... we had history and science and geography and reading and writing. We had to do our writing exercises- and math. And, um, pretty-well the same subjects as we had today. Um, we had um um gentlemen come around, and he was called a music teacher- itinerant music teacher, and he would come on a certain day each week ...

When it got too hard to crank anymore, it's pretty well froze (laughs).

Actually, I think, ah- I think one good day with a- a good game would- would pretty well clear it up. And then, of course, the- you'd go and help the next farmer do theirs and then the next farmer do theirs and make the circuit of ah- yeah.

... you'd have some fresh coals, usually in the morning and all you had to do is put a little kindling in and start the fresh fire and by the time the other kids came to school at nine-o'clock then you- you had things pretty well up- up to speed unless it was dreadfully cold. ... But that- th-- that gave a little kid ah, ah sense of responsibility and I felt like a man.

Interviewer: So when you were growing up, the mills were on their way out, were they? Pretty well. Speaker: Yeah, pretty well, yeah, pretty well.

Interviewer: Well, is there anything you'd like to add? ... Speaker: Oh, I don't think so. I think we pretty well covered everything when I was growing up

Interviewer: Yeah. So you've got Irish through your blood. Speaker: Pretty well. Yeah. ... Yeah, pretty well.

Interviewer: What are games would you play? Maybe at the end of year? Speaker: Ah, just b-- the baseball pretty well. ... Sometimes they'd have a race but- some races but no, pretty well.

Interviewer: Did anybody get really sick in your family that you had to call the doctor? Speaker: Oh, yeah. We got j-- we got jaundice one time there, that's- Interviewer: Oh. ... The whole family? Speaker: Pretty well.

Interviewer: Did you carry that around? How- how did- or was there one on every table? Speaker: Oh, usually have one upstairs, one downstairs and you, like- yeah. ... One or two of them (inc). Yeah but, pretty well you'd have- ... The only thing they worried about was taking fire was, ah, pipes- the- of the stove.

Well, we c-- we used kept the pipe, keep them pretty well clean, but we had long stretch of pipes, you-know. So you had to be careful they didn't take fire. I set them on fire one morning before everybody got up. (laughs)

Interviewer: And you would have to get your younger siblings ready too? Speaker: Yes. They pretty well- you-know.

Yeah. The thunderstorm was over then, pretty well (inc). ... Got on the phone and I had just got on there and there was an awful smash came, and the phone went flying (laughs).

That's one thing that- one thing up here in the country that's really- you don't run into a lot of that type of discrimination like I think you might in the more populated areas. ... Everybody seems to be friendly to everybody else, pretty well.

Interviewer: Did y-- did you- your dad help you or you put it together by yourself? Speaker: No, I pretty well did it myself. Figure out the instructions.

Yeah, lot of money to spend. Lot of gambling, lot of drinking, lot of broken marriages. Real- and the- it was pretty typical of any railroad town because they were pretty well isolated. There was no road in there. There is now but that time there wasn't a road. So you either came by train or plane, float-plane, yeah.

Farms were almost all identical then unless it were a dairy farm. ... Otherwise they were pretty well all the same. Yeah. Yeah, every little bit of everything.

Well when young- really, until I was in high-school I wasn't around the town that much except as a- somebody's passenger. ... But then g-- when she g-- that's right, we all pretty well stayed where we were.

I- I- I played behind the plate (laughs). ... 'Cause the- that was only time you got to intercede with the community pretty well because you're- when you were home on the farm (inc)- he was working all the time so I was looking after the kids, we had six kids-

And ah he said "And you never did finish it." ... It was pretty well done but it wasn't quite all done, he had to finish it himself (laughs).