And also I remember Marnie saying that ah, 'cause they had- she had a whole cupboard full of silver, whole- you can imagine she would- she hired a man to clean it. He got fed up cleaning it and he- he shellacked it. Interviewer: What's shellacking? Speaker: It's like a varn- a clear varnish type-of-thing. Interviewer: So he didn't have to polish it anymore, it will just ruin the value of the- Speaker: Absolutely, right.

When you were doing b-- when you were- when you got there by bus, you c-- you came home by bus and the buses left pretty much right after classes finished. So there were very- there was very little extracurricular. That was for the- the townies which we- a term we didn't know then but um- yeah, if you were from Lindsay or Fenelon-Falls, you- you- you participated in more sports but ah for the bus people, unless you had parents who would come and get you and I didn't and most people around here didn't.

That was for the- the townies which we- a term we didn't know then but um- yeah, if you were from Lindsay or Fenelon-Falls, you- you- you participated in more sports but ah for the bus people, unless you had parents who would come and get you and I didn't and most people around here didn't.

Speaker: Um, like there's enough of us, uh, in the neighbourhood. We- there was a- a swamp area. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: Ah, we'd go in in the fall and, um, tramp down the um- put on, ah, high rubber boots and go down- tramp down all the um- the um cat tails and so on- Interviewer: Oh, okay. Speaker: -so that we have um, a good skating area for the winter.

Speaker: Small farmers have a tough time surviving. They're tearing out all the fence shows for big equipment. You can see that happening yourself. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: And ah- and the price of land has gone up tremendously. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: I would say right now in this area, an acre of land is probably worth what this whole farm was back in the thirties.

Speaker: Eldon- Eldon township there's- all chopped up with- with ah railroads that went through here. There was one right down here. That's the one that came up through ah Markham, Stouffville and Uxbridge and went to Coboconk. Interviewer: Oh okay. Speaker: And then there was a turntable. And ah- and the quarry at Kirkfield you see that- they shipped everything on that line up until ah sixties I guess.

We used to walk and of course, you just ah picked up with the neighbours' kids as you walked away- along ah, and it was ah, you-know, we never- there was no locks or anything on the door, you just knocked on the door and walked in, ah type-thing ah.

A constant income with beef it's (laughs) either- you're either rags-to-riches type-thing (laughs).

And you phoned and they said, you-know, "Can you walk? Can you talk? You're hired!" type-thing because they're so short of teachers at that time.

And anyway I worked with a fellow- there was a separate school at Brekon, a rural- separate school. And he- his kids went there and he said, "Oh I like your attitude, I'm going to send my kids down to you next year" and I said, you-know "Oh ha-ha, yeah, you have another beer" type-thing (laughs)."

No, it's just basically a hang out type-thing.

Like, um, I've never been properly trained so when I got there, everything was kind of new ah, they even had to teach me how to properly walk a horse because when I started like they- they were like okay, here's your horse, get on type-thing

So that happened and then after that um, the aunt- they're really kind of useless kind of bums type-things and ah- I'd love to say their names but (laughs) I'm not going to, um, and they were walking up the road and they- they- they just like- they just turned their heads like this, they saw us driving down the road.

Um, well there's- my son Erving was accused of being on drugs but it was- he was driving a truck then and it was uppers or-whatever the heck you call it, I-don't-know. And the police came to the door and (sighs) they weren't very nice, they were R-C-M-P and then I called Joe who was, we had a janitorial business at that time and I called him at the bank and he came home and my sister- my daughter-in-law, my oldest daughter in-law was there.

Or w-- it wasn't plywood it was a wood, ah, veranda and by putting the binder twine up it made rooms for us and we made hammocks for the cats and dressed them and put them in there and- yeah.

It was the- the veranda that used to be around the house (clears throat) and they took it off so it was some of the floor of the veranda that we had pulled over amongst these trees.

She brought them in and you left your empty bottle out on the veranda with the money or a ticket, I forget which one it was and- yeah or tickets, I don't know.

Speaker 2: Oh I said ice-cream cones, we used to get ice-cream cones, little ones, just sometimes, they weren't the regular ones. Five cents- Speaker 1: Miss- Miss-Barbershop used to sell them, real wee ones for a cent a piece

Anyway um so went back to this little inn down the road and ah it was out in the middle of no place. And you had to duck to go through the door. It was that old of a building you-know, a little wee short ah. And ah I actually had to stop there before we went up to the farm to see if they would ah- how late they were open.

I wasn't very old, in nineteen-thirty-four. Just a wee kid.