recall December 1942 very clearly. We had not been able to get off the Island for over a week. It was very cold weather and there was heavy ice but it wasn’t frozen hard enough to walk on. The vapor from the cold was so bad you could hardly see Launching at times. One day we saw a flag on the Launching side which meant someone wanted to get over. In this case it was my brother Jack coming home for a short leave before he went overseas. A small opening came in the ice from the tide change. The dory was hauled to the beach by horse and sleigh, and then my father, myself and Frank MacCormack took off for Launching. When we got to the mainland it was decided we should also go for the mail which was about a mile’s walk each way. On the way back to the Island the ice closed in on us. We could not row or walk. We spent about four hours trapped in the ice before the wind and the tide took us out to sea where the ice was broken up. The men were able to row back to the other side of the Island where they were waiting with horse and sleigh to pick up. We were very cold.

I recall another time in the early 40’s two weeks before Christmas, when ice “made” in the Bay between the Island and Launching.

It was good enough to walk on so my father and I went over hauling a hand sleigh with ten dressed geese to sell. We were driven to Cardigan by William Christian where my father got groceries. There were two stores in Cardigan, R. J. MacDonald's and John A. MacDonald’s. We had to wait for the train as William was meeting his sister who was coming home for Christmas from Halifax, I believe. In the meantime, a real gale of wind came up. We got back to Launching about 10 o’clock at night. After tea at William’s we set out for the Island. The ice was about 20 feet from shore. It was very dark and the tide was very high and it was blowing real hard. I had my first pair of long rubber boots and l waded out to the ice and got on it. My father told me to come back right away, as he thought the ice was moving. We then went down the shore to Jim Hayter’s who kept a small store. He and my father were real good friends. We wanted to get his dory to row over as the folks at home would be worrying. But Jim wouldn’t hear of us crossing in that gale of wind and with the ice moving. He insisted we stay there and go in the morning, which we did. We were awakened the next morning by William Christian, telling Jim that he thought Dan and the young fellow were gone because they’d left his house about eleven last night and the

ice was completely gone. 77