Sometimes we ate before we done the chores, but- and ah, my father, ah, if he were home, we might have supper before, but he didn't- chores wasn't his thing. ... And he could plan it to be home when everything was pretty well done.

Interviewer: That was the story your parents told you, but it- but it's true babies were always born at home. Speaker: Pretty well- we were all born at home except Ben.

Porridge was always for breakfast. ... With maple syrup and milk. 'Course we had our own syrup, our own milk, our own pretty-well-everything. We even made our own butter.

And she had three daughters, and they had pretty well all left home and there was this extra bedroom, so- ... Yeah, rented the little bedroom, and had a desk to do my homework at and-

Speaker: It was pretty well- Interviewer: Finished by then. Speaker: Yeah. ... The big dairies were taking over.

Ah, they'd live with one of the local homes, eh? ... There was one lady in Elphin that pretty well looked after each teacher as they came and so-

We have certainly had to do some ah upkeep as we go along because an older place requires, you-know, to fix this and that and pretty well done, I've done- Now, I've done a lot of talking, you'd better ask me some questions of you-

She took a university subject pretty well every year in the summer. It's a hard way to do it but she had three children and that's the way she did it. And she stopped teaching when she was fifty-six.

... it's a wonderful lake. It's too bad that it's closed sometimes in the summer for pollution. When I was a teenager I went down pretty well every night and we would dove off the pier and there was no sign of pollution in those days 'cause that's sixty years ago but ah, this happens now ...

Um, loved riding a bike, lived on a bike, this was- this was before there was any school-buses and if- when we lived up by the United-Church you ah, it was good going to school 'cause it's downhill pretty well all the way, you can get to school pretty quick, but going home for lunch you had to pedal like the devil and you usually- took you almost oh- ten to fifteen minutes to get there, no matter how hard you tried ...

Interviewer: What was some of the issues that you had to deal with? Speaker: Well pretty well the same as they're dealing with these days. Same things, roads and schools and ... taxpayers. Trying to look after them.

Interviewer: Yeah, 'cause some people I 'member, when we had the historic society, said it'd be a day trip- Speaker: Pretty well, yeah.

... ah, in the- in the seventies we had a great-big snow-storm in April that everybody all- ... Fourth, fifth, and sixth of nineteen-seventy-five, all of Ontario was pretty-well snowed-in. It was just a spring storm and- and the schools were closed, I remember that.

... we had history and science and geography and reading and writing. We had to do our writing exercises- and math. And, um, pretty-well the same subjects as we had today. Um, we had um um gentlemen come around, and he was called a music teacher- itinerant music teacher, and he would come on a certain day each week ...

When it got too hard to crank anymore, it's pretty well froze (laughs).

Actually, I think, ah- I think one good day with a- a good game would- would pretty well clear it up. And then, of course, the- you'd go and help the next farmer do theirs and then the next farmer do theirs and make the circuit of ah- yeah.

... you'd have some fresh coals, usually in the morning and all you had to do is put a little kindling in and start the fresh fire and by the time the other kids came to school at nine-o'clock then you- you had things pretty well up- up to speed unless it was dreadfully cold. ... But that- th-- that gave a little kid ah, ah sense of responsibility and I felt like a man.

Interviewer: So when you were growing up, the mills were on their way out, were they? Pretty well. Speaker: Yeah, pretty well, yeah, pretty well.

Interviewer: Well, is there anything you'd like to add? ... Speaker: Oh, I don't think so. I think we pretty well covered everything when I was growing up

Interviewer: Yeah. So you've got Irish through your blood. Speaker: Pretty well. Yeah. ... Yeah, pretty well.