Tagged: folklore
Cape Breton’s Magazine now online & searchable
From November, 1972, to June, 1999, Ron Caplan published Cape Breton’s Magazine from his farmhouse in Wreck Cove, Victoria County. Typeset on an IBM Selectric, printed in a one-of-a-kind, out-sized format, each issue was packed with oral history of a beloved island whose way of live was rapidly changing.
Caplan has now digitized the whole ungainly collection and made it available, in searchable form, online. The interface feels a bit dated and awkward to use, but it’s all there – an extraordinary resource. Want to know what an eyestone was? Check Issue 4. Women steelmakers in World War II? Issue 37. Spruce beer? Issue 8.
This is journalism in which the interviewer rarely intrudes, preferring to let Cape Bretoners of a bygone era tell their own stories. Caplan liked to say that the apostrophe was the most important part of the title.
Hat tip: Stacey Pineau.
Anita on Roger
One of the gems Canada acquired when it joined Newfoundland in 1949 was the then-infant Anita Best of Merasheen Island, Placentia Bay. Anita was barely a teenager when Joey Smallwood expunged her fishing community of residents in the great and tragic resettlement. She grew up to be the greatest collector and interpreter of Newfoundland music, storytelling, and folklore of our era—a national treasure in both nations.
Anita writes:
Just read the comment on Roger Howse’s Hendrix night at Bearly’s. Thanks for posting it. I miss Roger’s music a lot.
High praise indeed.
