William H.A. Willbond MSM, CD

DE GOOD OL’ ‘OCKEY GAME

Wen I was jus about sis ann
a lecole en Quebec
I ear about doze Canadiennes
bes ockey team, by heck!

An my bes fren, Marie Lasalle
tol me she could not be my pal
no longer could we run and play
because I was mow dzit hanglais

Den I run ome big tears I cry
an wen I ast my mudder, why?
she tol me I am not Hinglish
more better still, I yam Irish!

And wen I tol dat to Marie
she turn er ed, she look at me
if you are not Mow dzit Hinglish
den let me hear you talk Irish!

Pug man hone and bais mon que
dats Hirish and Francais
de meaning fer de boat of dem
is kiss my bum, dey says

Mon grande pie tol dat to me
wen I was only two or tree
It’s differen now not like it was
ce’st vrai we are boat quebecois

Marie and me we still are frens
boat of us still Canadiennes
It’s time to love, forget to hate
cause we don’t wish to seperate!

Maintenant je suis swacente sis ann
an I yam still a ockey fan
doze Habs dey don’t got any luck
jus like my team, doze bum Canucks!

In h’ottawa dey got de team
doze guys dare big an fas an mean
an now I tink it all depends?
Let’s see our Canucks beat doze Sens!

Author’s Note: Patois Hinglish was a language dat was spoke by de o’l time log drivers on the Gatineau River up the Pontiac an up the Maniwaki runs – dey were mostly Irish and French an a mixture of both, smattered with Native Indian words too – there were still a lot of the old lads around wen I was a wee boy and lived on a farm at what is now Camp Fortune or the Ottawa Ski Club near lac meech. In those days it was the Dunlop Farm. An axe was a hax for limb des arb youse gotta look and see regarde. doan chop yer toe, go a petit slow wen swing dat hax, den split dat block wid a liddle wack – Doze o’l lads actually spoke dat way and I remember getting the strap and repremanded by the nuns wen we moved to Ottawa when I went to school/church because my hinglish pronounciation was a wee bit screwed up. Dey doan talk patois hinglish dawn dere en h’ottawa moan petit gu! dats de lad ya gotta hire, he shovel merde in de cow byre – he ride de raft de cook’s bateau an dynamite doze log below – A local language and a real Canadian franglish bastardization dialect now gone the way of a lot of our lost Canadian culture!