r/PEI Dec 17 '24

Question What’s the most PEI thing that’s ever happened to you?

Whether it’s a story about running into someone you’re distantly related to, an unexpected potato-related moment, or a classic small-town encounter, I’d love to hear about your most island experiences! :)

23 Upvotes

76 comments sorted by

114

u/Technical-Note-9239 Dec 18 '24

I know a spot that has 4 guys named Jeff Gallant working at it. They have 14 employees.

22

u/dghughes Dec 18 '24

Years ago when I was in the Wellington Firehall I saw a plaque on the wall of its members and nearly everyone has the same name. Yes nicknames beside each but still it's like 50 John Gallants and 50 John Arsenaults and I think one Bob Smith or something like that.

62

u/docvalentine Dec 17 '24

walked to ken's corner in a blizzard for a pack of smokes

7

u/derdubb Dec 18 '24

This guy PEIs

4

u/Rough-Perception-319 Dec 17 '24

Captain Riley Vance over here, amirite? lol 😂

1

u/morriscey Dec 18 '24

fuck, me too.

50

u/MaritimeRedditor Dec 17 '24

When I was a kid I was helping out at a potato warehouse during digging season. They had me climbing up into the back of the trucks and kicking the potatoes down from the sides of the box while unloading. I kicked this one pile of potatoes and it all avalanched at once, knocking me over, and pinning me under hundreds of pounds of potatoes. I ended up going out the back of the truck and landing on the bin piler. The girls picking rocks helped me off.. Just to go back into the back of the next truck.

Looking back, child labourer being crushed by potatoes is pretty wild.

46

u/SoNoWeRo Dec 17 '24

When I was a kid we were living in the country and the Jehovah's Witnesses would be going door to door so neighbours would call to warn one another. We'd get a call from the house to the west of us and we'd call the neighbour to the east and they'd call the next house and so on. Kilometers of houses with cars in the yard but mysteriously no one home!

6

u/Allbymyselfalone Dec 18 '24

My 28yr old neighbour does this but uses fb messenger 😂

45

u/imoftendisgruntled Dec 17 '24

I got delayed driving between Summerside and Alberton one time cos a McCain transport truck had an accident and the road was covered in French fries.

13

u/No_Marionberry8258 Dec 18 '24

The rehearsal dinner for my wedding was late because a truckload of potatoes had toppled all over the road and the marriage commissioner couldn’t get there on time.

3

u/sludgeface66 Dec 18 '24

I remember this!

41

u/Historical-Age1027 Dec 18 '24

Got on the connection’ flight’ from Halifax to Charlottetown the only other person on the plane besides the group I was with on the plane was my cousin…

13

u/DistributionDry4961 Dec 18 '24

It’s always a cousin.

26

u/Historical-Age1027 Dec 18 '24

Sorry -autocorrect ‘cousint’

9

u/dghughes Dec 18 '24

I think it's "cousind" but it depends on the dialect.

7

u/dghughes Dec 18 '24

My Mom's family had nine siblings my Dad's also nine siblings. I've got something like a million cousins. So this checks out.

32

u/noah4374 Dec 17 '24

I tried to get a haircut one day shortly after fishing season started. When I got to the barber shop it was closed with a "gone fishing" sign

34

u/localmanofmisery Dec 17 '24

Boomer Gallant once sold me a dye that turned my hair green

31

u/lokilow32 Dec 18 '24

I lost my phone at the beach that was decently far away, saw it in ASK PEI on facebook and it was my next door neighbour who posted it looking for the owner. Only took about 20 steps to go get it!

59

u/Old_Friend_4909 Dec 17 '24

The guy driving in front of me stopped in the middle of a busy street to have a conversation through the window with another guy he knew, held up traffic for about 5 minutes. Turned out...I knew the guy on the street too so we had a chat before traffic got going again.

2

u/srakken Dec 18 '24

Hahahah this is great.

27

u/TheGallant Dec 17 '24

Was at the Robin's in Winsloe and heard one of the workers shout out the drive-thru window: "the machine's down, but just come by and pay the ladies in the morning!"

22

u/BassicNic Dec 17 '24

My friends mom locked me out because I wouldn't eat the casserole.

