Beaches

Back when I was young and lived in New Brunswick, we had a beach cottage near the Northumberland Strait, close to the Nova Scotia border.  I still dream about it a lot.  I remember how the beach had tiny clam holes and if you stamped your foot nearby a spurt of water would shoot out.

I'm not really into the beach scene.  Seaweed scares me when it comes in big clumps!  And I don't understand the obsession some people have with tanning. (It goes back to Coco Chanel in the 1920s.) But Atlantic Canada does have some nice beaches, like Cavendish Beach in PEI and Ingonish Beach in Cape Breton.  I think the "-gonish" ending comes from the Mi'kmaq Nation's word for beach. (There are also place names like Antigonish and Manawagonish.)

There's also a Parlee Beach near Shediac, New Brunswick.  I recall that in 1990 Milli Vanilli did a big concert there, and shortly afterward they were destroyed in a lip-syncing scandal.  The following year there was another concert there by the white rapper Vanilla Ice. (My sister said that white rapping should be banned, not because it's "appropriation" but because it's disgusting!) And Vanilla Ice soon became a has-been.  I came to the conclusion that playing Parlee Beach gives you bad luck...