Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: Or else they would ah- if they were doing it by hand, they'd use a cradle. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: And ca-- they called it cradling the field. Interviewer: Oh! Like the actual cutting they'd call cradling did they? Speaker: Yes. Uh-huh. 'Cause they cut it with the cradle And there be somebody come along after it pretty well dried and ah bind it and make a stook out of it. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: And it would sit there for a few days. And then they'd come along with a wagon and draw it in.

Interviewer: Do you know um, much about the churning process? Exactly how did your mother make butter? Speaker: Well the- the- kept the cream- we had a cream can and they kept cream in there and it would settle on the top of this can and uh, the cream settled on the top. ... And the- the other milk would be in the bottom and there was a- a little tap on the bottom ...

Interviewer: After the um- after the sap was boiled, and ah, to make syrup, how was the syrup stored? Speaker: Oh, I really don't know. We- we used to get the five-gallon cream can of syrup, and Mother had all the bottles, she used to just have the bottles ready, and the man'd bring it down, he'd talk to my father and mother and bottle the syrup and then they'd put it in the storage.

Interviewer: Kingsmere is- is quite an interesting place. Speaker: Yes, mm-hm. Interviewer: Okay. I'm just going to ask you a few things about games you used to play. Um can you tell me anything about the games in the past? Speaker: We were crazy about games. We used to play um crokinole, and um almost the same, ch-- checkers. Interviewer: As a child- as a- as a little girl. Speaker: Yes, when we were growing up too we used to play. Interviewer: Did you play ah ah hide-and-seek? Speaker: Oh yes. And um musical chairs, that'd be another game we played.

Speaker: And then there was the back pad- but I don't know what that's called around. And then um- the tray- ah, no there was ah- another affair attached to the shafts, too. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Something that went around the horse's hindquarters? Speaker: Oh yes, the ah- ah- cruppers, I-think, went around the tail. Interviewer: Yes, yes. And what about the ah part that fastened underneath the horse's- Speaker: Ah no, that surcingle was used on a blanket, I don't know what the- I- I've forgotten it.

Oh, there would be cutters, ah, driving sleighs. Bobsleighs. Sloops.

Some people had buffalo ro-- they'd sit on them, they'd put one on the back of the cutter, on the seat, and sit on it, and then they'd have another over their knees.

Or you could put them in a- on the sleigh, like you could put that on a- on a cutter. You'd have to have a cutter to put that on.

But my father had a horse-and-buggy and then in the wintertime he had a cutter.

Speaker: But my father had a horse-and-buggy and then in the wintertime he had a cutter. With a, you-know, horse and used to drive in the wintertime with a a horse-and-cutter. Interviewer: Oh I see. Can you describe the cutter for me? I- I don't know what they look like. Speaker: Cutter? Interviewer: Yes. Speaker: Yeah, no I could hardly explain- you've seen a buggy of course? Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Well a cutter wasn't ah altogether like a buggy. It was more like um all in one piece you-know. There was a- a seat here you-know a place to put your feet. And then there was the ah- what's this they call- the shafts as they used to call it. You-know, kind-of shafts that they hitched the horse into it. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Speaker: And ah as I say, there- there was just like one piece. There was a seat where you dug in your (inc) you-know. You were very comfortable. Put your feet down here and you-know. And um this horse was attached to the- to the cutter. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: And the same way with the buggy. Of course there's buggies here yet but not very many but you've seen them, haven't you? Interviewer: Yes, I have. And ah- Speaker: I- I don't think- I have never seen a cutter here for a long time. Only in pictures.

And ah it was pretty cold. And when we'd go out in the cutter we used to have to bundle up and we used to have to- ah perhaps put bricks on the floor of the cutter. Heat them in the oven and wind them all around with flannel or-something, put them in the bottom of the cutter, keep our feet warm if we were going any distance.

Well, I don't know, they'd be on a cutter horse or-something, they wouldn't be on a saddle.

Interviewer: Yeah? What did you use in wintertime? Speaker: A cutter. Interviewer: Uh-huh. What was it like? Speaker: There's a big round- oh, fancy made, it'd stand about that high though, and the runners come to around like this, and way back, and this thing come back nearly to your breast, see?

No. It- well, in- in a buggy or a cutter there were shafts.

Interviewer: How would you keep warm in winter? Speaker: Pretty cold. We had a cutter ah w-- what they called a cutter.

We never had one of them. We had these sloops, and the frame sleigh and cutter.

Interviewer: And what did they use in the winter? Speaker: Sleigh. Or a cutter.

Speaker: Oh, the cutters. Interviewer: Yes. Speaker: The cutters were single and the sleighs were like bringing grain into- have it ground- ground into flower and- and feed for the- for the pigs-

It was about a mile to the little country school and uh, then once the snow came, my mother drove us in a horse and cutter (laughs).

I sat on the um, floor of the cutter and my sister always sat with my mother and we just jumped right back in again.