As I Remember Them

George Blue and I were the dumbest clods in Prince Ed- ward Island, often throwing the book at us. I kept asking to get into the class with my sister Colomene, who was a class ahead. Finally I got in, as I knew I would never get anywhere in the class I was in.

One in the new class was Cecil, who became a very good friend of mine. One time we decided to drive to Charlottetown over the big ice, straight from Point Prim to town in the harbour, where one could see the water bubbling up.

I had a LaCopia mare, who died the next year from lockjaw. Her slowest walking speed was about 8 miles an hour. It was a hop, skip and a jump. No horse could keep up to her. We crossed the big ice in about an hour. This was on St. Patrick’s Day and we went to a large hall where the Confederation Centre stands. That hall later burned.

Mack, the youngest of the MacLean boys, made many miles with me in sleigh, wagon and motorcycle to dances all over the country. He played the fiddle at many dances. He was later married and lived west of Charlottetown.

Getting back to John Dan, he was a patient of mine in his later days. He went to the polling booth in Little Sands hall on election day. After joking with all the men, he went in to vote. Before his ballot struck the bottom of the box, poor John Dan was dead of a heart attack. I often wondered if they counted his vote. He never had any signs of any heart trouble, especially in climbing that steep bank from the wharf to his house.

All that family has passed away in very few years. One has to feel the passing of years when I drive past on the road to Murray River and remember all the good,

jolly times that I and the youth of that day spent at John Dan’s.

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