That's right, as well as, ah, doing retail business he did quite a wholesale business on laundry soaps, (laughs) patent medicines, toilet soaps, ah, teas, coffee, ah- and all, like, heavy work clothes, overalls, horse blankets, ah, hammocks, sealers. He used to bring sealers in by the carload, laundry soap in by the carload.

Interview: What were the days like at Queen-Alexandra-School? Speaker: Oh that's an interesting question. How do you mean, now? In what way? Interviewer: Are there teachers, for example, that you remember or maybe one that stands out-

All together, yeah. They all went in- went into the houses see. Some of them would be dressed up and all and they'd make a lot of noise like a (inc) or-something outside you-see and hullabaloo and they'd go in and they'd treat them and out they'd go again, on to the next house.

Oh yes. Peppermint and humbugs and it must have been chocolates I guess and peanuts.

And that was always a good spot to go. And you can actually see them making the candy there sometimes if you ended up, you-know, at the right time when they were doing this. So that was always interesting too, to watch them make the humbugs and things.

Interviewer: Do you know where- what was on- what's on Front-Street now where it was? I'm just trying to locate it. Speaker: I- I know that the ah- the um hydro office was just down- before they moved it was just down- there was just a little store between my place and the- and the- and this- the hydro. And on the other side the ah Cherry-Press was there for a great many years ...

... let's open a ski shop. The overhead would be minimal to begin with because to being with because it wouldn't affect rent, it wouldn't affect heat and it wouldn't make much different in the hydro bill, most of the built in expenses of a business were already being met by the shoe store.

Interviewer: The-Ontario-Business-College. Speaker: Mm-hm. And it was on Front-Street um above the old hydro office.

But I'm not- I'm not going. Any place that's open and flat and no trees or hydro - lines is a place- like we've been scouting around looking for fields. And ah this winter we had enough snow we could have easily done a field.

So ah then on one Wednesday morning ah I got a- I got a- two calls in a row, one from- from the hydro ah who was ah was looking for a draftsman and ah I knew what the hydro did because I w-- at my work-time out of high-school I went down to- to the ah hydro office and worked there for a week. Used to go out on a w-- week basis.

And then they- you ah provide communications to all these places because in this kind of a flood you- your telephones would be out for a period of time, your hydro would be off. Solely- the communication that people- ah using there own radio set up communication with the hospital, C-J-B-Q because we use the broadcast media to get messages directly to people ...

Now, the senior elected person is going to seek the advice, of-course, of the hydro and-so-on, because they're the experts and the- and this applies equally to the telephone eh.

... well, I worked until they closed the gas house. I don't know exactly, I guess it was in the thirties, they closed that down and I got a job with the parks board on the city for a while 'cause they didn't want nobody on the hydro, you-know, they were going to close the gas company down.

They broke a big gas, what they call a meter, then we had to go back to Belleville, take the team of horses and go back to Belleville and get this meter put in and get them all fixed up. But, gradually the hydro has come in you-see, but there was still no lights yet. There was still no electric lights in Belleville yet, but it started, putting in lights in the streets and the churches yet, but it started, putting in lights in the streets and the churches and the schools ...

So, they brought me down here, they paid for everything, they were fair enough, but in the meantime of-course there was not water, no sewer, no lights, no nothing yet, but this house was wired but it was never hooked up to the hydro because they didn't have no domestic lines coming along here. But, later on they did and then the water worked when I got chopped down there, of-course, they saw to it that I got water so everything was all fixed up pretty good.

Interviewer: So you had electric machines then? ... You didn't have a scrub board? Speaker: No. It was all done with hydro. And I had a gas stove. I had a big cook stove and then I had a gas stove, as well. That was when they made natural gas here in Belleville.

He works here in Belleville. He lives in Marlbank. His dream was to have a log cabin and no hydro and-blah-blah-blah and live in the woods.

... a study between the two plants to see which one was going to stay open. And ah, they take into account, I would imagine, everything from location to- to wages to benefits, to you-know they U-S Canadian dollar, to ah availability of ah everything. From ah, land, hydro, ex-- you-know taxes, so in the end, ah we were lucky. We were fortunate we won out. And ah the- the plant in Greenville closed down.

Interviewer: Do you know where- what was on- what's on Front-Street now where it was? I'm just trying to locate it. Speaker: I- I know that the ah- the um hydro office was just down- before they moved it was just down- there was just a little store between my place and the- and the- and this- the hydro. And on the other side the ah Cherry-Press was there for a great many years ...

They have large group of ah lands and forest people there, ah department of transportation and communications, hydro and there's a lot of good people and- and um equipment they could use.