The people in Digby are friendly. They are unfailingly polite. And they like to talk. Everyone you meet greets you with a smile and Hello.
“And where are you from?”
“New Jersey.”
“New Jersey, eh? Well you’ve come a long way then.” One of the boat captains stationed at the wharf.
“Yes we have. Been driving for three days.”
“And what have you seen on your long trip?”
“Axe murderers!” Michael.
“What’s that then?”
“He meant chainsaws. He saw some men working with chainsaws.”
“Oh, you don’t say. Well, that’s a sad story, you know. I mean, those men used to work for the timber company. But those jobs are gone now. To Alberta and Saskatchewan. Course the people all stayed. And there’s not much for them to do, eh? ‘Cept fiddle around with chainsaws. Chop wood. They could join us on the boat. There’s work there, eh. But some of these men, they don’t like the water.”

Everyone in Digby seems to work on the water or at our hotel (or is out of work, fiddling with chainsaws). Digby is just as you imagined: full of working scallop vessels in the harbor, shorefront restaurants, and a picturesque Main Street with a used bookstore and, yes, a Chinese restaurant (I went in and the man who owns it speaks French -- go figure). Digby has the largest scallop fleet in the world, so if you are eating scallops and they are from the sea there’s a very good chance they had their origins not far from this harbor, in the northern Bay of Fundy, which is great body of water for mollusks and mink whales and seals, less so for people and their cars on large catamarans.

Digby, however, is not without problems. A headline from the local paper reads: “Doctor shortage disrupts Digby ER.” Digby has a hospital without a functioning emergency room because they can’t find anyone to staff it. This is a big story in and out of town, having made both the local news as well as CTV and CBC. “The emergency department at Digby General Hospital is closed today because of a shortage of doctors, says the South West Nova district health authority.” I mention this to some people at the hotel and they do not seem terribly concerned.
“Closed, eh?”
“Yes. Says so right here on page one of the paper.”
“Well, you know, it’s not where I’d go if something went wrong.”
“No?”
“No.”
“Where would you go?”
“Halifax.”
“Halifax is three hours away.”
“Well, if I had time I’d go to Halifax. If I was real sick I’d go to Yarmouth.”
“Yarmouth is an hour away.”
“Yes it is. But you can make it there in 45 minutes on a good day.”

Digby is lovely, but I’m thankful our stay here will be short. And franky: I wonder about all those men and their power saws. Do they realize how dire their situation would be if something were to go awry?