MONTHLY ACTIVITIES

MONTHLY ACTIVITIES

 In and around Alder Point and Area certain rituals were carried out throughout the year and these didn’t seem to waiver from one year to the other even though I am sure they did. As I recall here briefly are the functions and activities that we learned to expect to participate in each month:

January – Of course bringing in the New Year was celebrated late into the night. At mid-night it was customary to stand outside with pots and pans and make as much noise as you could. It was not uncommon to hear the odd shotgun or rifle being fired as well. Midnight mass was celebrated with great ringing of the church bell. New Year’s day dinner usually consisted of chicken, or goose or a roast of pork and lots of desserts. School of course was in full swing by this time and the walk to and from during these most severe of weather conditions was sometimes terrible. We all came home for lunch hour which consisted of using almost all of the time to walk to and from with but a few minutes to scoff down a bowl of soup and be away. The weather during the month of January was harsh to say the least. You had to dress warm with hats and mitts, socks and bloomers. Everyone had homework and we studied by the light of a kerosene lamp. There was the daily chore usually in the morning to clean the lamp shades – if I close my eyes I can hear my mother’s wedding ring making a noise on the lamp shade as she cleaned shades normally with newspaper.

 

February – This month continued to be severe but there was normally lots of skating, coasting and hockey. It was also Valentines. We made up cards at school and sent them to those who we had a crush on. Teachers attempted to make it more equitable by having us create them and then draw them out of a hat so that no one would be offended. We made fudge at school on Valentines day. We had as many pancakes as we could eat on Shrove Tuesday. They had a taste all their own with butter and molasses or molasses alone. Crown Brand and Bee Hive corn syrup could have been used if available and was wonderful on pancakes. Real Canadian Maple Syrup was just not available.

March – I always remember March because it seemed that the cow freshened – gave birth to a beautiful heifer. This was an important event and required everyone to call at the barn for a look and a chance to pet the new baby. It was also a month for very severe freak snow storms. Oftentimes men had to use their snow shoes to get from place to place. Men also assembled in groups to shovel a path on the roads in order to permit passage of a horse and sleigh or a motor car. The drift ice was usually on our shore and in the 1930’s and 1940’s men and boys went out on the ice and killed seals. Some people ate the seal meat. The skins were cleaned and used for clothing or sold. By the end of March into early April the roads started to thaw and become near impassable for vehicles of any kind. When we were older our lobster fishing parents sent us into the woods to cut bows and rings for the lobster traps. We learned at a very early age how to knit heads for the lobster traps. This was a task Grampa Fraser did all his life and up into his nineties – knit heads for Daddy and for others. Many of us lads and girls would also accompany our parents in the dory and go along the low tide shore by the reef looking for flat rocks for lobster trap ballast.

April – Lent normally fell in April and resulted in everyone fasting. This fasting had numerous rules attached to it. Lent consisted of attending church, carrying out the stations-of-the-cross, and with Holy Thursday and Good Friday having  marathon mass of at least three hours. This was followed by Holy Saturday and then of course Easter Sunday. I remember my father with a number of his buddies sitting in our kitchen waiting for noon on Holy Saturday. Once noon came they opened their quarts of beer and there ended the fast. I can’t imagine men doing that today and waiting until noon to open their “Export” or “Coors.” Easter Sunday was traditional for ham and eggs and normally associated with who could eat the most eggs. Some families boiled eggs and painted them before Easter. Small gifts were sometimes given as well. Some cod fishing usually began in April. It was normally the time of year for finishing off making lobster traps and painting buoys. Boats also received a fresh coat of paint and their bottoms copper painted. I need only close my eyes to smell again the fresh smell of this paint and sit and enjoy the warmth of the spring sun which by now was getting higher into the sky and warmer – ah spring in Alder Point at the shore on the sunny side of the fish house was heaven.

 

May – This month ushered in the beginning of lobster fishing May 15^th. Boats where launched on the high tides and rigging readied and traps moved to the end of the wharves. Boys were required to assist their dads on setting day and as a result got to miss school for the day. Mothers received May flowers on Mother’s Day picked from the nearby woods and a small gift usually made by children for their mothers.  May 24^th the Queen’s Birthday was picnic day. We all piled into the backs of trucks and went off to places like Boisdale, Iona or Johnstown for a picnic and games and of course the obligatory swim. You were a wimp if you didn’t swim on the 24^th of May even though the water was as cold as it would be in January.

“The 24^th of May, is the Queen’s Birthday, if we don’t get a holiday, we’ll all run away.”

 

June – June meant the end of the school year. We were freed up to commence all of our summer activities. Because the lobster factories were operating, some of us got jobs picking lobsters. We were of course more interested in fishing, swimming and playing sports especially soft ball. June meant exams at school and then awaiting the results to see if you graded.

