Speaker: Heritage owns part of it and that's why we have to ah- well, we look after, it's been- we've heard that they're very impressed with the way it stays. It's- it's one of the few. You-see any church like that had usually had a hydro put in or- or um a heat but we do-- we don't, we've kept it. You-see thi-- the same way. Speaker 2: No utilities at all whatsoever.

But, no we didn't have any bathrooms and I remember reading by the lamp light. We didn't have hydro or- at first or-anything. I can remember being so scared when they put the hydro line in because I- (laughs) you-know, didn't know what this was all about (laughs).

You know as- everybody screams about high taxes but our own cost of living and our homes is- for fuel, hydro, for all the necessities to keep the place- ... Have certainly increased over the past number of years and those- those costs been- Brock Township in all honesty is probably one of the highest ah hydro users in- in ah the township.

Interviewer: What do you think is the biggest change you've seen? Speaker: I think the hydro and the- and the water sh-- came into the community about forty-five years ago.

Yeah, in the olden days it wasn't like it is now, eh? Because there's no hydro there. ... So they had to use the wood stove. And there was no water, w-- they had to carry water for washing the clothes. Had to heat it up on the washboard, eh?

Interviewer: So you didn't- of course you didn't have hydro, so you didn't have any refrigeration. Speaker: No there was no hydro so- yeah, so they used to milk the cows, then they used to separate it.

Interviewer: So tell me a little bit about how the area's changed. What would you say the biggest change has been? Speaker: Oh my gosh. Hydro I guess it- well a lot of places, hydro is a big change. There's a lot of people didn't have hydro, eh? Interviewer: Yeah? So when did you get hydro? Speaker: At the farm there is no hydro. Interviewer: Yeah, but over here. Speaker: Just over here? Well I- when we bought this place the hydro was here, eh? Already, yeah.

... you could do just about anything with livestock fe-- everything from doctoring them to butchering them and um cutting them up and wrapping them and packing the meat in- originally in salt so that the meat wouldn't spoil until hydro came along. And in nineteen-forty-one or two in there someplace, ah I was five years old so it had to be forty-one, I started school in the Moss-School which was a mile north of our place.

Interviewer: (Laughs) When did you get ah indoor plumbing on the farm? Speaker: We- we didn't get hydro until nineteen-forty-eight, and I- I wan-- ah I- I can't help but mention this um, I remember the hydro guy an come down through our farm, I was heading for school one day, and they came down through the farm, three men with long handled shovels ...

Anyway ah, hydro came in forty-eight, um my dad, I consider him a very progressive guy, ah we had ah bathroom put in, um about the same time.

Interviewer: You built this place? Speaker: My father and I, yeah... Yeah, and back then you- you had no power, no hydro. ... Everything was cut by hand. ... That's how it w-- how we did it, and- ad most places there was no hydro the- you were putting the buildings up before the hydro was there and no one had a generator. ... And no one had the power tools that (laughs) would work off a generator.

Interviewer: Did you always have electricity and hydro? Speaker: Yes, we did.

Interviewer: You were also on a farm? ... Speaker: We did all that- we did all that ourselves too. ... Like my mom- mom and dad, yeah. We never had hydro. Well I shouldn't say- we had hydro, ah, we didn't have a phone for years and television, shit I don't know what year we got a T-V, maybe nineteen-sixty.

... they approached my dad and, "Dad, you-know Mike-Czerwinski, he's got a- a three-point hydro and he's going to sell it. Do you think we could buy it?" And my- my dad said, "No," and they sort of, "Oh but we- we want to water-ski, and we want to learn to slalom."

Interviewer: Did you have a least favourite job? Speaker: Ah, emptying slop pails. (laughs) ... In the tourist lodges years ago before the hydro went through. ... Yeah. there was just outside toilets and they had these pails in- in, you-know, the ca-- sleeping cabins.

Interviewer: Did you have a- a fridge once you were, ah- once you weren't living with them, once you moved out, did you have a fridge or- Speaker: Well, after the hydro went through, well then- then w-- well, for a while th- they had a- an old icebox and my dad would pack ice for the winter-

Ah, the milking machines came in ah- the hydro came up Scotch-line in forty-seven. And ah just before that we had a- a gas-powered ah vacuum pump and ah a battery ran the poll station on the machine. So ah we had that for a couple years before the hydro came up.

Speaker: We had no neighbours- ... We were ourselves. And we had no hydro - Interviewer: Yeah? Speaker: Oh yeah, we lived with no hydro. We had no telephone, we had a radio that was only put on for the weather or if somebody- if my dad would go to Barry's-Bay and hear that somebody- something happened, well it was only- then it was put on batteries ...

This- that's my homestead there, the picture there. ... That’s the two and a half miles from the road. Ah yeah and ah she stayed here because there was no hydro or-nothing and so then I looked after her, eh?

... it was all coming from this mill and sometimes you had to keep the steam pressure up and you get the turbine going properly. ... But eventually they came from- from the steam, they went into- into ah diesel, after that, it was all right. And then hydro came in, and that was that. I don't know what time when the hydro came in, I think it was somewhere in the early fifties, and then Ontario-Hydro came in. And, ah, that's a part of- ah, he was there for- he worked there for quite a while.