Gannon Roaders getting together

Towners, Tobin Roaders and Sydney Miners beware

They proudly call themselves Gannon Roaders.

And through the years, its younger residents were known to enthusiastically defend their territory, which once stretched alongside the Trans-Canada Highway from the Marine Atlantic ferry terminal to the church in Little Bras d’Or.

“The Gannon Roaders got the reputation as rock-throwers and protecting their turf,” said Rose Parks-Theriault, who is organizing the first Gannon Road Reunion, which begins today with a meet-and-greet and children’s games at the Gannon Road ballfield (behind the old Gannon Road school) from 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

“When people would ask me where I was from, and I’d say the Gannon Road, they’d say ‘Oh, you’re one of those Gannon Roaders. We were scared to walk through there when we were younger,’ and that’s the reputation it had.”

But Parks-Theriault says Gannon Road is also a wonderful little community filled with kind and compassionate people who take care of their own. It made such an impression on her that she’s always considered herself a Gannon Roader, even though her family moved to Groves Point when she was nine, shortly after her father died.

“It was like one big huge family. We felt secure there,” said the 65-year-old who now lives in Main-a-Dieu. “We just had so much in common — the fathers working at either the mines or the wharf at the time, the mothers raising the big families. The hardship shaped their character but made them very, very special people. Nothing bothers them. They’re hard workers; they’ve been there, done that.”

Plenty of other people apparently feel the same way.

Parks-Theriault says her Proud to be a Gannon Roader page on Facebook is closing in on 1,000 members. And when

she posted about a possible reunion, the Gannon Roaders were on it like an encroaching Towner, Tobin Roader, or Sydney Miners.

As many as 400 people representing five generations of Gannon Roaders could show up for the reunion, which wraps up Sunday morning with a breakfast at the Georges River fire hall.

“There’s people here, they’ve flown home from all over, that haven’t seen each other in 50 and 60 years. It’s hard to say how many it will be — there’s so many people who have passed — but we’re hoping that it will be a big turnout.”

Parks-Theriault hopes the reunion will become an annual event, but she says that really depends on the interest and how smoothly things run.