Anyway ah, hydro came in forty-eight, um my dad, I consider him a very progressive guy, ah we had ah bathroom put in, um about the same time.

Interviewer: You built this place? Speaker: My father and I, yeah... Yeah, and back then you- you had no power, no hydro. ... Everything was cut by hand. ... That's how it w-- how we did it, and- ad most places there was no hydro the- you were putting the buildings up before the hydro was there and no one had a generator. ... And no one had the power tools that (laughs) would work off a generator.

Interviewer: Did you always have electricity and hydro? Speaker: Yes, we did.

Interviewer: You were also on a farm? ... Speaker: We did all that- we did all that ourselves too. ... Like my mom- mom and dad, yeah. We never had hydro. Well I shouldn't say- we had hydro, ah, we didn't have a phone for years and television, shit I don't know what year we got a T-V, maybe nineteen-sixty.

... they approached my dad and, "Dad, you-know Mike-Czerwinski, he's got a- a three-point hydro and he's going to sell it. Do you think we could buy it?" And my- my dad said, "No," and they sort of, "Oh but we- we want to water-ski, and we want to learn to slalom."

Interviewer: Did you have a least favourite job? Speaker: Ah, emptying slop pails. (laughs) ... In the tourist lodges years ago before the hydro went through. ... Yeah. there was just outside toilets and they had these pails in- in, you-know, the ca-- sleeping cabins.

Interviewer: Did you have a- a fridge once you were, ah- once you weren't living with them, once you moved out, did you have a fridge or- Speaker: Well, after the hydro went through, well then- then w-- well, for a while th- they had a- an old icebox and my dad would pack ice for the winter-

Ah, the milking machines came in ah- the hydro came up Scotch-line in forty-seven. And ah just before that we had a- a gas-powered ah vacuum pump and ah a battery ran the poll station on the machine. So ah we had that for a couple years before the hydro came up.

Speaker: We had no neighbours- ... We were ourselves. And we had no hydro - Interviewer: Yeah? Speaker: Oh yeah, we lived with no hydro. We had no telephone, we had a radio that was only put on for the weather or if somebody- if my dad would go to Barry's-Bay and hear that somebody- something happened, well it was only- then it was put on batteries ...

This- that's my homestead there, the picture there. ... That’s the two and a half miles from the road. Ah yeah and ah she stayed here because there was no hydro or-nothing and so then I looked after her, eh?

... it was all coming from this mill and sometimes you had to keep the steam pressure up and you get the turbine going properly. ... But eventually they came from- from the steam, they went into- into ah diesel, after that, it was all right. And then hydro came in, and that was that. I don't know what time when the hydro came in, I think it was somewhere in the early fifties, and then Ontario-Hydro came in. And, ah, that's a part of- ah, he was there for- he worked there for quite a while.

And then they would do the sawing and everything else in there, they had a planing mill, and- it was a very very big operation. And, ah, it eventually didn't- they- the companies moved someplace out of that, after that. And ah, they also... before the hydro came in here, they had the, ah- they had their own electricity here in town.

We have a fight going on with Ontario-Hydro on by the way. ... Yeah, you can read the article in here. The ridiculous charges. I don't know if you're aware of it or not, but hydro is whoah.

The ah- the stone mills, one, one is still standing and it's now a residence. It ah, was a flour mill, a grist mill I believe, and then converted into a hydroelectric ah when hydro come into play. There was also a three-storey woollen mill ah, between it and the, the bridge.

Glen-Tay actually had a street light before the town of Perth had hydro turned on. It was a street light at the end of the old wooden bridge apparently. ... And the hydro lines went through our farm property following the height of ground into the town of Perth. That's where the transmission lines were.

My ah- my mom taught me how to make bread, she taught me so many things ... I can make like if I have to go back to farming and to make like- start off with nothing and if the times got really tough and if there was no hydro and there was a war or devastation I could live off the land. I could- I could- I could do that. I can make buttermilk, I can make butter.

I remember when we got power. I remember the coil oil lamp. 'Cause we got power when we were in nineteen-sixty, we got the hydro. I was three years old. I remember the coil oil lamp, I was so scared. 'Cause it was so dark, there was only the coil oil lamp in the kitchen.

So very shortly after they got their- their new herd built to the point where they were back shipping milk again, hydro was coming. So, ah, hydro was put in I believe in fifty-four. I- I can't remember for sure but it was around nineteen-fifty-four.

Interviewer: Now I seem to remember hearing that ah, for hydro, you used your horses to- Speaker: Yes, I pull line to the hydro. And ah, ah quite a long piece too. With a team of horses and you pull the wire. At that time, the hydro poles went from farm to farm to farm.

... I would feel more confident, ah, you-know, if things break down, but I've- I've learned a few things along the way, like- you-know, when my hydro goes out quite a bit, so I- I know how to start the generator, even if it's cold, I know how to put the um, I think I put the- you spray the ether on it, I know- I know how to do things- certain little skills like that ...