As I noted in my main article this week (if you haven’t read it yet, you really must), spending a couple of days reading newspapers from 1984 was a trip. While the political spat at the heart of my story seemed entirely familiar, the world in which it was taking place seemed incredibly foreign—and I once lived in it.
I will confess right here that my research would have proceeded much more quickly (and I would probably have had time to write more this week) if I had been able to stay focused on my subject, the redevelopment of Charlotte Street, but I am congenitally incapable of that kind of focus.
Instead, I kept getting distracted by international news stories (“Andropov dead”), weird Hollywood briefs (Jeremy Irons’ first dream was apparently to be a veterinarian) and references to all-but forgotten local traditions (Puffin Dollars, anyone?).
Hoping that some of these things will be of interest to those who, like me, lived through the ’80s as well as those whose knowledge of the ’80s is based entirely on Stranger Things, I’ve put together a virtual scrapbook I’m labeling:
Not George Orwell’s 1984
Arrrrrghhhh, Matey!
From July 5 to July 10—coinciding with the Parade of Sail that saw over a dozen tall ships visit Sydney that summer—the Mayflower Mall hosted an “Ethnic Festival.”
Before you tell me that such an event could easily be held today simply by changing the name to “Multicultural Festival,” I would invite you have a look at the description of the “Ethnic Festival” that was published as part of a Mayflower Mall ad in the Post:
Leaving aside, however reluctantly, the Black Ethiopean, Gaelic (and Scottish) and Native Indian references, I’d like to focus on this notion of “Pirate” as an ethnicity. It’s a concept I have never before encountered and one I find hard to take seriously, perhaps because of the Mall’s decision to tap “Herbie the Pirate Clown” to represent it.
If you’re wondering what such a festival would look like, you’re in luck, because the Post sent a photographer:
I really feel, in this case, that that picture is worth 1,000 words.
I have nothing more to add.
Young fundraisers
I was struck repeatedly by the efforts being made to fundraise for a new Cape Breton Regional Hospital, although plans for such a facility had yet to be announced officially and the regional wouldn’t open until 1995.
One story recounted how school children were asked to contribute what they could based on their own fundraising initiatives:
Two Scotchtown youngsters ponied up an impressive $96 by way of—you guessed it—a pony ride. Another sold popcorn to her schoolmates to the tune of $4.00 cold cash.
One student raised money “Taking care of my dog and selling wood.” Most, said the Post, reported “Doin’ the dishes.”
The fundraising efforts were carried out over the course of a year at the end of which the school children of the area contributed—wait for it—$10,000 to the hospital fund.
Colonial Fridays
Planning for Sydney’s 1985 Bicentennial year was the subject of a great deal of coverage in 1984, but by far my favorite detail came from Between-the-Lines, the Post‘s Saturday gossip column:
The Bicentennial Committee will soon appeal to all merchants and other institutions in the city to have their staff dressed in period costume every Friday during 1985. Patterns may be obtained from the School of Crafts.
I cannot for the life of me remember whether any merchants or institutions—other than the City of Sydney, which kitted out the mayor and alderman in 1780s garb—took up this challenge, which would surely have cost them a pretty penny. But I really hope some of them did.
Colonial Fridays in downtown Sydney?
Vogue-ing
Back in 1984, Sydney had a Shadow Council, critiquing the doings of its actual council, and that year, the Shadow Council weighed in the question of a suitable Bicentennial Project for the city.
Whereas the actual council had plumped for Centre 200—which, at that point, was frequently referred to as a “convention center,” to have dining and meeting facilities attached to its 5,000-seat multipurpose arena—the Shadow Council preferred the second option suggested by the Bicentennial Committee—buying the Vogue Theatre on Charlotte Street for use as a “civic auditorium.”
Vogue Theatre, Sydney, NS.
I have no excuse for not remembering this proposal. I was a university student in 1984 and you’d think I would have paid some attention to happenings in my hometown but apparently, I was too wrapped up in my own very important doings to notice.
I did witness the ending to this story, though. Rather than being converted into a municipal asset, the Vogue was demolished and replaced by a bank.
No Concessions
The Parade of Sail, which lasted from 7-11 July 1984, got lots of coverage in the local daily—but really, who could resist? There are few things as photogenic as a Tall Ship, which you can tell even from this blurry reproduction of an old newspaper photo:
Colombian Tall Ship Gloria arriving in Sydney Harbour, 7 July 1984. (Source: Cape Breton Post, microfilm, CBU)
The Tall Ships came to Sydney from Quebec, where’d they’d helped celebrate that city’s 450th anniversary. When they left, five days later, they were led by the Bluenose in the titular “Parade of Sail” as they set off for Liverpool, England in a race for the Ports Canada Trophy.
It was an event from 1984 that I actually do remember, although I hadn’t remembered that organizers believed it had attracted over 100,000 visitors.
Unfortunately, as the Post later reported, few of these visitors spent the night—or much money—in Sydney. People who’d run concession stands at Sydport, where the vessels were docked, told the paper business had been “poor” and an item in the Between-the-Lines column noted that the local Shriners had “lost $2,500 on a lobster supper.”
Between-the-Lines followed that item up with this one:
Boy, do we get letters. Listen to this one: “My wife is about four feet, six inches. She was wanting to know if there were any short ships among those tall ships.”
(That shouldn’t be funny, and yet, I am laughing.)
Royalty
What was it with our Miss This and Queen That obsession in the ’80s?
I lost count of the photos of Miss [Enter Name of Municipality or Festival Here] because we had so freaking many of them. And as if having eight different Misses in pre-amalgamation Cape Breton County wasn’t enough, there was apparently a fad for choosing “Little Misses,” too.
Every school above the elementary level had a Winter Carnival Queen and that tradition persisted right up to the university level.
Miss Teen Cape Breton was a big deal, there was a Miss Sydney Bicentennial and when Vanessa Williams was dethroned as Miss America, the story made the front page of the Cape Breton Post—as did the follow-up story about Suzette Charles replacing her.
I haven’t done any sort of research to determine if the popularity of pageants really has waned locally, but I have to think it has because otherwise, I wouldn’t have reacted as strongly to these old photos. I mean, I reacted to them the same way I reacted to this:
