B-- and she used to write and I often wondered why this candle was burning, because my grandparents had hydro. But she used sealing wax on her envelopes and she had a stamp which I don't know what became of it.

I have seen a lot of changes, yes. Yes. Yes. And I'm pretty-sure it was nineteen-forty-four when my parents got the electrical power- we call it hydro, but it is electrical power on the farm and, once-in-a-while we'll have a blackout but it's we're- we're- we're lucky, and the blackout is usually caused by a severe storm ...

And ah, so- you just- like, there was nothing wasted. There was nothing went- went into garbage or-anything. Ah- we used the newspapers to clean out the chimneys and the lamps, 'cause it was no hydro, and um…

She was- she was born and raised on a farm but ah, she was um- had a fear of large animals. ... Ah, she looked after the hens and ev-- with no hydro, we had a cream separator. I don't know whether you are familiar with that. ... Oh okay, well ah, my mother um, after we got three or four cows milked, she'd come to the barn and she would crank the- the separator.

Interviewer: So then you would have- you would have been too young to know Second-World-War. Speaker: I remember, yes, ah, you-know I quite reme-- I can remember we had no hydro over here ah, but we had a radio hooked up to a car battery, scratchy old sound and um, my ah, my parents would listen to the, ah, C-F-R-B was- was going then and ah, ten-to-twelve, the news came on ...

... ah, Katie was helping me sort- sort through some things and she stopped and looked at me, she- "You know dad, you've come a long way in life. Ah, you were born in a frame house with no hydro, no plumbing. Now you live by yourself in a house with three bathrooms." (Laughs) I don't know whether that's progress or not.

That was another aspect of life. We also, over here ah, no hydro and because of the river there was what they called the (inc) hole over here. We cut ice- ... And we had an icehouse and we had a ice box in the house.

Um. Well, we did not have hydro. We didn't have water. We had a well and, ah, you carried your water from the well with a bucket. You heated your water on a wood stove. And we had lots of food.

Speaker: And, you-know, they didn't get the- the hydro until after I was gone from home. And, ah, when I went back home and they've got hydro, they've got a bathroom now too. (laughs) Interviewer: But I guess in Almonte they already had that? Speaker: Oh yes, yes.

We had the house- we had the house here all wired and everything, and my mom died on the fifth of February, wasn't it? Fifth of February, and the power was turned on in May, but Ed come down and put a generator on or something, and had hydro put, because the wake was here in the house.

Speaker 2: We didn't have ah- the old house was- Speaker: The old- Speaker 2: Quaint. Didn't have indoor plumbing or-anything-like-that, so- Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Had hydro. Speaker 2: Hydro.

'Cause basically everybody heated either with wood or coal. Nobody heated with oil back then. There was no hydro heating or-any-of-that. So, that's another thing that has changed since I was a young gaffer was that you al-- you always had to carry wood and keep the wood box full.

No, nobody had hydro along here until- ... 'Til I was about nineteen. Ah then the neighbours all- all hooked up to the hydro here and Brent-Bernard and Alex-Roman's and that- there wasn't hydro in this area 'til I was about that age. Everybody hadn't- yeah we worked with the coal oil lamp.

And ah- but anyway, that's the way it was and the- you were very self-sufficient because I said when the ah hydro went off in the st-- the ice storm.

Interviewer: Tremendous change. How do you ref-- think about those changes? Speaker: Well, um, I just- I'm glad. For instance, like, I grew up without hydro. ... And without, ah, um, running water- ... Ah, bathrooms. Ah, but we were all the same. And that was fine. Well then, when we did get hydro, the excitement of getting the hydro and being able to come into a room and turn on the switch, there was a light. So I never thought of it as- I never felt poor or underprivileged by growing up on the farm without a lot of these things. And it never bothered me ...

Speaker: Yes, we grew up in a farm house. We had no hydro and no water and y-- (laughs)- Interviewer: Yeah what was that like? Speaker: Yeah- it was- you carry it in, you heat it all on the stove. Interviewer: The water?

Anyway. So she did very well, she raised ten of a family and- without the hydro, without water and- and-that it was hard work I'll tell you, but- then we had big gardens, a stew of strawberries in the summer you-know, preserving them all and (inc) big garden and put that away for the winter-

There are advantages to having a key you-know? ... I- I can sit here, use your hydro for the f-- tape (laughs).

We had no hydro back then or inside plumbing, of course no radio, T-V or daily newspaper but we did receive a few farm publications which were read from front to back. My parents never had holiday nor do I remember my father spending a day around the house with nothing to do.

Interviewer: And would you have to run that machine to separate that cream or would you-? Speaker: ... Well, there's a- what they called a cream separator. You pour the milk into it, turned the- that was before we had hydro, turn- turned the crank and- ... And then the cream come out one spout and there's a (inc) milk the others, the other spout. I see you don't understand much about farming.