Ah three different times I worked for them and we had to um limb trees up sixteen feet or t-- eighteen feet so that the- they get more of ah sunlight.

One in particular I was ah limbing a tree. Limbing a tree is when you cut the tree down. You walk along the tr-- ah trunk part and cut all the branches off.

Interviewer: ... did you have any special celebration for the day after Christmas? Speaker: The day af-- no, w-- ah they celebrate Little-Christmas. Interviewer: What's that? Speaker: Well, it's about a week after. Interviewer: Uh-huh. What- Speaker: That's m-- ah m-- the more of the Catholics that- that keep that- keeps that. And that's a holiday.

Now we were cutting wood up here in- in Emery's bush near the Catholics, eh? And the- on of the boys come in all dressed up. Dad says "where you been?" "Oh," he says, "it's a holiday. It's Little-Christmas." I didn't know anything about it. Interviewer: Huh. What- what day was that now? How- about w-- ? Speaker: I- I think it's about a week after. Interviewer: I see.

Speaker: Yeah. No, there's no ah- well, there's Boxing-Day. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: It comes right after Christmas. Interviewer: But you didn't- there was nothing like s-- you-know a special- Speaker: No, no. Interviewer: Celebration or whatever. No. Speaker: Just Boxing-Day. Interviewer: Hm. Speaker: But that Little-Christmas, the- at that time was- what he said was ah one of their big days all they kept so possibly that's what-

What other traditions, um, oh January the sixth is when we used to hang our stockings up at Christmas, it was called little Christmas, they don't do that. Ah that- that tradition is- is gone by the wayside, and even some of our friends who have grandchildren, they no longer do that either. Interviewer 1: On January the sixth. Speaker: Ah I-don't-know. Interviewer 2: The little Christmas. Speaker: It's called little Christmas. Interviewer 2: That's the Ukrainian Christmas. Interviewer 1: Oh. Speaker: Yeah, and the Italians would celebrate it then too.

C.S's father run a livery stable right where Loblaws-Store is there on Pinnacle-Street today, and when C.S. was born, the mother died so they wanted one cow's milk which is something they certainly would not approve of today.

Interviewer: Did they ever have sort of a central stable for the town? Speaker: Oh yes, yes. There was what we called the livery stables and you could always go there and have your horse fed. You'd unhitch the horse and the horse would be put in a stall and fed while you were doing your visiting, or doing your business that you came to town or city for. Ah, sometimes horses were kept in the livery stables for several days if a person was making an extended visit. Other times they'd just be there long enough to be fed their hay and oats and on their way again.

Speaker: That's a service sta-- was a service station but I mean at that time it was a regular livery stable building. I can't- I remember what it looked like but I can't be exact on the location. It was in that area. Interviewer: How many horses would he have to look after? Speaker: I haven't much idea. ... But anyway we were talking about livery stables. ... Oh I forgot when I was talking about livery stables about J.-C.-Lynne.

... he had one special pony that he would hook to a buggy and take in. But he had to get into the town of Perth in time to unhook the horse and buggy, put it in the livery stable behind the, ah, what is now- or was known as the Imperial Hotel, and then walk several blocks to the high school.

Interviewer: What team did would you- did you used to be on? Speaker: Oh I never played for Lob-Ball for I was too far advanced then. See it's been going now for thirty years eh? Interviewer: So what did you do? Did you help out with? Speaker: Well I used to help a bit. I don't help out now.

I think it's next- yeah next weekend, not this weekend. Next weekend's the big lob-ball tournament so. Interviewer: I heard about that. Do you play? Speaker: Yup, so. Nope. I'll be making breakfast or helping make breakfast. Interviewer: Oh really? That'll be fun. Speaker: We do breakfast. The Fire-Department does the breakfast down here.

There used to be ah like quite a few things going every year. We used to have our home-coming in May. We used to have the lob-ball in the fall. Then we used to have New-Year's and Christmas down here- Christmas and New-Years down here.

... ah back about twenty years ago I well, actually it was probably longer than that, thirty years ago they started the Burnt-River lob-ball team, and we ended up putting in a family Gilmore-Plumbing Lob-Ball team and it was all our, my brother, sisters and brother-in-laws, Kate was the catcher, my sister was the second baseman, that-kind-of-stuff.

Speaker: The old- the old saying eh? The family that plays together, stays together so. Interviewer: Do you still do it? Speaker: No no, we- beca-- because of our age and-everything-else it got little dangerous to keep playing. But we- we did it for fifteen years. We played lob-ball you-know, off and on the personals would change pretty much but we ah, grew as a, you-know as a team and we had uniforms and ball-caps and that's when we first started wearing uniforms, actually yeah.

We used to play against other teams like the Mackenzie's which was a- a family name in the ah- in Burnt-River and the Handlys and-stuff-like-that. They'd all put their own teams together and we'd have the Gilmore-Plumbing team and- and ah, this lob-ball tournament's kind-of huge and- and there would actually be fifty or sixty teams come in from all over Ontario and play, and we'd actually have like three or four ball diamonds set up in the village, so wow.

Interviewer: That's pretty fun, does it still happen or? Speaker: Yeah actually, they're- I think they're coming up to their thirty-first or thirty-second year of the annual lob-ball. So that's been an annual thing and it's always Civic-Holiday-Weekend. So it used to be a- a huge ah weekend thing.

'Cause the ah, everybody used to congregate on the cement-step and basically visit and you-know, that was like the town-hall sort-of gathering sort-of place right? And ah, I recall it being around the week before the lob-ball weekend. So it was the last week in July and they were all just stocked to the brim getting ready for the big lob-ball weekend, with sixty teams coming in, so it's like a city in- in Burnt-River, believe it or not, with all the camping going on and the teams coming in and then this fire happened, and ah. Burnt right to the ground.

Speaker: So, in the summer like, every summer since probably I was sixteen we camped down there, 'cause it's just a big campsite so we've been camping down there and party down there and um- in Burnt-River they have a lob-ball tournament every year- I don't know if you know about it or not. Interviewer: A little bit. Speaker: Yeah, and it's pretty much th-- like, the town goes from probably like fifty people to five-thousand people just that- just that weekend.

peaker: Ah, he went in the water and then- I-don't-know if he a-- if- I think he went into the next day and he went to the doctor or the hospital or-something-like-that but, that- that's one of the classic stories from lob-ball. But, I- I-don't-know if I can- I can't really think of any right off the top my head- any other good ones but- Interviewer: Any other good Ryan stories? Speaker: Yeah, most of our stories revolve around Ryan 'cause he does all the stupid things.