Farewell to Nova Scotia: The Legacy of Helen Creighton in Petpeswick
Helen Creighton recording Mr. Grace Clergy, Freeman Young, Bernard Young at Petpeswick. Date: ca. 1951. Reference: Helen Creighton Nova Scotia Archives 1987-178 number 695.
In 1964, listeners tuning in to the popular CBC Halifax program, ‘Singalong Jubilee’ heard the Nova Scotia Song for the first time. Performed by show regular, Catherine McKinnon, the song quickly became a beloved tribute to the Atlantic coast sung the world round. Its story, however, begins some thirty years prior in the small rural village of Musquodoboit Harbour.
Famed folklorist Helen Creighton had travelled to the village and tothe inlet of Petpeswick to collect folksongs with her cohort, Doreen Senior. During her visit, Helen met with Petpeswick resident Mrs Dennis Greenough. She described their meeting in her journal, where she wrote: “...We often took picnics with us but this day in 1933 it was pouring rain and I believe we had our picnic in the car. Still we managed to get wet anyway, especially our feet, walking through the muddy road to the house…I hadn’t heard of Mrs. Greenough before, but she had heard of me because I had been down that way before…Mrs. Greenough said, ‘Why didn’t you bring your picnic in the house and have it here?’ Now, I don’t remember whether Miss Senior did or not, but I put my feet in the oven to get them warm and dry. While I was sitting there, Mrs. Greenough sang ‘The Nova Scotia Song’ for us. We liked it right away but at that time we weren’t overly enthused; we didn’t know then that the song was as special as it has now become.”
This past year, the Musquodoboit Harbour Railway Museum, in partnership with Helen’s friend and biographer Clary Croft, presented an exhibit to tell the story of the origins of the song, which were widely unknown in the community. At the exhibit opening, residents of the village filled the museum with song and heard Helen’s journal entries from her visits read aloud. The exhibit brought out rich community memories of Helen’s visits to the village, and a renewed sense of pride for this small East Coast fishing community.
Tegan Rowlings is the curator at the Musquodoboit Harbour Railway Museum, and Vice President of the Association of Nova Scotia Museums.
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