Interviewer: How many do you think you've shoten over the years? Speaker: Oh too many. (laughs) Too many, in them days oh I'm telling you it was unbelievable you-know the deer that was in that park up there. And that's a big park that Peterborough-Game-reserve.

Speaker: Just ah oh I done some foolish things sure. Interviewer: Oh you did? Speaker: Oh yeah. But um you-know them days were a little different nothing serious you-know, just a little crazy. Crazy in the head as they call it.

We were getting sixty-five cents an hour, and that'd pay a streetcar to Sudbury from Copper-Cliff, and m-- room-and-board. So th-- you can see right there I didn't have much money left. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: That was the wages them days. During the w-- last of the war. Nineteen-fourty-four. And nineteen-fourty-five, yeah.

Today you use electric blasting caps, ah- man, it's a little more technical than it was in those days. And ah- and ah- it's ah- but it was- it was just as hard in them days to do it as it is today. To- to work in the mines. As a matter of fact today- Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: Ah, today mining is- how should I say that? Is ah- today, mining is ah- I would say ah- a little bit different ...

Interviewer: So was that when you began to lose your hearing? Speaker: Oh yeah. Interviewer: Oh yeah? All the blasting? Speaker: From the drilling, mostly. Interviewer: Drilling. Speaker: Yeah. Interviewer: You didn't have any protection at all. Speaker: Well, they didn't have protect in them days. Interviewer: I see. What would you wear? Speaker: Just a hard hat. We used to put Kleenex in our ears, ah- that's it. Today they had mufflers, uh, and so on, but in them days they didn't have that.

Speaker: Ulcers is not a big thing today. They just give you some pills and say "Take them for thirty-days and-" But in them days it was a little different. Interviewer: So they view- how did they view it? How did they view ulcers back then? Speaker: They thought it was very serious. And ah I had to go on a special diet and-all-this-stuff and ah- and ah they put me in the hospital ...

Speaker: And today the kits are plastic and they just break them apart type-of-thing but- no it's different now, it's a little- it's a little harder now too. Interviewer: Oh. I wouldn't have guessed that. Speaker: No I-think it was harder in them days than it is now. Interviewer: Mm-hm. So when you were growing up you were building airplanes and playing s-- football.

Speaker: I'm a people person though, anyway. Interviewer: (inc) eh? Speaker: Yeah, but I'm honestly, them days, um, we were more mature than they are now- Interviewer 1: Yeah. Interviewer 2: Really? Interviewer 1: Probably (laughs). Speaker: Oh yeah like the maturity level and responsibility level of ah, children now a days are not the same-

I can honestly say I always did that. But it ah- it helped me make money for my daughter to go to university. My one daughter is a triple gold metal in skating. She teaches figure-skating now. And that go-- that was a lot of money in them days. In nin-- na-- that made all the money for me to- for them to go.

What you grew in the garden is what you- what you lived off of. What extra you had, you went and sold it. So, you-know, we've come a long ways. People don't think so but we've come a long ways. But them days were a lot of fun too.

Oh, give him something in one thing- he didn't give any- didn't do any good. So she took him to Toronto and of-course he'd had peritonitis, and at them days they didn't have the antibiotics that they have now. And that's- he died. So that's our last f-- brother.

That was the one paper I always l-- looked forward to. To get my patterns and-things-like-that. I'd get- "Oh there's something I'd like," and I'd take that out and you'd be sending for that pattern. The patterns are on-- in them days were only about fifteen or twenty-five cents. But they're a whole lot more now (laughs).

Speaker 2: Well, Gooderham I think was founded around eighteen-seventy-three, so it's probably around there. Interviewer: And do you know why they ended up up in Gooderham? Speaker 2: No. Speaker: God knows back in them days (laughs). Speaker 2: I don't know if- sometimes people move to get free land grants, you-know?

Speaker: When I was a kid this- every place up this road was a farm. Believe it or not. Interviewer: Wow. All beef cattle or- Speaker: Well yeah. Nobody had dairy cattle back them days. Interviewer: But I'd suppose you'd have a cow to get some milk though? Speaker: Oh yeah we had three we knocked. And the rest of it, registered angus beef. The three jerseys.

Interviewer: Now did you ever have problems with, ah, wild animals on the farm? Speaker: Not really. Back in them days there was no wolves even. Interviewer: No? Speaker: Now we're overpopulated here. Interviewer: Now why is that? Speaker: Well, ministry brings them in here.

Speaker: If you wanted to buy a pig, you could go to dad or, any of them around, eh? Interviewer: Uh-huh. Speaker: They all had pigs. You wanted to buy a little pig or you wanted to buy a cow or whatever, eh? There was everything out on the farm them days.

Speaker: That was your winters. You had to do it. There was no thing, strawberries (inc) in them days. Speaker 2: N-- nothing like that in the store, you-know? Speaker: Back in them days no (inc). You went and got your own. But you didn't grow, you went and picked her, eh?

Speaker: I've got movies in there. (inc) the bear, when I was pushing, bear's taking the garbage right off the blade, bags of it. Interviewer: Really? Speaker: Yeah. Me sitting them on the dozer, wide open, no cover on or-nothing back in them days. Speaker 2: Yup. Interviewer: So are there a lot of bears around? Speaker: Yup. Interviewer: Oh boy. I was up at the um Echo-Lodge apartments yesterday, doing a couple of interviews and there was a big sign on the door, "Residents, watch out, there's a bear on the premises." (Laughs)

Interviewer: And so what people would do is- they would take this syrup into town and they would get a credit in the store for it? Speaker 2: Mm-hm. Speaker: Back in them days it was- Speaker 2: And I think there's deer-hide- they got- they can take those to the store.

Speaker 2: He- he was born dead. I remember Henry's mother saying that she looked in a dresser drawer one time and there was a dead baby in there so that's probably it. Interviewer: What?! Speaker 2: Yeah (laughs). Speaker: Back in them days, they used to take a- kid was born you-know dead- Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: They usually never went to the cemetery, they buried him in the yard. Interviewer: Really? Speaker: There's a place up in Harburn. What they call a Harburn. You heard- tell her that yet?