Bras D'Or

Dennis Jessome
The Boy From Bras D'Or

The Pinball Machine

Every day after supper I would go up to Bras D'Or corner and meet with my good friends.

First I would stop at Dominique Boudreau's home (m.) Lena Carey from Mill Creek and get their son Dominique and head for Lawrence O'Toole's place to pick him up.

We all head for the Bras D'Or Station House.

After a short time all they guys stopped by, John Young and Joe Howley from across the bridge, Jowe Druggen, Joe Jones, John Reynolds and a few more.

We would walk over to Willie MacIntyre's little canteen next to the CNR Station by the Taxi stand.

There were a few taxis on the stand, Gussie O'Toole, Alex (Eckie) Quinn, Skinny Din Jessome, Percy and Russel Serroul.

We said hello to all the boys and Percy says there goes a good bunch now, I tell you.

Willie MacIntyre was my uncle, he was married to my aunt Dinah Carey, Mama's sister.

They had four children, Margaret, (in Dunham PQ,), Lorraine (in Dunham PQ), Delores (in Texas) and Alex (in Dunham PQ).

Uncle Willie had a brother Mick who lived next door (m.) Elizabeth ____.

Uncle Willie had a big promotion going on to pull in some business for the Canteen.

He had a Pin Ball machine and was giving out a prize of a Box of Pot of Gold Chocolates every Saturday.

So you played all week till Saturday to try to get the highest score on his pinball machine.

The one with the highest score at the end of the week got the prize. A lot of fellows went to the canteen and the canteen had a great business, selling pop, chips, bars, gum and cigarettes two for a nickel.

Uncle Willie sold more cigarettes than anything, as we never had enough money to buy a full pack.

Anyways the contest begins, by Wednesday the scores weren't too high. 787,600 was the highest and Barry Young from up by Art Petite's place had that score.

Now you got to figure out how the scores got so high and everyone some time or another had the ball machine on their toes and got the ball stuck on a bumper and ran up the score.

When they were getting too high, someone would give the Machine a push and it would say TILT. That was the end of that score.

Well everyone had a crack at it till John Reynolds played it. His score ran up to 998,877,and not saying he had the machine on his toes like the rest of us, but John was probably a good player and he got the high score by his knowledge of the game.

Boy he was some happy. He said to Willie, "Mark it in the book Willie". Willie had a score book with the names of everyone who had a high score.

Willie writes down 998,877 in the book, it was the highest so far.

John said to us before he left, "Try to beat that one".

Saturday comes and we were all waiting in the afternoon to see who won the box of Chocolates.

We could see John strutting down the road kind of walking briskly and rubbing his hands.

Little did he know that Friday night Lawrence O'Toole got the highest score. He had the machine on his toes with all of us standing around and Willie couldn't see what was going on.

Lawrence had the ball stuck on a bumper, we were all urging him on saying, "Come on O'Toole, you can do it, you can do it. Beat John Reynolds score", and no one would dare touch the machine, till it got up past John's score.

Lawrence got 999,976 when he gave Willie the score it topped John's score and Willie said, "You are some good at it O'Toole".

It was 12:00 noon and the contest was over, Lawrence got the chocolates. Lawrence passed the chocolates out to all of us.

When John came in to get his prize he said, "Ok Willie, I came to collect the prize".

Willie says, "Sorry John but that young O'Toole fellow beat your score".

John was furious and looked at all of us saying, "Go away you bunch of crooks, that's all they are Willie, a bunch of crooks".

We were roaring laughing and Lawrence said, "Look who's talking".

He saved a chocolate for John and passed him the box saying, "Care for a chocolate John, I saved one for you". John busted out laughing with us and we roared for an hour over the contest and John and Lawrence's scores.

Thanks Uncle Willie, John, and Lawrence for making it a happy day as usual when we were together we always had a happy day growing up in Bras D'Or and will always be in my memory bank forever..

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