... anyway, she had another offer for another position and on the corporate side of hydro and it meant being out of town, of course, but the girls were away at university and David of course was finishing his Master's, so you-know ah it was just a matter of being away for the week and coming home on weekends.

Speaker: 'Cause ah, Dave-Steven and I- Stevens and I took a drive around Cobalt before the show on Ontario-Today and we're driving around and around and he goes, "Okay you probably know who lives everywhere." I said, "Well b-- some I do because I come back," but I says, "I don't." I say, "Like that's the Flaubert house but I don't know who lives there now." I say, "Oh there's the Parker house."

There's one nasty moment when we went there one time and we went to the chicken house and I said, "Oh Shauna," I said, "The - the chickens are free, the chickens are free!" And she's going, "What?" and I says, "Yeah, they're running around the back." Well, we went between the buildings. Well the guys were cutting their heads off and chickens were flopping around (laughs).

Well, I-mean, the questions were so easy it was ridiculous. So I'd finish my paper really quickly. And his class was so easy. So once I was done and I'd go and- you-know, go up to his desk and then hop on his desk, "Hey, Mister-Brackson," I says ah, "How about me and your son switch places and you-know, you'll be my dad for a week and your son-"

And I guess about the fifth or sixth time I walked out of the teacher's class and I went in there and I told Misses-Dawes, and she goes, "Well maybe you should just take a spare. Take another course or-" and I says, "No, I- I want ancient history. Like that's what I want. Like, that's what I like." But she was the only teacher doing that so I ended up taking a spare and dropped the class. And it was because of her.

Speaker: And I thought, "Okay, Kyle give me your- your foot." And he's looking at me, "What?" And I says, "Yeah, give me your foot." And then he seen what I was going to do and he pulls his foot away. And he goes like, "What are you doing?" (Laughs) Like, "Don't burn me." And I said, "No no," I says, "You have a bloodsucker on you." I says, "I'm going to take it off." So he goes, "Oh," and he's looking, "Oh yeah, okay." So I- I'd gotten them off his feet and I thought, "Oh my God, what a memory that is."

... I don't know if all their stories truthful or not to- to an extent but um I-mean, what are you going to do you-know? He's still my son, I still love him. And I'll told him- I says, "We just move and we try to get her back." And that's all there is to it (laughs).

So then I got Kyle and Keri upstairs and I s-- "Write your name." Neither one of them knew what was- so they wrote their name. And I says, "Now write Kyle's name, Keri and Kyle, write Keri's name." So- so they did. Well Keri's left-handed and Kyle's right-handed so obviously, there's a big difference in it.

And so I was only there for three days and they- and I said- they started talking about the C-P-Rs and the A- A-R-Is and this and that and I says, "I have no idea what any of those are." They said, "But you better learn fast 'cause you're on this committee and you got one year to transfer this entire operation to Quebec." But with all the accounting background I had no trouble.

... and because of all my experience I- when I was there on the board the chairman, you-know, had no idea how to run a business and they talk about the same thing for five meetings in a row and one time I says, "I can't stand this."

And would you believe three-years later ah a friend of mine said, "Do you know why we stared at you?" It was three of them sitting there, "The day you come to work." And- and I says, "No, I figure it's because I was limping." "No it wasn't that at all," he said, "The man you replaced, Chaney Coleman, in New-Brunswick ah, is the spitting image of you. Walked like you, talked like you. And your age and your size."

Because we didn't have- we didn't have electricity. ... No, I-mean, they're (inc) like out in the wintertime, the men would go to the lake and cut blocks of ice- ... And we he had what you called the ice house. Well it would be a roll of ice and a roll of saw dust, a roll of ice, a roll of sawdust. Now as we wanted- we had like a little fridge that we put the ice in- in the kitchen ...

Interviewer: And it's really neat to see the communities bond that way. Speaker: It's a great event. Raises lots of money, yeah- Interviewer 2: Yeah. Interviewer: Did you go to the I-P-M? Speaker: Ah, didn't go to the I-P-M, no I was working. Interviewer 2: Mm.

Speaker: And the plowing match is like these people are really serious about plowing. Interviewer: Whoa (laughs). Speaker: Like they mark your straightness, your depth, like your opening split and all (inc). Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: Like we had the I-P-M here a couple years ago. Interviewer: The what? Speaker: The International Plowing Match. Interviewer: Oh, oh okay. Speaker: That was pretty big.

Interviewer: That's funny that they have all these like fashion and plowing. Speaker: Yeah (laughs). Interviewer: Together. Speaker: Well, it's because they had a bunch of different tents, like it was huge like. Interviewer: Oh yeah. Speaker: The I-P-M was quite large, like the biggest thing here, other than Bikers'-Reunion; I'm sure you've seen the signs. Interviewer: Yes, I have seen the signs yeah.

Speaker: Yeah Mabel I think is her name. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: We had her at the I-P-M. Interviewer: Mm-hm. That's where I met her from- Speaker: Yeah- Interviewer 2: Kind of want to learn (laughs). Speaker: Or lots of farmers- Interviewer 2: Yeah. Speaker: Love to take you on a tour of their farm.

Speaker: So that's- that's a big part of the Fall-Fair. Interviewer: Yeah- Interviewer 2: Mm-hm- Speaker: Yeah. Interviewer 2: So do you go to the (inc) labs to then? You must have really liked the I-P-M. Speaker: Yeah, it was awesome. I- I've been to I-P-M's before down south. Interviewer: Oh- Interviewer 2: Mm. Speaker: Yeah, um, we used to go to Penn-Broke all the time. We've been there a couple of times and ah, the International-Farm-Equipment-Show in Toronto.

Interviewer: Yeah, what was your favourite part of the I-P-M up here? Speaker: Ah, well th-- the I-P-M up here, it was- I was kind of preoccupied because ah, as opposed to other ones we went to, this one I was involved in organizing parts of it. Interviewer: Mm-hm- Interviewer 2: Mm-hm. Speaker: So we were there ah, with E-M-S supervising that- Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: So that took a lot of- Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Up- planning. So I didn't get to see a lot of the actual I-P-M itself (laughs).

Interviewer: Events or-things-like-that that have affected the community (inc) or- Interviewer 2: Mm-hm. Speaker: Mm. Interviewer: What else? Like the bridge or- Speaker: I-P-M. Interviewer: Yeah.

But even years ago we're on the farm, we sold heifers to ah some young fellows down ah- oh, just out of London ah- oh, jeepers! That makes me mad-