... we brought all the cows home and there was one cow we couldn't catch so, it had about a foot of snow, so my friend and I went out with a tractor and a truck and he got out in the middle of the field chasing the cow and it took after him. He dove underneath the tractor. He just made it under the tractor and I was up in the bush and he hollers at me. He says "Get out of there, Gordon, she's coming after you now."

Speaker: Chasing you, yeah. ... (Laughs) You just dive underneath something. You-know. I told the kids "Never go in the barn. I never want to see you in the barn." 'Cause I never knew when they go in the pen, eh, and then something would take after them. Interviewer: But the cattle got out lots of times.

They kind of thought you should just take to it naturally like a squirrel or-something, but I- I didn't, I didn't.

Like for some weird reason even though like my dad was take- like as my dad would say, taking the piss. Meaning you'd be make- be making fun.

Speaker: See, my dad wanted to be a farmer too, but he never- like all he worked was that demonstration farm for all his life. He was head teamster there Interviewer: A team? Speaker: A teamster. He looked after the horses.

Speaker: Not say it, but thinking, "Okay, how should I know you" and they'll say, "Oh, no, you would never talk to me 'cause- 'cause like you were one of the academics and I was a techy- Interviewer: Mm. Speaker: Or techer or an O-niner, we used to call them and which is totally out there because you think of it like you-know, the people from technology are to this day making a lot more money than I am...

Yeah, New-Zealand and Australia leaps and bounds ahead of us. Um, the States st-- slowly starting in the school system which is really- really, really cool too as well like that is where is should be.

And his uncle's were- two of his uncle's were killed in the mafia in the States.

Interviewer: Do they all say the same thing, like do most people plan to stay or at least come back? Speaker: Ah, well some people want to go and like go to the States and- ... And they want to go like far away and then some people don't even want to go to school, they just want to start working for the town and-

My parents would rent a tent-trailer, we never owned one and we'd go, um- we'd go two weeks every year and sometimes we'd take friends, like a friend with us- ... And so we would go down like though Southern-Ontario or into the States and- ... Camping different places, yeah.

So- and I used to go to obedience trials with them so we'd go like- we'd travel all over Ontario with that. Actually I travelled down into the States to do- so my parents knew- okay different culture totally from now too.

Anyway, so my parents- so they offered to my parents to take me to the States to travel through the States on two different years. I'm like thirteen, fourteen years old-

So my parents are sending me off to the States. So total Northern Ontario culture like everybody's your friend- ... And so they send me off to the States for like two weeks to go and train with. It was actually one of the top dog trainers in the United-States, but- so it's really cool, but I think of it now as a mom, I would never do that like just to this- ... Random strangers.

Speaker: "Remember (inc) ice-cream the best in northern Ontario," 'Cause we had have twelve and fourteen percent fat in it you-know. ... Instead of this ten percent stuff you have down- but people come from all over. ... People from the States.

And then the big ah in North-Temiskaming, just across the border here in Quebec, there's a big truck rodeo in August and that brings people from all over too. The States and all over and- yeah so there's a lot of people getting to know.

Don't ever knock the unions 'cause if it wasn't for union the- and they're trying to do it right now, they're trying to starve you into submission right now, those big shots. They're trying to destroy the unions down in the States there. They try to- they try to detr-- destroy it down in Sudbury, that last outfit that bought it.

You-know, took her- we went to Wonderland a couple times or- and but you-know apart from that- that- noth-- nothing to the States or overseas or-anything.

I got relatives down in Toronto I don't know about. I got relatives down in Windsor I still don't know about. And I got relative-- relatives in the States I've never even seen or heard about so I'm not a really family-ties kind-of guy 'cause ah most of my family just lives so far away that it's just impractical to see them all the time, you-know ...

Worked in mines over in the States before that and all over- his mother went to the States and so he was over there for a while I-guess. He wasn't very young when they got married so-

Dad was an under- underground worker at the mine (inc). ... In Cobalt, and Timmins and everywhere. Even in the States before we (inc) (laughs) existed.