Interviewer: What was- what was their house like? Was it different than your- your farm house? Speaker: Well, it was- they had hydro - ... And more- more conveniences than we had at home, yeah. ... It was nineteen- let me see, my daughter was born in forty-eight. That- we didn't get hydro to land-

By this time I was married and- yeah, in forty-eight when we got hydro.

Interviewer: In the- in the house before electricity, ah, was there an ice box or any- Speaker: Well, some people had it but we never had an ice box, no, we didn't have any- any refrigeration until we got hydro. And even after we got hydro, we didn't have a refrid-- the first refrigerator we got was second-hand but I was so thrilled just to have that.

... had an ice-storm down there too the year after or so when we had ours, 'cause she asked me how far I lived from Almonte and I said about twenty mile. Well she said the people that hooked up power on her street come from Almonte. ... Were fourteen days without power, ah- it wasn't too bad we had the wood stove, and we weren't too bad off for water. ... Fourteen days. The phone was back on before the hydro. The phone come back on about a day or so before the hydro.

... we actually lived on the seventh concession- in between the seventh and the eighth concession on ah, in Lanark-Township. And ah, we (inc) far, we weren't that far and there was no power, no hydro in there and with the telephone, but didn't have ah, didn't have hydro until, ah- I guess we left there in sixty-four, so when I was there till ten years there and then we-

interviewer: Larry, you were talking about hydro coming in, what have changed. Must have been the same with when the phone line came in. Speaker: Yeah I guess, like we always had a telephone at, ah, down on the farm that I remember. I don't know when- if it was- was there as long as I can remember. But, ah, hydro was just something that- again it was there and you turned a switch on took for granted and like it was, it was different in a sense when you- no, it was- it was lights ...

... if you happen to be the first person on scene, you're in command so you're you-know letting them know that you're in command and you're ah ah explaining what the situation is, like you're giving them an update and then you may need hydro, you may need O-P-P um, we do five-elevens so we get motorcycle accidents, sometimes we need the air a-- ambulance up there.

I remember when we- once we got the freezer I remember a bunch of us getting together and cooking corn and freezing it. ... But that was after we got hydro in on the freezer.

Ah, and the drinking fountain was a pail of water (laughs) that you went out to the well and got (laughs). Ah, no running water. We didn't have a- I don't know how much they told you about that but we didn't have hydro on the farm. I think I was seven- ... When they put the hydro in-

Speaker: ... oh, I stepped through the ceiling, too. Interviewer: You stepped what? Speaker: Through the ceiling. Interviewer: How? What happened? Speaker: Well, there wasn't any, ah- of-course with not having any hydro, there wasn't any lights on upstairs. I think they had some kind-of a light- ... Rigged-up in the hallway because ah- at night, my neighbour, who was a cousin, and my dad um used to work on it. So, they were running wire upstairs and whatnot ...

Interviewer: So ah, what was it like growing up on a farm? Speaker: Well, it's different than today. Yeah, I grow up without hydro. Ah, nineteen-fifty-one we had hyd-- ... Nineteen-fifty-one we got hydro. Nineteen-fifty-one we got hyd-- just before you got married.

Speaker 2: We just thought we died and gone to heaven when dad moved the- the toilet into the woodshed. You didn't have to go in the snow. Speaker: See I- I was- while I was getting married before we had hydro um, at home, yeah, uh-huh. So no hydro at home.

And ah so yeah by the time I was in school there was hydro there. ... Um and for those who complain about the cost of hydro, it was three cents a kilowatt-hour for the first so many and then two-and-a-half after. And it- when you think about it, if we're paying an average of maybe twenty cents a kilowatt-hour when you add in all the distribution charges and taxes and all the rest of it, I can't think of anything else that has increased by that little over the last sixty-five years. So that's why I figure hydro is still a pretty good bargain.

Interviewer: ... well you do have hydro, but you're trying to be as self-sufficient as you can here, aren't you? Speaker: Yeah but hydro I- I- looked at solar panels and batteries and I thought "No." ... It- it's just- it's not practical. ... Like maybe if I was twenty-five or thirty, but at this stage there's no way I'd recoup investing in solar powers ...

Oh no, no hydro, no nothing. Two kids by this time.

He was a big millionnaire out there eh. So they had a- he always helped them out a bit. So Earl was- wanted to get the hydro in and ah and ah he was ah younger than my dad and older than me so, and ah anyway he was married and then that so, he wasn't speaking to the guy across so the road so there was no- no luck there.

So he had one payment left. And then after he was talking to him he got thinking "Well." He contacted them and they said "Oh you can just pay the interest and it'll be okay for another year." So then he went back to Earl and- so they put the hydro in.

See our- my uncle and aunt had the creamer in Cambridge and they'd get the wrappers for them from them and then she'd wrap it. I don't know, she'd keep it in the basement. It was cool, but there was no- 'till we got the hydro like there was no fr-- ah freezers or-anything. And ah she made her own soap, from this- when you kill the pigs and-stuff she'd save the- the fat in one-thing-or-another and- and made her-

My dad went next door and forked manure for more than I- I think an-- more than a week to get all the manure. That's that farm. And when he was done, they handed him a radio. An old, used radio that they had had before they got hydro. And you see they had hydro by that time and we got that old radio. ... And a-- a-- actually it worked. It was an old battery radio.

Interviewer: So you didn't have hydro? Speaker: No. We didn't have hydro for, I-don't-know, sometime in the fifties I-guess.