THE BIG POND TIMES

 

SPRING WILL ARRIVE SOON!

COMMUNITY COUNCIL

Discussion took place concerning a letter from Robin Campbell, Solicitor for the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.  They are of the opinion that the demolition of the school belongs with the community.  A copy of the lease with the Municipality will be obtained and further action on the subject will follow.  A meeting will be held with the Concert Committee concerning a tax exemption for the Tartan Eagle.

A letter was submitted to Don Carter, Department of Transportation, from Ivan Doncaster listing various projects – one of which was the construction of a sidewalk from Loch Lomond Road to the Firehall.

Melvin Currie noted that Melvin White’s name was submitted to the Cape Breton Recreation Department to attend the Special Volunteer’s Award’s Night for 2000.

Melvin Currie advised that Steve Owen from Industry Canada will be contacted to review the Tartan Eagle Restaurant to see what areas could be improved.  Mr. Owen is a Food Specialist and his services are offered free of charge.

Gerald Thomas reported that the C.I.A. are in a holding position concerning the policing situation but will keep us informed of any happenings as they come about. Ivan Doncaster advised that the mailboxes at the store will be replaced. A course for flagging for our area will be looked into. The next meeting of the Community Council is Wednesday, 3 May, 7:30 p.m. at the Big Pond Fire Hall.

Ann MacPherson

 

A SPECIAL CASE

As spring approaches, I have a favour to ask of the wonderful residents of Big Pond. Sometime during last December, while my mother, Annette Cox, was away for Christmas, her home was burglarized. Several things were taken, including her television, stereo and all of her CDs. All of these items are easily replaced. But a very special possession of my mother's was taken that can not be replaced. It was a child's wallet. The wallet contained monopoly money and a two dollar bill. The thieves, in haste, probably thought it contained considerable more cash. I am sure that once they discovered its contents, it was quickly discarded. The child was my brother Jeremy, my mother's only son. He was killed in an accident in December 1979, twenty years ago. The wallet was a brown zippered wallet with the "Six Million Dollar " man design. If you happen to find this very special wallet would you please call my mother Annette @ 539-8686.  Though I realize the chances of finding this wallet are small I appreciate your time and effort. Thank you and I wish you all a very pleasant spring!!

Janelle Devia

YOUTH NOTES

There is a birthday that I would like to announce: Natalie MacMillan turned 12 on April 8.  Also Mothers Day is right around the corner and I would like to wish every mother a happy Mothers Day from the youth in Big Pond!

It looks like we have some travellers in Big Pond, Christine McDonald went on April 25 and is returning May 1 from New York, with the Band Travel Group.  Theresa MacMillan will leave May 23 and return on May 28 from Quebec, with the Malcolm Munroe Travel Group. Trudi MacPherson is our big winner this month. She received $25.00 in a poster contest! Congratulations!

Theresa MacMillan (Youth Editor) 828-2846

 

Glengarry School Days: A Conversation with Michael MacInnis. Part 1

 

I was born in 1914. September 30 at three o'clock in the morning. Born in Glengarry. My father was Martin MacInnis, Martin son of Rory MacInnis of Glengarry and Mary MacPherson of Big Pond. My mother was Catherine Ann Gillis, the daughter of John Finlay Gillis and Mary MacDonnell of Gillisdale in Southwest Margaree. They expected me to be born on the twenty-ninth, on St. Michael's Day, and they were praying to St. Michael. However I was born the following day. But it was so close that they still called me Michael. Michael Neil. Peter S.MacNeil's mother was midwife and she asked my mother if she would give me the second name of Neil in memory of a son of hers who had died shortly before. So that's why my name is Michael Neil.

No, I'm not sure how my parents met. There was a priest in Reserve-Father MacInnis I think he was- from Inverness and he had a housekeeper who married M.A. MacPherson from Big Pond. She was from that area over there in Inverness. M.A. used to sell goods, to peddle, and he knew Father MacInnis and that's how he met his wife. I think that it was through her or M.A. that my father met my mother.

