Interviewer: Okay so you- so now some people open their present early Christmas-morning. Speaker: Well we do that within our own families. Interviewer: Okay. Speaker: But then with Mom's, it's like with the brothers and sisters and the kids, and we open after supper. Interviewer: Okay so everybody gets to go there after that. Speaker: Yeah. Yeah.

Um I-don't-know just sit around with her I think I just remember sitting around with her, having supper with her, or her fridge squeaks, so she'd say, "Oh it's the mouse behind the fridge." Like it's funny the things that you remember 'cause I was nine when she died, so I-mean I don't remember tons about her, but I do remember those things.

We'd stay here all day. And we'd always go home for supper 'cause if Dad- Dad would be home for supper and you had to get home for that. Kind-of report in and- and ah- and then we'd come back down here at night.

Speaker: And actually there wasn't too much time for you-know- time you get in and had supper it was just about bed-time. Interviewer: So it's- it- you spend a lot of time on your own then.

And ah but other than that by time you get in got cleaned up had a coke (laughs) ah it was supper time. And you'd have time for a game of cards too.

Ah well they weren't weekly, maybe once a month. And then at the school we'd have tea dances, which would- like started at four-o'clock and they'd- we'd dance in the auditorium of the new school, but before that it was Teen-Town, and um also there was ah I don't know what some- like we were always seemed to be with all the other kids.

Ye-- ah yes, that, well that's Norman's story that he'll be wanting to tell you about him. Ah, he was going to university at the time in the States and we were down there. Ah he had put in a year and we put in another part of a year and then we came home, so he didn't finish, but he'll tell you all about his days there.

Speaker: Um usually come back for a month or two and then go down to The-States to work at basketball-camp, so yeah. Interviewer: Oh okay, okay. So you could really develop that accent if you wanted to? Yeah, wow. Speaker: Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah the first couple days back it always seems so weird to hear the American accent but, yeah.

Speaker: I think 'cause my dad was from there so I'm not sure why. I-guess um I-think maybe d-- my dad worked in Peterborough or- or I'm not even quite sure, um I know that when they got married he was going to school in The-States and so my mom went down there and they lived in a little trailer and so then they musta come back to Lakefield.

But he goes to Toronto quite often and he goes to different conventions. They were down to ah mm I forget what part of The-States there not long ago the convention, still does quite a bit of stuff in The-States. And I have some nice pictures out there too and one of them Montreal, where he took Trevor with him and um his wife and shows Trevor as a getting an autograph, him and Rocket-Richard.

Speaker: Ah- ah Windsor seemed very influenced by The-States, like everyone- Detroit was the big thing and Windsor was always just beside Detroit and ah- Interviewer: How did that reflect in the people then? Speaker: Uh, (...) well they always sort-of, it seemed to be the thing to go to Detroit and there wasn't as much sort-of pride ...

Yeah and- when I was working at G-E, so he was on the farm and I really and truly wished I had stayed at G-E instead of quitting my job and going- helping on the farm but anyway that's the way it was them days.

And in- in them days it was all horse and wagon that you drew the gravel out of the pit down on the six line and you could draw that from here up to near the school up here, ah Ray's-School as we still call it. It's a bake shop.

... the-Manor-Old-Folks-Home as it was known in the back road then. It was built in ah I'm only guessing but about nineteen-eleven, and my grandfather Bill put his- applied for the job and they called them matrons them days, like you're the boss but you're a matron. And he applied for it and he got it, so this is how my father and them got up here.

Mother, she come from Rice-Lake. Her name was Willsons, there was quite a large family of them and ah they had ah what they call a um saw-mill them days, down on Rice-Lake and there was a big island out there, now I don't know where it is but I was talking to a fellow the other day that knew quite well, an it was named after my grandfather Willson, Willson's-Island.

And they run a mill there for quite a number of years. And the only thing that was on that park in them days was a little cabin or a small cottage right out at the very point where you look across at the arena. Or if you at the arena you can look across at that point before you go up the channel into the big lake.

Interviewer: And did you know her? Speaker: Oh all my life yeah. mm-hm. Yup. Interviewer: And how did you- Speaker: Used to visit back-and-forth on the farm in them days. Yeah, yeah.

Interviewer: How many do you think you've shoten over the years? Speaker: Oh too many. (laughs) Too many, in them days oh I'm telling you it was unbelievable you-know the deer that was in that park up there. And that's a big park that Peterborough-Game-reserve.

Speaker: Just ah oh I done some foolish things sure. Interviewer: Oh you did? Speaker: Oh yeah. But um you-know them days were a little different nothing serious you-know, just a little crazy. Crazy in the head as they call it.

Um I'd do everything there too. Like do the till do the cheese. And ah my brother on Saturdays would go and get the cheese-curd from Camleford and then he'd come back and I'd bag it all.