 

                                      The Boys of Summer

July – July 1^st was our first summer holiday and resulted in celebrations and fire works. We attended picnics at the beach or at the back shore or even down at our own shores. Games such as hop scotch, ball, tag, skipping (girls always sang rhymes or songs while skipping – I never hear them do that today), Johnny Steps, red rover, and more were played late into the evening dusk. One game we played was on an empty 45 gal drum. You got up on it and tried to “walk” it across the field – it was difficult. Many of us learned to swim and dive during this time of the year. Visitors from “away” often started to arrive with strange talking cousins amongst them. July 15^th meant the end of lobster season and the preparation of boats for sword fishing. Placing the spar and the chair and repairing the rigging and purchasing rope and kegs and darts and the long billed caps to shade the eyes. July and August also meant for us “Micks” several weeks of religious study delivered by the Nuns. They were a no nonsense bunch of educators and put a bit of a stint in our vacation time but on the other hand I suppose it didn’t do us any harm. Many of our friends the “Prods” thought it was a joke and often made fun of us. Some of them would in a group sing making fun of the Mass by uttering the words, “my mother can play bingo better than yours can,” and then they in unison would respond, “like hell she can.” This was carried on mimicking the liturgy between the choir and the priest – it could be quite funny really.

 

August – All of the summer sport and recreational activities continued during August. Many visitors from the “Boston States” and from “Down North” or “Waterford” were bound to show up on Sundays especially. More cousins to play with and to exchange games. Berry picking now became a ritual as well as a necessity. Strawberries, raspberries and later blue berries and black berries were picked as they became available and then cranberries. We picked our quota and ate an equal amount. This was a good time for as Grampa called it, “girl-in.” As we got older we tended to go off and pick on our own away from the family usually in places where the opposite sex picked. We also hung around the wharf swimming, diving, catching flat fish and perch and waiting for a sword fisherman to come in with a sword fish and see if we could get the sword. Some artistic types used to dry out the sword fish bills and paint creative designs on them as well attaching an attractive hand grip.

September – Usually school commenced after Labour Day. The first few days of September were involved if there were a few extra dollars around in going to town and getting some new clothes and scribblers and pencils for the beginning of school. On the very rare occasion you might get a new satchel although most of us boys used a belt around our books. Usually there was at least one new school teacher and sometimes both would be new at our two room school. Both of them usually boarded some place in Alder Point. We would all be anxious to meet the new teacher(s). This was a very exciting time getting back to school and visiting with some of our friends who we may not have seen all summer.

 

October – We celebrated Thanksgiving although it was not as elaborate as it is today. But we attended church had a special dinner with desserts and preserves which would be plentiful after coming out of the growing months. Halloween was celebrated at school as well as later that night locally. We bobbed for apples and dressed up and went door to door and played some tricks on people. The older boys often tipped over out houses. In the weeks leading up to Halloween we went into the swamp and cut cat tails and soaked them in kerosene and set them alight and used them as torches. As I recall they didn’t last long because the stem burnt before the cat tail and it fell off. We had some fire crackers. One trick we played was if people didn’t give you a treat you marked their windows (houses and cars) with soap.

Picking Cranberries

November – We were not near any Legion but local veterans dressed up and celebrated Armistice or Remembrance day November 11^th with visits, strong drink and stories. From the stories and from what we have learned since they deserved the strong drink for what these brave men and women had to endure in the hell hole that was Flanders, Belgium and France in the First World War. We wore poppies and kept silent in school at eleven o’clock for two minutes after the teacher had explained the significance of the day. On nice days you could pick cranberries. Deer hunting season was an exciting time to watch for a big buck or doe to be hanging in someone’s apple tree. It was also time to start “banking” the houses and chopping more wood and piling it up where it could be kept reasonably dry and easy to get at in the winter.

December – Everyone was making candy, molasses taffy, cakes and pies and desserts of every description for Christmas. Christmas cakes were made and stored away. Early in the month orders were sent off to Eatons: candy and clothing and toys. I can still see the steaming Christmas Plum Pudding made in a flour bag normally with the Robin Hood imprint plain as day. We started in school to prepare for the Christmas Concert. Then there was Christmas Eve Mass and when we got older we all attended and tried to stay awake. Christmas day even when older was exciting with the opening of gifts and the visits of friends and the elaborate dinner of everything under the sun available. There always seemed to be an unexpected visitor for Christmas dinner usually some older bachelor who lived alone. If he dropped in for a drink he was usually invited to stay for dinner. We normally ate around noon and then went off playing hockey, skating or coasting (sledding).

The Christmas Concert

NORTHSIDE CIVIC CENTRE – FINALLY

Municipal Ready Mix is working on the intersection at King and Baird streets,

which will eventually be the main entrance to the Northside Civic Centre.

 Julie Collins – Cape Breton Post

 