My education? Well for various reasons I don't have a lot of it! I have grade four. I remember my mother teaching me the alphabet by pointing out the letters on our Waterloo stove. When it was time for me to go to school there was no school to go to in Glengarry. So I went to school in Big Pond for three years. I stayed with Aunt Sarah, my mother's sister- Mrs. Mick MacPherson- Duncan Mick's mother. Then in 1928 my father died and life became more complicated for us.

One day my mother said, " This is it! We must do something. We have to get a school here in Glengarry! " So she wrote to the inspector of schools, Tom Phalen. He came up and interviewed her and he told her, "Yes, you'll get a school if you can provide a building." My mother had a meeting called some way or other in our house- I don't know just how she went about calling it—and the people around came. I forget who was there. Frank Campbell for one was there but I forget who else. So they had a meeting. The people weren't too sure it was a good idea to look for a school. They were afraid taxes would go up. And there weren't too many children to go to a school. There were just our family and Ross Smith's family and an adopted boy at Dan MacDonald's- Danny Gilleasbuig's- whose name was Forbes Tickner. He was going to school at Salem Road but if we got a school in Glengarry West he would go there.

As I said, not everyone was sure it was a good idea, but my mother insisted that a school was necessary and that there was going to be a school. My mother was a very progressive woman and a determined one. She had to be. Frank Campbell was elected secretary and I don't know who the trustees were - I'm after forgetting that part. But Frank Campbell was secretary and he did the corresponding with the school board. Tom Phelan said they'd get their school and he also said that the section would be classed as a poor section so that government would pay more of the costs than they normally would. He wanted to make it easier for the people. Someone said we'd never get a teacher if that was done. "Well," said my mother, " at least she'll be paid in that case! And that's a lot more than some other schools are able to do."

So we got our school. It was called the Glengarry West School. There was a school towards the other end of Glengarry Valley -near the Mineral Spring -but I think it was open only a couple of years. Christy MacNeil, Catherine and Duncan's mother, taught there and Ross MacDonald' mother - Ross Norman's mother- taught there. I'm not sure if anyone else taught there. School started January or February of 1929 in the front room at our house. They made desks, homemade desks. I know John D. MacNeil- Johnny Beag- Johnny Alastair- made one. And Frank Campbell got one made somewhere and I don't know who else. But there were enough desks. They were individual desks. I remember them well. They were something like that table there in size but they were made like a school desk, and there was a chair with each.

The school would last about ten years I guess. It started in our living room and was there for several years. When Ross Smith came to Glengarry - he was a veteran of the first world war who married my Uncle Jonathan MacInnis's daughter- he built a bungalow. Later he moved into Jonathan's home and for a couple of years anyway school was held in that bungalow. I remember that Timmie Morrison taught a couple of years in that bungalow. The school was in a house but it was run as any school would be. You know last night I was trying to remember what happened to the school bell. I used to know but I forget. My sister Margaret doesn't know either.

Inspector Tom Phalen used to come twice a year to see how things were going on at the school. I remember his visits well. My uncle Mick MacInnis was staying with us for a couple of years and Tom Phalen would always come in and ask him to play a few tunes on the fiddle. Mick would get the fiddle down and play a few tunes for him. He'd do that every time he'd come. Sometimes he'd have somebody else with him. I think there was a fellow by the name of Chafe- I think that was the name. The first teacher was Sadie Maclellan from Ben Eoin , in 1929. I went there for that year of Sadie Maclellan's. And then I couldn't go any more. I had to do work for my mother had to have someone working with her. My father was dead.

Though I wasn't going to school I was still interested in learning. We were getting the Family Herald and the North Sydney Herald at the time and I read them both from end to end. Most of us in the house did. Also we had some books in the

house. My uncle Jim MacInnis left a trunk full of books in the house and I used to read them and my mother used to read them to us.

