I mean I know bluegrass was a little bit alive in Toronto but it's not- like you go to the States. It's nothing, nothing.

Those poor Nova-Scotians, those poor Newfies walking into this city. (makes sounds) But overall, Toronto's a very electric place for the reason that because everybody in their head thinks "Okay here 's-". I mean, why go to The-States because of the overrun- problem with, you-know, poverty and, I mean, it's here too. It's just not exemplified. It's not amplified. It' s not magnified like it is in The-States because they're under a lot of scrutiny. The-States is not a bad place. They're not bad people. ... They 've just- you-know, their government has made a lot of wrong decisions and they're under scrutiny for it. But come on, walking in The-States, nobody there is nice?

... now the nob-- nobility- 'cause this guy um spoke- he spoke American or Canadian with no accent whatsoever, he had come- he had been living in the-States, this Count-so-and-so and they came back and actually were- he's been um able to recoup the castles that his family has owned- had owned, and the artwork. They're actually starting to get that back from the Communists and that.

Yeah, I have no desire to visit the States at all. Um, I 've been to New-York on three occasions in the last few years with a dear friend. He was actually my best-friend and he died of a heart-attack and he was only fourty-four

... I 've never looked up the family ah history very much. Now dad did get a book done one time, ah a family-tree thing. Um, some outfit in the-States I think was putting it together and it was- I don't know, he spent some reasonable money on getting them to assemble this information about our family and there was a book about so big, paperback book put together ...

... you-know if you go to a small airport for customs you book ahead and the guy wants to know who all's in the plane, the registration of it and they're interested in social-insurance-numbers, you must have your passport, they wanna know what your business is in the-States and how long you're gonna be t-- they ask you about the same questions as crossing the border, but they are ah wanting to make sure that- that ah some terrorist type people would be not slipping through their fingers right?

I, I like Toronto in many ways. I fucking hate the-States. I hate the U-S, especially after Fahrenheit nine-eleven. If you haven't seen it go see it.

... and you-know, you-know but I still wouldn't wanna live down in the-States you-know. ... And I don't know that I'd wanna live in any other city in Canada. I'd like to visit but I like that we're so close to everything and I like that we have everything we could want here.

I-mean when they talk about the-States being this land of you-know opportunity and all that shit, I don't think so. I think it's Canada and we 've only been our own country for thirty years you-know, forty years since the sixties so I-mean I wouldn't wanna live anywhere- anywhere else.

I'd like to be able to go to the-States to make money but I wouldn't wanna live there.

We've had a little boy who came up from the States and he said he just noticed a big difference. He really thought the kids were great and the staff. So he's just noticed the behaviour was- was good. 'Cause it is. It's a lovely community here.

Yeah, I mean I- I guess like the- I didn't s-- I didn't see cocaine until I went to- got a job in the States and- and then it's just prevalent. But I knew guys that were doing it um, not really cocaine in high-school, I didn't really see that but

He wanted to- he wanted to get away, go to the new land of- I- think he- he was thinking about going to the States but it was a lot easier to get into Canada, and um, I think he just wanted a change, like in a- a sort of adventure and just- and he liked it here.

Interviewer: Right. Do you think it affected Toronto? Speaker: Yeah. I think it did. I think it did. Yeah I think that- I think that um, it certainly uh like- I think that it united you-know Canada and the States in an- even just symbolically you see like lots of American flags going and stuff like that, which isn't exactly the most popular thing to do in Canada.

... 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?"