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.

He's got five hydro poles going in the laneway up here and about the third hydro pole in, this cluster of bears all show up. So then he's figured it out. When he put in his hydro lane, eh, he pushed all the brush into a pile. Mother bear must've stayed in this brush pile all winter.

Speaker 2: It's right across from the flour-mill. Speaker: That's that hydro thing now. Interviewer: Oh, that was a dairy?

Yeah, we skidded all our logs with horses pretty well until the latter years and then we had a- a different kind of machine. But, ah, yeah, so it was mostly s-- skidded out into open areas and those open areas happened to be hydro lines, corridors, that sort of thing- or farm fields or-something-like-that, so.

Yes well, most- most of, ah, the activity was around the beef cattle. Ah, we had beef cattle and we used to graze the hydro corridors a bit and- and, ah- so a lot of the work was involved in getting the hay crops in in the summertime and that sort of things, yes.

And with doctors, I was very happy to hear Doctor-Mitchell, um- he was very kind doctor, um, a significant person in Almonte being, I-guess, eventually a mayor, but he was instrumental in starting the hydro plant. His house is right across from there and he had races horses.

... ah- I always called it Monroe's and- ... Whatnot. And then you come back out where the hydro line crosses, ah, at, ah, Giles' there. And then- ... The Middleville-road the rest of the way up.

And my son-in-law is a- he's a pretty sharp cat. So he come up with a sign that said Thicksson-Town, stuck it on the hydro pole and the population back then was- what? Twenty-one, I-think?

The first summer I worked in Almonte we had to go down, we went down to where the hydro line crosses, the power line, and then we turned left and went out away and around the back and come in- and come out at the Auld-Kirk and turn left at the Auld-Kirk and you're in Almonte.

Ah, there has been an awful lot of changes. A-- and ah, li-- like that- even as far as- as a home. Like for years, as I say, we had no hydro. And- and you- ... Y-- you heat-- ah, we had a big long bathtub and you heated the water on the stove. And maybe two or three of us had of a bath in the same water.

So we- I think they got hydro here in this place in eighteen-thirty-eight and dad and mother put it in. You had the sign for hydro to get enough of people in the lane to get the hydro through so they were the house in nineteen-forty-two and then I-guess there was the barn in fifteen-seven. Then you bought a milking machine and a lot of things because you had power to run them so-

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-

And ah Patterson's-Drug-Store come next. And that's where my mother and dad dealt all the time with Patterson's-drugstore. And then we had the garage and the hydro is next. There was a garage like where- I forget who owns it- owned it then. I didn't get the name of the man that owned- ah Deram-Childs owns it now. ... And they there was the hydro which next to that. And then it was Earl-Scott's um furniture.

Speaker: And Harvey-Reggie lost two cows, killed with lightning. Interviewer: So you think it hit the barn or? Speaker: Yes I th-- I th-- no I'll- I think it come in on hydro maybe. W-- there was lightning rods on the r-- on the roof alright. I-don't-know. But i-- it was a terrible smash.

Yeah, my husband and I, we milked sixteen cows by hand, we had no hydro.

... he- it was late coming home and it was dark and I did my own sewing then. And I had this dressmaker dummy. And (laughs) the girls, they put a sheet over it and they put it at the top of the stairs. ... And see, we didn't have hydro, it was dark. So Dirk came in, they heard the motorbike and of course they were scooting around the bedroom door to see what would happen and Dirk went to come up the stairs and you saw this white apparition at the top of the stairs (laughs).

Ah ah if when he had the store, you-see, he had what they called the lockers and he'd rent them and everybody would have a great big icebox like and- they'd bring their meat in and put it in there because when we didn't have hydro, we couldn't have ah ah our own ah ice ah fridge like ah- well I just had the little fridge and the gas stove but you couldn't have your big freezer you-know to put the meat in.

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.

Speaker: We went out that door and he used propane. Two big propane tanks sitting outside the door, yeah. Back in the boonies where's there no- Interviewer: Hydro. Speaker: Hydro.

Interviewer: Did your school have electricity then? Speaker: Oh yeah, you had the- you had hydro but you had no running water, you-see and your toilet was just a- a big tank in the hole in the floor and the girls had one and the boys had the other.