When I was a boy working on the farm we cradled all the grain by hand, ah, the women- usually the women, ah, raked it up and tied it by hand and- into sheaves. Stook it up. Now, of course, they have- then next come the reaper. Ah, they just cut- cut it and laid it in bundles but they didn't tie it. Then came the binder and they tied it. Then came the binder with the sheaf-carrier and they carried the sheaves into, ah, six and dropped them off for a stook.

Interviewer: When you were on your, ah- on your father's farm, um, did you ever cut hay up there? Speaker: Yes. Interviewer: How do you- how do you do that? How did you used to do it? Speaker: With the mowing machine. And we had the first old reaper. You don't remember the reaper, do-you? It made a beautiful job of handling grain. You-know, they used to have to use the cradle.

You-see they got- they got mower, what they call the mower and put a horse- team of horses on it and cut it with it. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: And then they had a rake. And the grain at that time was nearly all cut with a r-- reaper. Big thing come around and shoved off a sheaf at a time. Then to follow it up we tied that by hand.

Well, we had this red-war-pig. That's a male pig, eh? It was kind of cranky.

Speaker: Or redd-up. Interviewer: Sorry what's that mean? Speaker: Redd-up is like after we eat dinner she say- she'll say, "Oh I'm just gonna redd-up and then we can do that. "Interviewer: What does it mean? Speaker: Means like clean up the table and the dishes. Redd-up.

And I remind you that is not the responsibility or the function of communicators is to run the disaster; that is the responsibility of the reeve or mayor of the municipality and their officials. They run the municipality in peacetime, they have to run it in time of disaster.

But there again ah- in a disaster type operation, theirs is to re-establish this service on a priority basis set by ah the mayor or reeve or the senior um elected person present.

Speaker: Well I guess he was a (inc) and he took part in the politics of it and so did my dad (inc) quite far they'd go too. Interviewer: What sort of offices did he hold? Speaker: Well he had the ah Deputy-Reeve and (inc) a long time.

Interviewer: How did the village government work? Speaker: They had a council you know, councillors, a reeve.

And uh, that was nineteen-fifty-four, well then in nineteen-fifty-six I was elected uh, uh to counsel, here in Longbranch and I was on counsel for ten years, became Deputy-reeve.

Interviewer: Right, okay. Who 's it named after? Speaker: Glen-Ford, he was uh, on counsel, he was Deputy-reeve before me.

... Widdifield was a separate community, I think they called them townships, and West-Ferris was a- a separate community, um, and the lines were clearly drawn. A-- um, you-know as-I-say they the separate- like the schoolboards were- were separate the- they- there was a little council you-know the- the reeve of West-Ferris, the reeve of Widdifield? You-know the way Callander has a reeve now? Um, and then the city was incorporated.

It wasn't a mayor, they called him a reeve eh?

And ah, you-know that's what got me more interested in the history of this town and ah, I c-- I continue to do it on my own. ... But it's guys like Dustin-Macmurray, like Dustin used to be reeve of Coleman-Township for years- ... For twenty years.

The new mayor ah, the new reeve mayor of Coleman, Dan-Cleroux, he came to the table this morning just for a brief time.

Interviewer: So you really worked yourself up a long way, didn't you? Speaker: Yeah. I was reeve for twenty-eight years in (inc). Interviewer: You were what? Speaker: Reeve. Interviewer: Reeve.

Interviewer: So how did you get from being a alcoholic at thirteen to where you were running- you were the superintendent of the- the foundry and reeve and- Speaker: Well drinking- never bother ah interfered with my job.

Then in sixty-nine or the fall of s-- well the fall of sixty-nine I got the nomination for the reeveship which was the mayor's job at that time.

The only other member of councillor mayor or reeve that's alive besides myself is Jonnathan-McDonald.

It was American force that ran this base at Raymore and they recruited people like my father was in the airforce during the war and ah, people like Les-Burke who was the reeve of the town ...