Speaker: Well, I says- Interviewer: What- what- what kind of sayings was that? Speaker: They wanted me to make a speech of some kind. Interviewer: But th-- you said they were coming out with what kind of sayings? Speaker: I says, ah- Interviewer: Sa-- Sammy. Speaker: Oh, he says- say anything. Women, there. Just a jolly never- just never- they were- they were taking the good stuff, you-know. And the- so- well, I says, "I'll do it the best I can." I says, "I'll do what a couple of women- the joke they've had on me," I says, "If that will suit yous," I says, "It's a- two women told me, and I'll tell it to yous." (laughs)

I says, "The old woman asked the young woman what this propaganda was. She says, 'Are you a married woman?' And the young woman says no- or, 'Yes,' she says, and, 'Have you any children?' She says, 'No.' 'Properly well,' she says, 'You no got the proper gander.'"

Oh, lad says, "That was a good one," he says, "Give us another one." I says, "No, I'm going upstairs to- I don't know if you're watching the knot on the- driving the boat." (laughs)

It don't be long running it up, you-know, and you- and I'd look after, so, I says to myself, "I'm just going to get some money, or find out if he's as hard up as he makes out he is," and I says, "There's something I- I can't work without getting paid." So, um, I went away up here into Beckwith one cold night, poor old woman were dead up there. And, ah, she was upstairs, I went up.

... and he phoned up, to see if I'd come down and give him a hand. He said, "He have this man down here, I can't handle him meself, and I'd like if you can come at all." And it was kind of storming that day, and, ah- and I says, "It's not a very nice day t-- t-- to cut wood outside. I'll go down and give you a hand."

And I made a vacuum, and then we jiggered- you don't want to embalm him then, to get some blood back- to get some colour in his face. He just, ah- I says, "I'll handle that thing if you don't mind, Jimmy." He squeezed too much, and I says, "For fear we'll break a, ah, ah- one of the valves in his- and be able to do nothing with him. See it would run all over," and I says, "His is in turpentine." Got beat on that.

So, ah, (clears throat) well she says, "I've heard people saying that Dohen- Cohen was a great man to fix up people." So I says to meself, 'I'm be-' I never- never mentioned it to Hayes, but I says to meself, 'I must have been doing something better than I think I am, or, ah, they wouldn't be saying this.' I was taking them away from the other fellow, do-you-see?

So I told Jimmy-Cohen, I says, "I'm not going out no more with you, Jimmy, if he doesn't show up some money." I says, "I haven't got enough to pay a bair of- a pair of boots," I says, "From that man since I started to work for him." And I says, "He's had me way up in the hundreds of dollars." Well, Jimmy says, "He won't pay nobody unless you go right after him." And that man had thirty-thousand dollars in the bank in Ottawa. I don't know how much he had here.

See, I've been threatened several times with the law. One man said, "I'm just going to have you come into the cemetery another Sunday to dig a grave, I'll send for the police and have you arrested." Well I says, "Why would you do that for?" I says, "If you were that anxious about keeping Sunday, why don't you slip home and bring your Bible with you when you're coming, and read just two lines out of the Bible that countered- that condemns me for digging this grave.

... I'll take your word for it if you can read it out of the Bible," and I says, "I'll give you my word you'll never have to bother with me coming down here again on Sunday."

And we were putting in cement to go into the- into the- and he'd come- they'd come down and sting us there where we were working. And us not touching them. So there's a man passing down the street and I says "ah can you- any way you taking that- th-- that nest down?" "Yes," he says "I can take it down."

And there was a little fellow here, he'd used to say- instead of say- you'd say "Well, I said" such-a-thing, he'd say "Well, I says-". Yeah, that was the word- is what I often heard (inc), yes. Mm-hm. And ah have I told you about this "used to could" yeah? I think that's it. Yeah.

It's like Christmas mor-- 'cause when I- when I first got married, my kids started coming along, I says "(inc) open their Christmas presents." And my wife goes "No. We don't open them 'til Christmas morning." I go "Well at my house we open them up Christmas-Eve after midnight." Anytime after midnight. "No. Not here we don't."

And they- I- I listened to them and they were so talented. And I just- I just fell in love. And they asked me, "What are you looking at?" And I says, "I like- I like your music." I told them I played. And they says, "You want a job?" So I started playing jazz with them and they were virtuosos. They were really great musicians. Perfect pitch.

I liked law. So I said, "I want to take law." And the teacher that was giving law ah wasn't thrilled about me coming back. She had me for math and keyboarding and she wasn't- she said, "I don't give away any quarters." And I says, "Hey, I'm here to earn them." And she was so thrilled with ah- Anyhow, she gave me the Social-Science prize. Aced the course.

And I spent an hour with him until he was ready to go and then we walked out onto Chuter-Street and he said, "Is there- you see a cab? Is there a cab around, Bob?" And I says, "There's one down the street." And he walked right up to the cab and opened the door. He could hear the engine running and you just- how many steps to take to open that door. It just- I didn't believe he was blind. Yeah, it's amazing.

Speaker: And then he says, "Do you see my- my- my girl?" And I says, "The- the Raylettes? Mae? Mae?" Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: And I says, "The-- they're all down the street." And he says, "Mae!" And then she came and got in the cab, and then they left.

So my cousin offered me- my- Brook's father offered me a job. This when I started with him. And he offered me eighty dollars a week. So- so I- now I'm in the big-time. And I says, "Okay." And I went and did that job and I told the- the- the guy, "I'm ah not going to be here. I'm- I'm gonna sub-out the job. I got a drummer for you."

You can't do that. I'll take it to the union. And I says, "Well, wait a minute." I said, "Maybe I should tell the union that you don't pay- you're not paying- you're paying me forty dollars a week instead of scale."

Speaker: Yeah, I played at the Holiday-Tavern which is the-Phoenix today. Interviewer: Okay. Okay. Speaker: I played there. And ah when I went back, I says- I went back to him and I says, "I'm ready to start my job again." And he looked at me and he says, "I think I'll keep this guy." So I says, "Fine." So I left and the very next week, my pay went up to a-hundred-and-thirty-five dollars.