... a small town in Sicily, and literally, there's more of us here than there are over there through just population- like, everybody just left. Most of them came to Toronto. Maybe I- I'm just estimating. I think a good eighty to ninety percent. The rest did go to like, the States, New-York being prime- but not a lot, and I 'll get into why um, that was the reason. They were farmers, you-know?

... um- some of them had gone to military school, and they were so disillusioned by the war, and they had such a terrible time, and I didn't hear a lot of their stories, but they just couldn't face going back to the States, and so what they did was, they worked in these r-and-r places, um you-know ski instructors or uh, you-know whatever was going on, you-know working the dances and all of that for the soldiers, that would go there...

Interviewer: Right. Ah, what- what did y-- uh your kids do for a living? Speaker: Oh, I've got one who's a mathematician, he works down in the States for um the weather office and he also teaches in the high-school down there. This year he's teaching chemistry and ah, ah calculus.

... like it was bizarre like you- you never think- like you- you do fall into a false sense of security thinking that you're - you're gonna be alright you-know living in the States, living in North-America, but you're not- you're - you're no more safer, no matter where you are.

And then you realize, "Oh the lights are out there, the lights are out- wow this is really big," then you find out, "Oh this is in the States k-- Ontario," It's like "Whoa." And then, you-know you realize "Okay barbeque" and we went biking that night, we bi-- we went biking, just see what people are doing.

Interviewer: Alberta mm-mm Speaker: um British- Columbia, um then down in- in through the States. Um, where is she? Washington-D-C, um another- 'cause she gets some of the Canadian television right? So she wrote to my husband and said, you-know "Do you think we're family?"

And they had six children there. And uh, somewhere along the line, they went back and went to the States, and lived in the States for a while, in Virginia, and that includes their- the seventh child, that was her child from her first marriage. And I only know this because one of my cousins is going through all- a terrible try-- time to get- trace all of our history.

The older daughter stayed in the States because she was older and she married somebody in the States. But the other six came here and married here. All six of them- all five of them, one, one died. The five of them all married here and lived around.

No, Wellesley- Wellesley is uh, a private girl's school in the States.

Never String-Cheese, that was- that was- that was big, like I mean we never got up to that- but um who was that other one, there was another really big jam-band from the States that we opened for, I don't know, we used to play like all the Comfort-Zone shows so

Speaker: For them- I'm not a fan of the Americans anyway. I- I don't hate them but I- Interviewer: Well they can be interestingly ignorant. Speaker: But I- but I tolerate them. Okay? Um I don't like going to the- I, you-know, I go to The-States very rarely. We did the Florida schtick when we were kids.

So we go, C-N-N is on, we're watching, in disbelief. In dis-- it was just like "Nah that can't be. That can't be. That can't be." It was just like "It can't be." And then it became uh "Serves The-States right." You-know, they think they're the untouchables, they go into other people's countries and start dictating and you-know. That was a shame.

Speaker: Um just I guess our family members like everybody got together at the white house when my dad who's comes from a large family so his brothers and sisters come in from Nova-Scotia or other parts of Toronto where they lived. Or you-know family came up from the States and that. There'd be big musical evenings at the house.

Interviewer: Did it impact you, a lot of people had you-know, extended family there. Friends of family or Speaker: I don't have any relatives in the States so there wasn't a direct impact on me, but there was a little bit of fear in the days afterwards wondering if anything would happen in Canada.

... we didn't have a cottage 'til later, you-know, so yeah then most people, no, didn't- not where I grew up, they just sort-of you-know hung out or maybe went away mainly in March Break, you-know, down to the States, that kind of thing.

Interviewer: ... but the Americans versus the Canadians? How's the pace or like the people, I mean, are nice? Speaker: it's um, yeah I 've never- I 've always enjoyed it. I find the service is very good and, you-know I- I mean I- I like the States, I really do, I really do, I think they 're- the service is wonderful, you-know, they're consumer-driven and yeah, some of the areas are going at a fast pace but not all the- when you get out into the smaller towns, it's very nice too.

... I 've seen the one girl actually, I don't see them very much, I mean they don't move in the same circles I do, and the one girl actually went and lived in the-States with her husband, he was a doctor, and she's just come back.

Speaker: We do all over. All over the- we 've done Finland, we 've gone to Finland, we 've gone to Australia, we 've gone to all over the States, but primarily in Southern Ontario.

Well we- we were the first Arnetts in Toronto, um there was um, close on our heels, well no that's not true, I think there was an Arnett before us but was a um a black guy from the States who came up and took the name, um so uh, I'm pretty sure he was the first Arnett, um but we were here um in uh, one branch arrived in seventeen-ninety-nine, and the other branch arrived in eighteen-thirty-four ...

Interviewer: 'Cause it's only a Canadian word, chesterfield. Speaker: Oh really? Interviewer: Yes, it's an original Canadian word. Speaker: I knew they didn't use it in the States. That was my grandmother's. I'm sorry ah this was not my grandmother's, but that was.