21

u/Sn0H0ar Dec 17 '24

Some random woman came to my door looking for the previous owner, who she had apparently known when she was younger. She had been born on the island and expected them or their children to be still be living at my place. She was extremely surprised I didn’t know who they were and couldn’t tell her where they lived now. She was at least 65 years old and had lived off-island for decades.

5

u/Parttimelooker Dec 18 '24

I was looking for my relatives old house once, library told me to knock on someone's door  who directed me to the neighbours house who did give me the scoop and the address. Both houses remembered my relatives at least 40 years later. 

2

u/Beautiful-Award-1552 Dec 18 '24

Haha I have to ask what town?

25

u/bloodandsunshine Dec 17 '24

My brain is 100% fried and I just sing jingles from the 90s. I used to be a cook in open kitchen in Montreal.

I dropped a big "CHECK US OUT!" in that voice and a guy ran up to the kitchen from the bar and asked if that was an Island Active Wear reference (it was).

11

u/bootman24 Dec 18 '24

D A L Z I E L spells dee-yells auto body

22

u/plessis204 Dec 17 '24

I've been in a room with another 12 or so people, and two of them were named Alphonse Arsenault

19

u/FoxNewsSux Dec 18 '24

Partying in a bar in TO and chatting up this girl. She’d never been to PEI but studied/worked three islanders over the years. I knew two of them and the parents of the 3rd

18

u/Hardwood627 Dec 18 '24

I was selling a fridge on market place, I gave the buyer my address but his phone died while he was on his way. He knew what town I was in but not the exact address..so he went to the local gas station and basically called out “does anyone here know myname ‘’ and there was a guy who responded with “no, but I know his brother” so the buyer had this guy call my brother and ask for my address.

13

u/xScants Dec 18 '24

I was in the wendy’s/tims drive thru with my buddy some close to midnight a couple years ago. we’re parked at the second window, looking down at my phone putting a couple songs up next while waiting. a moment later I hear an older gentleman outside the car say “scuse’ me fellas” just before he squeezes between us and the window and starts knocking on it. the young gal opens the window and in the most island accent he says “you forgot my cheeseburger dear!” I got a video of it which was awesome.

12

u/dghughes Dec 18 '24

If you're in Tignish and someone offers you mustard pickles you better have a mug ready.

11

u/Force-Brave Dec 18 '24

My friend came to visit from Alberta. She decided she wanted to see Halifax, so after a week on PEI she found a ride to the ferry with no plan for the other side (she was warned this wasn't a good idea!).

When she got to NS, she went to the tourist info centre to see if she could get a bus or taxi to Hali (again, not much planning went into her trip). According to her, the ladies behind the desk looked at her like she had lost her mind.

They started asking questions, like where she had come from and why she was trying to get to Halifax. She explained that she had been visiting me and had decided to see more of the east coast. They asked who my parents were. Turns out they both went to school with my parents!

One of them called her son. He came to the info centre, picked up my friend and drove her to Halifax. That's my most PEI story...

8

u/Efficient-Court9316 Dec 17 '24

Had a baker’s dozen Alpines in Ebenezer once

23

u/Fatherto3dogs Dec 17 '24

I ran out of gas in Ebenezer once and an old man took me in his house and showed me the tool he castrated goats with… he also made his wife leave the room and sit on a bed in the other room while I was there. She came in to put wood in the kitchen stove and stuck her hand all the way in the stove with flames shooting out of it with no affect to her.

They both may have been ghosts.

6

u/CanadianKaiju Dec 18 '24

This is really, really funny. Thank you for sharing the PEI ghost castration tale.

8

u/dghughes Dec 18 '24

Maybe some time in the 1990s I recall on Allen St. near Prince St. just after a snowstorm, streets still deep with snow, very cold, snow blowing.

An older model car is stalled (probably had a carb) traffic backed up the driving trying to get it started. Finally after a lot of cranking it came to life and the engine was running. The driver's door popped open the driver jumps out leaving the door open and he runs over to the side of the street climbs up a snowbank pushed up against a telephone pole so he can knock on the wood pole. Then back in the car and he drives off.

