... I was a child and I was small but I remember walking on snowbanks and almost being able to jump to touch hydro - wires, you-know? Like just there seemed to be so much more snow back then, our winters I remember were I think more- more cold, more brutal but- but maybe it's because I was a child and you-know everything looked bigger.

Spring was late and the pipes haven't thawed out yet you-know? 'Cause there's all of course running water, but you got to wait for the pipes to thaw. And you-know 'cause they got all the hydro - work going on- like down here running into Matachewan and-so-on.

... Or no, I was cutting another branch and the branch I was sitting on broke off, that's what happened. And then ah. ... Ah, I would literally take off the the climbing gear 'cause I had a hydro belt, the ones they use for climbing telephone poles, ah, had one of those that I was using to mount myself to the tree.

W-- after Floyd and I bought our house on Dymond-Crescent, you could see the back door of the house that my mother and father rented that was next door to my friend's where her mother and her sisters lived. And i-- those things, you-know, the hydro - office, it's now a pizza parlour. Downtown New-Liskeard.

... in Cobalt, there was a lot geology, a lot of rocks that you could study and-that-kind-of thing. We went down ah to the Metabetchouan um dam where they were- the hydro project, and they were working on that ah went down there with them, and it was i-- there were all kinds of things to do and he would always be supportive in- in helping me get the kids there and doing that-kind-of-thing.

And everything was done with cash. There was no- there were no investments. Investments were ah- if you bought stock or if you bought government bonds or-something-like-that or hydro bonds or-something. But the bank didn't have everything. ... Just bunny- money, money, money so- now you never see money in the bank.

Interviewer: Do you meet- or do you remember any ah particular character? Speaker: Just our hydro guys (laughs) 'cause they're- they're quite the characters. Interviewer: I noticed that last week. They're always out barbecuing and-stuff-like-that. Speaker: Yeah, they try to feed Hannah constantly 'cause they think she's too tiny. But they're all like super nice.

Interviewer: Um, did you ever go on any other family trips or class trips or anything? Speaker: Um, we went to the hydro - dam near (inc)-Valley- ... With my welding class in grade nine.

Speaker: But there was no- the first hydro came to Ramsey-Township in about nineteen-thirty, I-think. Interviewer: Do you remember that? That must have been- ... Quite the big deal. Speaker: ... I remember the story. It had to be passed by council for hydro to come in. And I spent twenty-nine years in council so I've heard a lot of stories. ... I did hear that there was one gentlemen was opposed to it and somebody else had a tendency to vote the same way as he did ... And when (laughs) the reeve brought up the question and somebody said vote- "Stick up your hand George." So he stuck up his hand and the other guy stuck up his hand and then later on in the meeting they said, "When is, ah, this hydro issue coming up?" "Oh you voted for that a while ago so you-" That was a sleight-a-hand thing, so-

Yeah, on the lake a lot um, when I got- when I got older, my cousins always had dune-buggies and stuff and so they'd always rip up to the- the hydro line. ... 'Cause really close so it was only like, I-don't-know, like a- like a five minute drive you're on the hydro line and then- then you'd- then they'd rip up and down on the- there's basically roads on the hydro line- all the access points.

They had me do quite a big hydro trench about two-hundred-feet long that's just all flat rock. You can't get a hydro trench across that but I zig-zagging through the rock and boulders and I got a hydro trench. And gee the hydro inspector was happy with it.

Interviewer: And what's a hydro trench? Speaker: Well it's for buried hydro cable. The- right now the cabins all have over head hydro cable and the trees are- every now and again falling on them and busting and- putting the hydro out.

Speaker: The- right now the cabins all have over head hydro cable and the trees are- every now and again falling on them and busting and- putting the hydro out. Interviewer: So they want to put them underneath. Speaker: And them little kids there, they pay well there for a summer, some of them come for all summer eh? ... You can't have the hydro out- ... So there are changes.

No that's the farm. I bought that a-- we bought that after we were married (clears throat). Ah, it's up- you know where the three hydro lines cross the (inc) five-eleven? We own a hundred acres this side of the- the ah five-eleven goes, almost corner to corner through there. Little bit more on the right-hand side.

Okay I'm going to head over there where the road splits, goes out on to hydro line, out to them old gold diggings out there, or it goes left. Down in there to a- had been a farm at one time.

So right where that road went down the hydro lane, I had my station there and you- you ah, had to get- trying to get a null and I up there for two days and I couldn't find a null anywhere there was always a little bit of a reading.

... but the guy running the other one, he had to wear the same clothes, no metal, no zipper, no metal on your belt- ... Or it would interfere you-see? But we a-- we did that from- roughly from Ardoch to Ompah all through that hydro line area.

... he said, "We can ride out here on to the road" 'cause it's quite a tangle, once you get in there it's quite of tangle of roads. Did you check into the old gold w-- ... Onto the- on the hydro lane there. ... Well- and there's the other one that it- where they- you know where they milled the gold up there, that time. Back about- in the first- in maybe the first world war.

So I think he went in and lifted it. But ah that- that'll go someday. I'm quite sure it'll go. That's up the hydro lane. If you're interested?

I says to the guy, "Looks like we've got a problem here." ... He goes, "What do you mean?" Well I said, "Our equipment runs on hydro and there isn't a hydro pole to be seen." (Laughs) Eh? So, he says, "No problem," he says, "People think that's the outhouse over there." And in that outhouse was the generator.