Speaker: Yeah, we-- well that's the shift in our- in our culture, right? like- like McMaster was a Baptist university originally- Interviewer: Oh, yeah? Speaker: And so like it started around that- like even in the states all the big schools were all- Interviewer: I think they all started that- Speaker: They all started that way, right? So, there is that shift so now they kind-of run more- more parallel, um, alongside of that.

We need to get back in balance more, you-know? And I think- I- there must be some reason for it. Um, you look at politics in the States and you think well the people on the right and left, they're- they're not even talking in a way- they're not even communicating.

And we had cottages and we rented every summer- every spring to people from Ohio to come up to- to fish the walleye. But ah there was a young- I guess I was around fifteen or so when I was at the farm, and this young girl from the States, she was kind-of running after me and I was getting tired of her chasing me so ah- ah I ran upstairs and she followed me and I jumped over the hole where you put the hay down.

You're in the middle of the states at a bus station and the bus stations are not in downtown cores. They're like on- just off the main highway at the edge of a city. So it's like the seedy parts of cities and like there's no s-- real stores around.

Well ah dad come from Sweden and mother was part German and they come across some ah- across the ocean to Quebec and then they went down to the States and then Minnesota. Yeah and they started a family there and then they moved to British-Columbia and then co-- come east.

Well um, mother was quite experienced ah, can y-- you likely know that black plague they had down in the States. ... She helped a lot of people and some of them died like, even though she didn't die from working but there was a lot of people died from that black plague.

Yeah, my granddaughter's into that kind-of- and ah she gave me cards to give out because if anybody wants to- to write down their life history and they can send it to the States and get whatever decorations they want on it.

Speaker 2: Well, Gooderham I think was founded around eighteen-seventy-three, so it's probably around there. Interviewer: And do you know why they ended up up in Gooderham? Speaker 2: No. Speaker: God knows back in them days (laughs). Speaker 2: I don't know if- sometimes people move to get free land grants, you-know?

Speaker: When I was a kid this- every place up this road was a farm. Believe it or not. Interviewer: Wow. All beef cattle or- Speaker: Well yeah. Nobody had dairy cattle back them days. Interviewer: But I'd suppose you'd have a cow to get some milk though? Speaker: Oh yeah we had three we knocked. And the rest of it, registered angus beef. The three jerseys.

Interviewer: Now did you ever have problems with, ah, wild animals on the farm? Speaker: Not really. Back in them days there was no wolves even. Interviewer: No? Speaker: Now we're overpopulated here. Interviewer: Now why is that? Speaker: Well, ministry brings them in here.

Speaker: If you wanted to buy a pig, you could go to dad or, any of them around, eh? Interviewer: Uh-huh. Speaker: They all had pigs. You wanted to buy a little pig or you wanted to buy a cow or whatever, eh? There was everything out on the farm them days.

Speaker: That was your winters. You had to do it. There was no thing, strawberries (inc) in them days. Speaker 2: N-- nothing like that in the store, you-know? Speaker: Back in them days no (inc). You went and got your own. But you didn't grow, you went and picked her, eh?

Speaker: I've got movies in there. (inc) the bear, when I was pushing, bear's taking the garbage right off the blade, bags of it. Interviewer: Really? Speaker: Yeah. Me sitting them on the dozer, wide open, no cover on or-nothing back in them days. Speaker 2: Yup. Interviewer: So are there a lot of bears around? Speaker: Yup. Interviewer: Oh boy. I was up at the um Echo-Lodge apartments yesterday, doing a couple of interviews and there was a big sign on the door, "Residents, watch out, there's a bear on the premises." (Laughs)

Interviewer: And so what people would do is- they would take this syrup into town and they would get a credit in the store for it? Speaker 2: Mm-hm. Speaker: Back in them days it was- Speaker 2: And I think there's deer-hide- they got- they can take those to the store.

Speaker 2: He- he was born dead. I remember Henry's mother saying that she looked in a dresser drawer one time and there was a dead baby in there so that's probably it. Interviewer: What?! Speaker 2: Yeah (laughs). Speaker: Back in them days, they used to take a- kid was born you-know dead- Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: They usually never went to the cemetery, they buried him in the yard. Interviewer: Really? Speaker: There's a place up in Harburn. What they call a Harburn. You heard- tell her that yet?

Speaker 2: So the war would be on, nineteen-fourteen to eighteen. So they probably had to give to support the war, eh? Interviewer: Something, seventeen cents to support the war. Speaker 2: (Laughs) That wouldn't even hardly buy a bullet, would it (laughs)? Speaker: Back in them days, it would.

Speaker: I remember that dog today. You-know? Interviewer: That's amazing. You see, that's- Speaker: Well you'd want a story on that? Interviewer: Yeah I do! Speaker: Used to be an Italian worked on the municipality. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Back in them days, they drag the roads out here for the drag. And the old Italian, he said that daddy says, "Your dog is a good you-know?"

Interviewer: That's a long way, how many cows are you herding down there? Speaker: About twenty-five to twenty-six. Speaker 2: And the dog had to keep them from- Speaker: Off the road. Speaker 2: Straying off the road. Speaker: Back in them days, you-know there was no pavement. We went down the Oldovers-Hill not the one you come up.

Interviewer: "How many of our readers will remember Joe-Birk?" Beaver pelts. People- people- Speaker: A trapper. Interviewer: A trapper. Speaker: Back in them days, yeah. Interviewer: Well, can you tell me anything about trapping? Speaker: Like what? Wolves? Speaker 2: (Laughs) Speaker: We snared wolves when we were- oh that was back in sixty-one, I-guess, sixty? Speaker 2: Trapping ah was one of their livelihoods.

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?