WINTER LIGHTHOUSE 47 Louisbourg
WINTER LIGHTHOUSE 47
Louisbourg
18 x 28 canvas
$150.00
Christmas on Louisbourg Lighthouse 1946
We lived on the Lighthouse for 3 years. My dad took the job as assistant lightkeeper to Wilfred Covey. We lived in a duplex with the Coveys. We had no power and relied on kerosine lamps. We did have a phone so that we could report
problems. They took shifts tending the Light. the light had to be wound up by hand every 4 hours. it was a dangerous climb up the steel ladders
It was lonely for me My sister was too young to play with and Covey's daughter was too old and mentally challenged.
My dad was a machinist for Cann's Marine Repairs during the war but now work was scarce and we lived poorly like a lot of Cape Bretoners. We had snares out for rabbits and such. It was difficult to get to the lighthouse in those days it was not much more than a wagon track. My dad used the abandoned rail line to walk to town.
We would occasionally get a tourist who would drive the difficult path. There was a sign in front of the ruins of the old lighthouse that everybody liked to photograph.
"This is the site of the first fireproof lighthouse in North America. Erected 1734 Destroyed by fire 1758."
It did not mention It was destroyed by cannon fire.
My dad had been raised by his Uncle, Al Bussey of Big Lorraine on calm Sundays during the summer. Roy Bussey or Ernest would row in a dory over to the lighthouse and take us back for dinner in Big Lorraine.
So it was a big deal on Christmas in 1946 when Dad brought home a windup Victrola record player for Christmas. We had 3 78 albums which contained 4 records each 16 songs in all. First was Bunk Johnson's New Orleans Jazz Strauss Waltzes and the Spike Jones. They were played to death. I added to the entertainment with my dance of the yellow curtain to a Strauss waltz.
What is amazing I also had a sled and a toboggan. As I look at the lighthouse I wonder where I used them, most of the hills run down to the cliffs.
My uncle Bert my dad's twin brother was discharged from the Army and joined us. There was not much to do the following year and my Dad and Uncle made a little play village for me around Kenelley's pond. (it was much smaller and further inland then. they built me boats and little fishing shacks and docks and a lighthouse and a boardwalk around it. They had a complete workshop in the foghorn building. Unfortunately it was found out by kids from town and they were taking things so Dad and Bert dug a small pond near our house and moved everything there.
Where Canada Begins
I believe Canada began when wolfe took the fortress of Louisbourg. this was the beginning of the end for the French in North america and thus the beginning of Canada. To me this is my best painting
I is an abstract of the final night of the fall of Louisbourg.
Where Canada Begins #2
Gary LeDrew
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235 Alexandra St # 17
Sydney N.S. B1S3A4
902-270-0910
garyledrew@gmail.com
Sydney Big Fiddle
Designed and constructed by Cyril Hearn, the fiddle and the bow reach a height of 60 feet and can be seen by the incoming cruise ships in the harbour. Made of solid steel, the giant fiddle was dubbed FIDHEAL MHOR A’ CEILIDH or the “Big Fiddle of the Ceilidh”. Ceilidh is a Gaelic word which translates into “visit”.
Louisbourg Ligthiuse 1947
This was the lighthouse when I lived on it. We lived at the lighthouse for 3 years. I was 5 when we left in 1947 but I still have some vivid memories. I often played outside by myself and was told not to go near the cliffs.
We had a telephone but no power a well and a chemical toilet.
My father was the assistant light keeper to William Covey.. Mr. Covey loved to terrorize my mother with stories of the ghosts of headless Frenchmen. She got even with one day when she filled a pair of coveralls with rags and placed it behind his car, so it looked like he had run over somebody in the dark. Then she told him he must have run over a hobo.
One very calm day at low tide my dad saw a cannonball in a tide pool. He recovered it with the help of a rope and bucket and a clothesline pole. I sold it for a hundred dollars a few years ago.
In the winter I would walk around with my father to check the rabbit snares. the second Xmas my father bought a phonograph and 3 albums. The 78 albums had 4 two-sided records. One was Bunk Johnson and the other was Spike Jones 'The Nut Cracker' the third was Strauss waltzes and we played them over and over.
I remember a fishing boat hitting the rocks. the men were saved but the next morning they phoned and asked my mother to see if there was any of the boat left to salvage. I went down to the stormy sea with Mother and we saw it had broken up and pieces of the boat everywhere, in choppy 3 and 4 ft waves. strangely a 2 by 6 piece of the boat floated into us with the boat's alarm clock just sitting on it. - Gary LeDrew
A Canvas print is available
28 x18 canvas mounted on board for$140 See less
Comments
Digital Paintings I made from W. MacAskill's photos of the 1920s
SNUG HARBOUR Peggy's Cove 16 x 28 Canvas print $140
DRYING SAILS Peggy's Cove 16 x 28 Canvas print $140
WINDING ROAD Peggy's Cove 16 x 28 Canvas print $140
DRYING SAILS Peggy's Cove 16 x 28 Canvas print $140
WINDING ROAD Peggy's Cove 16 x 28 Canvas print $140
The Dundonald Inn Louisbourg
The Dundonald Inn Named for Lord Dundonald who was killed in1758.
It was the property where the Catholic church is now on Main Street Louisbourg.
Lighthouse Sunset, Louisbourg Cape Breton
We lived on the lighthouse for 3 years at the end of WWII. My father was the assistant keeper to Wilfred Covey and we shared the house which was a duplex. We had no electricity but had a telephone to report an emergencyI was only 5 when we left the light but I still have few stark memories. A fishing boat had foundered in rough seas and the crew had been rescued. The next morning I went down to the shore with my mother and we watched as a 2x6 chunk of wood from the boat washed ashore with the boat's alarm clock just sitting on it.Louisbourg Lighthouse. Location
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Winter Deer Cape Breton
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Mural at 228 Commercial Street North Sydney