Bras D'Or

Dennis Jessome
The Boy From Bras D'Or

"True Shack Memories"

The spring of the year, it was tough to get over the Shack Hill.

The road wasn't graveled and when the frost came out of the ground, boy she was mucky!

If a car or truck went down into the bottom of the hill, ya sank down in the mud to the axles and when ya got out of the vehicle, ya went up to your ankles, till ya got an a piece of solid ground.

Sometimes if I wanted to go up to see Mary Carey, my cousin at the top of the hill, I would take two slabs of wood with me and lay one ahead of the other to walk on till I got to Mr. LeBlanc's just below Aunt Emma's and Uncle Dukkins Carey's place. It was sure muddy, ya couldn't walk in it ya'd lose yer lumrubbers.

It was a farmer's field at one time, owned by John Baptist family. They had their farmhouse on the way to the Big Creek. The old foundation is still visible. We used to burn the truck tires there in the summertime.

John sold the land to old Burchell and he built his "cottages", as he called them and later became the Bras d'Or Shacks for his miners who worked in his (Toronto) mine.

The shacks had no foundations, so when you stepped out yer back door ya went a couple of inches in the mud. A lot of the shackers put boughs of spruce trees in front of the door so ya wouldn't sink. Every shack in the hollow did that.

I don't know how long the telephone poles going over the other shack hill were in the ground before they put the wires on them. It seemed like years.

Daddy said one day,
"Looks like we are going to get electricity at the Shacks."
We didn't get it seemed for years after the poles were in. No one could afford to pay for it. Kerosene oil lamps were cheaper.

It finally came when I got a job on the railroad and we got 'er hooked up. She was some bright in the shack I tell ya! I think I said that in one of my other stories when we got hooked up.

The shacks were all built the same except for four of them. They had sloped roofs, the rest were flat roofed with tar paper.

Mr. Emile LeBlanc had a couple of chicken barns and no fence at that time so his chickens roamed all over the place. But he still counted them every night when they came back in and if one was missing, he went to look for it. The odd time he didn't find it. They used to lay their eggs all over the field behind his barns.

One day mama said:
"Dennis go over behind Mr. LeBlanc's and get find me a couple of eggs and I'll bake ya's a big Molasses Cake. Over we go me and Jude Carey, Uncle Jo Jo and Aunt Dorothy (Long) Carey's son.

Jude said: "If I find one I want a piece of Cake."
"Well I guess you will get a piece, if ya find one and if I find the two, ya ain't getting none."
Well we found one each by hiding in the grass so Mr. LeBlanc wouldn't see us and sneak back home.
"Here ya go, ma. Got two."
"Don't tell anyone now where ya got them or I'll haul the gizzards out of ya's."
"No Ma."
While we were playing in the barn ya could smell the cake baking, almost filled ya up smelling it. When it was baked mama called me and Jude in for a piece and a glass of cold jam water with a hunk of ice in it from the ice box.

Well every time I have a piece of molasses cake today, I think of me and Jude getting the eggs for the cake. Thanks buddy, you are in my memory, always. We did a lot of things together.

We had a lot of things going for us at the Shacks. There were all kinds of Strawberries in the back field and behind Maude (Dawe) Jessome's was a big Black Mirira bush, were they ever big and juicy when they were ripe.

We had the little wild Cherries, (kind of sour), but good. Choke Cherries, they were good and juicy but if ya ate too many ya got the scutters and you couldn't talk cause your mouth used to get right pulpy and your teeth turned brown.

When ya went to get the choke cherries, ya didn't look on the trees till ya got to the tree cause you had to watch for the piles of digested choke cherries all over the place and if ya tramped in a pile with yer bare feet all ya had to do was go to the little creek and wash it off in the salt water. The best disinfectant going.

Back by Joe and Lily (Laffin) Hawkin's, (their family was Peter, Richard (Dickie),Shirley, Millie and Joseph Jr.(Joe) ) road, going up to Jack and Lizzie (Laffin) (Tobin) (forget) Hawkins and Family, Rose(Bud Ginter), Elberta (Burda), (Jake Reid), Jody, Jimmie, Johnny and Earl, there was a patch of red berries we called( Cracker Jacks), had a big seed in them but were tasty and in the field just behind that there was a burnt out section belonged to John Baptist. Boy!! The blueberries there were as big as cherries and lots of them.

Lizzie's husband Jack died years before that and at that time, she was going out with, Everett Boutilier, brother of Dean Boutlier( Elizabeth Huntley) from No # 7, Little Pond. He had a motorcycle and he used to pick Lizzie up at Laffin's gate and they would take off, up the dirt road with the leather jackets and white scarves, blowing in the wind.

I used to stand in the middle of the road till they got out of site. They drove pretty slow. Everett wasn't a fast driver, course, ya couldn't drive on that road too fast, too many pot holes. But I will always remember that cause it was nice to see two elderly people enjoying themselves, as if they were living their younger years and it gave me a picture in my mind that to always enjoy life no matter what age you are. Sometimes we take life for granted and live the fast pace but its nice to stop and smell the roses. I for sure know that.

When we were kids we had that choice, because mostly what we had, we enjoyed to the fullest and there wasn't enough time in a day, it seemed. We couldn't wait till the next day and start again where we left off.

Youth is a golden gift, I'm telling you not to grow up too fast and enjoy every moment because you only have it for a short time before you become an adult, and you stay an adult, but like Lizzie and Everett, it's nice to go back for a while and relive a few precious hours.

The days I was smelling the roses was when I was down at the Coal pier at the Pit and watch the coal boats come in and thinking of where they came from and just enjoying the day.

So with all the Berries and Cherries, Lizzie and Everett, the muddy hollow, the Molasses Cake and different new things every day, it was a part of me growing up in Bras d'Or Shacks and will live in my memory forever.

Thanks to all of you.

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

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