When Flrst I Went to Caledonla When First I went to Caledonia I got loading at Number Three And I got boarding at Donald Norman's He had a daughter could make good tea And it was me and my brother Charlie The biggest shavers you e'er did see We're spearing eels in the month of April And starving slaves on Scataree I went to Norman's for a pair of brochan A pound of soap and a cake of tea But Norman said that he would not give them Till fish got plenty on Scataree So I went over to their big harbour Just on purpose for to see the spray I spied a maiden from Boulardrie over She seemed to me Iike the Oueen of May Now if I had pen from Pennsylvania And if I had paper of purest wllite And if I had ink of the rosy morning A true love note unto you I'd write But I wish I was on the deepest ocean As far from land as once I could be A sailing over the deepest ocean Where woman's love would not trouble me l'd lay my head to a cask of brandy And it's a dandy I do declare For when I'm drinking I'm seldom thinking How I can gain that young lady fair When first I went to Caledonia I got loading at Number Three And I got boarding at Donald Norman's He had a daughter could make good tea From Tony Cuffe When First I Went to Caledonia Iona Records 1988 A song from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia with a rather misleading title. "Caledonia" in this case, refers not to Scotland. but to the Caledonia Coal Mines in Glace Bay, and "Number Three" is one of the pits. Scataree is a small island just off the coast of Cape Breton, now uninhabited except for a lighthouse keeper and Boulardrie is one of the more fertile farming areas From the book "Songs and Stories of Deep Cove. Cape Breton" by Amby Thomas. AMMcD AMMcD oct97
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