It’s what this shot doesn’t show that was the real highlight of the moment.

On Friday, I was at Skmaqn—Port-la-Joye—Fort Amherst National Historic Site on PEI. I was there to be interviewed on camera for a film about the history of the site.

The location selected to film my bit—which probably took 30 minutes—was a wooden folding chair located surprisingly close to the edge of sandstone cliff. Maybe a foot from the edge. The drop over the edge was perhaps 12 to 20 feet.

It was when I was first seated in that chair, that I took this shot.

I wouldn’t have been injured too badly had the chair collapsed—it was ocean below not rocks. The chair stayed where it was put, and I didn’t lean back at all. And the interview went well everyone said.

Had I been facing the other way, and seen how close I was to the edge, I might not have been able to find my words as well as I did.

The fellow seated on the left, with papers in his hand, is Jesse Francis. He and I are soon to release our second book, “Ancient Land, New Land”, which incidentally is about the same site where this filming took place.

Also noteworthy in the photo is the fellow on the far right. He was not dressed warmly enough for the seaside location, so Parks Canada’s Barb MacDonald went into the nearby visitor centre and found something for him to wear. Yup. It was a Compagnies franches justaucorps exactly like those worn at the Fortress of Louisbourg.

October is proving to be a busy time, thanks ultimately to scientists whose names we may never know.

I refer to those women and men working in labs in different parts of the world who came up so incredibly quickly vaccines that work on COVID-19. Millions of lives have been saved and millions more are getting something close to their former lives back.

In my case, over the next dozen days I will be on PEI appearing in a film about a national historic site (Skmaqn—Port-la-Joye—Fort Amherst), on stage at the Marigold Centre with The Lincolns reading excerpts from my book and then a few days later speaking to the Truro PROBUS club about that same book.

Meanwhile, the digital file for my next book, co-authored with Jesse Francis, has just been sent off to the printers.

Busy times, thanks to unknown scientists and to hundreds of millions of people who are getting vaccinated.

There comes a time … and for me that time is now.

It’s time to begin culling some of the many books and journals I have accumulated over the years.

If I have 500—and it could be a higher number—then I’m going to aim shrink that to 100. After all, I have lots of titles that have been sitting quietly for decades, waiting for someone to take them off their shelves.

Many are going to book-sale charities, like Women for Music who support Symphony Nova Scotia.

Others, those that contain my own articles on Louisbourg and other topics, like some of the ones pictured here, I will send to the Beaton Institute at Cape Breton University.

Somebody, someday might like to read the original paper versions, rather than the digital ones online.

After a 19-month delay caused by Covid-19, the Marigold Cultural Centre in Truro, Nova Scotia will soon be hosting a combined concert and book launch event. The Lincolns will be back on stage and my book, Kings of Friday Night: The Lincolns (Nimbus Publishing) will be ceremoniously released on October 17, 2021.

For details, please follow the link below.

Celebrating the Kings of Friday Night — Marigold Cultural Centre (marigoldcentre.ca)

Warren Perrin has asked me to post the following:

Historian and “Frenchie” Podcast host, Dr. Jason Theriot, is searching for a French-speaking Canadian/Acadian World War II veteran to be interviewed for a virtual event (live or pre-recorded) that will air during the week of Veteran’s Day (Nov. 11) in the United States. A French-speaking Cajun World War II veteran from Louisiana will participate in the program as well. The program, which seeks to honor the contributions of Francophone veterans from World War II, is being sponsored by the Consulate General of Canada. Please contact Dr. Jason Theriot at [email protected].

About a dozen musicians have played with The Lincolns over the years, including the many reunions.

Only two, drummer Rod Norrie and sax player Layne Francis, go all the way back to the beginning, circa 1959-60. The others who were part of the original five and then six-musician band are all gone.

That’s an incredible span for Rod and Layne, 62 years of playing with The Lincolns! Not all the time anymore, the way it once was. But nonetheless, it’s a remarkable record.

On October 17, at the Marigold Cultural Centre in Truro, Rod and Layne—and Don Muir, Barry Ryan, Phisch Fancy, Jack Lilly, Dawn Hatfield, Shirley Jackson, Glenn Irving and singer Paul Eisan of course—will get to play again on a stage as The Lincolns. The musical part of the show will be divided in three parts: music from the early ’60s with Rod on the drums; songs from the mid-60s with Glenn on drums and music from the late 60s with Jack taking over on drums.

Long live the Lincolns—and live music everywhere!