You-know and we didn't we went to the Regatta sometimes, and occasionally we 'd be persuaded to go in an event

Well, in canoeing, our best regatta course is on the island. So ah when I started paddling in thirty-six, as of nineteen- thirty-six, every year you went over for several regattas. And it used to be a small town when they had it called what the Main-Drag. If you know Centre-Island and you go through it, the amusement park and over the bridge, from then on down was stores.

Speaker: And planting potatoes um that was always the twenty-fourth of May. There was always a boat regatta in Almonte on the twenty-fourth of May. Interviewer: Oh! Speaker: So we had to get the potatoes planted in the morning so that we could go into the regatta in the afternoon. Interviewer: So explain to us- tell us what the regatta was like.

They didn 't have the Martmin-- Martin-Goodman-Trail, so there 'd be a little bit um, rickety on the boardwalk. Beach was always filled. A thing I remember about being little- little in this beach is that they were swimming.

It was ah, George McGrady of North-Bay. ph-- a local photographer. And this old man- I was a kid and oh, he must have been ninety-years-old. He had this- just this rickety old shack that was a little store- a little convenient store and I remember he was always so nice to the kids.

And the ladders are rickety. Ah, some ladders are broken. I remember the top floor, what you'd do is you climb these ladders um constantl-- ah, for I-don't-know, maybe the first eighty feet or-something, and then you get to a top platform.

Yeah and ah I worked in a- in a cage, it was kind of a metallic do-- well it was. A metal door. And it was getting kind-of old and rickety and you could force it open with your hands you-know. But one day I didn't lock my drawer when the inspectors were there. I g-- I got a note for this (laughs).

Speaker: Yeah so it ah but it- it was old- it was- it was prison-like and home-like at the same time. Because it was so dark and- you-know so old and rickety.

But it was a residential area, and that's where we lived and we used to go for a drive out to this Model-City when our children were small, we had our own horse and rig, horse and buggy that is, or horse and sleigh in the winter. We would drive out to see how they were progressing with this tunnel business you-know.

...a tire for the front wheel of the buggy, you would use less footage than you would if you were making the rear wheel of that same rig. The same applied to wagons. The rear wheels were larger than the front wheels. Most rigs, or vehicles with wheels used smaller wheels in front to facilitate the turning, made easier turning.

Others would want a carriage or a buggy that would need only two (…) accommodate only two people and others wanted even a three seated rig. I recall one rig especially, a man had a large family and we made the rig in the form of what we called a democrat, with three seats and each seat would accommodate two adults or three young people.

the outside panels were made of basswood, the frame of the body was usually made of hardwood, or some are hardwoods, white ash was the material used to frame a buggy body. The other, heavier rigs were framed in (…) they were also framed in white ash or oak and hardwood floors, and the same with the buggy, was hardwood floors.

There was not necessarily any foot warmers or anything like that built into the cutters, nor into any rig so far as that is concerned.

The village trade didn’t amount to very much really only two or three rigs a year were sold over over an area or twenty-one miles.

Through the winter these trees would be cut and taken to the saw mills in the spring when the saw mills could get busy. All these logs were sawn into the size material required for the rigs that he had in mind that would be manufactured within the next three years...

No, no no. People had cars by the time I arrived. And um, no I didn 't see any horses. Well only the, the rigs you-know that like, as I say, the bread. It would be cheaper for them to, to feed a horse I guess than to um, buy the- everybody.

And we used to belong to a trailer group where we've travelled all over Ontario. Um, we used to have fun doing that- (inc) maybe twenty-thirty rigs go together and away we go. So we use-- we used to be called The-Wagon-Train, so that's why- we had a lot of fun.

Interviewer: Well what did you do? Speaker: Well I was rough-neck on the rigs, meaning one of the lowest labourers on the rig. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: It was our job to make sure you had to- to hook up the drill stem or to disconnect it if you're pulling out of the hole and-

Interviewer: What would you even have to do- I don't even know how it works when you work on an oil rig. Speaker: Well, you got to set up the rig, number one. And then you drill your casing down into the ground and then inside that, you have your drill stem and then you start drilling.

Interviewer: Where did you- oh, I asked you worked on an oil rig. Speaker: I worked on different oil rigs and drilling and service. Interviewer: What was that like? Speaker: It was good work. Hard work. But you got money, you-know?