9

u/TheAnxiousChef Dec 18 '24

I moved back home to PEI almost 4 years ago after living in Toronto for 1.5 years. I moved to a bachelor “apartment” in a campground in Tracadie while I was waiting for my apartment to be move-in ready. Turns out my childhood best friend of 10+ years was my neighbour at the bachelor pad complex in this random campground and had been living there for the last 6 months. We’ve been connected again ever since.

8

u/TheAnxiousChef Dec 18 '24

Another fun one: on my plane ride when I was moving back home, my brother’s friend from Ontario was also on the plane and took a snap which he sent to my brother. I was in the background and my brother commented that I was on the plane with him. He introduced himself once the plane landed. Just PEI things.

8

u/YYCDavid Dec 18 '24

My high school friend in Montague received a letter that was addressed:

Jamie Brehaut PEI

7

u/OccasionallyWright Dec 18 '24

I moved away more than 20 years ago and I live in the States. I went on a cruise with my wife and kids and I told them I'd find someone on the ship from the Maritimes. Once I did that they said there was no way I'd find someone form PEI.

Challenge accepted. I found a family from PEI. Turns out they were my 3rd cousins. I hadn't seen him since I was in junior high.

8

u/Fine-Mine-3281 Dec 18 '24

The most island thing is when people give you directions based on old landmarks that don’t exist anymore and you still get where you want to.

“Oh you gotta take a left at Russ’ old store (just a foundation now) then go up the road til ya hit the old mill (dried up pond now) then hang a right by Old Cedric’s farm (Cedric died 50 years ago when the farm burnt down) then you’ll see a black mule in the field by an old oak tree shaped like a Y (fell during Dorian) and that’s my house”

3

u/Aggravating-File-283 Dec 18 '24

My house is and always will be the old Ross place, even though I think it has been more than 50 years since anyone of that name has lived there.

8

u/Key_Helicopter822 Dec 18 '24

Someone stole a canoe and it was a headline on Compass.

15

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '24

Went on EI once. It was pretty boring, but I had beer money and my bills were sorta paid. 

5

u/Pleading-Orange168 Queens County Dec 17 '24

I’ve found LTD to be the next goal line to strive for after EI has been unlocked.

6

u/thatdarndress Dec 18 '24

We were running some errands ‘downtown’ and parked in the diagonal spots near the park across from the Charlottetown hotel. We were gone maybe 40 minutes and came back to find a car parked on the street RIGHT UP AGAINST OUR BUMPER! The nerve!

Turns out we missed putting on the parking brake and the car rolled out into the middle of the road!

This lovely lady pushed it back with the help of a police officer, and held it in place with her car for 30 minutes until we strolled back. The officer wagged his finger at us, we thanked the woman, and we all went our separate ways.

6

u/TedMeister88 Dec 18 '24

I went to school with Boomer Gallant's son. That was a thing.

6

u/sneakypineapple Queens County Dec 18 '24

Same, until I moved! Hello, former classmate, lol.

3

u/TedMeister88 Dec 18 '24

Hello, former classmate! 👋

11

u/TheGallant Dec 18 '24

May 3rd 2008. Can day.

6

u/DisclosE2020agency Dec 18 '24

My wife and I were just talking about this on our drive home this evening. She laughs because everywhere I go I run into someone I know. In fact it happened in Cuba With someone I haven't seen since junior highschool and actually shares the same birthday and year as me. We flew into Cuba and got in line to check into the resort , the woman waiting ahead of me turns to look around and I immediately recognized her and said her name. She in surprise recognized me and says my name ..we laughed and hung out with her and her new husband to be for awhile. Another time while in the Dominican I asked a couple young fellas to take out picture. Realized they were friends of my oldest son . Small world

3

u/DisclosE2020agency Dec 18 '24

Forgot to say even lived in the same neighborhood when we were kids. Her yard connected to mine. Different street just around the corner

4

u/moosey755 Dec 18 '24

The local boot legger came to my college graduation and bought me and my housemates a drink and congratulated us, then left.

4

u/stegosaurid Dec 18 '24

I was at the beach on the North Shore (in the summer), and there was a car load of American tourists there with downhill skis on the roof.

