... we ah put the cream in a tub out there and pumped cold water just to cool it down, eh? And ah, so that's ah- get the milking done, put the cows out and chores done, then we in and Mom would be getting supper, if we didn't have it before. Sometimes we ate before we done the chores, but- and ah, my father, ah, if he were home, we might have supper before, but he didn't- chores wasn't his thing.

Interviewer: What about fishing, did you go fishing? Speaker: No, no we um- we um, dad was always, I think too busy on the farm and because he was milking and- and in those days, when we're growing up, he would eat supper first and then milk the cows after. When I started farming with him ah, full-time in nineteen-seventy-five, ah, then we switched and we would have finished, milked the cows and then we were done for the day, have supper and then we were done for the day. So your evenings were free.

Anyway, she took such a liking to us, we were there an hour. She invited us for a stay for supper, and we had drinks and coffee, and ah and wonderful ah-

Speaker 2: Yeah. But it was called a brick. (laughs) Speaker: Yeah, yeah. Of ice cream and- so that was- you-know, for supper that night, they'd, you-know, open it and cut it in slices and we each got our little slice of ice cream.

Speaker: So, you cooked a dinner at noon for these- Interviewer: I-- in the heat. Speaker: Thrashing men and you cooked another dinner at supper time for them. And you baked, you- you always fed them pies for dessert. And so my dad did that until the- the harvest was finished.

Interviewer: So your dinner would be fairly late, would it? Speaker: No, we learned to move fast. (laughs) Interviewer: (laughs) Speaker: If you were hungry, you moved. (laughs) Interviewer: Yeah, yeah. Interviewer 2: Or w-- or would you call it supper? Speaker: We called it supper. Interviewer: Supper. Right. Speaker: Dinner was at noon.

It was a big journey, yeah. They left here 'bout six in the morning. We'd be down there by shortly after nine or so, and we'd work 'til three or four. (inc) either take us to a restaurant or somewhere for- to give us our supper to come back home. There was a couple times there was a church just down from where she lived had supper so we went there for supper and ah, and she said they had an ice-storm down there too the year after or so when we had ours ...

When all that was done, we had- one of my aunt's gave us a television. The screen on the television wasn't bigger than that ... But you had to have your supper eat before you turned the television on or if you were watching television it was shut off while supper was going on.

... he invited somebody in for dinner one time and his wife was mad because she didn't know what to feed him. All that was in the house was a bag of rolled oats, Mum said that's what was given to him for- for supper that night.

... cellar with the furnace in it and you'd go down and put your pickles in there and-such. So you'd be called to- asked to- to go down for supper, to pick up something there- here, there, whatever. Um, but the tornadoes- yeah, we would go- go down to whose-ever basement- in this case we'd go to, ah, wait for the winds to die out and-that.

... you'd go out to play, we were all encouraged to play outside as my dad- my mom used to commonly say, "I think you need fresh air," which meant that we were going to get fresh air every single day. (laughs) But they- she had to drag us in at supper, drag us in. It was never a day that we didn't want to be out, whether it was snowing, making, um, igloos or-whatever, um, climbing trees in all the neighbours yards were- they were very accommodating.

Speaker: Oh, that was ideal because the- usually the ladies tried to see how much a young lad could eat. Interviewer: (laughs) So it was her responsibility if it was on the- her farm? To- Speaker: Yeah, whoever's farm it was then they'd have dinner and they they'd have supper. Interviewer: So dinner was- Interviewer 2: Yeah Interviewer: At noon time? Speaker: Yeah, yeah that was noon time, yeah.

Interviewer: Yeah, and so what kind of meals and kind of things would you, ah- Interviewer 2: Yeah, tell us about those meals. Speaker: Oh, there would be roast pork, roast chicken- Interviewer: Wow. Speaker: Turkey- that was just, ah, bigger than a- any, ah, community supper. Like there was- you couldn't have ate everything that was there.

Speaker: But it was still- like, every hundred acres had a farm. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: But there wasn't, you know, and- but most of them you'd thrash for a whole day and some of the bigger ones you'd actually have supper. And then there'd be maybe four or five loads of- wagon loads waiting so as soon as supper was over, then you'd go back out and pitch those off into the mill and that way then (inc) time to, ah, tear the mill down.

Speaker: Those rations were big, like there'd be (inc) tables twice the length of this one or more and there'd be like fifteen-sixteen people there to feed for dinner. Interviewer: Wow. That's amazing, yes. Speaker: And then the same, supper time it would be- do the same thing all over again.

Interviewer: Now once you got a couple pike or two, what would you do with them? Speaker: Oh, I'd bring them home and clean them and mother cook 'them up for supper. You-know, keep them for a day or so and we'd have fish for two days in a row. (laughs)

Speaker: New Year's was a big time. We seem to all go to a- an aunt of my mother's and we had greasy goose and duck for (laughs) supper. Lot's of food- Interviewer: Was that a tradition? Speaker: Yes it was. Interviewer: A wild duck? Speaker: Ah, no, oh no, raised- raised ducks.

When she was there because we got her- we- we had our own food at supper and- and we came home at noon so then she was gone, she went to Ottawa after that and I boarded with ah, same family for three years, I think Wallace family and then I boarded with another English lady and- what on earth was her name?

).Well, on a Sunday- well, especially at your place, people would always come to visit on Sunday, or we'd all go there for a Sunday dinner, eh? And at that time, it was breakfast, dinner and supper. Because the women mostly stayed at home, they didn't work out, and ah, you had your big meal at noon, because when you farmed, you were hungry by noon, eh? And then supper would just be leftovers or home-made soup or-something I-guess, eh?

Interviewer: Ah, did the fish come home f-- for supper then? Speaker: Yeah, if we got some, they'd come home for supper. But I could remember times you-know when we're fishing that- like the guy that went with me, he knew where the fish were apparently. We caught about dozen there one time in about ten minutes.