But my- when my brother did the gen-- genealogy, the Drake name was linked to ah, France. And then Belgium. And then some stopped in England, and then over into the States, and then up into Canada. And ah, the Drake name was also spelt different. It was D-R-A-Y-K-E.

Ah, and so some of his relatives- brothers. They went back to the States. Um, and in those days communication isn't like now. Ah, people don't see each other for ten, twenty years.

... and people will drive around purposely- they- they get their jollies out of just seeing these old theatres and I- I met a guy like that. He came up here to Kirkland-Lake for a business meeting one time. This guy was from the States, um, Minneapolis and I had a meeting with him and I'm driving him through town and he says, "Stop! Stop! Stop!" and I say, "What?" He says, "Stop! I got to get out!" and he pulls this camera out of his briefcase and he takes like a hundred shots ...

Interviewer: What about- were you close with your grandparents? Speaker: Quite close. Yes my grandparents from here. My grandparents from the States-

Interviewer: Um, and have you been elsewhere outside of North-America? Maybe to Europe? Speaker: Hm, no, just the Dominican and the States, I've been down to the States, hm F-- F-- Florida, and Tennessee.

Speaker: ... to be able to be a performer I think that they're a part of a guild or a union. Like in- Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Actra's a big one here in- in Canada and I think the States too. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: Um the Writer's-Guild and-different-things-like-that.

He picked it up right away and he started talking about well, you-know, what really happens and- his grandfather- like ah my sister-in-law, her dad um has dual-citizenship. He was raised in the States and moved to Canada, lived in Temagami. Um he's a contractor by trade. He fought in a couple wars. Um I think the Korean and something else, and so he's had experience.

That's his older brother. Willie-Marshall's in The-States. Nelly-Podolsky's in ah, I think he's in The-States. Ted-Lindsay lives in Detroit. He's one of the more famous guys. Daren-Puppa- he was playing for Tampa-Bay and Buffalo. Ah, Bobby-Murdoch lives in Calgary.

Oh yeah. There's Wayne-Gretzy. He's not ours but ah- Billy-Harris. But ah- ah, Danny-Daoust from V-town. Played for ah, Toronto for eight years. Donny-Blackburn's in The-States. Ralphie-Backstrom i-- Colorado, really nice fellow. And Wayne-Connelly is from ah, Rouyn-Noranda but Wayne has lived in Kirkland-Lake for quite some time, he's- good friend and neighbour. I play golf with s-- Wayne every day.

But he wasn't going to get any better. He was only going to get worse. So anyway they- but everybody said "This surgeon, you're lucky to have him 'cause he even goes down to the States and does different surgery down there." Very popular, very very good at this job. So that's what- that's what he- Victor did.

James-Dawson was my boss and I told him one day I was going to retire and they- he said "Well w-- we got to send you down to the States for a course, down in Schenectady."

So we were getting trained a little bit there and the rumours going through the camp where the going to leave, going to be shipped down to the States right away. And just- about that time that's when the Americans dropped those, a couple of big atomic bombs on them right in Japan and that put it in to the board in Japan too.

Americans, you could go to the States and you pull in down there and they'd ask you 'cause they seen your license plate whereabouts you- where from Ontario. They'd want to know if you knew Sam-Parsons eh?

... there was always one in Toronto, and so kind-of the major cities throughout the States. And so, like- so Teenmania was about five-hundred interns, so people right out of high-school, that would basically, run this- run this organization ...

Speaker: Yeah, we-- well that's the shift in our- in our culture, right? like- like McMaster was a Baptist university originally- Interviewer: Oh, yeah? Speaker: And so like it started around that- like even in the states all the big schools were all- Interviewer: I think they all started that- Speaker: They all started that way, right? So, there is that shift so now they kind-of run more- more parallel, um, alongside of that.

Speaker 2: Terry shouts down to his sister, he says "W-- you better get rid of that corpse right away, 'cause-" (laughing) he says "You can smell it out here on the veranda." ... (laughs) So that was the end of Misses-Cooper. Speaker: But he'd two sisters, very smart, nurses- Speaker 2: Oh yeah, they're (inc)- Speaker: In the States. Speaker 2: People. Yeah.

Speaker: H-- his sisters lived in the States and I-guess they sent him money, American money, eh? Speaker 2: They were nurses. Speaker: So they send him- I'd do something for him, he'd give me a dollar. Well a dollar was worth a dollar ten then.

Same thing's going on in The-States. They ah, there's a White-Supremist down there, there's all kinds of problems with the people that- what their attitude is towards the Black people, they're all trying to gloss it over and say it's fine. But it's not. I've been to m-- meetings, a lot of meetings, when I was involved in the- in the Labour-Union, and I've sat with people in The-States. And you could tell from the conversation, you're having a few beers and they'd get off the track and get talking about stuff. And it's just as hostile among certain areas- ... As it was fifty years ago.

We need to get back in balance more, you-know? And I think- I- there must be some reason for it. Um, you look at politics in the States and you think well the people on the right and left, they're- they're not even talking in a way- they're not even communicating.

And we had cottages and we rented every summer- every spring to people from Ohio to come up to- to fish the walleye. But ah there was a young- I guess I was around fifteen or so when I was at the farm, and this young girl from the States, she was kind-of running after me and I was getting tired of her chasing me so ah- ah I ran upstairs and she followed me and I jumped over the hole where you put the hay down.