Uncle Jim went to school in the school that was this side, the north side, of Dan MacDonald's - Hazen and Beverley MacDonald's place, on the Loch Lomond Road - at the end of the field. I don't know how long that school was open but there seemed to be fairly good teachers there, wherever they came from. I think there was a Chisholm fellow there, a professor of some kind who came from Scotland. He was there one year or two- something like that. Jim MacInnis got grade nine there. In those days it was quite a bit. And his brother Joe MacInnis, the oldest of Rory MacInnis's family, got grade nine in that school. They say Joe was quite clever in school and that Jim was too. Jim lived at our place in later years but then he moved down North doing prospecting. He prospected in the Jim Campbell Barrens that we hear so much about. When young he left Glengarry and went to Maine, to Bangor. He was a boxer down there. He held some title or other, some middleweight championship.  Jim was a violin player and could read music- he taught Angus Chisholm how to read music. Uncle Mick couldn't read music- he played by ear.

When brother John and I left the place we left a lot of stuff behind, intending to get it later when we had a house. We just went to a lumber camp. Someone took the books, trunk and all. And they took pictures- three big pictures with those big fancy frames. One was of a priest from Johnstown- maybe a Father MacKenzie but offhand I'm not sure- and one of Danny Gilleasbuig's wife and one of his sister Catherine. Also they took up the hardwood flooring in the kitchen - and then they burned the house.

I have here a list of the teachers who taught there, a list made by my sister Margaret The first teacher was Sadie Maclellan from Ben Eoin. She started in February of 1929. Then Sadie MacNeil- Sadie Angus Anthony- from Big Pond. Then Annie Chiasson from Margaree Forks. Then Jean Vera McCuish of St. Peters. Then Helen Cameron from Margaret Forks. Then Archie- or "Timmie"-Morrison of Sydney. Then Francis Doyle of Donkin. Then Jessie MacLellan- Jessie Monroe- from Inverness. And Duncan Gillis from Grand Mira in 1939-1940. Duncan Gillis was the last teacher.

I forget where they all boarded. Sadie MacLellan, Helen Cameron and Ann Chisholm boarded at out place. Jean Vera McCuish and Timmie Morrison stayed at Danny MacDonald's. Sadie Angus Anthony and Frances Doyle stayed at Ross Smith's. I'm not sure where Jessie Munroe and Duncan Gillis stayed. Duncan was the last teacher. The teachers got $300 a year. Part was paid through a county grant and part through a levy on property owners, a levy based on their property assessment.

©Jack MacNeil

 

COMMUNITY NOTES

There are a few birthdays that the TIMES must mention. In early April Bill MacDonald celebrated his 95^th. Bill is married to Emma, one of our finer card sharks, and is Ann Thomas’ father. At his party Bill demonstrated a spryness that eclipsed that of many in atttendance. He was surrounded by family and friends. Congratulations, Bill.

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A short time later the same folks on the top of MacNeil Lane had another do. Gerald “GT” Thomas blasted through into the sixth decade, again surrounded by family, friends and well-wishers. GT is almost as good a Tarabish player as his mother-in-law.

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The TIMES would also like to congratulate one of the most committed community workers in the area who is fast catching up on GT—not in Tarabish but in age. While he’s far too modest to permit his name to stand in print some know him as the Sage of Glengarry.

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The TIMES could use some assistance; writers, reporters, editors, whatever. Lots of job opportunities. Contact anyone listed below.

 

BIG POND TIMES: Founded in 1994, it is published by the Big Pond Community Council and has a circulation of 300. Contact Don MacGillivray, Big Pond, Cape Breton, B0A 1H0 don.bigpond@ns.sympatico.ca or Dennis MacDonald, Big Pond. den.carol@ns.sympatico.ca “It is a newspaper’s duty to print the news and raise hell.”-Chicago Times, 1861. Contact Josephine McCarron, Big Pond, for subscriptions.  New rates: Canadian address $7.00; American $8.50; International $13.00. This issue is from Josephine McCarron, Jack MacNeil,  Carol MacDonald, Sharise McKeigan Theresa MacMillan  and Don MacGillivray. The editor for June is Dennis MacDonald.