Gaelic @ MindSay

As a child of Immigrants from Scotland and France I was born in a bi-lingual family, lived in a bi-lingual city until age 3, then moved to a part of a Nova Scotia that is proud of it's Gaelic (scottish), French Acadian, Irish and English ancestry. It is a funny little island calle Cape Breton and it's looks like a lobster claw.

The town I grew up had an abundance of  Mac's, Mc's, Chisholms, Landry's etc.There were also many, many people with the same first name and same last name which lead to the amusing tradition of nicknames. Almost everyone had one, usually some version of your name to distingish you from your father (said faaathuurrr), or your uncle, or your neighbor. I remember having 4 "Rodney MacDonald's on my street. To tell the difference they were called "Red Roddie", "Loud Roddie", "Old Roddie", and" Young Roddie". The other way to tell people apart when speaking of them was to use both first and second names. Thus one knew Dougall Angus, Angus Dougall, John Angus, Angus John, Joe Johnny and Johnny Joe. In a yet another whirl of confusion there were the versions of last and first names that could be used either way when naming a child. This resulted in Dougall MacDonald, Donald Mac Dougall, Dougall MacDougall, and Donald MacDonald. Finally there was the same name with a different Mc/Mac spelling, Donald McDonald.

Somehow growing up with this I was able to keep it all straight. The use of the name system came naturally and for the most part I could direct a stranger to the right "Rodney MacDonald's house. This funny little system had another purpose however. I believe it endeared a community to one another and allowed acceptance of tradtions, ethnicity, and culture. Though I had a french last name, I also had firm Gaelic roots and I could celebrate those traditions when I attended the Friday "Ceildhs", (said KaaLee). Each March 17th we put an "O'" in front of our french name and headed out to the local Irish levee's. My Dad would sign us into the Ceildh's with a Mac in front of our name. It was all taken in good humour and with plenty of laughs.Our family even joined in on Clan gatherings and were made Honorary MacIntyre's. Other's were given honourary clan names too so everyone in town could join the events. We joined in on Acadian Festivals, and went to Scottish Quilting Bee's. We sang " Oh Canada", our national anthem, in English, French and Gaelic and even in Swedish when a number of  folks moved to the area to work in a local industry. We kids loved to sing a verse in one language and another verse in another and that's what we usually did at school concerts or hockey games.

I remember the excitement when someone of another ethnic background moved into town. As chidren we were anxious to learn their language and teach them ours. We especially liked the games, dances and songs they brought with us. It was fun to see how our Gaelic/Acadian "kitchen parties" evolved from fiddles, guitars, washboards and spoons being played as background to songs, highland fling dance and stepdancing to a multicultural event with new songs and dances that had all types of strange and wonderful moves.

Our town worked hard to draw people to it from other places in the world. We were growing fast and building industries and we did not have enough labour, blue collar workers, white collar workers, doctors, or teachers. It was the early to mid-seventies and life was busy. My Dad was complaining that he couldn't tell boys from girls because of long hair, he laughed at my music, and "platform" shoes were a painful reality of the day. I remember how race wasn't much of an issue, though white folks certainly outnumbered everyone. We all dated each other blind to colour or creed, there was just the usual drama of teenage breakups and makeups. Despite what was going on in individual families, (things like addiction and abuse), there was a comfort in the community of people around us. There was no worry about finding a babysitter, one never worried about needing a cup of sugar or an onion, or a certain screwdriver, everything was borrowed and returned two-fold. Everyone watched the neighborhood kids. I was as likely to get a scolding 2 blocks away from home as I was from my mother, and she supported it. I could ask any neighbor to use their bathroom if I couldn't make it home in time, and popsicles were a free commodity passed out at most houses on a hot day.

Food was a big draw, especially at those parties, Ceildh's, and quilting Bee's. When new immigrants added their food it was a smorgasborg heaven unlike I have ever seen. French, Scottish, Hungarian, Lebenese, Indian, Spanish, Jamican, Scandanavian, Greek... the list was endless. It was a delicous culinary experiment that we enjoyed, and I now miss.

It's 2006 now and I watch all the events of immigration unfolding in the world. I know that once again here in Nova Scotia we are trying to find ways to get immigrants to stay because after many years of not so attractive or friendly welcomes we again are running very low on various professions. We also are having a population decline as our initial immigrants pass on, their children move to other places and we have no one to replace them. In a few years we will have a desperate shortage of plumbers, electricians, bricklayers, welders, mehanics, machinists and others. We currently close hosptial beds because we can't find enough nurses, doctors, and support staff to pass health regulations. The average age of a nurse is 42, very few are entering the profession, and even less are staying.

I certainly don't have answers to any of the world issues. I do know that I had an amazingly joyful experience because I shared my early years with a neighbor from Spain, one from Germany, another from India, and one from Syria. Even being sick was great because it brought me wonderful concoctions of "chicken soup", all cooked in traditional ethnic ways. I remember feasting myself to sleep when I had the mumps for a week, it was heavenly. I have taught my children some of the games I learned, and songs we sang. They know the Canadian anthem in 4 languages. My life has been richer for my experience, and there is great wealth in having shared so much with so many.

Ceud mile failte!!!

( a hundred thousand welcomes)

ah yes irealand, it rocks very much. im watching leprechaun, its really a stupid movie but i mean come on just look at the title! why wouldnt i watch it? i really wish i were irish. look at all the stuff i named about it in my tags, i beat you even irish people cant do that! if i were irish i would be so proud of my heritige. lol. not that im not proud of it now. (italian, slovak, german, welsh, gypsy and a little bit of indian) you would think because im all that there could be just this little part of me thats irish..but noooo!!! oh well someday ill have the money to retrace my family tree for generations and generastions and find some irish in me, im telling you i really should be irish lol. yanno i even have 4 irish cds..including a christmas one!! lol

*kristen