50 years of serving Pictou County
It may be the homemade burgers or the fish and chips or the seafood platters that have kept the Ceilidh Drive-In going for half a century, but for the regular customers, owner and burger flipper Donna Murphy is part of the attraction.
“I like people. You might not know it from the way I talk to some of them but they make my day,” she said during a slow midafternoon stretch.
Recently, the Town of Stellarton recognized her 50 years in business, leading to a splash of media attention and a lot of good wishes.
“This is not really my kind of thing but it is nice to hear from people,” said the plain-spoken Murphy.
More than a few people have been heard from with Mayor Danny MacGillivray pointing out a photo of Murphy receiving her recognition becoming the most popular post on the Town of Stellarton’s website. As of early this week, more than 22,000 people had seen the post, adding 430 likes, 200 shares and a whole lot of comments.
Murphy, who still lives in the north end of New Glasgow where she grew up and enjoys playing bingo three times a week, has been behind the counter all that time but she was not the first Murphy in the door.
“Don O’Brien opened the drivein in 1966 and my sister Beth worked here for a short time. She mentioned they were looking for help so my mother came to work and I followed.”
She was still in high school when she started working there in 1968, back when a hamburger cost 75 cents.
“I was no scholar and I’d have been happy to leave school and come to work here full-time but my mother wasn’t having any of that so I had to finish high school.”
A few years after graduating high school, Murphy and her mother took over the business.
“It was open seven days a week and didn’t close until 2 a.m. so we fed cheeseburgers and milkshakes to every drunk in town. We had a few girls working with us and it was very busy.”
That was back when more garages, Homestretch Market and a cluster of other businesses operated at Blue Acres. And also before a variety of fast-food restaurants arrived.
“It was pretty much just us and the west-side drive-in serving hamburgers and fish and chips so if you didn’t want to go to a sitdown restaurant, you came to us.”
Through the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, Murphy employed two to three others but after that it has just been her. She does not open Sundays and closing at 7 p.m. gets her to bingo or her nephews’ hockey games. The original Ceilidh was attached to a truck garage and in 1982 the entire building was destroyed by fire.
“I was home ironing my smock to go to work when my mother got the call. I took off right away but I wasn’t expecting it to be all that serious. There’d been small fires before that didn’t amount to much but when I got to the bridge at Blue Acres traffic was blocked and the smoke was thick. The fire took everything but the shell of the building.”
For Murphy there was never any question of rebuilding because the drive-in was her livelihood.
“There was no insurance so I had to start from scratch. My father helped me shop around and we got a lot of equipment from the old Seahawk restaurant
that had operated down by the ferry terminal. I borrowed $30,000 to rebuild and restock.”
It was a big enough loan for a young woman entrepreneur and she ignored the repayment schedule set out by the lender.
“Every cent I made went back on the loan as fast as I made it and it was paid off in six months so that tells you business was still pretty good.”
These days her working day starts with the purchase of freshly ground beef at Sobeys and a stop at the bank if she needs change, then a visit to the wholesalers if she has to restock. When she has time, she drops in to Gram’s Place in Stellarton for toast and juice.
“I open up at 11, heat the grill and the fryer and make a fresh batch of coleslaw. Then I batter some fish and wait. I never know what the day will bring.”
It takes a bit of time to grill a freshly made all-meat burger so customers have to wait at the Ceilidh. Many linger at the counter making conversation when Murphy’s not too busy.
“If you can’t wait a few minutes you are in the wrong place. I know lots of people are in a hurry at lunch and supper so some folks call in their orders and I’m good with that.”
She counts NSCC and Aberdeen Hospital among phone-in customers but they are fewer than they used to be.
“Quite a few small businesses that used to buy from me are gone, like MacLachlans’ flower shop. When they’d get busy around Christmas time they’d call in their orders.”
Summer is the busiest season, Thursday is the busiest day of the week and the hamburger still tops the menu but it is harder to tell when customers will show up.
“I used to be busy from 11:30 on for a couple of hours, just like clockwork, but now it seems people eat at all hours.”
As if on cue, a customer walks in at 3:30 p.m. and asks for a hamburger platter.
Google has served up a few surprises to Murphy who has never advertised in her life.
“I’ve had tourists come in here, telling me they found me on Google. I’m not lying — I’ve had people from Ottawa and other parts of Ontario but I’ve also had people from Australia and Japan.”
Retirement is not on her immediate horizon.
“My health may let me down but otherwise when I get too slow people will stop coming and I’ll know it is time.”
Rosalie MacEachern is a Stellarton resident and freelance writer. She seeks out people who work behind the scenes on hobbies or jobs that they love the most. If you know someone you think she should profile in an upcoming article, she can be reached at rosaliemaceachern4@gmail.com.