Keswick — Rodney “Old Man” MacDonald had a farm, and on that farm he had a lot of animals. “Farming has always been my life; honestly I don’t really know much else,” he told The Manatee. “I’m an old man now, and since neither of my children have ever shown any interest in helping out or taking over the family business, life has been difficult of late.”
Rodney, who is the third generation of MacDonalds to own the farm, admits his embarrassment at the lack of payments. “It’s harder now than it’s ever been to keep up with the bills. There just wasn’t much I could do.”
The government bought out the farm 2 months ago, leaving MacDonald unemployed and out of his home for the first time in his life. Trying to keep in line with his proud New Brunswick roots, he hopped on the pogey train. “I filed for employment insurance, and then moved into an old house in downtown Fredericton with one of my oldest friends, John Gordon.”
Gordon was also a farmer. He had a dog and Bingo was his name. “Oh, I loved that little guy,” said MacDonald, reminiscing. “I’m used to the country life, and I tell you, even with the constant city traffic, I find it depressingly quiet out here. My days now mostly consist of watching the CBC and waiting for my EI cheques to arrive.”
Old MacDonald was a livestock farmer in Keswick his whole life. “On my farm I had some cows,” he said, recounting the constant clamour. “There was a ‘moo, moo,’ here and ‘moo, moo,’ there. Here a ‘moo,’ there a ‘moo,’ everywhere a ‘moo, moo’. Now though, now it’s just too quiet, and a man can only watch so many episodes of Murdoch Mysteries and Dragons’ Den before beginning to lose his mind. Money’s tight since my pogey cheques haven’t arrived yet, so I’ve been buying off-brand Kraft Dinner and single-ply toilet paper. Something’s gotta give.”
Despite all of this, MacDonald says he has no regrets. “It’s been tough since I lost my wife 5 years ago, but I think I’m finally starting to enjoy my forced retirement. The one thing I know for certain, though, is that I think less of the government now than I ever have before. Also, I hate EI — EI owes me back pay.”
He needs to get into the music industry – so long as he writes what he knows,