there's some other games that people have talked about that people used to play like ah, what was the one where you ah- Interviewer: Crokinole. Speaker: Yes, crokinole, yeah. Yeah it was very popular years ago. And I think in Middleville they still play crokinole some. Yeah I think s-- Interviewer: Crokinole championships, tournament- Speaker: Yeah. Interviewer: In Middleville. Speaker: Yes, yeah. And they ah, they ah, play the- oh, now I can't think of the name but you it- they're playing with the balls on the grass now?

But we ah, we spent our childhood playing, particularly in the wintertime, playing all kinds of board games like crokinole and Chinese-checkers and Snakes-and-Ladders. And then we had a game called Authors I think.

And- and- and ah- and of- which gave us a, you-know, a who- it was like 'who wrote Little-Women.' Louis-Alcot. I-think. Stuff-like-that. And ah, so they were educational but also, you-know, playing crokinole and- and-stuff you practised your dexterity.

And then you-know it used to be- the doctors used to come out with- on a- on a horse- with a horse and cutter (laughs).

But he'd come- in the wintertime we lived way back above Clayton. Come with a horse and cutter. And s-- and wait 'til baby was born.

Speaker: It was a family affair (laughs). Interviewer: (inc) tell you a story about a horse and cutter. The- the neighbours that lived beside me when I was growing up, there was one daughter in the family.

So there'd be the odd horse on the road or a horse and cutter but we'd sleigh right on- right on the main road.

Yeah, it was, ah- oh, I remember one time, it was after they had, ah, switched the schools around and, um, my older brother- it was in the wintertime and he got the horse and cutter out. We had a cutter and he had a horse and he took the cutter and my younger sister and we went to school in the horse and cutter. And it was just something for fun, it was just- yeah, it was- it was really neat.

Interviewer: He'd make house calls, would he? Speaker: Yeah. Horse and cutter in the wintertime. Interviewer: Really? Speaker: Yeah, yeah. Interviewer: Isn't that- Speaker: You'd meet him out at the road because our road- we were back far met off the other road and you'd have to- you'd met there with the sleighs or-something, bring him in and take him back out and then way he go. Interviewer: Wow. Speaker: Of course if you had the horse cutter it was okay but sometimes it's- Interviewer: Yes. Yeah. Speaker: We he had the car in later years.

Interviewer: So people would come to his house to pick up the mail? Speaker: He delivered it with the horse and cutter, or the horse and buggy.

Interviewer: Well you must remember when you got your first car though. Speaker: First car? Yeah, yes I do. Um, there's a- a thirty-Plymouth. Had a round (inc) in the back. Not very good car. Interviewer: No? Speaker: No (laughs). Interviewer: (Laughs) Interviewer: (Laughs) Interviewer: How come? Speaker: Well I-don't-know, you had to b-- baby it every time you wanted to go some place. It wasn't a good car. But when I was married, I had a thirty- thirty-Chev- Interviewer: Yeah? Speaker: And it was a good one. Yeah, it was a dandy car. There was none much to it.

Interviewer: So where were you living when Richie arrived? Speaker: Um, a-- on Fourth-Avenue. Interviewer: In Ottawa? Speaker: Yes. Interviewer: Right downtown Ottawa? Speaker: Well, all of his aunts and uncles, they all lived in the Glebe. So- so we- yes and that was- that was just dandy.

Interviewer: So that was a job in- as a kid too? To go out and pick apples? And makes things in the fall- Speaker: Yeah but al-- also go out and pick wild strawberries. That was a dandy job. Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: Because wild strawberries are pretty small.

And I don't know if they have run out or if the deer keep it cropped down or what- like, there used to be patches, you go out and you find the patch of wild strawberries. Dandy big patch, nearly twice the size of this room and you just take the kid and- mum used to go and take the kids, we come back with a whole damn bunch of strawberries, lovely strawberries-

Interviewer: Tell me, do you have any stories about hunting? Speaker: I got a couple of dandies. Interviewer 2: (Laughs) Interviewer: Yeah? Speaker: Yeah. A nice deer, yeah.

I always kind of wanted to dicker around with furniture and I worked at ah Jergens for sixteen-and-a-half years in there.

I was born five days before Christmas in a bedroom off the kitchen in the farmhouse owned by my father, my grandfather before him, and also my great-grandfather. Growing up in the dirty-thirties, as they were called back then, I guess you could say we were poor.

Yeah. They must've had a disagreeance or-something.

And then we'd divvy them up and- and then the job was to clean them.

And I shot it here. And it went down and ah got up on its front feet and I had to put it out of misery of-course with two other shots in its neck. So I thought now you better dress it. Got my knife and I seen another one coming across the field, my own field, over a piece.