Site work tender awarded for civic centre project

BY JULIE COLLINS
The Cape Breton Post

NORTH SYDNEY — If seeing is believing, then a local construction company is going to make believers out of the people on the Northside.
Municipal Ready-Mix Ltd. has been awarded the contract for the earthwork for the new Northside Civic Centre. The machines are expected to be on site by week’s end.
“This is big, the site work is finally starting,” said Northside Civic Centre Society chairman Leo Steele. “Normally, the site preparation is part of the overall job, but we separated it so the project could proceed right away.”
There were five bidders for the project. The successful contract is worth approximately $275,000.
Municipal Ready-Mix has six weeks to complete the site preparation, which includes mass excavations and grading the whole site, installing storm sewers, access roads and doing the elevations for the slab for the arena.
“It’s a great early Christmas present,” Steele said. “All the people who’ve been waiting to make donations and be part of the project, that time is now. We need everybody involved.”
Municipal Ready-Mix is presently doing work at what will be the main entrance to the civic centre, installing culverts, putting in curb and gutter and installing the sensors for the traffic lights at the intersection of King and Baird streets.
“Having completed the upgrade of King Street, we are familiar with the area,” said MRM project manager Robbie Youden. “The site work is a pretty straightforward job. We’ll be shaping the property so when the contract is awarded for the building, they will be able to move in and won’t have to worry about the major earthwork. It’s a boost for the area to actually get this project started.”
The civic centre will feature an NHL-sized ice surface, heated seating for 1,000, seven dressing rooms, walking track, administration, first aid room, minor hockey office, skate sharpening facilities, a canteen and seating area. The facility will also include two community meeting rooms, with the upstairs room overlooking the ice surface.
The $12-million civic centre project will be financed by the three levels of government. The federal government will provide $4 million through Enterprise Cape Breton Corp., and the provincial government will provide $4 million from the Department of Health Promotion and Protection. There is also $2.5 million in funding contributed by the Cape Breton Regional Municipality and $1.5 million raised from the community.

jcollins@cbpost.com

BOYHOOD JOBS

Boyhood Jobs

                         Fishing Schooner at Anchor – Newfoundlnd

        A lot of us more industries chaps found ways to make a few pennies and sometimes even dollars when we were young. I was always quite good and lucky at this even while very young. In 1945/46 Old Skipper Jim Hardy from Rose Blanche, NFLD used to tie up at Johnny Fraser’s (my uncle Johnny) wharf. He had the typical “Newfoundland Jack” which was a two-masted schooner which normally slept three or four men and he fished codfish out of the gut. Nights before he was going to go out and set his trawls he and his crew would be baiting their trawls. He used to get frozen herring from Nickerson’s in North Sydney and hired me to cut bait for them. In the fish house at the end of the wharf  lighted by an oil burning torch for light I cut and they baited the trawls. I would get home late in the evening and Momma made me stand outside on the step and change my clothes because of the smell of the bait. I got around a dollar with some change at times for the evening’s work. I was around 11 or 12. Old Captain Jim took me out with him a couple of times to set the trawls and even allowed me to man the tiller while he went below to prepare a “mug up.”  Eventually “Uncle Bill” put a wheel box and steering apparatus in for him. Uncle Bill was my uncle Willie R. Fraser. Captain Jim gave me a few instructions and cautioned me to keep my head below the main boom in case a shift in the wind would change our tack. In no time he was back up with a big thick sandwich and a steaming mug of tea. His other crew members were asleep in the foc’sle getting a bit of shut eye before setting time. He only had a very small engine in this vessel so we were obliged to go out with the tide and come back in with the tide. It was a wonderful experience and one I shall always remember how Newfoundlanders fished codfish in these Atlantic coastal waters.

   

                              Working Pick and Shovel on the Highway – This is the Foreman

             Probably the most formal job I had prior to leaving for the Great Lakes was in the spring of 1949 I was hired to work on the highway rebuilding the road out to Little Pond. I worked there pick and shovel for about three weeks when I received my telegram that I had a job on a ship on the Great Lakes. I saw the foreman and was off like a bat out of hell. I don’t know if my mother received my wages or not but I don’t recall ever being paid for these three weeks of work.

          I liked working for Uncle Johnny (Johnny Fraser) because even though I was only 11, 12 or 13 when I worked for him he paid me a full wage as if I was a man. I remember my father saying to Johnny, “you don’t have to pay that fellow a man’s wages he is not expecting that. To which Johnny would say, “he does a better job than half those guys I have had working for me in the past.” He worked in the Point Aconi boot leg pits for Russell Bonnar before they were owned by Earl McNeil. (Note: how ironic as I was writing this I just learned of the passing of this good man Earl McNeil July 27, 2007 – what a fine man he was, he shall be missed not only by his family but all who knew him. He was truly a citizen of the community without doubt.) I would leave Alder Point early in the morning and usually called at Johnny’s place where Edie Mae would give me fresh eggs and sometimes a big bannock to take over to Johnny. I would row across the gut and start walking back to the pits. Usually a truck would pick me up. I would drop into Johnny’s shack with the eggs and bannock and we would head for the pit. If I had a truck looking for coal and Johnny too rushed to cook breakfast he would break 4 or 5 eggs into a bowl, stir it up and drink them raw and give me a wink and off we would head for the pit. The coal haulers stood there in awe at this. This was early spring and summer so there were not many trucks hauling but we had a few steady customers. It was hard slugging with most of my time spent walking back and forth and rowing across the gut. In the latter part of winter and very early spring I often walked across the frozen gut with a very long pole to help save my ass in case I went through the ice. I was lucky. Along these same lines if it was a Friday or Saturday and Johnny was heading for home via Bras d’Or to I am sure to impress the truck drivers would in the middle of winter stick his mirror in a branch of the tree outside his shack and in his undershirt shave and wash up before getting dressed and a ride to Bras d’Or. Often it would be well below zero. He was indeed a card. Some of these truckers from North Sydney and Sydney and Sydney mines would look at him in wonderment.

