world are the main reason for one Halifax family building their

summer home here. The North Shore has the advantage over the South Shore, according to several summer residents, because the tide is

always in, and there is not that long walk to reach the water. One man came here on his honeymoon and liked it so well that he and his wife and family returned every year since, renting cottages until they

bought land and built their own. So, local people came for the day, with picnic meals, and were so

loath to leave for home in the evening, that they looked for some means of extending their stay — a piece of land to camp on, then maybe a cottage. In the same way, tourists sought some permanence here. Meeting with the local farmers, deals were made, parcels of land were bought, and the revolution from agriculture to tourism was under way.

Regrettably, it is impossible to include all the memories and anecdotes provided by our summer residents, but here are a few. Wyllie Allan remembered being taken, aged 4 or 5, to visit his great- uncle, “John McLaughlin” on a Sunday afternoon, after a thaw. His parents drove their sleigh down the Bay, the main road of winter travel hereabouts, and the horse broke through the ice several times, which terrified the little boy: I have never gotten over it yet. Later, Wyllie attended Stanhope School along with Watson Ross, Stanley Gill and Bill Heuland (Youland) with Louis Shaw as teacher. Later still, Wyllie and his wife operated Allandale Cottages. Louise Warren remembers driving out from Charlottetown by horse and buggy to visit “Uncle Jack” Warren at Seaside Inn, before her parents bought a lot from Mrs. James MacMillan in 1933 and built their cottage. In those days no-one ever locked their doors. One could easily pick a boat-full of oysters from the Bay, and lobsters were so plentiful that if one lowered a box or basket into the waters of Covehead Harbour, it could be pulled up with a number of lobsters in it ——- no need to bother with a trap.

Veda Lamont, younger sister of Mrs. Allie Mutch, had delightful memories of summer holidays at the Mutch cottage, with many young friends; they practically lived in or on the water, and had clam bakes, bonfires on the beach, and all sorts of fun. Bert Misener would take them deep sea fishing, and would leave gifts of live lobsters walking about on their porch, and once left a large codfish hanging from the clothesline. In those days it was quicker and better to row a boat down from the head of the Bay than to go by the dirt road along the shore; the dust from this road in summer was a great nuisance to nearby cottages.

Mrs. Allie Mutch (Elizabeth Lamont), who had the first summer cottage in Stanhope from 1928 until 1972, remembered the king but delightful walk from Covehead Harbour to Dalvay. You could walk all

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