We had the house- we had the house here all wired and everything, and my mom died on the fifth of February, wasn't it? Fifth of February, and the power was turned on in May, but Ed come down and put a generator on or something, and had hydro put, because the wake was here in the house.

Speaker 2: We didn't have ah- the old house was- Speaker: The old- Speaker 2: Quaint. Didn't have indoor plumbing or-anything-like-that, so- Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Had hydro. Speaker 2: Hydro.

'Cause basically everybody heated either with wood or coal. Nobody heated with oil back then. There was no hydro heating or-any-of-that. So, that's another thing that has changed since I was a young gaffer was that you al-- you always had to carry wood and keep the wood box full.

No, nobody had hydro along here until- ... 'Til I was about nineteen. Ah then the neighbours all- all hooked up to the hydro here and Brent-Bernard and Alex-Roman's and that- there wasn't hydro in this area 'til I was about that age. Everybody hadn't- yeah we worked with the coal oil lamp.

And ah- but anyway, that's the way it was and the- you were very self-sufficient because I said when the ah hydro went off in the st-- the ice storm.

Interviewer: Tremendous change. How do you ref-- think about those changes? Speaker: Well, um, I just- I'm glad. For instance, like, I grew up without hydro. ... And without, ah, um, running water- ... Ah, bathrooms. Ah, but we were all the same. And that was fine. Well then, when we did get hydro, the excitement of getting the hydro and being able to come into a room and turn on the switch, there was a light. So I never thought of it as- I never felt poor or underprivileged by growing up on the farm without a lot of these things. And it never bothered me ...

Speaker: Yes, we grew up in a farm house. We had no hydro and no water and y-- (laughs)- Interviewer: Yeah what was that like? Speaker: Yeah- it was- you carry it in, you heat it all on the stove. Interviewer: The water?

Anyway. So she did very well, she raised ten of a family and- without the hydro, without water and- and-that it was hard work I'll tell you, but- then we had big gardens, a stew of strawberries in the summer you-know, preserving them all and (inc) big garden and put that away for the winter-

There are advantages to having a key you-know? ... I- I can sit here, use your hydro for the f-- tape (laughs).

We had no hydro back then or inside plumbing, of course no radio, T-V or daily newspaper but we did receive a few farm publications which were read from front to back. My parents never had holiday nor do I remember my father spending a day around the house with nothing to do.

Interviewer: And would you have to run that machine to separate that cream or would you-? Speaker: ... Well, there's a- what they called a cream separator. You pour the milk into it, turned the- that was before we had hydro, turn- turned the crank and- ... And then the cream come out one spout and there's a (inc) milk the others, the other spout. I see you don't understand much about farming.

Interviewer: What was- what was their house like? Was it different than your- your farm house? Speaker: Well, it was- they had hydro - ... And more- more conveniences than we had at home, yeah. ... It was nineteen- let me see, my daughter was born in forty-eight. That- we didn't get hydro to land-

By this time I was married and- yeah, in forty-eight when we got hydro.

Interviewer: In the- in the house before electricity, ah, was there an ice box or any- Speaker: Well, some people had it but we never had an ice box, no, we didn't have any- any refrigeration until we got hydro. And even after we got hydro, we didn't have a refrid-- the first refrigerator we got was second-hand but I was so thrilled just to have that.

... had an ice-storm down there too the year after or so when we had ours, 'cause she asked me how far I lived from Almonte and I said about twenty mile. Well she said the people that hooked up power on her street come from Almonte. ... Were fourteen days without power, ah- it wasn't too bad we had the wood stove, and we weren't too bad off for water. ... Fourteen days. The phone was back on before the hydro. The phone come back on about a day or so before the hydro.

... we actually lived on the seventh concession- in between the seventh and the eighth concession on ah, in Lanark-Township. And ah, we (inc) far, we weren't that far and there was no power, no hydro in there and with the telephone, but didn't have ah, didn't have hydro until, ah- I guess we left there in sixty-four, so when I was there till ten years there and then we-

interviewer: Larry, you were talking about hydro coming in, what have changed. Must have been the same with when the phone line came in. Speaker: Yeah I guess, like we always had a telephone at, ah, down on the farm that I remember. I don't know when- if it was- was there as long as I can remember. But, ah, hydro was just something that- again it was there and you turned a switch on took for granted and like it was, it was different in a sense when you- no, it was- it was lights ...

... if you happen to be the first person on scene, you're in command so you're you-know letting them know that you're in command and you're ah ah explaining what the situation is, like you're giving them an update and then you may need hydro, you may need O-P-P um, we do five-elevens so we get motorcycle accidents, sometimes we need the air a-- ambulance up there.

I remember when we- once we got the freezer I remember a bunch of us getting together and cooking corn and freezing it. ... But that was after we got hydro in on the freezer.

Ah, and the drinking fountain was a pail of water (laughs) that you went out to the well and got (laughs). Ah, no running water. We didn't have a- I don't know how much they told you about that but we didn't have hydro on the farm. I think I was seven- ... When they put the hydro in-