The South Shore and New England
When we were in New England last summer, we were happy with how far our dollar went at places like L.L. Bean's. It would go even further, now, and people are storming across the border to buy stuff.
That doesn't help our merchants, and the high dollar is working to cripple our primary producers, whose exports are paid for in money that is worth less than it used to be. Yet it is part of a tradition in this part of Canada, which sees New England as more than just neighbours.
When I was growing up, I listened at night to WKBW from Buffalo, one of my favourite disc jockeys being Dick Biondi. KB radio put out 50,000 watts of power and when it grew dark, could be heard clearly in my home town of Wolfville. It was a big part of the culture of the time. I still like the songs it broadcast then, and hear them occasionally on that great CBC program, Vinyl Tap.
The province's New England roots run deep. Just ask the people down in Barrington, where there was a victory parade last month when the Red Sox won the World Series. Liverpool was founded by settlers from New England who came in after the deportation of the Acadians. My own ancestors were Planters from Connecticut.
Countless numbers of young people from Nova Scotia have gone to New England for study or work, and many have made the reverse trip. Even today, a large percentage of our coastal properties are occupied by New Englanders.
A common excursion over a century ago in this area was to Boston. People from Caledonia or Liverpool would take the train to Bridgewater, switch for Middleton, and there take the train to Yarmouth. The line though the Valley was run by the Dominion Atlantic Railroad, which also owned a Boston steamer called the S.S. Prince Edward.
By the end of the 1800s, therefore, it was becoming easier for people to get to Boston. In 1899, the Bulletin in Bridgewater carried an article written by a Lunenburg traveller about modern travel, who said that to the uninitiated a trip to the New England States was a serious undertaking. It was only within the past 10 or 12 years, the writer said, that transportation companies adopted modern ideas.
A trip to Boston and back could be made in 50 hours, the writer said, whereas 10 years before the journey took eight days. He described his own journey to Boston and back, noting that he started with our own Central railroad, which had, for a small railway, commendable rolling stock. "The train service is not fast," he said, "but it is conducted with unfailing regularity."
He took the route across Nova Scotia to Middleton, where the DAR picked up the service, the trains comfortable and fast enough to make proper connections. "The steamers from Yarmouth to Boston and from Digby to St. John are models of marine architecture and very fast," he said. He also praised the Yarmouth Steamship Company, whose service was "splendid. The steamers are well patronized and everything conducive to comfort and pleasure religiously looked after."
He also said that one could take an all rail trip, after taking the ship from Digby to St. John. The traveller took the Canadian Pacific Railway from St. John to Vanceboro, Maine, and then the Maine Central to Portland, and the Boston and Maine Railway from there to Boston. He said the growth of travel demanded first class equipment, and that fine vestibuled trains ran both ways daily.
One might contrast the luxury of those steamers and trains to the ferry that now runs from Yarmouth to Bar Harbor and Portland, a vessel characterized by cafeteria food and the noise from one-armed bandit slot machines. There has in recent years been an attempt to get a ferry running between Shelburne and Boston, which has raised interest along the South Shore.
Even that idea is not new. A big effort to start such a service was made in May of 1936, with town councils along the South Shore adopting resolutions in favour of the plan. Lunenburg County MP J. J. Kinley was in favour, noting that it would be a good idea both from the tourist and business points of view. It was later said the distance from Shelburne to Boston was not much longer than from Yarmouth to Boston, 483 miles as opposed to 461 miles, and "what is that to fast-going passenger steamers?"
Our connections with New England are real, and they continue.
- Tom Sheppard can be reached at twsheppard@gmail.com
