Bras D'Or

Dennis Jessome
The Boy From Bras D'Or

"The Bras d'Or Tavern"

We spoke of landmarks in Bras d'Or. Like Bras d'Or Train Station.

Well there is also another landmark that was very important in its day and that was, The Bras d'Or Tavern, owned and operated by, Bill and Charlotte (Gouthro) Young.

I remember when I was a kid walking home from school, they were building the foundation. There were big planks across and we used to walk across them. Larncie, Jude, Alfred and Sonny Carey, Ya Ya Slade, Tootie, Billy and Leonard Chisholm, Danny Laffin and myself. We would walk across the planks, the basement foundation was pretty high to us as kids but anything dangerous we would try it. A lot of times ya'd hear Bill let out a yell,
"Get the Geese outta there before one of ya's get hurt."
Then we'd all run home when he came over.

It wasn't too long before the tavern was finished. Every day you could see it being built and before ya could say Jack Rabbit it was finished. That's what it seemed like anyway. The first fella got served was Old Rod MacAskill from Millville. Bill put his dollar bill in a picture frame and it was behind the bar for a very long time. It was the first dollar he made for the tavern being opened.

Boy it was a very busy place over the years. It was a place where the miners went on Saturday's to relax and meet a few friends and sometimes let off a little steam when they had a little too much to drink, but that was the fun of it.

It was a very nice tavern and very clean. There were twenty round tables with black aborite tops on them and four chairs at each table and on a Saturday, when it was full, it was hard to get a seat, so ya stood at the bar.

There were beautiful scenic paintings all along both walls painted by Johnny MacCormick from Sydney Mines. He was a very good artist. I saw paintings he did in the Halifax station when I was going through there waiting for a train. The pictures gave the tavern a warm feeling when you sat to have a beer.

There was a walk in cooler with two front doors where they stacked the beer on shelves (easier to serve) and draft taps. A men's washroom and a little office. Downstairs was a big cooler and the rest of the space was to store the beer bottles and I remember seeing it pretty full one time which meant there was a lot of beer sold there.

The waiters worked for Bill along the years were Russell Young, Albert Smith, Walter Rideout, Bobby Carey, Jack Howley, Emerson Jessome, along with Bill himself and many more over the years.

When we were kids ya went behind the tavern and looked in the grass and for sure you would find a few beer bottles that we would take to Deans Caffier's store at the Shacks and get two cents each for them. It would get you a few candies, so it was a treat to get them. The tavern always closed at 11 o'clock sharp and Bill always stuck to his word everyone was out at 11.

If ya had a half bottle left ya stuck it in your windbreaker and drank the rest of it outside, when she closed, she closed and that was it. That is why we always went up in the morning to get the empties they threw in the grass.

As I was saying the tavern was very clean at all times. I know because my mother, Ellen Regis would go there after church on Sunday to clean up and wax the floors till they were sparkling clean. I used to stack the chairs and tables (20 tables and 80 chairs) so she could scrub and wax and set them up after with a big black ashtray on each table. There were a lot of Zig-Zag makin smokers then, so there were a lot of ashes.

Bill used to take a walk over after we finished and walked in with the floor shining and the pictures brightly on the wall looked pretty nice. There was always a big grin on his face when he walked in to pay mama the ten dollars mama got for cleaning. He always complimented her and gave her an extra couple of dollars for the good job she did. I used to get a dollar for helping so that was a lot of money for me I tell ya.

On Monday Larncie and Jude and a couple of the boys knew I had a dollar for me helping mama and were there to share it with me. It was only fair because we always shared no matter what we had. The odd time I would find a quarter or some change so that was extra for me.

Yes the miners were all ready for another week as it was the main road then to places down north. There was a lot of fella's would stop. The place was always full from 12 p.m. till 11 p. m. There were two swinging doors at the front like you were walking in a saloon in the old days and I tell ya sometimes it was like a saloon when the men had a little too much to drink . Bill would just grab them and say,
"Take er outside boys. That's it for ya's for the night" and he cut them off. Next day you were back on. A little fisticuffs didn't hurt no one.

The tavern was called Bill Young's Tavern, The Tavern, and Bill Bailey's. Through the years the Bras d'Or Tavern was enjoyed by the men but the women weren't too fussy if their husbands had a snootful. All in all life went on.

Women weren't allowed in the taverns then and it gave me a lot of good memories. I used to see my father, Uncle Tommy Carey and Uncle Dukkin enjoy themselves with a few on Saturdays after working in the mine all week. Ya couldn't drink in there till you were 21years old and that was the only place on the Island you wouldn't get served cause Bill knew every young fella's age. He was a good friend with the priest and went to the Glebe house and looked up all the young fella's birth certificates so if ya tried to get in, he'd look in the green book and check your name and knew your age. Dominique tried a year before 21 and Bill says next year Dom. Lawrence O'Toole did the same thing, he got the same answer. I being almost a year younger than the two didn't even try because I knew, so we would go out to Benny Ross's Cabot Tavern in Florence. Benny didn't know our ages so we looked old enough so he served us or sometimes he'd ask and Bernsie Boutilier would lend us his license to show. No pictures on them then or a liquor permit woulda done. It was ok then.

Well the years passed and I was old enough to go in the Bras d'Or Tavern. Coming home off the Lake Boats for the winter and when I went up to get a beer, Bill went in the back room for a sec and came out, grabbed a quart of beer and said,
"Here ya are Dinny, on the House. Just looked in the Green book and say hello to your Mother for me and thank her for the many years she cleaned this place for me."

It made me feel good that he remembered her and also I was having a beer finally in Bras d'Or Tavern.

It still stands today, remodeled and is run by his grandson Paul Day and is called The Blue Mist Tavern. I often wondered where Paul came up with the name. Was it because there was always a blue mist of smoke from the old Zig-Zag makings the men were smoking in the old days. ha ha .

Thanks Bill, all the waiters, mama and the old friends whom I had a beer with which gave me a lot of good memories that will live in my heart forever.

These pages were created by Lark Szick
© Copyright All Rights Reserved. Mar. 2007.

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