Speaker: so you'd be hanging out with whoever else had a spare Interviewer: yeah Speaker: yeah and that's mostly- for me I would either go to the library and do um some work, right, do homework or-whatever or just sit by my locker and chat, actually by O-A-C we sat in the auditorium right because the wing is right there, music wing, and we hung out with that David-guy that played the piano

Speaker: ... we hung out with that David-guy that played the piano Interviewer: oh yeah yeah Speaker: who was a year younger but he happened to have a spare then and he was a bit of a loner so I think he likes kind-of hanging Interviewer: right Speaker: with the O-A-C girls and he was an incredible piano player so we 'd tell a song or he'd listen to my walkman and then he'd be able to play it on the piano

Speaker: and that was my lowest grade Geography, I thought it was so mean and then but my the time I got to grade-twelve and O-A-C, you kind-of got to know him Interviewer: right Speaker: and I just- you-know you learn things about people that change your perspective and he it turns out would adopt children with disabilities

Speaker: she just started talking in baby-talk, which I thought was a little odd, I was very frustrated because by O-A-C you'd like to have high grades and I don't know, that bugged me a little Interviewer: I understand Speaker: yeah yeah that was frustrating but I think she just didn't want to change 'cause the grades were in and-whatever but that was irritating

Interviewer: You were involved in the double cohort. Speaker: Yes I was. Interviewer: How do you feel about that? Speaker: Um, didn't really bother me that much. It- the only thing actually I think the competition it was a lot more--I think that in other years, the O-A-C's had an easier time-not easier time but there wasn't as much stress on them having to do good 'cause there was only their grade.

... I found the work to be pretty much the same but like um there was a lot more stress like you had to compete with like twice as many people and now even in university um I think the only course that's really bothering me in Calculus because the O-A-C Calculus they did integration and trig but the grade twelve it was in our curriculum but we didn't really do it. So but we didn't start that yet like it starts next term. But the O-A-C's probably have an unfair advantage there.

Chana's okay Chana was a really close friend of my sister. My sister met her in grade seven grade seven eight and like they were close friends up until grade eleven ten eleven twelve no- up until O-A-C. They were like, close friends, like I would say almost best-friends like Chana would be at my house all-the-time ...

Speaker: ... bused again to a different high-school which was still in Mississauga but quite outside of my- my own regular, um, area, ah, for grade-nine to I- thirteen, 'cause they still had the- the thirteen when I was in high-school. Interviewer: Right, right. Speaker: Um, and- er, no! It was already O-A-C at that time, but um- yeah an-- because it was- a lot of us were bused in for that program, it was- it was again a real mix and this high-school I went to, because it went from (...) I 'm sorry, it went from seven to thirteen!

Um, but I remember in high-school, he had to give a presentation in O-A-C in Kiniseology and his- he had never known I 'd been- told all of his teachers in high-school to- he never knew that. And his Kiniseology teacher, he did this phenomenal presentation, phenomenal, and she phoned me like right after to tell me it was so professional.

Um, I think um, at the end of grade-twelve, um, I was ready for another year. I- I needed another year. Um, but by O-A-C I was really kind of tired of it. It was like, "I've done this before." Doing the same monotonous like, homework and essays and routine and that kind of thing, you-know, it was getting a little much, so-

Interviewer: Is it a eight to twelve or-? Speaker: Uh y-- uh grade-seven through what I guess was- would be O-A-C or however they've changed that now. Interviewer: It's just twelve now I guess yeah. Speaker: Yeah yeah. Um and they- they can- I don't know what they're doing now but they- they combined it ...

... he was an anti-social and had not one friend. Um I didn't do my O-A-Cs I couldn't at that time I just mentally and emotionally was not there. I wasn't able to. I tried doing one O-A-C and I ended up dropping it just because I- I couldn't give a shit about school at that time. Like I- I wanted to pass I wanted my diploma but I just- I just didn't care about learning math and calculus and stuff-like-that ...

But at the time I graduated from high-school I didn't have any O-A-C-s so I couldn't go straight to University so actually I- the course I took yeah it was called, ah, Early-Childhood- Education and so it was- this was like a- I had to take that and use that as a stepping- stone to get into- to get into University and make up for not having the O- the O-A-C credits. But that never materialized.

I took extended French and I practically failed that. I didn't fail but I did really badly in it. And then I went into core French and I really liked it. But when I was in O-A-C they- there was only may-- the I took two O-A-C Frenches and the second year I was in O- A-C there was only maybe eight O-A-Cs who my classes the rest of them were grade twelves so he went by the grade twelve curriculum and we used their book.

Just to say "Hi." Steal- steal some beer from your old man and awake for the whole night.

No. I didn 't 'cause I know if I ever got brought home by the cop my old man would hoof me in the ass.

But yeah they got to come from something that is just a- just a disaster in their life because that disaster- I 've never had a disaster in my life. Everything 's been easy for me. Compared to my old man? I don 't have bombs dropping on my head. Do-you-know-what-I-mean? I never had three kids. I didn 't have to work go w-- welding to feed- no I didn 't have that.

So you-know he did that and ah he was- he was just a- my old man was ah- ah- ah jack-of-all-trades master-of-none. Right? He could b-- he used to do ama-- he- he 'd do anything man.

I-mean there was a lot of you-know don 't forget you-know back then forty-five years ago you had a lot of people like people that came over from other countries and-stuff. You-know referred as honkies back in those days right? So you-know they 'd be had a hard time now like Italians and you-know the Maltese and-whatever. They came here they would al-- they were like you-know "They 're all honkies". I mean my father you-know how many times my father 's thrown guy- he 'd throw a guy- guy from Shell-Home- Comfort about your size guy you-know? He threw him out on his head he called him- my- my old man a honkie right?

Both. You know what I found? Most- most of the ah- the men from the fifties are an Archie-Bunker-type. They were assholes. Ah men were king and if "Yeah, the old man said it", that 's the way it was.