Interviewer: A lot of drinking in your blood (laughs). Speaker: Yeah, there's- there's a lot of, you-know, I can pass on (inc).... Yeah, yeah the blood of the Christ. ... This guy must have been hammered twenty-four-seven. ... That's a Family-Guy reference.

...the only one that came in on the first year that got on student's council and became ah leader of the opposition. Usually you had to be the second year. So I was lucky I get in so you-know, I got involved in student activities there. Had a little bit of ah hamming on the stage you-know, once-in-a-while.

So I was lucky I get in so you-know, I got involved in student activities there. Had a little bit of ah hamming on the stage you-know, once-in-a-while. <4> Oh boy (laughs). <019> Yeah. So you-know, we used to- we used to ham it up in school and...

There's still that are some here from the early years but people have added on or buffed them up and it looks much better than it did one time because ah, you-know again the old mining town and you'd have families of ten, twelve, fourteen living in a small house. (Laughs) Hand-to-mouth existing in those days, eh? Interviewer: Yeah exactly. Speaker: Yeah. You can go straight down. I don't know if you remember the old swimming pool down here or not.

Speaker: We do- there are some people in the North who can do it right? And your one of them, you're a Northern-girl like. Interviewer: Well. Speaker: (laughs) Because people think of Northern-people as hicks, they really do.

Speaker: Cause we're- e-- everyone in Temiski-- Temiskaming district like New-Liskeard, T-D-S-S, ah, us, ah, we're seen as a hick town. Interviewer: Mm. Speaker: We're seen as the hicks compared to the North-Bay kids. Interviewer: Okay. Speaker: So when they come in, they're like "Okay. Well these are like the- these are like the- the- no-teeth hicks."

Speaker: Compared that to "Here Thurstan, you could have the ah the eight-millimetre and go shoot at- shoot at squirrels and- and bring them home and take them apart and we'll show you how to cook them." Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: You can't- come on people. Get with the program. I'm a hick farm boy.

... the separation between the- those schools in North-Bay and the- and the- and that region compared to us. 'Cause we're- e-- everyone in Temiski-- Temiskaming district like New-Liskeard, T-D-S-S, ah, us, ah, we're seen as a hick town. ... We're seen as the hicks compared to the North-Bay kids. ... So when they come in, they're like "Okay. Well these are like the- these are like the- the- no-teeth hicks."

Speaker: Ah, there was a lot of high grading going on. Interviewer 1: A lot of- Speaker: Hi-- Interviewer 1: High-grading, that's stealing gold. Speaker: Stealing. Interviewer 1: Is that right? Speaker: Stealing. Yes.

Speaker: Well the guy that take the high grade ore, they find it, shove it in there and then when they brought it up to surface, they'd just take it- "Oh yeah, jeez thanks a lot Bob." They take it and they go to a room, wash it out and take the high grade. Interviewer: Oh so they must have had a lot of (inc). Speaker: Oh yeah. Oh. God. Well the- Interviewer: It's called high grading? Speaker: That's high grading. That's what they call high grading. It's taking the choicest of ore- like most of your rock today is- is ah what they call gunshot it's- you can hard- just specks of gold throughout it.

Yeah. Yeah and then it went on after the bar closed I guess it was you-know delegated to whoever was buying it or-whatever, yeah. Oh yeah, used to be a standard routine. There was a lot of high grading going on in Kirkland. Used to be bad. but it got so bad that the Kerr-Addison- that the guys had to strip right down- they were examined right in the...

Interviewer: Yeah you have three kids. Speaker: I have four. Interviewer: Four kids. And they all come up still? Speaker: Ah they are getting too hoity-toity for some of them you-know? They- well one of the older ones got her own at um- at Crosby-Lake outside of Perth. They have a beautiful cottage there.

Speaker: Well I was there for two winters. Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: But ah on the second winter I graduated up to working in the saw mill. Interviewer: Wow. Speaker: Yeah. And ah what they called ah- they had a hot pond, that was water in a large pond- Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: Outside of the mill. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: And they ah l-- logs would roll into that pond then you'd bring your lo-- the log over to what they called a jack ladder.

I wa-- hos-- I wanted to go to the hospital because I was oh I was getting ah- I was in a terrible state of mind. I needed help. ... And I was trying to walk to the hospital and I came to the fence near the hydro - station over there. ... And- and then I go- I got all confused so I cut across. There's a bush there so I went wa-- stumbling around there. Finally I came out to a road where the- the hospital is on.

C-- close within the vicinity. They had little bit of slimes of the Silver-night is over by the Tim-Hortons today where the c-- hydro - plant is.

Spring was late and the pipes haven't thawed out yet you-know? 'Cause there's all of course running water, but you got to wait for the pipes to thaw. And you-know 'cause they got all the hydro - work going on- like down here running into Matachewan and-so-on.

And everything was done with cash. There was no- there were no investments. Investments were ah- if you bought stock or if you bought government bonds or-something-like-that or hydro bonds or-something. But the bank didn't have everything. ... Just bunny- money, money, money so- now you never see money in the bank.

Interviewer: Do you meet- or do you remember any ah particular character? Speaker: Just our hydro guys (laughs) 'cause they're- they're quite the characters. Interviewer: I noticed that last week. They're always out barbecuing and-stuff-like-that. Speaker: Yeah, they try to feed Hannah constantly 'cause they think she's too tiny. But they're all like super nice.

'Cause nowadays you need more money than ever. ... Like I could go on and on about that, like I-mean this house, when I bought this house, I paid sixty-dollars a month hydro. I pay almost two-hundred now.

There was all- all our friends and bank people that I worked with and-stuff. And there was- there was- we had no water and there was no road in there. At least- no hydro I meant to say. And ah- oh it was another wingding party.