Speaker: We let them out in the barnyard and cleaned the stables in the winter time and if it was a dirty day, we had to put them back in, like if it was icy or- Interviewer: Uh-huh. Speaker: They're- y-- Interviewer: Hm. Speaker: Put the hay out of the mow and after we- square bails we did those in those days. Sometimes we had to buy some and- Interviewer: Can you explain to me what the mow is? Speaker: Well it's the upper part of the barn. You walk into the barn floor w-- and there's a- a mow on each side that you mile the hay. Before we had ma-- ah, bails, there was a hay fork rope, ah, a hay fork. We still have it up in the barn.

... that's how they'd pack the hay in then. But when I was haying, it was the mow and the bails. Interviewer: And the mow is the upper part of the barn where they put the hay- Speaker: Yes. Interviewer: You said right? Speaker: Uh-huh. And one year we had it right, pretty well to the ceiling ...

... they pull it up with a sling and then i-- there's a track in there and it goes a long the track and it goes along the track and you can trip it with a rope and drop it wherever you want in the mow. Sometimes they used a hay fork for that, but quite often they used these slings.

Speaker: Oh it- yeah it was a dairy farm and he had saddle horses and ah he- ah I would- I was a guide taking people out on the trail and bringing them back through and I helped- we loaded the hay by hand. Brought in hay and put in the hay mow and I run the tractor and- and ah- Interviewer: Oh yeah? Speaker: Yeah so I went down there for part of the summer just for ah farm experience, I guess.

Speaker 2: And the house was cold, you-know from that (laughs)- Speaker: (inc) you never had no heat on, well back in them days. You come in here and the bed was just like ice, eh?

The old vet never had no car. Never ever drove, all he had was horses. Dad had the car and he'd drive that old vet all over. Here to Minden, Wilberforce, wherever eh? Then he- old lad got killed then dad did it all.

Oh yeah. You went to the barn and fed them by hand and you- you milked them by hand. We never had no milking machine, two hands.

Speaker: And ah my mom came from Barrie to teach school. She ah- she and dad got together then. So ah- Interviewer: And where was your mum's family from, do you know? Like she was- she had- she- Speaker: She- Interviewer: Had gone to school in Barrie but that was where the normal school was, wasn't it? Speaker: She went to a normal school in Peterborough. Interviewer: Oh in Peterborough.

Interviewer: ... so you finished high-school and then where did you go to teacher's college then? Speaker: It was the last year, they called it normal-school and I went to Peterborough and ah boarded there for the year. If you had grade-thirteen, like your full c-- full year, you went one year to- to normal-school. And that was the year they changed their mind and started c-- the next year it was called teacher''s-college. Fifty-two, fifty-three was the last year it was called normal-school. Interviewer: Why was it called normal-school? Speaker: It was an old British term of some kind and I don't know exactly- Interviewer: Oh okay.

... was a tour of Toronto and we did the museum you-know and the- and the- par-- and the Queen's-Park and whatnot and I don't know whether it was the Queen's-Park trip or the- the high-school trip were we went again ah, from the- the normal-school. And it was a Grey-Cup weekend and the Santa-Clause-Parade and we did the museum and we did this and we did everything else on the Friday and then everybody was free to do whatever they wanted on the Saturday and then- and ah, come home on the train again to Peterborough on Saturday night kind-of-thing.

It was- it was an excursion to get us all out doing things. We did crazy little games on the train and I- I- I loved everything at the normal-school. I had a good time 'cause they had all these- these- a-- some of them were- that had come from the bigger schools and the bigger cities 'cause we had kids from all the from Kingston to Belleville and all that area that came to that normal school. If you didn't go to Ottawa, you came to Peterborough and um (sighs)-

Interviewer: Through that time, do- y-- you really enjoyed yourself was there- was there a particular event that stands out in your mind? Speaker: I remember them wanted me to go and play basketball from the normal-school because I was tall and-everything. Well I had never played basketball. I didn't know the rule. They said, "Oh you just bounce the ball and you do this and that."

... they had you doing these exercises and-everything, you-know up and down like this and- you-know and doing this-and-that and- and it was a good program. They had a real variety of things they did at the teacher's-college or at the normal-school. Um, I-- I--

Interviewer: Uh-huh. But I've heard that there's a lot of moonshine around and about. Is that true? Speaker: Not no more. Interviewer: No?

... all grew up together for so long that you kind of cross paths and end up at the same things like you end up at the same parties or the same- on the same teams and everyone melds, you-know? And by the time you're in grade-twelve and- or O-A-C or- we were the last year that had O-A-C and by the time you're there, like, nobody gives a shit anymore and there's only so many people left to hang out with 'cause some have dropped out, some have gone to college already and some have moved away ...

Interviewer: How was it to be the last grade thirteen? That must have been so- Speaker: Pain in the fucking ass (laughs)! Interviewer: (Laughs) Speaker: Oh my God, because I ended up graduating from grade twelve even though I went to O-A-C because of it and then they said it didn't matter, it didn't make a difference. I took all advanced classes, what they called it then, it's all different now, but I took advanced classes and did my O-A-C and now I guess they would call it graduate with university level. So it was almost like taking an extra year just because in a way, but you need a certain amount of grade like courses, you need a certain amount of credits to graduate at all ...

As- after the d-- like you would dance and then at midnight there would be sandwiches and all the sweets you would want, pickles. Every meal in the county pretty well- the old timers had pickles at every meal. You always had a pickle with meal.

Whether it's true or not, I don't know. But that's what the old timers used to say. But you never went- you never had a meal that you didn't have pickles. There was always pickles.

You-know, that was- you-know- my c-- 'cause when my sister made Christmas cakes the- my son-in-law says "Boy, this is really good." And- but the old timers made Christmas cake. The old timers did down peaches and pears and tomatoes.

Well, you-know the old timers used to say though Garrett, that if you- you can kill anything if you hit them in the right spot with a twenty-two.