Interviewer: Mm-hm. So was there some reason why you couldn't hang out with your sister or was it just like, some sort of unwritten rule that- Speaker: Oh i-- tha-- oh yeah (laughs) at that time, 'cause she was in grade-thirteen and I was in grade-nine, that was- yeah, even acknowledging her at school wasn't- (laughs)

Speaker: Um one of the things the girls had to do is either knit or crochet, and I started them off in the crouchering department doing the granny-square. Interviewer: Is that ah where you make like a tube? Speaker: No, this is where you make a square. And the trouble with that was that I made them read the instructions first. Like I showed them what the- what the stitches were and how to do- how to do the stitches, but then I handed each one of them a pattern for this granny-square and they had to learn to read the pattern and do what the pattern said.

I was buffing the floor 'cause I was working housekeeping eh, and he threw a slipper at me. Thinking nothing of it, just greenhorn, I bring him his slipper back and I says "Henry don't do that because I'm doing the floor". I start buffing the floor, he throws his slipper again (laughs). I bring it back and I no sooner said "Henry please, you-know, don't do it again" he spit on me and jumped me.

All along there was like little beach parties. Little fire locations. Cops always come and bust it though, by eleven (laughs) when you're hammered and (inc). You do stupid things when you are young right? Well it was fun you-know didn't get hurt or anything.

... he's like my favourite manager. Ever since that night anyway. 'Cause he was so drunk all the time and he would always tell me that I would be on like garbages and I would see nothing but emptying garbages and-whatever at work if I didn't get really hammered that night and-stuff-like-that. Like he was a really bad influence. And I was with my mom and I was drunk so much but she was too so.

... we usually ah at night we either go over fishing at the bridge or we just have a fire, drink beer. Usually my step- well there was one time my mom had to walk me and my step-dad to bed (laughs). ... Oh we were hammered, like my step-dad he has this- he has th-- we call it the Moses-stick 'cause he uses it to stand when he's really drunk around the fire (laughs) 'cause he's like swaying ...

And I- it's the first time I ever heard tell of it. But that's the only place that I can think of that it would be…

Like a lot of the guys. You get guys from like Toronto or Scarborough or Mississauga and they have all the like, you-know like they say "Dawg" and like "Bro" and you-know and like we don't talk like that, you-know. And-like and then we have our own kind-of like hick slang though, I think you-know. That we'll say- I-don't-know, I can't really think of anything but there's always so often I'll kind-of say something and people are like "What is that?" It's because its a North-Bay like kind-of hick thing, you-know and-stuff.

Yeah like I think that- yeah I think North-Bay has its own kind-of mixture of like a French and kind-of just like a hick kind-of slang- like you always get the no G's on stuff which as a Engli-- like 'cause my mom is an English major, like we get the you-know like people- "lookin'" and "seein'" and you drop the G's off everything and- I find North-Bay has this also and I- I get bad for this 'cause I say "like" all the time.

They kind-of like, you-know, like you see like a guy in the mall talking French and he's wearing a skidoo jacket, you-know-what-I-mean? Like that whole thing you-know-what-I-mean it's kind-of like that "Oh there's that guy. He's like a French hick guy right?"

You might use words you-know more- that are more- considered more you-know hick you-know more like a hick way of talking or whatever you-know I think it all depends yeah.

This is your fourth year! Holy mackerel. Where in the hell does the time go?

Speaker: Good people but they got their problems. Interviewer: Yeah. ... Well ah- have you ah- so, when they're speaking English, like you can't really tell a different between them? Like ah w-- where they're from or? Speaker: Um. How do you mean by that? I'm not sure what you're getting after like would I know if they're from Hearst or Kap or-something-like-that? No? Interviewer: Well, could you tell if someone- someone was from ah like North-Bay or Cochrane?

Interviewer: Okay. Um there weren't, um, th-- like the high-school system was different back then, wasn't it? Speaker: How do you mean? Interviewer: Well, I know, I mean I was told that ah, where Algonquin is now. Um that used to be like West-Ferris basically. Like it used to be like an English (inc). Speaker: Oh you mean like the schools have been moved around, yeah.

... volunteers out to make sure cars and animals and stuff and people aren't walking around and- but I had the day off work so I just sat out on the porch and then all the hydro guys were there and I said, you-know "Do you guys want like water like you-know I'm he- home by myself. Like can I get you guys anything?"

Interviewer: And ah were your parents ah also born and raised here? Speaker: My dad was. ... My mom was ah, an army-hydro kind-of brat, like my grandpa was all over the place with the Ontario-Hydro. But my dad was born and raised here and he passed away- he was seventy-three so he was here for seventy-three years.

But the club was ideal because there was not- nobody around. It was all family and ah there's no hydro or anything out there but ah it's still good. We had ah- we had a corn roast and-

You-know which you don't really think of 'cause you think like small town like, what are they going to have? You-know and-stuff but it was weird to kind-of see like "Oh no, like they know what they're doing." Like hydro was here pretty quick and they had volunteers out like watching- 'cause we had a power line down like- (coughs) excuse me- right in front of our house and so like right away they had someone come by ...

Interviewer: And from there you worked at the O-N-R? Speaker: Ah, farmed for a while, I went to hydro for a while, and then I went to the C-P-R.

Speaker: 'Cause my neighbour and their neighbour across the street, they pull right in our driveways and just park and walk in. One guy gave me the finger. Interviewer: Really? Speaker: Oh yeah. I asked him to get out of the driveway, I says "That's my driveway" and (laughs) oh yeah, (laughs) keep running into all kinds of attitudes (laughs and takes a drink).