And I developed agoraphobia at one point in my life. I was confined to my apartment. I had a hard time to- at night I could go out a little ways further. But during the day I couldn't even go to my mailbox. I lived like that for quite a few years.

... there wasn't very many cars in Haliburton. Ah I can't even remember how many there were. ... Yes yes there might have been three or four that I know of. So that's what- we thought that was quite a little ways to town. So we didn't come to town that much. And when we did, my dad would just hook up the sleighs and the- and they horses and ah- we only had one horse- and that's- that's a good memory I have.

... this is late fall. This is after the maples have turned. So it's probably late October and it's probably up around nineteen-sixty so I would be about nine and- and when your a little ways up that side hill, there is the farm house, there's the barn, you could see all the way, one mile to Maple-Lake.

So my father went and the doctor says, "oh it's only her second one it'll take quite a while." ... "Have a cup of tea." So he sat there and talked had a tea and then just walked up the r- road a little ways back to their house, and by time they got back, the baby was there alive and kicking.

o he phoned Miles and Miles come in and got me but dad really give- give them a sitting down about. "That's booze. Give him a drink of water that'd be good enough." Oh, no wasn't good enough.

Speaker: Lived in ah tents at forty below zero, had an operation in Mexico in the state of Wahaca, a mining operation down there, which we vacated because ah I guess they weren't exactly being above board if you want to call it that. Interviewer: What, on board? Speaker: above board. The people who were operating the mine in Mexico, eh? You-know, one for you, two for me sort-of-thing.

Oh yes, the trai-- tracks was right up alongside the canal, it was kind-of all abutment in the s-- n-- net-work, you-see.

I mean the water damage alone, uh it just washed houses away, and um, and ah there was a trailer park just north of Lakeshore Road, big trailer park, well the trailers were being washed down, they 'd come under the bridge, someone would get caught at the, you-know the big centre p-- uh abutment, be caught there for a while and then it finally get loose and go right out the river.

We could smoke but we used to then walk across the trestle of the ah train bridge underneath it where there was this four-inch ledge and it was about ah maybe forty-foot crossing but we were twenty-feet above the rocks. So we would hand-over-hand cross the bridge to the next abutment. I would never let my kids do some of the things that we did as a kid growing up in Beaverton.

And ah- I- I- I drove in and instead of putting on the- on the brake, I put on the- the gas, and I hit the abutment and damaged my brand new car.

Speaker: Yeah well a lot of them's from around here, in Ottawa. Interviewer: None from ah- from Toronto or- Speaker: Yes, there's- Interviewer: That's recent though I-think. Speaker: And take it- fr-- from down across the line here. They're over here, tourists in the summertime all up to that country. We cross here in the fall hunting. Way up through the- Interviewer: What- what do you mean across the line? Speaker: Ah in the States. ... With moose hunters an awful lot of us come over moose-hunting. Interviewer: Mm. What state are they- ? Speaker: W-- well it's states just along the border. New-York-State and down across.

Interviewer: And how long did you live in that neighbourhood? Speaker: I lived there for three years I think. Then we moved to five-Alexandra-Wood, which is few blocks north of there, um so I guess it's North-Toronto too. No, actually it was across the line in North-York. Um, and I lived there until I was fifteen. Then we moved to Forest-Hill-

Across the way was this great tract of property that went right down almost to Dundas-Street in fact the rectory is probably close to one hundred, the parish hall is getting on the same, I-guess.

I- I was born here in a house just across the way.

Mother sent us back and said that you go across to the one, the white house across the way to the store.

Apparently friends of ours here in Toronto- they were on their honeymoon and we didn 't even know they 'd gotten married, and here, they bumped into them and as they say, they- you stand on the square long enough, you 'll meet somebody that you know, and they met them and- and apparently their hotel was across the way from ours.

Well, yeah, the people whose farm we were on and then there was another couple s-- and their child staying across the way and yeah, yeah, you get to, you-know, chat and everything. It 's- it 's nice.

So it's kind-of- I got to be really close friends with him and then also there's another little girl who lived ah not exactly across but across the way and ah apparently when we first met each other, she was totally French, totally totally French, and I was completely English and so when we ended up um meeting up with each other, she was speaking French to me and I was speaking English to her, and we understood each other.

They had to go over by boat to where she lived across the way.

Well, he was but anyway, it turned out okay because- then we went across the way to another pub and ah the guy there h-- was new and- and didn't know any of the background that Tom could relate to.