Well my parents, being public parents- my father was a member of parliament here for twenty years. I had a nice picture of him here some place.

Got wind of this up here and- and maybe my grandmother on the Winston's side, that's on the mother's side, she maybe went to Toronto and work down there some place and that's how they met.

We still have the drills around here some place, yeah.

Boy-oh-boy, I remember in the winter, the winds coming off of them fields. It wasn't protected like it is now. It just- oh gee, and the snow drift sometimes, you hardly get through them. Dad would be in the camp some place working eh?

... basically it's funny how um, I know they said that Hudson-Bay-Company employees from you-know the Outer-Hebrides or-some-place-like-that did better in the barren then somebody from- from the south because they're used to that barren landscape, you-know? They felt right at home.

Like I just was not a city person you-know? And so ah, I- I- I w-- I needed to get someplace where it was calmer and quieter and soon as I came to the country, I always told people oh I'm just going there to sort things out but I never left, you-know, so (laughs)-

And ah anyway ah, they had- the mass resources that too many camps being built close together. ... but every time I went some place I (inc) another gang there. We were kind-of in the centre.

Both of them were killed and sh-- being the only child, she went to live with ah an aunt who was a spinster and ah I-guess she found after a time that raising a child was just out of her league.

They banned her from playing hockey down there. But, yeah I can't think of any bad things that happen like, everyb-- you had your little squabbles...

... the principal that we had at Victoria-Street, the kids would love to get in trouble with him because (laughs) he had asthma so if you had to get the strap for every time he go "(deep inhale)" (laughs) they knew that they'd be into great trouble in ah- like they'd- they like to get in trouble just to get him (laughs) to have to breathe.

Interviewer: So, you never got into trouble in school, then? Speaker: Not really, I never was in trouble, no. They never strapped me or-anything-like-that.

... the teacher sent me home to- to do some w-- book work like, you-know and of course there was only paper work I should say. So I didn't do it and I said, "Well I lost it and it rained on it." ... Well she said, "The paper's not wet so it couldn't have-" so she gave me the strap.

Yeah, oh she was pretty strict. ... And then I got the strap once more after that, I started learning a bit better (laughs).

...and that's how they send men around now to measure that tree and then they figure it out in their book how many more feet there's in it and that's what you pay, you pay for stumpies, they'd call it.

Speaker: W-- were grabbing the fire-clothes and so they were- and so if they found- if they found that- like they all had their name-tags and badge on it, right? And so they'd all have two or three suits, right? Interviewer: Right. Speaker: And so they were notifying family members that such-and-such p-- passed in the- in the- in the rescue efforts but it wouldn't be them (laughs).

You- like you have to have a suit. And if you get- sometimes (laughs) if you forget what suit your partner has, you can lose. And that's what I'd- I'd get- I'd get to- Interviewer: (Laughs) Speaker: I get to- I get thinking, "Oh he's such and such-" Interviewer: (inc) trump. Speaker: Yeah for it's trump and then you'd get- yeah, and you'd lose. But my father was terrible at- because he played it in the woods. He would play Rummy with us and he um ah he would beat us ...

Twice today- Calathumpian, yeah I have two and I can't remember. Ask Lue, he'll know what a Calathumpian is. And see when they used to- this time of year, they'd go sucker fishing.

Yeah, dad used to grow some good potatoes here. He used to grow some good pees and goa-- oats too because he had lots of cattle eh? You'd have big piles of manure. Sucker fishing time is when we always drew the manure out and then you had to feed the sucks to eat them.

Well we went across country to that and we went after supper and we come home a daylight- in daylight the next morning. And all the- all the kids got either laid on a bed or laid on coats on the floor and we just slept while the adults danced (laughs).

Everything was okay, so he goes back to school. Then we come home, I think it was six-o'clock we got home and then checked the sheep, kind-of like just ah you-know, find out what happened for the day and had s-- late supper and then I was up 'til- she went (laughs) to bed early nine-o'clock but see I was up 'til midnight, just after midnight 'cause I went and ten-o'clock when I checked the barn, it looked like this one (inc) was going yo-- was going to lamb.