Getting the old gang back together

“My husband served as an officer and we were given severance packages. He was old enough to get a bridging pension so we were fortunate that one of us did. And a lot of people were retrained the last two or three years, but it was still a transition.”

After a 20-year absence, connections still run deep. Barbara Wood worked with Marine Atlantic ferries for 19 years.

When the ferry service ended, “We had to get back into society and find work,” she said. “Incomes changed. Households changed. It was a rough time to go through. “Now it’s nice that the bridge is here. It’s convenient. It’s just, at the time, it was hard to see down the road 20 years.”

The Marine Atlantic 20th Reunion will begin at Borden-Carleton Royal Canadian Legion at 6 p.m. Saturday, June 3. “We have a replica boat of one of the former ferries coming to the Legion. And there will be music and dancing Saturday evening,” said Wood. The reunion continues at the Marine Rail Historical Park at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 4.

This event is open to the public and will entail a ribboncutting and barbecue. The rain date is Sunday, June 11.

“In 1997, they did a monument for Marine Atlantic with all the names of the workers on bricks, and over the years it eroded, so they have redone the whole thing and the ribbon cutting will showcase the new bricks and plaque,” concluded Wood.