Bras D'Or

Dennis Jessome
The Boy From Bras D'Or

Alympics
"The Truck Tire Race"

Back to the Bras D'Or Shacks for our summer Alympics, "The Truck Tire Race".

We had to wait nearly all year to get enough truck tires for the event. When someone bought a new tire we were lucky enough to get the old one.

We started in the fall to collect old tires and store them behind Willie R. Fraser's barn, (m.) Rachel Fraiser.

The first one we got off of Ernie Clifford (m.) Marjorie MacKay. He owned a service station down by the CNR Station.

He just changed one for a fellow from down north, passing through. It was time that fellow got the tire changed, he needed one, there were two re-liners in it and they were worn right through.

We got another one from Dave MacKeigan (m.) Ellen Boudreau daughter of Remy the Barbers from Bras D'Or. Dave had a service station in Florence.

One stipulation for the race, we had to use truck tires. It took two of us to roll the tire up over the hill to Willie R's place.

We got one from Eric Brogan but it was small and would do in a pinch.

The person who was using the small tire had to have a head start of fifty feet because when one of the big ones got rolling, look out.

The weather was getting nice so we made the date for June 30.

Everyone was out of school and available. When the day came we had 12 big truck tires enough for the race. There were 3 tires in four sets of races.

There was a flat piece of ground between Bob Slades (m.) Ethel ____ and Jack Chisholm's place (m.) Margaret Jessome, so we used that area.

It gave you a chance to spin it to the top of Aunt Emma LeBlanc's Hill (m.) to my uncle Dukkin Carey, and let it go. The outcome was to see how far it would go up Aunt Janie Cormier's Hill (m.) George Long.

The person with the farthest tire won the event. Each tire was numbered so they could be identified. All the tires were ready to go.

The first up were Ya-Ya Slade, Tootie Chisholm and Patty Jessome.

They got lined up and away they went spinning it to the top of Aunt Emma's hill and let them go.

By the time the tires got to Roger Baptist's house (m.) Olive Fiander, at the bottom of the first hill, they were at full speed. Tootie's tire is down but Ya-Ya's tire went half way up Aunt Janie's hill and laid there.

The second set for the race were Larncie, Jude and Giggy Carey. All the people were sitting on Harvey Clarke's hill (m.) Jenny Penny, on a patch of grass and had a good seat at the finish line.

The three of them were waiting for the start signal and away they went spinning the tire to the top of the hill and let the tires go.

Half way down the hill Larncie's tire rubbed against Giggy's tire and turned it to the right, by this time it was at full speed and heading straight for John (Blue) Leblanc's place (m.) Mary Ellen Barry.

BANG, it hit their shack and all you could hear was, "What in the geeses was that". So help me, you could see the shack shake from the bang.

It cracked three of the six little panes of glass in their bedroom window.

When the tire hit everyone scattered. All you could hear was, "I'm calling the cops". I guess you couldn't blame them for that.

We had to get rid of the evidence before the cops came. We gathered the tires and rolled them to John the Baptist's hole, an old foundation that John's house was on before it burned down years ago.

When we had old truck tires we used to burn them there for a bonfire at nighttime.

That was the end of the truck tire race. We didn't realize how dangerous it was to hold these races on the shack hill.

They could have run over someone who didn't know it was coming at them.

One good thing came from it, we learned a dangerous lesson and we had 12 truck tires to burn for bonfires all that summer.

So with the gathering of the tires and the almost Truck Tire Race it was a fun day, it was a joy to remember with all your friends gathered together all at one time.

Thanks to all who were there that day, it will live in my memory forever.

Live life to the fullest.

These pages were created by Lark Szick
© Copyright All Rights Reserved. Dec. 2006.

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