My sister Ardath and her husband Vernon Zwicker, competed for the keepers position on Green Island in the summer of 1949, and were successful in winning the competition; replacing Floyd and Margaret Thompson, the latest of a line of keepers, after my family left the light four years previous.
For Ardie it was a home coming. She loved the Island ; probably more than any other mortal ever did. They settled in and commenced their family.
Children on isolated stations, in most cases, pose a problem so far as education is concerned. For one thing, the kids are used to being outside with daddy doing whatever might happen to be the order of the day, and when the time comes for correspondence, they do not want to buckle down. If the mother was the instructor, her time impacted on the cooking and house work, for in most cases, even with a helping hand from hubby, things fell apart. Also; and I speak from my own experience, both the parents had minimal education and were poorly fitted for a teaching role past grade three or four.
In 1960, the head keeper position came open at Eddy Point came open. Vernon made application and got it. The reason the move was made to get the children in school, they moved in early May by ship. I took over the light as temporary keeper; it came to competition in July, and even though all hands in Dartmouth Base were rooting for me, I lost it to Keith Guptill. (one of the Grand Manan connection) through veterans preference. Personnel in Dartmouth assured me they would have a light for me within a year. (It took two).
Guptill was a martinet, and went through a succession of assistants, and it wasn’t long before his reputation was blown on the wind from Cape North to Cape Fourchu . To alleviate this situation, the Dept. decided the only way to keep the peace was to give him his two eldest sons as assistants. This apparently worked out well, for all was quiet until he left, his son Jim succeeded him and it was he whom Vernon took over from when he returned to the Island from Eddy Point in the mid seventies. The reason for the move back was simple. The lights were classed from 2 for a minor harbour light to class 9 for the offshore fog alarm and radio beacon stations. Green Island was class 9, with a much higher pay scale than Eddy Point . Since their family was now grown, Vernon and Ardie were free to move back; where he could finish out his time to retirement on the higher pay scale.
Shortly after they got re-established in their old home, Jim left, to transfer to Chebucto Head, leaving the assistants position open on Green Island . (By now it had been re-classified as a two man station) Enter George Lock.
I was sailing in the Irving tankers and was home on leave with the momentous event transpired. Decided to get a new rug for one of the bedrooms and Carol and I went to town to pick one out; I walked on the side of a chuck hole in the parking lot of the rug place that was as big as a tiger trap, I rolled my ankle, jumped to keep from falling, and just about destroyed my lumbar region…..truly; it has never been the same since.
One day when I was sitting at the kitchen table talking about my pain to Captain Morgan, when an older Ford station wagon came around the cove and limped up our driveway. It came to a stop behind my Olds and disgorged it cargo, which consisted of George and Ethel Lock, their three kids, Danny, Denise and Sandra, a Chihuahua and a yellow Labrador whose name was Lucky; which was the biggest misnomer the world has ever seen.
They all came crowding in and after a couple of territorial disputes of the canine kind, tea was served. The Locks seemed to have a preconceived notion that we were going to board their kids. Negatory George. Perhaps if you look around the village you may luck out. This pissed him off, big time. So he asked if there was someone he could get to run them out to the Island to have a look around. So I made a few calls and engaged transportation with a fisherman, I forget who it was now.
After an hour or two they arrived back all smiles, said they were going to take the job, and they had decided while they were steaming out there and back to go for home schooling. They all piled back into the rickety Ford and headed back to Main-a-Dieu . Which was where he hailed from.
Time passed. About two weeks after their visit I was having a late breakfast one morning; looked out the window by my chair and here comes the Coast Guard truck around Nora Jim’s turn. As it was spring and the frost coming out, I was afraid they would come up the driveway and go down to the frame; necessitate bring in a D-9 Caterpillar to pull the truck out.
I was more or less immobilized with my bad back, so Carol went down to intercept the truck. She ranged up by the drivers door and saw that Harold Stoddard (A Visit from Franz) was driving. She asked him not to bring the truck up the hill.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Harold replied, “Are the Locks here yet.? “ Carol replied in the negative, and Harold said, “I sure would like to get those creeturs, off though.” “Oh Carol said, the dogs are okay with us, we’ve met them. “
“They’re not the dogs, Mrs. Crooks, I’ve had those two creeturs on since yesterday noon. It’s a cow and a bull, Mrs.”
“Well, said Carol, “They’re not here yet, so you and Mel (his striker ) might as well come up to the house for a cup of coffee.” So they piled out and followed Carol up the hill.
Over coffee the sad tale was told. They gad loaded all the Locks’ furniture, plus the two “ creeturs “ in Main-a-Dieu the day before, and due to time considerations, stopped at the Belmont Hotel in Guysboriugh, for the night. A thunder storm developed, spooking the already frightened animals, which started bellowing out both ends, and even though George had the foresight to put diapers on ‘em, the effect was still horrendous.
Cooper acknowledges that he has a speech impediment. It causes him no embarrassment at all. Ca sera. He started to describe the chaos in the truck
“Deedit, said Mel, “What a meff; days tit all over everyting, da table an chairs, an da testerfield, it’s all covered with tit.”!!
Harold was wild. “ I was so embarrassed, he said, “ Every time it came a clap of thunder, those poor creeturs would take to work a-bawlin’ That motel was full up. “ “All that bellerin’; It’s a wonder to God that someone hadn’t called the SPCA.” We were just finishing our coffee when the chopper arrived. The pilot sat down on the top of the hill, shut her down and came in the house. He saw that Harold was not his usual cheery self, and asked what was wrong. Mel was happy to fill him in.
George and his crowd arrived at about 1000 hrs. and then there was a consultation next as to where was the best place to unload the live stock. The consensus was the bank if the road at the Nora-Jim, Seldy Burke line, so Harold took the truck. Danny and George walked it. Pretty soon here they come. Danny leading the heifer and George the bull. They made some sight, I’m here to tell you, with their flannelette blanket/diapers tied on with poly rope. The diapers were badly in need of changing and were dragging the road. I thought by what George said that they were just calves; not so, the bull was old enough to be sexually active and the heifer was big enough to participate in such activities as the bull might initiate.
Well they marched along the beach in front of my place, and the more I laughed the more my back hurt, and my tears of mirth turned to tears of pain, and dimly I saw George and Danny lead their hapless charges down over the beach to nature’s change table. Danny came pelting up the hill and tore through the door yelling; “Da wants a broom!! “ I told Carol to give him an old corn broom that we used for snow sweeping, which was in the shed.
The stripped the diapers off and tried to lead them into the water. The heifer was beyond caring, and tagged along behind Danny, but the bull was of another mind set. He had had enough and decided to kill his tormentor, raising his tail he made for George who run up over the beach at a speed equal to, or better than any runner in Pamplona . They got the heifer washed down while the bull was up the hill threatening the helicopter.
They finally got the bull subdued and into a cargo net for the lift. When he became airborne, his bowels moved one last time, and some of their belongings previously unscathed was at ground zero. I hobbled out to see the carnage wrought on the furniture, in particular the chesterfield, and thought of the words from Lewis Carrols’ The Walrus and the Carpenter…… “If seven maids with seven mops, swept it for half a year, do you suppose the walrus said; That they could get it clear. “
“I doubt it, said the carpenter, and shed a bitter tear.”
Ah yes, Victoria , the lights along the coast didst have their share of idiots.
Sydney,
February 23rd, 2007
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