Lyr Req: Causeway Crossing (Macdonald, Gillis)

Subject: Canso Causeway : Built for going away.
From: Frank Phillips
Date: 05 Jun 97 - 08:10 PM

Now that Isle St. Jean is linked by road to the mainland I'm trying to recall a song about another island being linked to Canada.

All I have is a fragment of the chorus. (I can't find it either in DT or via a search engine.)

"Its mainland rock and its mainland clay.
The ???? come but they don't ????? stay.
It was built for going away."

Frank Phillips

Subject: Lyr Add: CAUSEWAY CROSSING (Macdonald, Gillis)
From: ron k
Date: 05 Jun 97 - 08:55 PM

The song is from a show called The Rise And Follies Of Cape Breton Island about 1981 and I will try this from memory. It's a funny thing, last week when I was watching the news about the "flink" this song was going through my head constantly. I hope that PEI fares better than CBI did.


CAUSEWAY CROSSING
(by A. MacDonald & J. Gillis)

From where the sun rises to where the sun sets.
They leave this fair isle for the gold of the west
There's many a young heart that's filled with regret
For in seeking to find, they find something less.
So piper, pipe a lament sad and low
For on the 'Road to the Isles' the wrong way I go
Leaving behind me all that I know
The highland's high, and the lowland's low

CHORUS: The Canso Causeway's a wonder they say
But it's mainland rock and mainland clay
Many do come but they don't plan to stay
It was built for going away

As I cross the strait, a mile or so strand
I look to the woods, the dark timber stand
And deep in my heart, though I can't understand
Why I break my heart to find work with my hands
Oh, the Canso Causeway's a wonder they say
I wish it were sand covered over with clay
Then the water and weather will wear it away
And on Cape Breton Island forever I'd stay. CHORUS

Subject: RE: Canso Causeway : Built for going away.
From: Bob Landry
Date: 18 Jun 97 - 06:47 PM

The words to this song stir up memories of growing up on Isle Madame during the 50's and 60's.

Before the Causeway, we used to cross the Strait of Canso on the old car ferries from Port Hawkesbury to Mulgrave and back - the only link to North America. That's where I saw my first Volkswagen, the one with the plastic turn signal arms that came out of the pillar behind the front doors.

I attended the opening of the Canso Causeway as an 8-or 9-year old on the deck of a wooden dragger based in Petit de Grat (the "Dauntless Star" - if I remember correctly - which later caught fire at sea and sank). We sailed from a wharf in Port Hawkesbury and anchored near the Causeway to watch the festivities. It was sunny; I remember the pipers marching by but nothing else of the ceremony. I remember tying a pop bottle to some twine and hanging it over the side of the boat where it bounced in the waves until it smashed.

The Causeway was initially a two-way toll road. In later years, as a cost cutting measure, the toll booth going to the mainland was closed and the toll charged for going to Cape Breton was doubled. Symbolic, eh? Free to go away but it cost twice as much to go home.

Alas, as I grew up, my opportunities for careers or gainful employement were few, unless I was prepared to cut fish for a living, and we could see then that fish stocks were dwindling. So I went to St.F.X.U., got an education and went to Ontario. I've been away ever since.

You know what I miss most? the music. But DT allows me to rediscover some of the tunes that I grew up with. Thanks, Frank and Ron for this thread.

Bob

Subject: RE: Canso Causeway : Built for going away.
From: ron k
Date: 24 Jun 97 - 09:18 PM

How'syagoin'?

Always good to come across another Caper. As a further cost cutting measure, the political elite of our fair province has eliminated the other toll booth as well. (Wouldn't you know it, I had just bought tokens.) Now everyone just zips on by hardly noticing the Causeway at all. But they still have the piper on the Cape Breton side most of the summer, and it is a welcome site every time I cross that strand. Unfortunately, I'm usually in a hurry to see a client and can't stop and listen.

The Rise and Follies show has evolved into the Cape Breton Summertime Review and tours Ontario as well as points west of there. If you want some good music and comedy, check it out when it comes to your area. It always promotes some good young talent from CB, of which there seems to be no shortage.

If you want more info on whats goin' on, contact me either here or at

[e-mail]

and I will give you some interesting CB links.