And the ah- I was an avid reader, because ah, before the days of television and-that. Pretty well went through the limited book supply that ah, was there, so the teacher started bringing in books from her home library for me to access, and we also had a bookcase here that my parents kept well stocked with my dad's ah books ...

They had no other source of heat back in those days, before the railway came in and ah relied on a lot of firewood so this land that was just upstream from the town of Perth became a source and when my grandparents bought it, it was pretty well clear cut.

Interviewer: Was there a brothel? Speaker: (Laughs) Not that I know of, there was no brothel. But there were a number of apartment buildings associated with the original mills, and ah they've pretty well- the actually the cheese factory that was operated by my great-great grandfather Rich-Dale um was converted into an apartment building, and then in ah, the nineteen hundreds it was moved out and it's now a- a barn ...

My older brothers and my dad pretty-well took care of the dairy end of the farm, and I took care of the lighter end.

Like your dad pretty well did the l-- the final- shoeing of anybody that was shoeing horses.

iAnd my dad and, ah- and- and his brother had farms side by side, which (clears throat) my uncles- which would be my uncle now, his farm- his farm was the, ah- the original Farrington farm from pretty well back to the charter.

Interviewer: But the reason you de-horn them? Why would you de-horn them? Speaker: Oh, oh- ah, y-- you pretty well had to have cattle de-horned that were dairy cattle just for them to get in and out of the stanchion as well as to keep one from hurting the other. ... And, ah, whereas today the beef cattle seem to get along (laughs) a little better ...

Interviewer: What kind of meetings- were there- were there, like, farm association meetings? Ah- Speaker: Oh, pretty well everybody- ... Was on the same, ah, page, you-know? ... Political stuff was- I would say was pretty well left out. ... 'Cause all through them days, the whole country was blue. ... It never changed. And, ah, in them days they didn't believe it could ever change or would ever change 'cause why?

Back in them days when the creek just ran, nobody did no-- it was- the odd beaver dam showed up. The water used to pretty well pile up and then it would break- it would go around the corner of the beaver dam and then the beavers would be really busy and then somebody would trap the beaver and sell the pelt 'cause in them days they were worth something.

Cut wood. Fall the tree and skid it to the landing and land it back and pile it up. Pretty well all hand work but you did it all with horses.

Speaker: Fixing fences (inc). That- I was doing that after, pretty well I ah sold out. Interviewer: So when did you retire? Or have you retired?

Interviewer: Now I seem to remember hearing that ah, for hydro, you used your horses to- Speaker: Yes, I pull line to the hydro. And ah, ah quite a long piece too. With a team of horses and you pull the wire. At that time, the hydro poles went from farm to farm to farm. Interviewer: So when would this be? This would be in the fifties or the sixties? Speaker 2: Probably seventies.

Speaker 2: Quilts. Interviewer 1: Yeah. Speaker: That was another thing. They had ah- ladies had quilting bees every winter. Interviewer: Yeah. Okay. And- and you were talking about going into the store to buy things. Now folks I think made a lot of their own clothes. Speaker: Yes.

I would likely take them out and show them piles of zig-zagging stone in the bush. What used to be a field, the stones represent where the old crooked-rail fences were, where the farmers drew he stone off the field and piled them there and the fence has long rotted, the fields have grown back up in trees, and I would sit there and watch the revelation in their faces as they studied these things.

... it's all big motels now, at that time was hay field from the hay was up quite high so I went out in the field and tied them to an old rail fence and got them eating and ah, we didn't have a copy from deep and tried to talk to a lad- it was piles of transport pulling into- trying to hitch-hike a ride to London.

Well my grandfather was quite interested in politics. He was on- he was warden in nineteen-thirty-one. ...And ah- and my- my dad was- ... He was reeve of the township too. So it just came natural that I take a whack at it too, so (laughs)-

...he backed out of the council from reeve and he said he would if I'd run for reeve. But if I wasn't going to run, he wasn't going to quit. So I decided I'd run. He was going to quit anyway. And ah he'd been in there for fifteen or twenty years as reeve. So in eighty I run for reeve and I quit reeve in ninety-four and didn't run any elections.

Interviewer: Cliff you got- you were a councillor and then a reeve and a warden. What got you interested in- in- in being on council? Speaker 2 (Cliff): Well I wouldn't know for sure. Speaker 1: Your father, I think. Your father was reeve.

Speaker: Dad was only- forty and forty-one I think he was in council and he was the reeve in forty-one. Of course he come to Perth, the country council for a year.

And my grandfather, Freya's father- ... A reeve and warden twice in Lanark-County.