          As a 12, 13 and 14 year old I got a reputation for being able to shovel coal onto a truck off the ground. Some drivers knew about this and would park their truck at the pit head where the coal had already been hoisted and dumped onto the bank head often hoisted by Cyprian LeBlanc. I would be asked to go down and shovel the coal onto the truck sometimes two, three or four tons. You were paid by the ton normally a $1.00 per ton. It was back breaking work but for some strange reason I enjoyed it. It was a feeling of accomplishment and a response to praise by your elders. You would just get finished when the truck owner showed up usually in another truck and would pay you and give you a drive home.

          On Saturdays normally during the winter months Daddy took me to the crop pit with him and I pushed out and hooked on for him and Russell or whoever was working with him at the time. I was about 10, 11 and 12 during those years and normally made a dollar or two for a Saturday. I got to get black and dirty and ride on the top of the last loaded truck and be dropped off at your gate. That was enough pay in itself just to have your friends see you looking like a bootleg coal miner wearing your carbide pit lamp. The job title for a young fellow working in the crop was, “hookin’ on.”

                              Delivering Bootleg Coal to Customers with Old Bonnie

          Denny Pickup married Mary Plant (Doucette?) who lived at Arthur Plant’s farm. Denny and Mary had a very nice horse by the name of Bonny. They got me to look after this horse; to feed it and water it and exercise it. As a result I during winter months would harness her up in the sleight and haul coal to different customers around Alder Point. For each trip I made $1.00 and didn’t have to buy and sell. The load was normally already bought and paid for and I was paid to deliver it. On a good Saturday I could make $8.00 to $10.00 dollars which was a lot for a 10, 11, or 12 year old. At the end of the day enroute for the barn I always stopped at Angus McNeil’s store and bought a bucket of oats for Bonny after which she would fairly fly down the road for home.

          Someone hired me to deliver the Halifax Herald one year and it lasted for a number of months. I didn’t like it for a number of reasons the most important of which was the difficulty of collecting the money and I was afraid of big dogs and everyone seemed to have one. I spent much of my time skirting around people’s homes and trying to deliver the paper without being attacked. I didn’t last long at this job probably less than a year at most.

          Phon Plant had a nice farm across the road from us and had a very early model farm tractor. That is what I learned to drive on. He taught me to drive it and then I was able to use it to plant and harvest as well as take in the hay. I loved it and was over there at every opportunity. I might have been 8 or 9 when I learned to drive it. I remember the gas was on the steering column and if you were holding it and hit a ditch or rock in the field you could either accelerate or stall it. I don’t remember ever getting paid other than some very fine lunches, and lemonade and cookies which was all the pay I wanted. Getting to drive the tractor was pay enough.

          During the harvesting of potatoes, I got hired to pick potatoes by Archie MacKinnon. He was and still is a great man to work for and is still farming. It was a long walk very early in the morning to Archie’s farm. You got there early and started picking and then broke for a short lunch. At first you thought your back would break bent over picking spuds and putting them into burlap bags. You better have had packed a lunch or you were out of luck. After a short lunch break you started picking again and this lasted until dusk when you headed for home. For that you earned $1.00 per day. We thought we were in heaven to get paid cash money. I was about 13 when they were building the new Alder Point School. It was actually the administrative building from the Army #7 Base in Little Pond. Jack MacLellan was the super and offered me a job working a wheelbarrow carrying mixed cement for the foundation. This was a fun job because you followed a raised wooden track across the foundation and dumped your wheelbarrow and returned on a different route to get a refill. This job lasted for a few weeks and I don’t know what we earned but it was good pay and in cash.

                                                 Crossing the Gut – Rotten Ice

          We didn’t know whether we were religious or not but we attended mass regularly, went to stations of the cross and often attended Sunday evening services. Sunday evening service was a great place for boys to meet girls and for girls to meet boys. It was the closest thing to a club that we had in those days. We piously attended the service all the while eyeing these attractive young girls from Bras d’Or, the Crick, Millville, Alder Point and surrounding areas. Once out of church we gravitated to those considered most attractive – good clean fun it was as I recall. A lot of walking and talking and very little else. We studied and practiced and dutifully made our first communions and were confirmed. We looked forward to Lent because it got us out of school and required us to walk to and from Bras d’Or church. It was good fun because we got the afternoon off school and walked as a large group to St. Joseph’s in Bras d’Or. At first many of us were very scared to walk past “The Shacks” because those who lived there had a reputation of being a bit rowdy. We soon got to know many of them and became good friends. In fact Uncle Willie R. Fraser and his family lived there for a long time and we used to visit them there and knew many of the Shackers. We would walk up no matter whether it rained or snowed and attended stations of the cross and walked back home. I don’t know what the Protestants did nor do I know if they got the time off or not. I know some of them were envious of us getting to hike to/from Bras d’Or on these Thursdays.

 

 

 

 

 

WWII ENDS – 1945

                            End of War in Europe

 

  

 

                                                Ottawa on VE Day

The end of the war in Europe occurred May 8, 1945. Somehow the information was delivered to us in the classroom and all hell broke loose when we were informed.

 

                                     Someone is Happy – Lucky Airforce Pilot

            Matlot gets his Squeeze – (note he is wearing a Dickie )

I guess we took our timing from the teachers and the adults who came to the school with the news. We were laughing and shouting and some were crying but all were in jubilation at the news. Even though we were young we sensed the meaning of this monumental event.

