Wasn’t it, slow trip, she was the first converted, she had been a towbard and was converted to a diesel vessel called a cross. The only steam she had on her was a little small boiler for to use for to operate the steering gear. The rest of it was all diesel, not just electric.

Well we didn’t have the tools that we have today cause we didn’t have the ceramic stuff to work with that we have today, like plastics and one thing and another, like that. We just had, all we had was more or less chisels and some bits, brace, framing square, hand saw, rib saw, key hole saw, level, that just about covered our tools that we had. Other than our shops. In our shop we had all wooden planes for to make moulds out of, wooden moulding planes.

The cement jobs that you speak of, wasn’t cement at all, it was lime that we used. They dug a hole in the fall of the year and a man would slack the stone lime and pile it into the pit and then when he got the pit full, cover it up and that was our mortar for the next year for to build our stone walls with.

Well the slacking, you piled the limestone after it’s burnt into a big box and cover it with water and let it boil and let it boil until it uses up all the water and then in the morning it will be nothing but just a whole bed of cream in the bottom of the box. And that’s shoveled from there into the pit and then for to make our mortar for our plaster that had to be mixed with sand and then take hair and mix it in it for a bond before it was plaster, use it for plaster.

Some worked as just as labourers but I kind of struck out on a different angle. I went out for to do everything, brickwork, and cement finishing, fitting the forms for myself and doing curbs and sidewalks.

Both times, they were all wooden jams to begin with and then they came out with aluminum. Put the wood jams in and then the aluminum casings went in for to, for the glass to set against.

You had three dials instead of one dial, and you had to set the three dials for to get the frequency to come properly on the radio. But it was good music. You never was without company in those days when you got a radio.

Interviewer: What would you have with you when you came to a job then in a tool box? Speaker: Well you'd have your saws and you'd have your planes, you'd have your drills, see. Brace and bits and you'd have your squares and your hand axe, see. And ah your claw-bar of course, see. And ah- it depend upon the ah you'd have a plugging chisel maybe if you were going onto a job where you were going to have to strap a wall and ah- for to put the wallboard on or-anything-like-that see.

I remember R.J. Graham. We rented from him you see, he owned the building down there. And I said, "I guess we came to Belleville at the wrong, started at the wrong time." He said "no," he said, "this is going to be a long, long depression," he says, "and it’s a good time to start in because you're taught, and you know how to save for to get along." But I didn’t agree with him. I thought still it was foolishness, but there was nothing to do we had to go on. So I had to cut down expenses.

But, it's a beautiful old bible and I told him I'd give him the little ah food chopper. I use it just for to grind nuts now.

So as soon as I got finished you see I was done and I would (…) I would go home you see because I never was there for to stay.

But I had some lovely weddings there, beautiful. Young girls who don’t want to- nice set out for to get married. And they can use the hall for you don’t have to leave the minute the wedding’s over if they don’t want to.

...and then we used to have a card party once a week and all this money used to go into our mission, you see, for to keep our mission going. This was all during through the depression, when the whole thing was going on.

Interviewer: What colour is the tartan? Speaker: Yellow and green and black, a yellow strip down and you wear a safety, the Gordons wore a large safety-pin on the side for to pin it you-know like the girls use sometimes, a big pin.

You-know a Scots them days spoke French and still you-know, them wealthier class in Scotland speak French. It seems to be a rule over there, girls used to go over to France for to spend six months learning French.

One room school we were in, it would hold about seventy. Built of stone, you-know, solid. And it was free and easy there, if you wanted for to find out something instead of going asking the school teacher what about it you could go and sit down beside a student what you knew what knew the answer, sit with him and there weren't a word said and ask him or her how you did it.

...and them airforce fellows, gee they liked coming down you-know. They weren't paid for working there, they just liked to come down for to get away from the stuffy airport.

This lady you-know, she was worried somebody was going to kill her and she tried to get the police and her husband and everybody, she couldn't get anybody on the phone, it was wrong number. And then she heard the step on the stairway coming up, and her husband tried to, he got on the phone and he yelled to her for to escape you-see.

Interviewer: What would they be made with, ah, any special tools? Speaker: Oh, yes there was special tools, there were the special- ah, horse or jack, for to make them on.

Ah, my dad, he- more or less looked after the machine, and he helped to feed it, but whoever was running the- at the horses there, they helped to unload too, but in this particular case, these horses, they were quite high-spirited, and they attempt for to run away, or for to move out from the- from the machine.