What's up in the Mines?

[xcaper]

I'll be home for a visit this summer; it’s been a few years.
Will be home from June 26th through July 4th, does anybody have any local bar band happenings during that time?
Would like to see some local bands play at Monty’s or Rollie’s while I’m home.

Cheers!

[cbisle]

Hey xcaper, welcome aboard Caper Corner! Try this website out. It has a list of all local bands as well as dates of shows.

www.cblocals.com

Hope it helps!!

[colleen]

Is there anything new since June? lol Seriously, I really love when I phone my mother and I already know all the news, she is so impressed with me! So any news, (I mean it anything) would only enhance our mother-daughter relationship. Thanks

cheers, cj

[NewsHound]

Hi Colleen

Welcome to the Caper Corner, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Tonight in Sydney Mines there is a Songwriter's Circle of Hope which will feature Rob Barry, Alton MacKinnnon, Rob Smith, and Dave Williams. They will perform and talk about their music at the Sydney Mines Fire Hall at 7pm and the cost is $5. It's along the lines of another Sydney Mines native, Bruce Gouthro's, show. Has anybody watched it, it's a great show!

The Santa Claus Parade was held this past weekend and was a great parade despite the cold weather. I particularly enjoyed Boo Smith and his brother, The Whaler, marching in the parade with their signs posting, "MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE YOUNG FAMILY"

I think there would possibly be more to enjoy in Sydney Mines if whomever was running the Johnny Miles Festival knew how to put on and promote events for the benefit of the community.

On a side note, how do I get a picture for my profile?

[IAMCAPER]

Hey Newshound,

Controversial as ever I see!

Thanks for posting the Songwriters event for tonight and thanks for bringing up the parade, I saw it as well and enjoyed it, as did my daughter.

I don't really want to get into the Johnny Miles Festival issue because it's not my place to say. However, I do want to allow freedom on this board to speak opinions so long as it doesn't turn into a mud-slinging thread. If this happens I will shut down the thread.

If that doesn't work I will be forced to consider suspending the user for a period of time, sort of a time-out.

Keep it clean. hehe

Also, if you would like an avatar for your profile, simply send me the image, or the link to the image and I'll add it for you.

[colleen]

Boo Smith is still around? OMG I forgot he existed. I wish I had known about the Santa Claus Parade when I talked to my mother she would have been really impressed! Are you kids old enough to remember Santa in the Bargain Store window? That is one of my favourite childhood, Christmas memories. I knew it was Christmas time the day that I would come home from school and Santa would be in the window. Then I would go in and get 5 cents worth of smarties and hope that my aunt or my aunt' s friend or grandmother's neighbour was working the candy counter so I would get a bigger bag! lol Oh the memories

cheers, cj

[IAMCAPER]

I can't say I remember Santa Claus in the Bargain Store window but I do remember the candy counter! My mom would take us in every Saturday morning after we would bowl a few strings at Strand Lanes. hehe

Man, I still remember the distinct smell of the Bargain Store!

We would also go next door to Woolworth's, aka 5 and 10 store, aka nickel and dime store.

[colleen]

I still have dreams about the 5 and 10! And why was nothing hung up in the Bargain Store, everything was on those wooden shelf/bins? Anyway, I was talking to my niece at a family wedding a few weeks ago and she told me that she still bowls at Strand Bowling Lanes! And apparently it still looks the same as it did when we were kids! Oh man, I'm starting to get homesick, that is never good. I know my husband is not going to want to drive me home this time of year. I guess I'll have to go down to Wolfville to get a good whiff of the Bay of Fundy, sometimes it smells just like home and does the trick for a while.

cheers, cj

[IAMCAPER]

I bowled at Strand for years, up until I moved to Sydney and it was exactly the same as the 40 year old pictures on the wall!

I bet the Fundy doesn't smell like Lochmond's Beach! Or Cranberry! hehe

[colleen]

I'm actually a Greeners girl, you know all along shore Road. But you are right, the Bay of Fundy doesn't have that sewage/rotting fish smell that Greeners had. lol Doesn't matter to me, I love that smell. I swam beside the sewer pipe through my whole childhood and it never killed me. That's where the water was warmest! lol I'm just joking. The Bay of Fundy is barely ocean water, although it is freezing cold. It doesn't come close to home.

cheers, cj

[cbisle]

Although I love living in the city (Halifax), I hope to some day move back to Cape Breton and hopefully live by the ocean. I lived 20-feet from the ocean for 5-6 years and I loved it. The closest thing to an ocean in Halifax is the Halifax Harbour, and many of you probably know the condition of that. Oh well, at least it's water.

[colleen]

My daughter lives in Halifax while she attends Dalhousie. I hope she doesn't choose to stay there after she graduates. Halifax harbour doesn't give me an ocean fix. I feel that the Bay of Fundy is more ocean than Halifax harbour, at least it has mountains and trees around it. Halifax harbour is too industrialized with container ships, navy ships and oil refineries, killing the ocean experience.

I Hope that you can some day make your ocean home, dream come true, sooner rather than later. Time flies, especially once you have children and before you know it, your kids aren't from Cape Breton and going back conflicts with where your kids want to be.

cheers, cj

[cbisle]

Thanks colleen. We have a six-year-old boy now and another child on the way. Our little guy misses Cape Breton and he only lived there for four years. We try to get home as much as we can though. There's nothing better than a Cape Breton Christmas. Hopefully we'll be home this year.

[IAMCAPER]

You better call me if you get home punk!

Colleen, I have an uncle who has lived off-island for about 25 years or more now and he's due to retire and wants to move back. The problem he has is that his two daughters, who both were born and raised on the mainland, do not want to move to Cape Breton. Tough decision there. Personally, I'd like to see him move back home.

[colleen]

Nothing can make a Cape Bretoner homesick, like Christmas Daddies. I was so pleased once again this year to see the Cape Breton portion of the show aired on ASN, I don't know why it isn't on from 12:00 pm though. Most of us who live away want to see the whole thing. And I have to let you all know that the Mainland portion is pathetic compared to Cape Breton's. I use to tell my husband about it every year, because he thought the Christmas Daddies show was really bad. BUT THEN!!! They started airing the Cape Breton Daddies and he is parked right on the couch watching it! So now he is homesick for Cape Breton and he's a valley boy! lol. I can't believe that Allie Bennett (a great musician from Sydney Mines)is still doing the show and Fred Lavery, it was like going into a time machine.
To top off the Cape Breton Daddies experience the fire at the hospital was on the news right afterward and seeing anything from home is like a knife in the heart. I can't come home for Christmas this year because too many folks in my husbands family are coming here from Ontario, ma and da aren't coming up here, getting too old. (sigh) Guess I'll be left here dreaming of a Cape Breton Christmas.

cheers, cj