           Ah when women were built like women and not like skeletons

We knew the lights would go on again and rationing would soon end and our boys would be returning home. It was a very happy day. We were dismissed and headed out on the road singing and yelling and having a gay old time.

 

        The style of the Working Girl in 1945

 

 

May 8, 1945, was a day to celebrate. It was VE-Day, the long-awaited moment when the Allied forces triumphed over Nazi Germany to claim victory in Europe.

But the joy brought by news of peace was dampened by the memory of fallen comrades and the ongoing war in the Pacific.

From the liberation of Holland through the German surrender, celebrations in Canada and the servicemen’s return, CBC Radio and our daily newspapers described Canadian celebrations as the war ended in Europe.

End of War in Pacific

 

         USS Missouri enroute to the Surrender Ceremony

In a few days after the war in Europe ended we learned that many of our Alder Point servicemen had volunteered for duty in the Pacific War. Fortunately that ended while many were preparing to go or were en-route.

I remember we all talked about Russell Serroul who we knew was a prisoner of war of the Japs having been captured in the overthrow of Hong Kong early in the war. Poor Russell when he did return he was like a skeleton. This poor man must have suffered terribly and was not in good health the rest of his life passing away at a relatively young age.

Here is what we listened to on the radio:

On September 2, 1945 aboard the Battleship Missouri, in Tokyo Bay, representatives of Japan met with the Allies to sign the surrender. One of them, Admiral Tomioka, wondered over the lack of signs of contempt from the Americans for him and his fellow defeated Japanese. In his speech at the surrender ceremonies, MacArthur said: The energy of the Japanese race, if properly directed, will enable expansion vertically rather than horizontally. If the talents of the race are turned into constructive channels, the country can lift itself from the present deplorable state into a position of dignity.

  Japs arrive to Surrender

Hirohito, listening to his radio, was impressed. His aide, Kase Toshikazu, told him that it was ‘rare good fortune’ that a man of such calibre and character had been designated supreme commander to shape the destiny of Japan. Hirohito agreed.

The war was now officially over. China had lost 2.2 million military men – one in every 200 of its population in 1940. Japan had lost 1,506,000 military men – one in every 46 of its 1940 population. According to Wikipedia, China lost 19,605,000 people, military and civilian, (3.78 percent of it population). Japan lost 2,621,000 (3.67 percent of its population).

          I shall always remember the seriousness of General MacArthur who said in his final words of his speech aboard the Battleship Missouri at the surrender ceremonies and with the most senior Japanese military and civilian officials present, “these proceedings are now ended,” and with that he left the deck without a further word. I was flabbergasted and in awe when I eventually saw this event on film and was able to see and hear the General uttering those immortal words.

                                              Japan Surrenders to the Allied Powers

          The War in the Pacific ended August 14, 1945 (U.S. time/date) and August 15, 1945 (Japan time/date). This difference due to International Date Line.

 

 

REMEMBRANCE

WAR DECLARED – 1939

                                            Basic Training Begins

Declaration of WWII – 10 September 1939

 

          I have little memory of World War II being declared. I do remember my Father, Alvin MacLean and Peter Burton all leaving and going to Halifax to join up. Peter Burton and Alvin MacLean got accepted. Daddy was turned down because of age – he was too old. He joked for years after about the recruiters in Halifax saying to him, “you’re too old right now Simon but if Hitler gets to Newfoundland, we’ll call you.” I think Daddy would have made a good soldier certainly a good sniper. He was a good shot, had patience as a hunter and could perform with efficiency on his own, was an excellent hunter and could as he often said himself, “get down wind of a deer and walk right up and kick him in the arse.” Those skills would have stood him in good stead as a sniper.

 

                                  Canadians take Smoke Break – On the Rhine

On September 9, 1939, the address to the Canadian Parliament was approved without a recorded vote, and war was declared the following day September 10, 1939. The basis for parliamentary unity had in fact been laid in March, when both major parties accepted a program rejecting conscription for overseas service. Prime Minister King clearly envisaged a limited effort and was lukewarm towards an expeditionary force. Nevertheless, there was enough pressure to lead the Cabinet to dispatch one army division to Europe. The Allies’ defeat in France and Belgium in the early summer of 1940 and the collapse of France frightened Canadians. The idea of limited and economical war went by the board, and thereafter the only effective limitation was the pledge against overseas conscription. The armed forces were rapidly enlarged, conscription was introduced June 1940 for home defence.

Burial at Sea – Committed to the Deep

The army expanded until by late 1942 there were 5 divisions overseas, 2 of them armoured. In April of that year the FIRST CANADIAN ARMY was formed in England under Lieutenant-General A.G.L. MCNAUGHTON. In contrast with WWI, it was a long time before the army saw large-scale action. Until summer 1943 the force in England was engaged only in the unsuccessful DIEPPE RAID (19 August 1942), whereas 2 battalions sent from Canada had taken part in the hopeless defence of HONG KONG against the Japanese in December 1941. Public opinion in Canada became disturbed by the inaction, and disagreement developed between the government and McNaughton, who wished to reserve the army for a final, decisive campaign.

