But, no we didn't have any bathrooms and I remember reading by the lamp light. We didn't have hydro or- at first or-anything. I can remember being so scared when they put the hydro line in because I- (laughs) you-know, didn't know what this was all about (laughs).

You know as- everybody screams about high taxes but our own cost of living and our homes is- for fuel, hydro, for all the necessities to keep the place- ... Have certainly increased over the past number of years and those- those costs been- Brock Township in all honesty is probably one of the highest ah hydro users in- in ah the township.

... like we had three university- one in college, and the one in college, her grant, she paid it back in practically no time, didn't she? 'Cause she got a job at um Hydro, O-P-G in Pickering. And she's been there ever since. Thirty years she's been there. So yeah, and her grant was the smallest of any of the kids.

And I asked him where he wanted the load. He said, "Well, I wanted sitting here, close to the house as you can." I said, "Well, put your foot down where you want it." So he put his foot down and I says, "That's where you want the back of the load," and he says "Yeah, that's- I don't want it get too close in case it hits it."

Speaker: And so I- you-know, well one- it was penicillin I gave him. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: And when I pulled the needle out, the penicillin shot back out to the hole and I shoved my finger over the hole (laughs), I says, you-know, what else do you do? (Laughs). My finger wasn't sterilized or-anything-else. Interviewer: (Laughs) Speaker: The kid lived so that was (laughs)- that was all that mattered but I brought one of the needles home and my sister is a nurse and she just about died ...

It reminds me of me where I got these boxes with stuff in. He had a wooden box like this- today it'd be in a computer. With these, with these cards in it. He pulls out de Havilland's card. He says "What's that say?" I says "Don't send us anybody under twenty-one." So I says "I don't know b-- nothing about that. They hired me. And they know how old I am." So he said- he was mumbling and grumbling there and he gave me the stuff I needed and away I went.

Speaker: I remember hav-- getting my car stuck and ah went back to find it the next morning, all was sticking out was the- the snow bank was the ah arrow. Interviewer: The what? Speaker: Just the antenna on the ra-- radio antenna. Interviewer: (Laughs) Speaker: I says "It's here somewhere, we better be careful." (Laughs) Interviewer: What about um- Speaker: My dad ran on the- he was the foreman so we took the snow plough up to get it, but-

. If somebody died, there wasn't ah- there was no undertaker. They put the body in the ice-house. There was a huge- at that time they didn't have mechanically refrigeration on the train as like they do now. They used ice. So it was a huge ice house there. So they used to put the bodies over there until the undertaker came on the plane he used to fly in.

... I didn't work in there, but I- I knew- I was there when people died and that's- say, well we just stock them in the ice-house. That kept them cold. Oh, pneumonia, couple of people died of that. Medical help wasn't that great around there. There was a doctor in a hospital with about three beds in it. But ah, three or four beds. It was just a house. So things were pretty basic.

... I got electricity on the farm like ah I was eight when they put- the electricity had to come down the road that stopped at the farm up on the- just never got to our farm. And ah we used to have ah an ice house. And they used to come down and cut ice on the lake or on the- on the river. And they were blocks that would be, oh maybe eighteen inch a square and maybe two feet high. And you um covered them with sawdust.

But also have you ever heard of a- an ice house? Have you ever heard of an ice house? ... I'm sure you haven't. Well, there was an ice house behind our place because there was no refrigerators then. It- pe-- I don't know who was- be the fireman, that went out to Lake-Simcoe and got big chunks of ice?

An ice house 'cause you don't- you-know like you wouldn't have know about an ice house. No. Anyway there was a barn where blocks of ice were kept covered in sawdust for ice boxes, they've got no fridges, there weren't fridges there. And I've got treats.

Speaker: Yeah, that was our treat. ... And we'd go down on a Sunday nigh-- That's interesting, so you've learned about ice houses and that's our Sunday night treat. But the down watch the North- Interviewer: That was your second date. Speaker: (Laughs) Yeah. Second day. Go to watch the train come in.

And ah Joe- because he worked for Boris was going to do the excavating for the septic system, 'cause there wasn't a water or sewers then. And ah they got so muddy that they couldn't put the septic tank in so we were kitty-corner across the street from it and all winter I could look over the house and oh it was all finished inside and we couldn't move in (laughs).

And un-- ah we- as I told you we lived in this old house. And it belonged to Preston-Mackenzie. He lived four doors up from where we were and we p-- and I know Jake paid him six-dollars a month's rent (laughs). And a- a kitty-corner from us like on the corner of- of the (inc) and Main there was a- an inn called the Wayside-Inn.

Yeah. So he was- he was a little early and he was a little tiny but ah, he's a big- he's a big lad now.

I can remember the one lad, the other fellow I can't just remember. I can remember the lady, ah, Morgan-Waynes was our ah, calf club leader.

Speaker: At Easter time. Hill-Philson and I started Easter. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: So, yeah- and th-- then there was another- another lad started in May.

Tell you to back in the drive way and turn around and go back up and when I went to get my driver's test, he was coming back with a a lad. And he failed him.

So- so they ah- a little ah y-- young lad, s-- saw- saw me and lived ah- w-- there's a highway that went by and there was a house the other side and it was a y-- young lad saw me and I s-- I thought, God, I have no idea where- where we are in Germany.