The reason was there wasn't much to attract you at home because there was no television, no- we listened to the radio, but that was not the same as watching television. And then we had here, in this part of the town, just behind my garden was the Tolburn-Slimes, eh? ... And we- we- we played in the slimes and there was an old mill up there. But just a few w-- weeks ago, they- they tore- finally tore the foundation down of the old mill ... if you go further back, there's O'Connor-Lake. I learned to swim there and ah- ... Half- half of the- it was slimes was going in there tailing from the mine was going in. So, we had a lot of fun and we never spend very much time at home.

So that was- and then getting on in the summer time, like- like ah, close to this time the- the big, ah money raiser was to go to pick blueberries and here we could walk just ah- just ah- there was ah, the Silver-night-Mine had to have their slimes transported away out in to the- to the backwoods 'cause they had no land- ... 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.

There was no such a thing as skidoo- ... (Laughs) There was no such a thing. So the cops were- we're going out the slimes there. There's not much they can do about it.

And he- he was a- he was cross with us and he says, "Put those socks on. Get off your arse and start walking home 'cause that's the only way you'll get there, eh?" And so ... ah, we got home, we got- we- we came across the slimes and we had the- the one guy who fell through, he had to go to the hospital, eh? Thaw- thaw him out, eh? but the rest of us, we all went home and- and ah, but I had chill-blaze. I never had pain like that in my whole life ...

Interviewer: Now you mentioned the slimes. I-mean- ... that's a very unique place. Speaker: Oh yes, the slimes- ... That's the stuff that comes out of the mill you-see. And it's the slimes. ... And we used to play on the slimes. And in the winter time, we'd skate up there. ... Interviewer: And were the slimes dangerous? Speaker: Well we didn't-- we weren't aware of that. We never though of it.

Speaker: But ah, that's where we used to play. And then we'd do something in the slimes, I can't remember what. I can't remember that. But we played- certainly played there all the time. Absolutely. Interviewer: I think if you said slimes to someone in Toronto, they would- ... Have no idea what you're talking about (laughs). Speaker: I know. Speaker 2: That's definitely a term that sort of came out of- of mining communities. ... Speaker: it was the um ah the emission from the mill. And it would click there easy.

Speaker: You-know, like we skied ah, in- in the winter. And ah, we skated on the slimes. Interviewer: Oh. S-- I've heard about the slimes. ... What's the- what i-- what is that? Speaker: It's ah, i-- it's just- there's slimes over here. Um it's, um, like mud (laughs). ... Like pale mud. ... Yeah, and ah in the winter it gets real hard- I-mean, the summer it gets real hard. And in the winter it ah, floods. ... And ah, then we used to skate on that. Interviewer: Skate on the slimes, wow. That's neat.

Interviewer: Oh yeah? Sleigh-riding? ... What can you tell me about that? What kind of- Speaker: Um, we um- there was hills. Back- back here someplace. And we would ah, take them. And then- and ah and- th-- O'Connell-Late- Lake, you have to go across the slimes. And I guess it would take about twenty minutes to get o-- to O'Connell, it's not a very big lake. And we used to ah, take the kids there a lot, and have a picnic.

Mm, as that age, I was into motorcycles, so we'd ride in all the slimes around town in our dirt-bikes. Once we were, you-know, thirteen or fourteen, my uncle gave us a d-- gave me a dirt-bike and we'd be bombing around and really that's the sad thing about Kirkland-Lake ... really we were riding our dirt-bikes on all these environmental disaster areas because there was cyanide in the slimes they filled in the lakes, right? ... ah, one time, that must have been a beautiful lake, Kirkland-Lake, but to make the mighty buck, right? They just dumped all the slime in it.

I-think ah, the real scary thing was- ... when you're fourteen or fifteen ... we'd see all these scrape stock cars around ah- 'cause guys from the fifties and sixties on these slimes- I-guess the slimes are building up, you-know, from the forties or the thirties, they would drive the cars out there and race them around and then when they blew up, they would just park them in the bush. ... So I remember scrape dealers coming in and picking all these scrape cars up and they cleaned up the area. ... And ah, I-think their weirdest thing was standing on the tailings dam and- and then they would have mind-rock to hold back the slimes and realizing that the slimes piled up, thirty-feet, fourty-feet, maybe fifty-feet areas.

Speaker: So they take the gold out of it, and then they a-- they're left with this- Interviewer: Just sludge? Speaker: Non-gold sludge, yeah. ... Exactly. So we call it, um, the slimes. We have a place we call the slimes here, and that's- it's the same thing, it's just mine tailings. Interviewer: Oh wow, so they just sort-of dump them. ... Wow. So, lake gone.

Interviewer: You played in mine shafts? Speaker: Yes, we did. ... They're just dark and damp and dank and- but there's a place called The-Slimes over in Cobalt where this all is all mining stuff. I don't know what it's like today. Um, but we used to play over there all the time.... Nobody ever worried about us. ... Nobody ever got hurt.

Interviewer: So what about the slimes? I know in the old days people talked about playing in the slimes, you ever do that? Speaker: The federal slimes. Interviewer: Where is the federal slimes? Speaker: Um it's behind the Northern-College. ...Yeah but I mean that's not much fun. It's pretty well just flat and if it's really wet I guess you could sink but it's not as fun as like going back behind the mine and-that where and-that where there's like big mud holes.

Interviewer: W- was there a lot of stuff for people your age to do? ... Speaker: No- um you made your own fun basically which is why we have such problem with drugs and alcohol because people would go to the Federal-Ruins or the Slimes you-know and different places like that and they'd you-know they'd go and drink. ... And do drugs and-all-that-stuff.

Speaker: Yeah. Back in here is what they call the ah, you can't see from here but ah, s-- the slimes. And it's all the tailings from the mines. Interviewer: And it's still back there, huh? Speaker: It- it's still there. I go skiing out there too.

And um- Interviewer: Now explain to Shaman what- how the slimes get there. Speaker: Well it's s-- like from the ground when they pumped all the ah, when they were digging for gold and-that. And they'd have- it was primitive in those days. But if you go out along the slimes you'll see the ah, the old pipes. And they were just wooden pipes with- with wire wrapped around them. And all that sludge and everything else was pumped out into the- into the back forty here. And it became hard and slimes. We could play ball in there and you can ski on there.

Speaker: And then up further where the lake is, what was suppos-- what was Kirkland-Lake at one time. In beyond there there's more slimes in there that came from the Wright-Hargreaves and the Lakeshore mine and-so-on-and-so-forth. But the- Interviewer: That's the stuff that comes out of the- after they've milled the- Speaker: It's like the sludge, yeah. Interviewer: The- the mineral out of everything.