They used to get whiskey in the barrel from Montreal, up at the station here... . We’d divide it up. I’m going to tell you. [The] field up there — we hid it in the bushes there. And the big thresher come, covered it all over. And then it went down to about 10 below zero. And it froze it in the water.

And then we couldn’t get it till spring.

No Regrets

I voted Liberal when I was 17 years and a half old. I was in the army then, see. I’ll tell you how it happened. My father was standing at the poll at Belle River and I drove him over, and I had the uniform on, and Ben Compton was returning officer and Willie Martin was the secretary. I went in to see the poll, and I went to walk out and Ben Compton, he says, “Young man,” he says, “you’ve got a vote. You’ve got the King’s uniform on.” Well, I near dropped on the floor. I didn’t know how to vote or how to mark my ballot or anything, and they never told me. But I done it. That’ s the first vote. And I voted Liberal ever since, and I never regretted it. I worked for the government for nine years as road foreman too.

When [the Liberals] were in, it was marvellous. I never went to town to look for a job [from the government] that there was wanted done out in the country that I was ever turned down. The biggest job we had was down in Simon Stuart there. There was a 22—foot pile of sand on the road — the road wasn’t open to the shore. So they give me the job of having that done. I had Liberals and Conservatives and everything working there. And we spent two thousand dollars — we only got a thousand, but then I went to see them in there, Walter Jones1 and Dougald2 and Lou McMillan, and they give me another thousand. So they come down to see how we were getting along one day and we were pretty near done, but not quite. And old L.B. [McMillan] says, “You want another eight hundred dollars, Hughie, to fix it right?” So I thanked him and we did. We fixed it right.

This was one of the best polls on Prince Edward Island up here [in Melville] you know. That come out in the news not too long ago. [The Conservatives here] were great. That’s one thing I will tell you. They were great. If you went to [their] house — you know the way you go looking for votes - they’d tell you what they were going to vote and that was it. They said they were going to vote Conservative... . It all didn’t matter. We’d stop

1. Walter Jones was Premier of Prince Edward Island from 1943 to 1953. 2. Dougald MacKinnon, a Liberal member from the area.

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76 BELFAST PEOPLE