Major Contribution by Mr & Mrs Howard Devoe

The government arranged with Britain for the 1st Canadian Infantry Division to join the attack on Sicily July 1943, and subsequently insisted upon building its Mediterranean force up to a 2-division corps (by adding the 5th Division). This produced a serious clash with McNaughton, just when the British War Office, which considered him unsuited for field command, was influencing the Canadian government against him. At the end of 1943 he was replaced by Lieutenant-General H.D.G. CRERAR.

The 1st Division was heavily engaged in the Sicilian campaign as part of the British Eighth Army, and subsequently took part in the December 1943 advance up the mainland of Italy, seeing particularly severe fighting in and around Ortona. In the spring of 1944 Canadians under Lieutenant-General E.L.M. BURNS played a leading role in breaking the Hitler Line barring the Liri Valley. At the end of August the corps broke the Gothic Line in the Adriatic sector and pushed on through the German positions covering Rimini, which fell in September. These battles cost Canada its heaviest casualties of the Italian campaign.

                     German Prisoners – In the control of Canadians

The final phase of Canadian involvement in Italy found the 1st Canadian Corps,

now commanded by Lieutenant-General Charles FOULKES, fighting its way across

the Lombard Plain, hindered by mud and swift-flowing rivers. The Corps’ advance

ended at the Senio River in the first days of 1945. The Canadian government,

so eager to get its troops into action in Italy, had soon begun to ask for their

 return to join the main Canadian force in Northwest Europe. Allied policy

finally made this possible early in 1945, and the 1st Corps came under the

First Canadian Army’s command in mid-March, to the general satisfaction

of the men from Italy. All told, 92,757 Canadian soldiers of all ranks had

served in Italy, and 5764 had lost their lives.

 

                                                     RCN – Gunnery Training

 

 

1944 – Canada was a full partner in the success of the Allied landings in Normandy (D – Day) Determined to end four years of often-brutal German occupation, on 6 June 1944, Allied Forces invaded Western Europe along an 80-kilometre front in Normandy, France.  Of the nearly 150,000 Allied troops who landed or parachuted into the invasion area, 14,000 were Canadians. They assaulted a beachfront code-named “Juno”, while Canadian paratroopers landed just east of the assault beaches. Although the Allies encountered  German defences bristling with artillery, machine guns, mines,  and booby-traps, the invasion was a success.                                                                   Ready for the Wild Blue Yonder  Other Canadians helped achieve this victory. The Royal Canadian Navy contributed 110 ships and 10,000 sailors in support of the landings while the R.C.A.F. had helped prepare the invasion by bombing targets inland. On D- Day and during the ensuing  campaign, 15 R.C.A.F. fighter and fighter-bomber squadrons helped control the skies over Normandy and attacked enemy targets. On D-Day, Canadians suffered 1074 casualties, including 359 killed.

 

                Smart Girl

YOUTHFUL MEMORIES

When we were sick as youngsters we were very often provided a treat such as “Sussex Orange Pop” – what a treat that was. All I need do is close my eyes and I can feel the sting of this wonderful drink. Of course we had other treats which cost a penny or two at most. Black licorice shaped in pipes. Black licorice BB Bats that literally exploded in your mouth when cold in the winter time. There were also other BB Bats of different flavours and jaw breakers and big flat white mints. Root beer pop had a taste that you can’t get today and the same can be said about the small six oz bottles of Coke when they came out during the war. You could get two large sheets of foolscap for a penny as well. These were needed for exams and tests. We would purchase these items from LeBlanc’s or Pacquet’s, or Dugas’ or Angus McNeil’s on our way to school. As we boys got older and began getting a little tingle in our jeans from time to time it was worth it to find a few pennies and under the pretense of purchasing something get into the store and get a look at Irene Pacquet especially if she was getting ready to go out to a dance and in the high heels – she was a looker and smelled so good!

 

I often marvel at the fact that I remember events back when I was less than four years of age. Others may have good memories as well but I thought it strange that I did. I remember my Gramma Fraser in her bedroom where she had a large basin and water pitcher and a large picture of  Ranald Fraser, (her father-in-law) on the wall. I would be sitting on the bed and she talking to me while she did her puttering around. I was born June 15, 1934 and she died January 5, 1938. That would have made me approximately 3 years and six months old. Some time before she died at Aunt Margaret’s (Serroul) in Bras d’Or, I was taken up to see her and remembered being placed on the bed and crawled up to where she was to give her a kiss. I would have at that time been even younger. The summer of 1938 Uncle Paul Palm and Aunt Florence were visiting from Reading, PA and I was staying at Poppa and Nana Burtons. Everyone from my family was in the Palm car and called at Burtons to pick me up to go on a picnic back of Ratio Plant’s place. Russell Fraser came into the house and I remember me sitting on the floor and Russell putting on my shoes and tying them for me and then carrying me back to the car. That had to be 1938 or 1939 because they never visited during the war years 1939 – 1945.

 

         

          Growing up in Alder Point we were surrounded by family consisting of two sets of grand-parents and sisters and brothers and aunts and uncles and cousins galore. As well, there were cousins from Down North and Waterford and from the States who came on visits. It was a very exciting time and a great place to grow up. As a family growing up in the Depression and for most of the War Years we were poor but we didn’t think we were poor for there were a number of other families who were extremely poor, much poorer then us and often had to be assisted by other families including the Frasers.

