Speaker 1: But nobody would show the young lads. They're afraid of s-- getting to know some- Speaker 2: But you do, Neil. You're good with them. Speaker 1: Yeah. So I- I- I kind-of- at night down there, them young lads would come in they'd get around and they'd want to know how to do this.

Speaker: 'Cause I was a young lad, we always had bulls you-know and some of them were cross. And- Interviewer: Did you ever get into trouble with a bull? Speaker: Well yeah, they used to chase me the sometimes.

Speaker: Dad was milking, we had to make sure that we had a pile of turnips to feed the cows when he was done. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Speaker: There was lots of work for young lads, them days.

Speaker: Good thing, another thing I liked to do was show young lads how to do things. Interviewer: Oh yeah- Speaker: Yeah. Interviewer: Tell me about that. Speaker: Well a lot of people won't show anybody anything you-know. And down at Stittsville there after I got- learned how to do things- in fact, I kind-of resented you-know and I started running the show.

This yard was clean when yous come in, clean it up now." The teacher said "Yes," she said "You can't do that. Pick it up. The garbage can there, pick it up, clean it." And there were two young lads who wouldn't. Well the teacher said to some of the other lads, "Go over and clean them up." They wouldn't do that.

Truck wasn't just going, something, so I'd try and help them out. So I liked doing that. And then, when I got to be foreman and-that, I had lots of young lads working for me too. Some young lads- and this kind-of- I resented this, in a way, is that you-know we'd hire lads there- older men, you-know, and- and they knew how to work. And I had to pay them the same amount of money them young lads, as what I did that person who knew how to do stuff. A young lad come in there, and he couldn't use a (inc) shovel.

We didn't have tractors and-that, we had a lot of hard work to do- you-know it was worth horses and-that. But everybody worked at it. You- you-know? And I-don't-know, I went to school with a pile of lads, I wasn't old enough to go overs-- to go into the army but I went to school with a pile of guys and they're just long gone.

We got- I hunt wolves in the winter with the lads. We go hunting up in Meadowvale. Year before last, we got forty-eight.

We liked her, she was good, but she ah, gave us a strapping every day, Ross-McTavish and I. Just to- I-think it was to cow the young lads and the rest.

Well yeah, he taught me lots of good stories like that. Remember one time Dad and I- and I was just a young lad. We were working out near the eighth lane and of-course our farm, you could see over to his.

Well you talk about working on the farm, and this happened to all farming lads at the time. I-- y-- you-know, we had two hired man at home before when the war broke out, we mostly kept two coup-- we kept one all the time anyhow, maybe a couple.

Yeah f-- three-thirty. So she said that they could go ahead 'cause you-know they're young lads, they're immune to it, so. She's giving us a lecture and she (inc) way out.

Yeah that's right too. It all evened out. That's what I always told the lads out here. See I'd tell them, you-know s-- to do something because they'd done something.

Yeah. And herd them with a tractor too. Well I used to have a- I was out in Alberta when I was a young lad, we used to go to these harvest excursions, you-know?

Yeah. And I was the oldest lad. And then my o-- bur-- brother Barney, he w-- done quite a bit of work. Worked- but the two young lads, they got away with murder.

Yeah. I was over there as a young lad. He- he was putting in grain or-something and he stick his hand up and he said "Would you do something for me?" And I said "Sure." He said "Go into the house there and the teapot is on the stove, bring it out."

Speaker: We were bringing a bridge at Cobdon. He come as a young lad and he worked with me. And he was as good- he was a really good lad. Them good lads always went places. And I had lots of them lads. Interviewer: Yeah? Speaker: Yeah. Really good lads.

And they- they were just lads that, you-know, had grew up together and went to school together and-everything-else and they ah- that was- that was kind of hard to take...

They were the two oldest. And ah, give her- took over some things that I had that thought she could use for few days and she g-- they got back on their feet and- and those lads still haven't forgot that. One of them was here last week and he stopped in going to the lake and he- he was here all afternoon and reminiscing about the things he used to do when he was here (laughs).

We- we- the lake was right down in front of our house where I was born of course and ah, young people from miles around would come and they could- well they could skate there and they- the lads come up Saturday afternoon and clean it all off and they'd skate all weekend.