For many reasons, among them overfishing, pollution, lack of local government control, and our general economic structure, the small-time fishermen, the jack of all coastal fishing trades, is in danger of extinction. His credit may be good, but his creditors are caught in the squeeze too, so after awhile he can't maintain his boat or his gear, and then he can't pay his taxes on the suddenly valuable land that his family has owned for so many generations. And so he leaves the fishing and he goes. To Florida, to the West Coast, to the cities.
But, in going, he takes with him a way of thinking, a way of living, the value of which to the world can never be measured or replaced.
When the wind's away and the wave away
That crazy old fool will go down the bay
Dodging ledges and setting his gear
And come back when the wind drives him in
But he knows full well the fishing is done
His credit's all gone and the winter is come
But as sure as the tide will rise and run
When the snow is down on the Western Bay
That fool will go running the Fiddler's Ground
Hauling his gear in the trough of the sea
As if he'd no mind of his own
His father's gone, and his brothers are gone
And still he goes down on the dark of the moon
Rowing the dory and setting the twine
And it won't even pay for his time
When the wind's away and the wave away
Our children go down on the morning sun
They go rowing their little boats out on the tide
And they'll follow their foolish old man
Well, you blind old fool, your children are gone
And you never would tell them the fishing was done
Their days were numbered the day they were born
The same as their foolish old man
Mrs. MacDonald's Lament is recorded on the albums Clear Away in the Morning, North Winds Clearing, and Peter Kagan and the Wind, and is also in the songbook Time and the Flying Snow