And the way they worked it, if a highland chief hasn't got any sons in Scotland and he's got one daughter and the man that married her assumes her name. If she was a McLean and he was a MacDougall, he'd have to take the McLean name. Instead of the woman changing her name, the man changes his so he's a chief. So that's how them clans stay in the same name for hundreds, thousand years, for a-thousand years you-see.

You-know it saved a lot of fighting in the family, perhaps them bad uncles would grab for it you see but when she got married his name was McLean, he was the chief then, they couldn't, wouldn't dare do anything against her. That was the clan system.

I-mean I had a lot- I had a lot of friends in- in this area that obviously I met right away through- through school. A lot of them lived right near here. Greg Fulham lived right across the street. Dan Carr lived right up in behind here um, the Mitchell's were just up the street. Pete and Barb. Um, Stan Bread lived up on ah Montgomery-Boulevard towards the end. So they kind-of quickly became my new clan of- of friends.

And um, he had his basic training in Halifax and then he was shipped over to ah, England on a troop-ship and um they were building a tribal-class destroyer, the Iriquois in Glasgow and um, they were the first crew- Canadian crew and it was a Canadian ship but it was built in England. Ah, tribal-class, two of them were built over there and then I-think they built others here, there were three-or-four by the end and they were all named after ah, Native-Indian ah, clans. There was the Iroquois, the Huron and the, um, oh dear, the-- those were the two that were always easy.

Interviewer: Can you describe what the school house like? Speaker: It was one room, brick school house. Interviewer: Ah, can you describe what it looked like inside? Speaker 38: It just had one room and four rows of seats, and a big stove at the back which we could light. And um, um blackboards across the front and down the sides. A cloakroom at the entrance and a library in the one corner. Interviewer: How many pupils would you have in attendance? Say in the winter? Speaker: There wouldn't be any more than in any other city, I think there would be about maybe twenty-five, twenty-six pupils.

Interviewer: What did you grandparents do? Speaker: Ah my grandfather was a clothier. He had a clothing store on Front-Street. That's why I remember this flood so well because he's store was flooded out you-know and all the clothing and-so-on.

You weren't supposed to bring it [alcohol] in but if you had it under the table- the club seaters, you-know-what-I-mean? Countertop.

That used to be (inc.) well that was just the basement. It had, in my time, it just had earthen floor and the big furnace was in there. The small furnace was over by the back door there. And it had had coal bins and all in there; they were still in there. It was just a dark (inc.) they had a couple of electric light bulbs in there I never really knew much about it.

No. It was all done with hydro. And I had a gas stove. I had a big cook stove and then I had a gas stove, as well. That was when they made natural gas…

Interviewer: Did you have family reunion this year? Speaker: ... no but we are having one. ... um the long weekend in September at the trailer. ... Yup a corn roast.

But anyway, they had a board across but the plaster ceiling was out there and with all the excitement of this hanging going on the women took the little crock with them.

So you have to be more-or-less on the same wavelength as the kids 'cause if you're just some crotchety old person trying to teach us, we're not going to respect you so- Yeah.

I had a horse and buggy. In the winter time of course, a horse and cutter.

And we crossed the ice too in the winter time with a cutter. We'd bring our things over.

And wagons, sleighs, heavy sleighs, light sleighs, cutters, and used sporting carriages, sporting goods like racing sulkies.

Ah, in the case of a buggy it was hickory, in the case of a wagon it was oak. The (…) many, many, many smaller and thinner pieces around the buggy are made of hickory. In ah, (…) also in sleighs or cutters and in wagons.

That in that way we’d do our own bending in making a dash for the cutters. They always had a flair and a turn to them to catch flying snow from the horses feet. The cutter were always turned out towards the horse at the top. Sometimes they look like the letter S and which was a protection from the horse’s feet. Interviewer: Would there be any extra features that you would build into the cutter to make it warmer (…) seats’ material or something like that? Speaker: The seats were usually trimmed with plush or something that was warm to sit on in (…). There was not necessarily any foot warmers or anything like that built into the cutters, nor into any rig so far as that is concerned.

Well, we got loads of logs from as far away as Millbridge down here. Because I would saw anytime (…) anytime of the year, and they’d bring it in right in the middle of summer. The old water wheels were old-fashioned but I got along with them for four or five years, and in nineteen-twenty-seven I put in a new type of water wheels. They gave dandy power and were easy on water.

And then I had a- a line stretched across uh to represent the- the different uh um tracks th-- through the snow and the sleigh would go on and then I said, I went to all my grade eight classes and I said "I want somebody that can draw me a life-size horse" and uh Don-Smythe at that time said "I think I can do one that would be acceptable." I said "you're the man". So he drew the horse and he did, it was a dandy horse.

...had a large family and we made the rig in the form of what we called a democrat, with three seats and each seat would accommodate two adults or three young people.