I- I think they- they come up into this area to catch the walleye which is pickerel. And we had cottages and we rented every summer- every spring to people from Ohio to come up to- to fish the walleye.

There's, I think there's ah, something that's sort of taken its place, another fairly f-- big fish, I'm not sure whether it was pickerel or ah, bass. But anyway, yeah, you can't buy fish now legally because anybody that goes fishing has a quota you can have two a day...

Interviewer: And sometimes they named them after the- the man who- Speaker: Yes. Interviewer: Whose special kind of fence that was. Speaker: Oh, they were- they were rails and pickets. They used some f-- wire with them. Interviewer: To keep them in place? Speaker: But they- when they, ah- when they used a, ah- nothing but a- the old zig-zag fence, well they just, ah- it was just rails and it took a- an awful lot of rails ...

Speaker: Oh, some- some parts that's about all they'll have, is- barbed wire. Interviewer: Mm-hm. A lot easier to put that up. Speaker: Oh my, yes. You can string around the- the- drive in pickets and string it around quick. Interviewer: Not nearly as much hard work as the- (laughs) Speaker: No. Interviewer: As the log. Speaker: Uh-huh. Interviewer: The rail fences.

A straight log fence, if there were anything you'd have to have put pickets in. Or the logs would blow off.

And ah, if it's not fun it's like, ah- when we went past Northern-College today they were all out there with the picket signs. And I said to a friend of mine, I said "You-know-what? In my life, if my boss didn't pay me what I wanted, I just went in and shook his hand and- and thanked him for the job and I moved on."

Interviewer: Is there a particular way of doing the ploughing? Do you go back and forth? Or do you go- Speaker: Y-- when you're- yes if you were doing that but at a ploughing match, there is a plot laid out for you with a picket on each end and then you've got to plough a certain width and you (sneezes) got to plough up against your neighbour and leave a respectable furrow. So there's a knack to it.

Speaker: And he was quite a guy. He used to make a lot of wine. Interviewer: Yeah? Speaker 2: Dandelion wine. Speaker: He could make wine out of most anything, I c-- think he- (laughing) he could have made it out of a- a picket (laughs) if he'd (inc) Interviewer: Yeah? Speaker: But he- he'd a dill-- or, back kitchen about the size of this thing here and he'd- lined with crocks. And he- dandelion wine and rhubarb wine and beet wine.

Speaker: And ah we had an auger there for drilling- well, they used to build fences. You see these- these fences with the pickets up them? Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Well they drilled the holes in them. Interviewer: Okay. Speaker: And we had a big machine there to drill them.

Speaker: There's at least four or five different styles of it. Interviewer: And do they all have different names, these styles? Speaker: There was one- the only different one that I know of we call it the Bol-- Bolton fence. He put his pickets in a little different and- but other than that they were just- they were called a split rail or- or a patent fence. But they just put in a picket different and- Interviewer: So a patent is different from a split rail?

Speaker: Just the black fence wire. It's ah, and you need an axe and a sledgehammer with you at all times. Interviewer: Mm-hm, mm-hm. Speaker: 'Cause you may have to split one. And you need what they call dummy pickets in order to hold up the first rail in order to get the pickets out. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Interviewer 2: Now is it dummy pickets? You take them out after? Speaker: You take them out, and then you just keep moving down- down. Interviewer: It's a fine art.

Speaker: But during the strike, it was like "You do not go to- in this area." Interviewer: Right. Speaker: So, therefore, you can still go around to your friends, but go around the back-way. Don't go around through the- the picket area. 'Cause all you're doing is stirring a hornets'-nest, is what they- the fear was.

'Cause the one dump was only th-- three-miles out-of-town and used to be able to go in there and pick big tomatoes and cucumbers and-that because the seeds would start growing eh. Oh yeah. Good pickings up there (laughs). You can never fail at a dump.

Interviewer: So you remember the circus? Anything- would you remember anything about the circus on the first date? Speaker 1: No. Speaker 2: I do. The elephant. Speaker 1: Oh yeah yeah. Interviewer: What did the elephant do? Speaker 2: Oh- Speaker 1: The elephant piddled. Speaker 1: Speaker 2: (Laughs) And I walked right through it (laughs).

Take her outside, she wouldn't piddle, and she came in here and she'd piddle.

And she says, "Well it's not that I don't like my daughter-in-law," she said. "But" she said, "He m-- she makes (laughs)-" um "sleeps sometimes on a chesterfield and it's not a leather chesterfield, it's one of those um plastic things and I think it's giving them piles." (Laughs) So she was cutting her out of her will (laughs). I had to- I sat there and I just- I-don't-know, you have to be...

Yeah. I knew that if they went on to University they could type somebody's essays and make a little bit of pin money on it. Uh-huh (laughs) and ah ah and it would be a skill that would come in handy. And this was before computers were in every home. Um and you ask about a discipline.

Old curling club still there. And I used to ah haul stuff for my mother, you-know? Ah, take her groceries home first and then I'd come back and make myself some pin money to go to the show. But the story has it that where the- the ah- the building right where the Eat-- used to be the old Eaton-Centre...

And this one guy Gunther, always trying get (inc), he'd be sitting facing the door and he'd- he say- he says "Don't turn your back" he says. While I just walked in and Smith sitting there were two detectives. 'Cause they can pinch you for underaged eh?

Speaker: It was just- it was the policeman in town, but they were the, the bulls they call them eh? Interviewer: Okay. Speaker: Oh there they come in they says you-know. Don't move 'cause they'll pinch you eh? 'Cause we were underaged, we eighteen, we're drinking in the hotel eh?