 

          Winter was also a time to visit with and listen to the older folks tell ghost stories until everyone was frightened clear out of their wits and often afraid to go home especially alone. It was the practice to go with Grampa  Fraser up to Ellen Jane MacLellan’s where everyone would listen to stories from her and Grampa. One night Rolly Kye (Dugas) was along and Ellen Jane was telling us about the danger of walking in the middle of the road at midnight. She cited an example of someone doing just that at midnight that was picked up by a phantom funeral procession and taken all the way to the cemetery in Bras d’Or. On the way home we noticed Rolly was keeping off to the side of the road almost in the ditch and we asked him why. He just growled at us – all in attendance had a great laugh but stayed clear of the centre of the road nonetheless.

 

          Poor Rolly had some bad luck and because of his temperament was often teased and tormented. After his father, Kye, died he and his mother were left with this old two masted schooner which was tied up at the Dugas wharf. Well, this boat was old and leaked like a sieve which caused Rolly to have to go and pump her out several times a day and throughout the night. This was a manual type of pump which needed to be primed and you pulled on this wooden handle to bail her out. Well some of the MacLellan boys and or Russell Fraser used to sneak down and coat the wooden pump handle with feces and of course poor Rolly would encounter this on his nightly visits and get his hands full of crap – disgusting. He would be wild and often blamed me for this and threatened to “get me” for it. He was bigger and older than me and I told my father that “this guy” who was older and bigger than me was threatening to beat me up. My father told me that if you encounter such a situation when someone is bigger than you and you are convinced he is going to hammer you your best defence is to haul off and smack him in the nose as hard as you can. This will cause his eyes to water and allow you time to get away. A couple of days later Rolly caught me on my way to school and started to threaten me and blame me for fouling his pump handle. I knew I was in for it so I hauled off and nailed him as hard as I could between the eyes. Exactly as my father said he stood there not being able to see and was starting to cry and holler and bawl like a bull. I took off like a scared rabbit and didn’t look back and made it safely to school. I used to duck him after that and don’t recall any incidents with Rolly from then on. His widowed mother, Nellie Kye, soon after that got a “catalogue marriage partner” who came for a visit and took all three of them away to Ontario – that is the last we ever heard of them. Grampa Fraser used to say, “B’y, old Nellie wrote away to the catalogue for a new man and got him and that was it – good for her.”

HIMSELF

     

   The First Squawk from Himself

It was a foggy and rainy morning when I, George Thomas Fraser, came into the world in a little fishing hamlet known as Alder Point, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. I was born to Viola Burton Fraser and Simon Fraser. Simon Fraser was a lot of things throughout his life but primarily he was a fisherman. No matter what else he did in life he always claimed he was a fisherman first and foremost. I am convinced that he absolutely loved the sea and the fact that he was alone in his little lobster boat, alone to contemplate his life, his family, his surroundings and his God. He fished herring by net, he fished codfish, mackerel, haddock, halibut with trawls and hand line, he sword fished and he fished lobsters. My father went to the Western Provinces to the grain harvests, worked as a stevedore at the Marine Railway in North Sydney, as a lumberjack in Newfoundland (he and Jack MacLellan near Deer Lake, Newfoundland) and sailed for many years on the Great Lakes. Although he performed all of these jobs and he worked as well for many years in the legal and illegal coal pits he would tell you he was a fisherman – he detested the coal mines and considered them killers of men and boys. Viola was born in Bay St. Lawrence, moved to Boston as a teenager and returned to Alder Point as a 20 year old and married Simon shortly afterwards.

 

          Our family consisted of my father and mother, Simon and Viola, sisters Shirley, Eleanor, Mina, Marilyn, Ginny and Judy and brothers Simon and Derrick. Twins were born in the 1940’s but only lived a few hours or days. Grampa and Gramma Fraser lived nearby and Poppa and Nana Burton just down the road. Poppa Burton was a character and had spent many years in Northeast States of Oregon, Washington, Dakotas etc, worked in the gold mines and the lumbering business. He even worked for the U.S. Cavalry escorting Indians from the Plains to the North East to Reservations. He hung out at Saloons with several James Boys gangs such as the Younger Brothers and others. Remember this was in the 1880 – 1895 era when the West was still Wild. He could tell stories like you never heard before. During World War II when they called for cooks for the lumber camps in New Brunswick he volunteered when he was in his eighties and worked in them until the War was over – more stories.

 

There were of course uncles and aunts around and the MacLellan cousins galore. We had relatives “down north” and at Low Point and in New Waterford as well. There were many cousins in the “Boston States” and an aunt (Florence Fraser married to Paul Palm) in Pennsylvania who would visit every other year. There were also trunks of goodies from away that were sent home containing mostly clothing. I remember once at the end of the War there was a pair of sailor bell bottom trousers that came in a trunk from Boston. I wanted them badly and even wore them to school one day. The fit was extremely tight and it was agony trying to get into them and then to walk in them but I thought they looked cool. They had the seven seas pressed into the legs and a flap front instead of a regular fly. They were so tight that my little testicles were swollen up for days afterward which caused me terrible discomfort. I discarded them, the sailor bell bottoms that is, once I managed to limp home from school after one day of wear.

