Go-- going to the neighbours to get care packages. Yeah, another thing, our- our father- the cedar- the hydro poles for this line into this property here, up on Black-Lake, and brought them down, cedar poles, and we- we owned that- we owned that line, until they changed it, and for a while one time one broke off and they were going to charge me for it.

Interviewer: Now I seem to remember hearing that ah, for hydro, you used your horses to- Speaker: Yes, I pull line to the hydro. And ah, ah quite a long piece too. With a team of horses and you pull the wire. At that time, the hydro poles went from farm to farm to farm.

Oh, that was back when I was young. ... When I pulled the hydro wire. ... And they were putting the hydro line through or replacing wire or whatever your case may be, and they hired me to pull the wire with the team. And there's a great big row maybe miles away or so. And you- you pull the team through the fields.

But anyways ah, the hydro trucks started flocking in. They phoned one another. And it was an awful pedal to get that horse out of the mud. But when I got the horse out of the mud, they made me get a vet and check it was good and-all-that.

Yeah, I only done it for about one season, yeah. Then they took a notion to tear that all down and they moved it all out here. You see the enormous high hydro poles? The hydro poles at that time weren't that high. They just had just- had three pipes. They were always trying to stay just above the farmers who'd go into the laneway with a load of hay on a knot on the wire ...

But my dad worked- he- he- and- and I don't know if you knew that, but my dad worked for Hydro, years when- before, ah, and- and when- when the br-- drew the hydro up to Scotch-Line, my dad drew that hydro line up to Scotch-Line, past where Christian-Dempsey's up is, he drew that hydro line up there with old Jace and Dolly, the match team, and we lived at ah, at Noonan's, over here, and- and ah- and ah- ...

(inc) my dad- my dad drew the hydro out? ... That was in- in, ah, nineteen-forty-five.

Speaker: Oh yes, I remember dad, bringing in ice quite well. Interviewer: And that was not just for the cottages, but for you own home. Speaker: Oh, for our own home, forever, 'til the hydro went in, and I was in high-school when we got hydro. So they would go back, and had of course they had all the proper equipment, but they would cut the big hole and, then cut the blocks of ice, and-

Speaker: W-- w-- what year did the Scotch- what- what year did the hydro go up to Scotch-Line, nineteen-forty-six? 'Cause I remember we had no hydro -

And ah, so- you just- like, there was nothing wasted. There was nothing went- went into garbage or-anything. Ah- we used the newspapers to clean out the chimneys and the lamps, 'cause it was no hydro, and um…

We had the house- we had the house here all wired and everything, and my mom died on the fifth of February, wasn't it? Fifth of February, and the power was turned on in May, but Ed come down and put a generator on or something, and had hydro put, because the wake was here in the house.

And ah- but anyway, that's the way it was and the- you were very self-sufficient because I said when the ah hydro went off in the st-- the ice storm.

Interviewer: Tremendous change. How do you ref-- think about those changes? Speaker: Well, um, I just- I'm glad. For instance, like, I grew up without hydro. ... And without, ah, um, running water- ... Ah, bathrooms. Ah, but we were all the same. And that was fine. Well then, when we did get hydro, the excitement of getting the hydro and being able to come into a room and turn on the switch, there was a light. So I never thought of it as- I never felt poor or underprivileged by growing up on the farm without a lot of these things. And it never bothered me ...

... you could do just about anything with livestock fe-- everything from doctoring them to butchering them and um cutting them up and wrapping them and packing the meat in- originally in salt so that the meat wouldn't spoil until hydro came along. And in nineteen-forty-one or two in there someplace, ah I was five years old so it had to be forty-one, I started school in the Moss-School which was a mile north of our place.

Interviewer: (Laughs) When did you get ah indoor plumbing on the farm? Speaker: We- we didn't get hydro until nineteen-forty-eight, and I- I wan-- ah I- I can't help but mention this um, I remember the hydro guy an come down through our farm, I was heading for school one day, and they came down through the farm, three men with long handled shovels ...

Anyway ah, hydro came in forty-eight, um my dad, I consider him a very progressive guy, ah we had ah bathroom put in, um about the same time.

Ah, the milking machines came in ah- the hydro came up Scotch-line in forty-seven. And ah just before that we had a- a gas-powered ah vacuum pump and ah a battery ran the poll station on the machine. So ah we had that for a couple years before the hydro came up.

The ah- the stone mills, one, one is still standing and it's now a residence. It ah, was a flour mill, a grist mill I believe, and then converted into a hydroelectric ah when hydro come into play. There was also a three-storey woollen mill ah, between it and the, the bridge.

Glen-Tay actually had a street light before the town of Perth had hydro turned on. It was a street light at the end of the old wooden bridge apparently. ... And the hydro lines went through our farm property following the height of ground into the town of Perth. That's where the transmission lines were.

So very shortly after they got their- their new herd built to the point where they were back shipping milk again, hydro was coming. So, ah, hydro was put in I believe in fifty-four. I- I can't remember for sure but it was around nineteen-fifty-four.