Thursday, 13 July — Whycocomagh

I woke up after 9h and peeked out at a grey day, definitely not one for photography and, with the trip home staring me in the face, not one I wanted to spend driving around on a dark day. I had breakfast in my room of tea, granola bars, and a dinner roll, as I worked on my reservations for the August trip now that enough information had become available. Plans made, I sent out e-mails requesting reservations for rooms for the dates I had chosen. I also looked into the ferry to PEI for tomorrow: the ferry is a two hour drive from Whycocomagh, so the 11h15, 13h, 14h45, 16h30, and 18h crossings were my choices; I decided to aim for the 13h and settle for the 14h45 if that one was full up by the time I got there. I then completed and posted the account for Sunday, 2 July—eleven days late!—and began working on the account for Monday, 3 July.

Later in the afternoon, I drove to Scotsville, where I had been invited to dinner at friends. We had a good visit and listened to some home recordings before a lovely roast beef dinner with dressing and mashed potatoes; a scrumptious broccoli salad, with strawberries and greens of various kinds including beet greens; melt-in-your-mouth biscuits; and butterscotch cream pie, which I couldn’t refuse. After more conversation, I left for the dance just before 20h.

The Strathlorne Scotsville Road is again in need of new yellow lines; after the construction a year ago, they were repainted, but have not been done this year and they are very faint; being a “local road” in the Nova Scotia classification, it has no white lane markings, so the yellow lines are especially crucial at night. On the other hand, Highway 19 was just repainted, with nice fresh yellow and white lines, at least from Inverness to Mabou, so maybe there is hope for the Strathlorne Scotsville Road.

I made it to Glencoe Mills about 20h40 and found a mostly empty hall, just the workers and the musicians and a few others, not enough dancers for a square set. Ian MacDougall on fiddle and Mac Morin on piano started playing jigs at 21h09 and tried again three more times (on the last of those tries, one couple was out dancing with their very young daughter) before the first square set took the floor at 21h27, danced by four couples in its first figure, eight in its second, and twelve in its third. The lively youth had arrived by its end. The second square set was fast to form: one huge group danced the first figure, broke into three groups for the second figure, and had twenty-four couples in its third figure. The third square set formed fairly quickly with two groups in the first figure, three in the second, and somewhere between twenty-six and thirty couples in the third figure (I kept getting different counts each time the dancers marched down the hall); the dance was well underway! Joe MacMaster on fiddle and Machaela Osowski (of New Brunswick) on piano relieved Ian and Mac for the fourth square set; the first jig set got only two couples out on the floor and Joe stopped playing; he resumed a couple of minutes later for another go and got a group of five couples, which grew into one large group, split into three for the second figure, and was danced by between twenty-six and twenty-nine couples in its third figure (again, inconsistent counts). Ian and Mac were back for the step dance sequence, which brought out Siobhan Beaton, Lewis MacLennan, Stephen MacLennan, Amanda MacDonald, a young lady unknown to me, and Sarah MacInnis (I think). Without any pause, the musicians began playing jigs and the fifth square set was again very slow to form, but got big enough for two groups in the first figure and, during the third figure, twenty-two couples marched down the hall. The dance ended at 0h09, having gone overtime. Wonderful music, played by two of my favourite musicians, and a great dance, my last of this trip.

It was a very brisk +7 (45) as I regained the car. The ride “down the mountain” was uneventful and I was back at the motel at 0h43 and in bed shortly thereafter.