Joel Blau loves taking some barbecue out to his parents’ memorial bench near the Cape Forchu lighthouse in Yarmouth and watching the CAT ferry come in from the distance.
Blau started visiting Yarmouth in 1948, every summer. He was born and raised in the United States and despite rising tension between our two countries, he has no plans to stop. That’s 76 summers and counting.
“I am an American. Sometimes, like now, with more regrets than others, but I am an American, and I love Canada. I love Nova Scotia,” he said.
“I’ve sometimes thought, you know, as things have gotten more and more unpleasant in the states, that perhaps we should consider moving. In some ways, that’s still on the table, but I don’t think we’ve quite reached that point yet.”
At 80 years old, Blau has only missed two summers in Yarmouth, once when his sister was born in 1954, and once when Canada closed its border during the COVID-19 pandemic.
His house in Sanford, along the coast and slightly north of Yarmouth, is quiet and peaceful, he said. He lives there with his wife of 36 years, Sandra Baron. They’re here from the first time the CAT ferry sets sail every season, and they leave for Bar Harbour on the last boat in the fall.
He loves Yarmouth for “the land, the sea and the people.” It’s also the total opposite from Brooklyn, where he lives outside of the summer season. Gardening, watching the ocean, seeing people and relaxing, it’s “wonderfully refreshing,” he said. Although his neighbourhood in Brooklyn is a modest size, because there aren’t many tall buildings, it’s still bustling and busy.
Parents moved from California
His parents lived in California but decided to move in 1962 to live here year-round in a home on the road to the lighthouse.
Both his parents died in the 90s, and about 6 years year ago, Blau bought a memorial bench looking out over the harbour.
“It seems like the perfect place to memorialize them.”
It’s strange, he said, that they owned the house for 35 years, and it’s been 35 years since they sold it, but he still slows down when he drives past their old house.
“I think it’s true for a lot of people. If your parents stayed in one place for a while, there is some childhood home that has the greatest emotional resonance. And, you know, it’s something that sticks with you,” he said.
Former professor of social policy
Blau is a retired professor of social policy from Stony Brook University in New York state. He worked there for 30 years and has since retired from running the doctoral program. He teaches one course in the fall of every year at the City University of New York Graduate Center.
But Blau isn’t shy about being American. Some of his American friends have put Canadian flags on their backpacks while travelling in Europe, but he hasn’t done that. He will explain very quickly, if someone asks, why he is very critical of the American government. He thinks Canada is better in some areas, and wishes the U.S. would get national health insurance, or free health care, for example.
He said U.S. President Donald Trump has deteriorated the relationship between our two countries a lot, but it’s “totally and completely unnecessary.”
“Donald Trump has promised to make America great again. I think his policies will actually accelerate its decline.”
He’s very happy that Canadians who used to travel to the United States are refusing to go, and that Mark Carney is standing up to Trump.
“As everybody knows, the only way to deal with a bully is to make him back down, and then you reveal him for the bully that he really is.”
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