies. They used by boat in those days. to talk about how the fairies would dance in the woods. Some say that's the reason they John and Susie would go to church at Lower left the island. These memories of life on islands in the Strait of Canso were gathered by David VanderZwagg, who also took the photos. He and his wife live on MacLeod's Island. PEUGEOT A different kind of luxury car from the European Car Specialists EUROCAR SERVICE LTD. Westmount, opposite Dobson Yacht Club 564-9721 Rt. 19, near Inverness / Inverness 1/2 mile off Cabot Trail Nell's Harbour lfOtfS?? Enjoy your favorite seafood

Cape Breton's Magazine