The Soggy Belly Boys

We're camped in Bathurst, New Brunswick for the Labor Day weekend.  While many know this, some of you may not know that Canada's Labour Day is the same weekend, so this is a holiday for everyone in our neighboring countries.

When we arrived, one of our new campground neighbors, Dave Tardiff, popped over and introduced himself, inviting us to join him, his wife Nancy, and some friends at their campfire.  How could we say no?

Dave Tardiff mentioned that he and some friends were going to be playing music at the local Union Hall today, Monday, September 3, 2018.  We were all ears, and said we would be coming over to hear them.

It turns out that our friend Dave and some other characters -- some of whom you'll meet later in this blog entry -- are members of a music group that calls themselves "The Soggy Belly Boys."  They even have their own banner:

The Union Hall is, more technically, the Bathurst Labor Union Association Hall, which one of the band members informed us is the last remaining labor union hall in New Brunswick.  It functions as a social club much like the Canadian Legion, Elks, etc., except that the public is always invited to pop in for refreshments, something to eat or whatever entertainment is on tap.

When we walked in, our friend Dave recognized us and told the crowd that his friends from South Dakota had arrived (this because our vehicles are registered in South Dakota -- license plates being an easy way to determine where RV'ers hail from).  We found opportunities to let people know that, in fact, we are from Pennsylvania, but no one held that against us.

After our unexpected introduction, the boys in the band broke into another song, we ordered our drinks, and we sat down to enjoy the show (our host Dave is the guitarist at the extreme right end of the band in the photo below):

We hadn't even finished listening to the first piece, when Norma Jean, the wife of Bernie, one of the band members, came in, reintroduced herself from our campfire on Saturday evening, and sat down with us.  It didn't take Norma Jean long to collect family and friends, so within half an hour we had a table full of raucous audience members.  At one point, Bernie took a break from performing and walked over.  It was Bernie's birthday, and the crowd sang to him.  We preserved the occasion with this photo of Bernie and Norma Jean: 

Norma Jean happened to have her ugly stick with her (if you don't remember what an ugly stick is, check out our blog entry from Newfoundland titled, "Newfoundland Screeching and Viking Yelling," wherein Kathy played an ugly stick with a Newfie band.  We were introduced to ugly sticks in Louisiana, where the Cajuns have continued that tradition, along with others, from their roots in Canadian Maritime Acadia.

Rock on, Kath!

We didn't get to meet all the band members, but another one was Dan, who plays the harmonica.  Between performances on stage, Dan sat with us and we compared tall tales and true stories.  Dan's brother Walter (who is also Bernie's brother) joined us.  We wanted a photo of all three brothers, but Bernie couldn't be pried away from the stage before Walter had to leave.  So we got this photo of two of the brothers, Walter on the left and Dan on the right:

Dan and his girlfriend also were patient enough to pose for a photo:

Walter has a unique story.  When he was younger, he happened to find an orphaned little raccoon in a railroad boxcar.  He thus named it, "Boxcar Willie."  Walter raised Willie, who became as affectionate and obedient to Walter as any puppy.  When Willie was an adult, Walter decided to release Willie into the wild, but Walter had some colorful stories about Willie's exploits.  Walter's wife dropped by for a bit before they left, and we had just enough time to chat briefly and get their photo, too:

The band's first set was a mix of country standards and traditional Maritime and Acadian music.  The second set was more R&B and rock'n'roll, so they had the crowd up and dancing, including ourselves:

We thought we couldn't have found a more appropriate way to celebrate Labour Day than with new friends in a labor union hall, remembering the important role that working men and women have played in the development of our two countries, and the sacrifices which have been made to guarantee safety standards and decent wages and benefits for those who actually get things done.

Happy Labor Day, all!