Speaker: Back then the drinking age was eighteen- Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: You-see so when we'd go to grade thirteen, so some people actually used to go the Princess-Hotel and play pool or-something at lunch then go back to school (laughs) in the afternoon, right? Like- but that was normal.

We all had to pass them so the people who were really strong in maths and sciences tutored me and I tutored them. And we did that- this group of kids, we hung out right through grade-thirteen and I laugh and I say to my friends who are through- went through engineering, "Yeah I got you through English." "Yeah we got you through- we got you through functions ah nevermi-" though it was so true, we just clicked.

But we um we- there was a room in the school when the-- if you took advanced calculus or advanced functions or advanced- they all took that stuff, I took just the plain old get-me-through-grade-thirteen-whatever-I-need, you-know? Um but we would sit around in this room and- and the teachers would come in and um hang out with us and- but we were always working after school on something or we played intramural sports.

Speaker: So there's grade-ten to thirteen. Four years I was there. Interviewer: And can you remember any ah events or things that happened during that time? Speaker: I could remember some naughty things we used to do. Interviewer: Oh! Tell me about that. Speaker: One of the older girls in grade thirteen had a boyfriend and his mother was a great friend of our matron. So when ah he'd find out what the-- they were doing, he'd let her know and she'd let us know and then we get friends in and we dance and we'd dance ...

I had a nice teacher, she had blonde hair, blue eyes, she was young. Probably twenty-one, twenty-two. 'Cause in those days you could go to grade-twelve, grade-thirteen and then go to one year teachers'-college in North-Bay.

Um, and then some of the older students just didn't like grade-nine students. They had grade-nine with grade-thirteen. And we'd have to pass them and we'd have these little briefcases (laughs).

Okay, that's- I think that's all for photographs. Oh, when I was in grade-thirteen we had to apply for- we were encouraged to apply for our social-insurance card.

Speaker: ... Kathy how many graduates would we have had out of high-school. S-- say grade twelve- Speaker 2: Um- Speaker: Eighty- Speaker 2: I would say- Speaker: Ninety? Speaker 2: Yeah probably. Speaker: And then grade thirteen would have been about fifty- Speaker 2: A little less, yeah. Speaker: So, you-know, th-- the high-school was still fairly packed like it wasn't like it was back in the fifties or sixties, but it was s-- still a busy place.

I-mean, you-know, the reality when I came out of high-school was there was not a lot of job opportunity around th-- this area because of the state the mines were in and that-sort-of-thing and of my grade thirteen graduating class. There's probably only about three or four people left in Kirkland, you-know, out of a sixty person graduating class, you-know, th-- the reality was everyone ended up in Ottawa or Kitchener or Toronto or-whatever 'cause that's where the jobs were then.

Interviewer: So they scrapped grade thirteen quite some time ago? Speaker: Um yeah they- they did it actually I don't know what year, but they got rid of grade thirteen a long time ago. Um (coughs) you have the option of going an extra year. Um I needed it just because of um how my grades went in certain classes but ah, ah yeah, no, it's optional for people to take it.

Speaker: Wasn't a wasn't a big deal, they didn't make as big a deal back then for grade-twelve graduation, wasn't like grade-thirteen, and I did. Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: I didn't- I did the ah five-year course but I never did thirteen. Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: I just did the five-year course up until grade-twelve. Interviewer: Oh. So then you were part- so you didn't go to the grade-thirteen graduation? Speaker: No. Interviewer: Oh.

Speaker: (inc) grade-twelve grad. We didn't even get cap-and-gown (laughs). Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: Which they have at daycare now, but anyway (laughs). Speaker: Back then you had to have thirteen. Interviewer: Wow. Speaker: You had to- in Kirkland-Lake, if you weren't taking your O-S-S...G-H-D with the H for "Honours" you didn't get it (laughs). Interviewer: Oh no- oh! Speaker: They only did it for grade-thirteen. I know, King-George does it, they they do it now for grade-eight and you're staying in the same school (laughs). Cap-and-gown and you're staying in the same school, what (laughs)?

Speaker: Grade-seven and eight. And then of-course K-L-C-V-I grade-nine through thirteen. Interviewer: Hm. How was th-- Speaker: Yeah. Interviewer: That was when they had thirteen. Speaker: When they gra-- when they had grade-thirteen, yup. Interviewer: Ah.

And, ah- in some cases, ah, th-- because the- the north- the terrain is up and down and all over, they would build a bridge in order to carry the- the wooden pipe o-- over maybe a gully or-something. And ah, occasionally- like, some of the mines had started to close down. Some mines were closed down, even when I was a kid.

Except this bracelet because it was- it was a major undertaking. I- I- I haggled for long time before I got it at the price I felt I could afford (laughs). And so I- I just had it up my sleeve and so- anyway, so I come to the customs and ah, the man says ah, "Did you buy anything?"

Like you-know? And I ended up ah, I came up w-- we- we haggled back and forth a bit and bartered whatever and ended up I-think he- he knocked off about four-hundred dollars. So it was still eight-hundred dollars for the car by the time I paid the bill and I ended up putting the car for sale.

'Cause I went there with my friend Bryan and Tim and my friend Bryan he was like- I-don't-know he was like twenty at the time. He was so hammered. He's li-- he just comes up to me, "Kirk!" Gives me a hug and I just- he just drags me down to the ground I'm like, "Bryan, get off me. Just get off of me please."

Like even like- my friend's nin-- nineteenth birthday party we got all hammered at like the little kids' school (laughs).

Speaker: It was just a wild night. Interviewer: That's fun. Anything happen during the daytime? Speaker: Not really. I ended up pissing in the ticket booth all hammered without noticing it. ... I was like- I was like, "What's this thing?" I walk in it. "Oh well, I'm going to the bathroom here." Then I found out later it's the ticket booth. I was like "My bad."

And there's like forty of us here. Like come on man just get out of here you-know. They start like- we were all sleeping, we were all crashed. We were all hammered past straight out.