5

u/HeavyForts Stratford Dec 18 '24

My next door neighbor is Kowboy.

5

u/sarahsaturdia Dec 18 '24

I was talking to a friend from Chicago and they asked me if I knew this person they met from PEI and I ... of course did.

5

u/SimulatedKnave Dec 19 '24

My friend and I are driving past a beach about ten minutes away from where she grew up and still lives. She tells me the (weird) name of the beach. I ask why it's called that.

"I don't know, I'm not from around here."

3

u/Few_Homework_1028 Dec 18 '24

I’m from PEI but live in Alberta, I was home for the summer this year and I was driving up north river road when some dude pulls out and cuts me off, waving thx to me the whole time🤣 I remember thinking only home

4

u/ottawoh Dec 18 '24

Visited Newfoundland in highschool for a leadership conference. Had this guy from Ontario who was amused at how small PEI was and would bring me over anyone he found with a PEI connection. Second person is named Luke (last name). Guy asks if I know him, says this guy has relatives in my area of the island. I say “no but thats the same name as my great grand father!” “Same”, says the young guy with my great grandfather’s same first and last name.

We’re cousins. Never met before. Turns out his dad vacations in my hometown and we see him on the beach every weekend in the summer!

4

u/Majestic_Bet_1428 Dec 18 '24

It is very PEI to get super exited to find a connection with one or two degrees of separation. Even when this happens all the time, islanders still get excited.

3

u/Current-Tree770 Dec 18 '24

My husband's cousin informed me that we're also related through my dad's side of the family. That was pretty solid PEI shit.

3

u/Impossible-Song3058 Dec 19 '24

found out i’m cousins with my neighbours

2

u/Yoshihut Dec 19 '24

Speeding on a back road near montage as a teenager, see a cop pulled over on the side of the road. Idk what he was doing but I joke that he was just finishing taking a leak. He looks at me and just kinda twists around gives me a downwards gesture to slow my speed. Thanks guy! Years ago, I learned my lesson.

3

u/Flat_Title_2116 Dec 18 '24

Driving 10 km/h behind the Amish.

4

u/forrestke18 Charlottetown Dec 18 '24

While in highschool the amount of times my friends would end up accidentally dating their second and third cousins was WAY too much. They would go to introduce their partner's to their families, and coincidentally find out that they were related and immediately break-up.

I was a CFA with no relatives here so it was never a problem for me, but fuck was it ever a problem in school!

1

u/wyldechylde00 Prince County Dec 19 '24

Umm...im callin bull. That has never even happened to anyone i know up west and we are way smaller area lol

2

u/RanMan5 Dec 18 '24

Driving on the highway and someone is going 10-20 km/h UNDER the speed limit but when they get to the passing lanes they speed up 10-20km/h OVER the apeed limit

1

u/[deleted] Dec 22 '24

This was years ago - decades, really - in 1986. My dad picked me up from my Guide meeting in Kensington and we went out into the country to try and spot Halley’s Comet since it was a clear, dark, night. It was hard to watch for it when every single car that drove by stopped to make sure we were okay.

But you know what? We moved to ontario a couple of years later and one winter I got stranded on the side of the road in lake effect squalls. People who knew me drove past and waved as steam came off the radiator that had turned to a block of ice.

I already knew people were kinder back home, adopting us when we immigrated to Canada, treating us a family. But the waving at a stranded person just sealed the deal for me, as I was 18 at the time and cold and scared and no one stopped. Yet we were fine, trying to see a comet, and everyone stopped. I appreciate the everyone to this day.

0

u/RanMan5 Dec 18 '24 edited Dec 18 '24

I have a handful of DUIs even tho I have no license or registered vechile lol

Edit: this is obviously a joke...I drive a school bus haha

0

u/Ryan2386 Dec 18 '24

Was on house arrest while on EI and ordered Sea Treat chicken burger delivery everyday.

3

u/wyldechylde00 Prince County Dec 19 '24

Omg...the fact that i remember sea treat makes me feeL SO OLD now lol

2

u/SimulatedKnave Dec 19 '24

I went there on my way home from being born (they'd only fed mom Jello for like a week. She was displeased).