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Pubnico, N.S.
Hello, my name is Marina d'Entremont. I'm from West Pubnico, was born in Lower West and then I moved in Upper West when I got married. And from my house in Upper West Pubnico, I look over the Pubnico harbour and on the other side is what we call the east side, East Pubnico and in between, we have all these islands and one of them, if you go further north is called l'île à Hucher and "hucher", of course, means to holler or scream. Therefore, it's there that this story from there that we get the story that I'm going to tell you. It was somewhere in the beginning of the 20th century, about 100 years ago, that these two young guys were complaining about Lent coming around, and at first there was Mardi Gras, which is the Tuesday before Lent, and they said "well you know, it's going to be difficult because we have to not eat too much and not do this and not do that so we've got to have a party", a "gros time" that they called in Acadia and so they decided to go to the île à Hucher and this island you could get to by walking there at low tide and there you could holler to the east side and give messages. So this is what they decided to do, so they went at low tide and they saw these two guys on the other side and they hollered and these were Amirault brothers. So they hollered "we're having a gros time, come on over and it's going to be tomorrow night, Tuesday night" and the two guys raised their hands. They had understood and they said "don't forget to bring your sisters" and they said "OK". So they started preparing. They got the girls to prepare the "râpé" pie, which is a local dish, and they were there working on Tuesday morning and getting ready for a "gros time". So all at once, there was a knock on the door they went to the door and there was the local pastor. Now at that time it wasn't very acceptable for these girls and these boys to have parties and dance and sing and everything else, so they didn't want to tell the priest what they were doing. Only, they said "well, we're having a few people over" and he looked and says "well, you have an awful lot of potatoes so it must be that you have quite a few people". So, they just didn't answer. Didn't want to lie to the priest, so the priest left and they said "it's a good thing he didn't know the whole story because he would have stayed here and watched us like grand-mère is going do, grandma is going to do". So it was time for the party and the boys were getting ready to get these sisters, these Amirault sisters. They were nice looking girls apparently. So anyway, they started watching to see these girls coming in. The party was going on and all at once they saw the boys coming in from the east side, they came in and said "here's the butter". They said "butter, what butter". "It's for the râpé pie". He says "where's your sisters". He says "you wanted the sisters, not the butter" and they said "yeah, oh boy". I guess the message went crooked and they said "well". They were very disappointed because you guys hadn't invited them and out through the door goes the two, go the two boys out to their row boat and away across, across the harbour they went to pick up the two girls. Now, whether they did find them or not we don't know.
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Title: Pubnico, N.S.
Description: Marina d'Entremont recounts a Mardi Gras celebration in the region of Pubnico, N.S.
Subjects: families; villages
Source: Connections Productions
Language: English
Date: 2007-02-19
Creator: Connections Productions
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