Speaker: Power back again. Four times and the load was off. So that's the way- and then the guy on the mow would be a hundred- there was one time my neighbour was- hired a couple of young guys. That's not that many, ah maybe might be twenty years ago now, and it was hotter than hell up there. And ah getting up in the mow was a steel roof, just to give you an idea of how hot it was up there. Now I never took a thermometer up.

Speaker: Horses, hooked them on and they'd pull out into the lane way and raise up the- Interviewer 1: (inc) Speaker: Hay thing. So and then- Interviewer 2: (inc) gate. Interviewer 1: (Laughs) Speaker: Gate and then my mom and dad was up in the mow and they would um, spread the hay around. Interviewer 2: It would swing into the mow. Speaker: And yeah, this would be a big heap so then they'd have to take the-

I don't maybe the horses wasn't even around there then, I'm not sure but I can remember they saw me at the top of the- the ladder that goes up to the hay mow, 'cause it h-- go-- the hay had got quite a bit here. I was k-- peaking over at the top. I gone up there by myself up the ladder (laughs).

Speaker: He helped a lot when we were going together. He- when they did the threshing and-that, he would make the stooks. Now I'm jumping all around to different things I-guess. He would um, help up in the mow and-that- and they were- I was on the straw stack I-guess. Interviewer: Yeah, well your dad used to put the grain in the barn and then thresh it-

Speaker: A hot humid days like we had here last week. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: (Non-lexical sound), I don't miss being in a hay mow. Interviewer: No (laughs). Speaker: (Laughs)

And there were Normal-Schools in Pete-- Peterborough, and Hamilton, and Toronto, and all throughout the province there was one. And you took a year's teacher training. And you got yourself a job. I was very fortunate and got a job in the city staff.

And ah that I helped in the store and I was going to Normal-School in Toronto but I came home on weekends to help of course.

Speaker 2: Yeah, we knew each other in high-school so then I-don't-know, we just- Speaker: Fifty-nine years. That's a long time. Speaker 2: Just decided- just decided after- after you were ah- after you were in ah Normal-School I-guess. Speaker: Teachers-college, yeah. Interviewer: Normal-school? Speaker: Yeah, they called it Normal-School then. Speaker 2: Beaverton-Normal-school they called it then, it is teachers-college now. In Normal-School is where she got her education. About that time we decided we'd get together and I guess we went together for about five years before we got married.

Or you became a teacher, which required you to attend a Normal-School. And there were Normals- for one year. Interviewer: Okay.

Speaker: Yeah, we knew each other in high-school so then I-don't-know, we just- Speaker 2: Fifty-nine years. That's a long time. Speaker: Just decided- just decided after- after you were ah- after you were in ah Normal-School I-guess. Speaker 2: Teachers-college, yeah. Interviewer: Normal-school? Speaker 2: Yeah, they called it Normal-School then. Speaker: Beaverton-Normal-school they called it then, it is teachers-college now. In Normal-School is where she got her education. About that time we decided we'd get together and I guess we went together for about five years before we got married.

Interviewer: So how did you guys meet? Speaker: How did I meet my first husband? Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: I've been married twice. I met my first husband through um orderlies at the hospital at Oshawa-General. Interviewer: What's that? I don't know what that means. Speaker: An orderly? Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Um, like male nurses.

... he was- hated authority and ah he learned- mind you, he's still not very ah submissive but he learned what he had to do. But he- oh he was so nervy. When he was out in- somewhere out west I think i-- wasn't (inc) he was working there and ah, I don't know if it was general- somebody high up was there and Jonah had had a few drinks and he went up to this general, he said, "I want your (inc)." (laughs)

Yeah, we just went around east. We just went down around and visit- we were down there a couple of times. My brother or my sister and brother-and-law and the kids and Jim and I went one year too. And then out west, we visited relatives out there. I have a brother in Saskatchewan. And ah, I have a brother-in-law and a sister-in-law in B-C. And ah, I was out to visit them and B-C I-guess is about six or seven years ago I-guess.

And I can remember the one oh- the one kid, he was a bit of a devil. Still is (laughs). ... I-mean he's out west now but ah we had a school reunion um last year and ah he was down ah I don't think he's changed that much and he's about seventy-six now or seventy-seven ...

... I remember them saying something about that my grandfather had had a brother out west out in- in ah ports of the prairies so when we were coming home ah from the west one trip we s-- camped at ports of the prairies so I went and looked it up on the phonebook and found two that their name was Walt and found them ...

So, then in the fall they had something called like a harvest excursion, and they had that going for quite a few years and there'd be- and again there was a real shortage of labour then too out west for the farms. And then the government would pay your way out, and you needed ten dollars to get back.

So his dad was a member of parliament, for- for out west, and a riding out west.

Interviewer: So then how did you end up as a farmer then, remember that story? You were saying you didn't want to be a farmer. Speaker: Oh well, yeah well I went out west that fall of nineteen-forty-five on the harvest excursion. And I- and for this day I don't know why. But I saw some different ways of doing things out there and ah- well I should tell you one funny story.

Actually my um- our second son went to school at Laurentian and then he was working for Neilson-Cadbury in the summer. And he went to an interview in Toronto and this lady persuaded him look for more- more opportunity out west that he should go out west.

She set out- she set at their wedding said "I went to Toronto and persuaded this nice young man to come out west and then- then I introduced him to my daughter and now he's my son-in-law (laughs)." ... So that was kind of cute.