 

COMMON CRIMINAL

                      Defrocked Lahey

Lahey was warned about porn
N.L. archbishop says allegation was made more than 20 years ago
ALISHA MORRISSEY
Transcontinental Media

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Catholic priest Kevin Molloy insists he was shocked to hear that Bishop Raymond Lahey has been charged in a child pornography case, despite cautioning him about the consequences of having pornography more than 20 years ago.
“I figure if I gave him a warning over 20 years ago, how come he did nothing about it? I’m just appalled at the whole thing,” Molloy said loudly into his cellphone over directions from the GPS device in his car.
“It was 20 years ago — over 20 years ago — that I had spoke to him on the very topic of pornography and I was appalled to realize, obviously, my message didn’t get through to him.”
Lahey recently resigned as bishop of the diocese of Antigonish in Nova Scotia, shortly before he was charged with possessing and importing child pornography in Ontario.
Lahey was released on $9,000 bail Thursday.
Speaking from the road in Florida, Molloy said Shane Earle, the man who sparked the original Mount Cashel investigation, came to see him after speaking to the police about the ongoing abuse at the infamous Catholic orphanage.
“He told me that Fr. Lahey, at the time, used to take some boys from Mount Cashel into his home in Mount Pearl on weekends and Shane was one of those boys and he was really appalled by what he saw there, namely pornography,” Molloy said, adding that he never knew what kinds of pornography Earle saw there.
Molloy said the moment Earle left his home, he called former Archbishop Alphonsus Penney and told him what Earle had said. “MOLLOY DROPPED THE BALL” GTF
“And then I called Bishop Lahey in Corner Brook and I told him that I was shocked that Shane would find pornographic literature in (his) house. All he told me was — and I was spokesman for the diocese at the time — he said, ‘Would you keep me informed?’ And I said I would. And I never heard a word afterwards from anybody. So I just figured I had fulfilled my responsibilities,” Molloy said.
“When I told him he was the one who should have said ‘My gosh I should clean up my act.’ If he had a proclivity for that kind of literature, my call to him should have told him, ‘Shouldn’t I wise up?’”
Molloy said he never called the police because Earle had come to him after speaking to them. As well, possessing pornography isn’t illegal and he wasn’t aware that it was child pornography, he said.
“It’s only since 1990 that child pornography is a criminal offence. I’m not covering up for him now, I’m just giving the facts to you.”
The Archdiocese of St. John’s released a statement to the media Monday, in response to the allegations, saying that current Archbishop Martin Currie has asked for a review of what officials in the archdiocese might have known.
Currie was in meetings Monday evening and The Telegram was unable to reach him for further comment.
Meanwhile, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary has re-opened its files and is reviewing allegations that Lahey possessed child pornography more than 20 years ago.
Billy Earle said last week that his brother Shane saw child pornography in Lahey’s Mount Pearl home in 1985.
On Monday, Billy was livid to hear that others had known about the allegations and did nothing.
“When I learned about it over the weekend, I was just sick to my stomach — this is nothing new to us,” Billy said before describing what his brother said he saw in Lahey’s house.
“He seen child pornography videos, child pornography catalogues with young boys in it, sexually aroused, some boys with tight under(garments) on with wet soaked right into their bodies. These are just (expletive) perverts; this is enough to make anybody sick and we don’t know how to put a stop to it,” Billy said.
He said he wonders what the point of the inquiry was, looking back at all the lives that were lost and ruined by the abuse and then the inquiry.
In the end though, Billy said he didn’t want Mark Wall’s work as lead investigator on the case to be tarnished by the new allegations.
Shane, who suffered a heart attack recently, wasn’t up to doing interviews, Billy said.
Both Earle boys were victims of sexual abuse at the orphanage.
As of last week, police in Newfoundland hadn’t found any evidence to support the allegations made by Shane.
A former vicar-general of St. John’s and bishop of St. George’s, Lahey was the bishop for the diocese of Antigonish, N.S., until his resignation Sept. 26.

The Telegram

A VERY LUKEWARM APPROACH BY THOSE WHO KNEW! – GTF

THE OUTHOUSE

 

         “An Alder Point Class ‘A’ Outhouse”

 This was your typical outhouse in Alder Point and Area in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s.They served the purpose and were a target at Halloween. For devilment the idea was to sneak onto someone’s property without being caught and tipping one of these outhouses over then run like hell and not get caught.

 Note: I won’t divulge his name but one Halloween a bunch of us were in the process of tipping one of these outhouses over and one of our buddies fell into the hole up to his chest. It took us some time before we had the nerve to reach in and haul him out. As sad as it was it was also hilarious and we were all weak with laughter at the scene before us. I can tell you one thing there was not a rush to pull him out of that outhouse pit filled as it was with feces and urine and smelling to high heaven. With a measure of reluctance from all of us we finally got a grip on him and managed to pull him over the edge and onto the ground. We then had to get away and took off in order to get clear of him and the smell and the fear of being caught by the owner. To this day I don’t know how he got cleaned off and home and into his house. He never spoke about it that I know of to this day. The poor devil was ‘lucky’ he didn’t fall in head first.