Interviewer: Would all of these men you speak of um- be neighbours? Speaker: They were all neighbours, yes. And we usually had a hired man, because um, well Dad liked to be at home to do the chores. And then of course you had to go back whenever they were- Interviewer: Yes, return the favour.

Interviewer: Did you put anything over yourself to keep warm? Speaker: Oh yes we had big buffalos, big, big buffalos, made of all the goat skins. Interviewer: Mm. Speaker: And that you-know. And then in the bottom of the sleigh we d-- we probably put a- an old quilt or one of the horse blankets, or-something like you-know.

Speaker: ... my grandfather, in his day, he cleared his property with the oxen. It was in the oxen days, no horses anything. Interviewer: Ah, did you have any sort of thing like ah, that the horses pull? Didn't- you-know, one of these things that didn't have wheels? Speaker: ... How do you mean, no- Interviewer: Ah, well, some of the farmers, when- when they were clearing the land, they had this, ah- Speaker: Oh, a stumper. Why, no, they didn't have that.

Interviewer: Ah, the people you see most that- that you mix with socially, are they mostly friends or family, would you say? Speaker: That, ah, that- how do you mean now "and mix with", ah-? Interviewer: Like socially, rather than professionally as a barber, the people that you would-? Speaker: Oh, friends. Interviewer: I-don't-know, friends rather than family.

And we got a big snowstorm like that and a tree fell across the hydro line and of course we're out of power.

Oh, well, why, ah, we never- we never had a- had a refrigerator 'til in the forties. (laughs) In fact it was forty-two, I think, before hydro come through where we was.

Interviewer: Yeah, right, I guess, um- when did the power tools come in? Start to- Speaker: Ah, I think, ah, they, ah- they, ah- well, they come in gradually after, ah, hydro got to be the big thing, you-know? You remember way back hydro was just for lighting. Mostly for lighting then and began making all kinds of household utensils like electric stove. The old gas stove was in before the- before the, ah- the, ah, electric stove.

Ah, it, ah- certainly people were very happy and they, ah- they were very self-supporting. Now we depend on electricity and we depend on hydro, ah, for everything, eh?

Hens, and hens of course eat the grain whole. Geese and- These, ah- all these little power, ah, ah, plants now- water power have been absorbed by hydro if there was any size, you-know? And, ah, they, ah- even we say like little towns like Renfrew and Pembroke that had their own, ah, power plants for years, hydro has taken them over now in the last ten years so that we depend entirely on- on hydro.

... we depend entirely on- on hydro. If we had an atomic war today in the middle of the winter, what would happen? If, ah, they blasted out hydro in, ah, Ottawa here?

Oh yes, they- they- there was a- a great feeling of neighbourliness, you-know? You, ah, depended on your neighbour as much then as you do on hydro today. If anybody got sick it would- that's- if, ah, John-Simpson was sick, well then he couldn't cut his hay. Why, ah, well we would all go over maybe at church.

Speaker: I usually get a storm around summertime and- ... A light goes out I bring this down and have this ready. ... in event of hydro turned off, you-know. Interviewer: Yeah, yeah. How is that different from a lantern?

Yeah, I know it's a different name. She lives in it? ... Has she got the phone and hydro in there? ... And other fellow built a new house?

Hens, and hens of course eat the grain whole. Geese and- These, ah- all these little power, ah, ah, plants now- water power have been absorbed by hydro if there was any size, you-know? And, ah, they, ah- even we say like little towns like Renfrew and Pembroke that had their own, ah, power plants for years, hydro has taken them over now in the last ten years so that we depend entirely on- on hydro.

These, ah, prophecies, that, ah, God has told us in the Bible. And of course the people don't believe it now. They don't believe there's any hereafter nor nothing, after this. Once you die you're dead. I've been told that dozens of times. Well, I says, I can tell you something, tell them now, when you die you're not dead.

And my s-- son-in-law was coming with me that day, to go to- to cut- to help to cut the wood. And, ah, I got an awful pain, somewhere in the centre in me back. We were sitting on- or standing on this thing, and, um, I says, "I wish you'd come here and take the lines."

And it was getting late in the spring, and they wanted to get it out to the field, and the man was coming with the moveable saw, do-you-see, to cut it into lumber in the spring. And I says, "If you don't get at it and get it out, you'll not get it out and it will be spoiled next year if you leave it in the bush all winter." And I says, "If you can get a- another horse, and a pair of sleighs, and, ah, you have three horses," and, ah, there was one- the oldest one, they called, ah, Bill. A big grey horse. A dandy good horse, you-know, he'd do- he'd do anything for you.

And, ah, to come here, there's some disease coming out in the town. But, ah, they were going to vaccinate every child in town, in the- in the schools. Well I says, "Not if I can help it." I said to them, "Never vaccinate me nor my children, if I can stop it." Just like that.

Well, she says, "They went to school and were sent home." "Did you not go to see?" he says, quite angry. "Why, you didn't go?" "Well," she says, "Why did I need to go? I says I sent them and they sent them home, and they can't go back 'til they let them go back." "Well did you not go see down there- Marvin, not go to see, ah, what's wrong?"

So, well, I told Luke, "You should have asked! So you shouldn't do nothing- run with others- ah, people, 'til you see your father and mother to see what they have to say." And I says, "Do not pay no attention to what the other people says." So, I says, "I can't pity you at all," but I says, ah, "If the girls go, it's against their will, they can put up with what they got! They won't have my advice to it."