She was- she was born and raised on a farm but ah, she was um- had a fear of large animals. ... Ah, she looked after the hens and ev-- with no hydro, we had a cream separator. I don't know whether you are familiar with that. ... Oh okay, well ah, my mother um, after we got three or four cows milked, she'd come to the barn and she would crank the- the separator.

Interviewer: So then you would have- you would have been too young to know Second-World-War. Speaker: I remember, yes, ah, you-know I quite reme-- I can remember we had no hydro over here ah, but we had a radio hooked up to a car battery, scratchy old sound and um, my ah, my parents would listen to the, ah, C-F-R-B was- was going then and ah, ten-to-twelve, the news came on ...

... ah, Katie was helping me sort- sort through some things and she stopped and looked at me, she- "You know dad, you've come a long way in life. Ah, you were born in a frame house with no hydro, no plumbing. Now you live by yourself in a house with three bathrooms." (Laughs) I don't know whether that's progress or not.

That was another aspect of life. We also, over here ah, no hydro and because of the river there was what they called the (inc) hole over here. We cut ice- ... And we had an icehouse and we had a ice box in the house.

Speaker 2: We didn't have ah- the old house was- Speaker: The old- Speaker 2: Quaint. Didn't have indoor plumbing or-anything-like-that, so- Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Had hydro. Speaker 2: Hydro.

'Cause basically everybody heated either with wood or coal. Nobody heated with oil back then. There was no hydro heating or-any-of-that. So, that's another thing that has changed since I was a young gaffer was that you al-- you always had to carry wood and keep the wood box full.

No, nobody had hydro along here until- ... 'Til I was about nineteen. Ah then the neighbours all- all hooked up to the hydro here and Brent-Bernard and Alex-Roman's and that- there wasn't hydro in this area 'til I was about that age. Everybody hadn't- yeah we worked with the coal oil lamp.

Speaker: Yes, we grew up in a farm house. We had no hydro and no water and y-- (laughs)- Interviewer: Yeah what was that like? Speaker: Yeah- it was- you carry it in, you heat it all on the stove. Interviewer: The water?

Anyway. So she did very well, she raised ten of a family and- without the hydro, without water and- and-that it was hard work I'll tell you, but- then we had big gardens, a stew of strawberries in the summer you-know, preserving them all and (inc) big garden and put that away for the winter-

There are advantages to having a key you-know? ... I- I can sit here, use your hydro for the f-- tape (laughs).

I remember when we- once we got the freezer I remember a bunch of us getting together and cooking corn and freezing it. ... But that was after we got hydro in on the freezer.

Ah, and the drinking fountain was a pail of water (laughs) that you went out to the well and got (laughs). Ah, no running water. We didn't have a- I don't know how much they told you about that but we didn't have hydro on the farm. I think I was seven- ... When they put the hydro in-

Speaker: ... oh, I stepped through the ceiling, too. Interviewer: You stepped what? Speaker: Through the ceiling. Interviewer: How? What happened? Speaker: Well, there wasn't any, ah- of-course with not having any hydro, there wasn't any lights on upstairs. I think they had some kind-of a light- ... Rigged-up in the hallway because ah- at night, my neighbour, who was a cousin, and my dad um used to work on it. So, they were running wire upstairs and whatnot ...

Interviewer: So ah, what was it like growing up on a farm? Speaker: Well, it's different than today. Yeah, I grow up without hydro. Ah, nineteen-fifty-one we had hyd-- ... Nineteen-fifty-one we got hydro. Nineteen-fifty-one we got hyd-- just before you got married.

Speaker 2: We just thought we died and gone to heaven when dad moved the- the toilet into the woodshed. You didn't have to go in the snow. Speaker: See I- I was- while I was getting married before we had hydro um, at home, yeah, uh-huh. So no hydro at home.

Oh no, no hydro, no nothing. Two kids by this time.

He was a big millionnaire out there eh. So they had a- he always helped them out a bit. So Earl was- wanted to get the hydro in and ah and ah he was ah younger than my dad and older than me so, and ah anyway he was married and then that so, he wasn't speaking to the guy across so the road so there was no- no luck there.

So he had one payment left. And then after he was talking to him he got thinking "Well." He contacted them and they said "Oh you can just pay the interest and it'll be okay for another year." So then he went back to Earl and- so they put the hydro in.

See our- my uncle and aunt had the creamer in Cambridge and they'd get the wrappers for them from them and then she'd wrap it. I don't know, she'd keep it in the basement. It was cool, but there was no- 'till we got the hydro like there was no fr-- ah freezers or-anything. And ah she made her own soap, from this- when you kill the pigs and-stuff she'd save the- the fat in one-thing-or-another and- and made her-

Speaker: Heritage owns part of it and that's why we have to ah- well, we look after, it's been- we've heard that they're very impressed with the way it stays. It's- it's one of the few. You-see any church like that had usually had a hydro put in or- or um a heat but we do-- we don't, we've kept it. You-see thi-- the same way. Speaker 2: No utilities at all whatsoever.