Interviewer: Um I don't want to say the actual word because- because then I give it away. But- but the bag that I would bring to school every day i-- let's say elementary school, I'd hang at the back of the class. Speaker: Oh your school bag? Interviewer: Would you call it a school bag though? Speaker: Oh I see what you mean. Yes, our language is changing in that department. Luggage- Interviewer: Or- Speaker: Baggage, that-sort-of-thing.

Interviewer: ... did you ever notice that the kids call their bags something else? Packsack? Speaker: Ah no, see, okay, no, I- I still remember schoolbag being said. Packsack however when you take it out on adventure.

Interviewer: Right. But um, but later when- when bags was start being used, the bag you would put your school books in- well, the bag you would bring to school, what would you- what would you call that? Speaker: School bag. Interviewer: You would call it a school bag, okay. Speaker: Yeah. We call it a school bag.

Interviewer: I grew up calling it a packsack. I- and to this day I still call it a packsack. Speaker: A packsack yeah. Yeah. Interviewer: Right, um- Speaker: School bag, that's what we call it. Interviewer: So, did you hear packsack thrown around when you were- when you were younger or with your kids or- Speaker: Not with school bags but packsack was a common word with other things you-know, like if you were carrying- you were carrying something, say on your shoulders, it would be a packsack. Interviewer: Right. Speaker: Or if you went out in the ah bush for something, it was a packsack.

Interviewer: And when you get- when you got home what was the first thing that you would do? Speaker: Unload school bags- Interviewer: Uh-huh. Speaker: And yeah- and probably have a cookie or-something- Interviewer: Uh-huh. Speaker: That mom had baked (laughs).

And sometimes we'd be late for the bus and we're running down the road to get on the bus as you're waving your hand or your schoolbag (laughs) to get him to stop.

Oh, we had an apple orchard and you picked your own apples. You went out with your schoolbag in the morning and put three or four apples in it on the way out to walk to school.

Interviewer: (Laughs) Did you- how did you take your lunches to school? Did you have a special pack or bag? Speaker: Oh we- I- we had a school- I had a leather school bag with a strap over your shoulder and you put your books in and- and then there'd be room of a bag- an extra- extra paper bag or-whatever and that's- Interviewer: Where your sandwich and your- Speaker: Where the- where the sandwich, yeah.

So in grade-one I remember my dad dropping me off at school, and I had a Roy-Ra-- Rogers school bag, (laughs) it had Roy-Rogers and this horse on the- on the front of the school bag, and my mother said to me, she says, "I'm giving you a Jersey-Milk bar, and you can have it at recess. Don't eat it during school, though, because the teachers won't like that." (laughs) So I remember taking that school bag with the- with this Jersey-Milk chocolate bar, and um, of course I didn't eat in- in school, because I was a very shy person, so I didn't-

... 'cause most of the time we went downtown it was to Eaton's and Simpson's. You-know, and that 's- oh I loved those places um and the- the winter- you-know we did- we did the schtick of um, the- going to see Eaton's, Simpson's windows at Christmas mm-kay? Ah we did that. It wasn't until I guess my teens type-of-thing that basically I had n-- no great grand desire to go into the city ...

Speaker: I'm not a fan of the Americans anyway. I- I don't hate them but I- Interviewer: Well they can be interestingly ignorant. Speaker: But I- but I tolerate them. Okay? Um I don't like going to the- I, you-know, I go to The-States very rarely. We did the Florida schtick when we were kids. My father get- one week off ...

He had six- six-weeks of paid holiday okay? So when we were doing the Florida schtick in Florida he had the option of when he could take his time, so a couple of times he says, "Well, we re gonna go to Florida for Christmas," okay? "We're gonna drive down and camp." Well you know, right down- Interviewer: Camp at Christmas?

She says, "Well, she ate something there the last time (inc) chicken bone or something like that, she got sick." And I thought, "What you think the poison schtick is going on in this park- in the- in the park here?" "Oh no ah," she says, "Well you do 't know," she says, "You don't know," ...

So and then- and some mechanics were coming up the ramp in a tractor, and they saw me, they turned into the wall, and I bounced and bounced and finally come up against the tractor, they jumped out, and I squished the front of the tractor up against the wall, and it sort-of stopped the scoop.

Okay. And all of a sudden, Susan came running over to- to pick up uh the uh scooper and I’m looking down and there is- she has sort-of gone to the bathroom and someone has- ste-- stepped all over it. Anyway, Susan and I cleaned as much as possible and naturally we put in a quarter a- half uh, uh container of chlorine. Well then, we decided we didn’t get it all and what happened was, we took the long brush and we brushed it to the other end.

Interviewer: What kind of buildings did they live in? Speaker: Oh, they were- I think they were mostly log-buildings, and um, they had what they called scoops or-something on the roof, I-don't-know, hollowed-out logs, for to- and they put the hollowed log down with the scoo-- ah the hollow up- and then they put another log over two of them, to close the- the space between. Interviewer: Oh, I see- Speaker: Upside-down, you-know? Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: And that was called scoops, I-think. Interviewer: I see. This would be rather than having to plaster in between the logs, and-so-on. I see.

Speaker: See, when I first started mining, to become a first-class miner, you had to- you had to learn everything about mining. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: And ah, today to be classified as miner, you can be- a scoop-tram operator, which is a mucker, you can be a driller, you can be a blaster, you can be a loader, uh, to load the roads, a pipe-fitter, ah, you can be all these things, but to me you're not- you're not a- a first-class miner ...

Speaker: ... it was very difficult because (laughs) excuse the pun, but they get- lot of times they get tunnel vision. Okay? Interviewer: Right. Speaker: So, it's like following that vein, they know that they have a drill, they know they have a scoop tram and they know that they got to blast that- that rock, pick up that rock and take it to the overpass and get it to the mill. And they know that if I- if I drill, blast and haul, I get fourteen dollars an hour at bonus.

Speaker: And then when they did find them, like I said they were- one was underneath one of the ah, the scoop-trams. Basically had- looked like he had ducked under to get ah- but with- you-know you got how many hundreds of t-- thousands of tons that are dropping down. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: So you're under a scoop-tram, no matter how big you-know it's going to come- a-- you-know and one guy was squished there and the other guy- yeah, it wasn't- wasn't good. But so they lost the two lives on that thing there.

Speaker: We- we put it in the bucket like the buckets on the trees and drank the- the sap and you know what happens when you drink too much sap. Interviewer: What happens? Speaker: You have scoots. Interviewer: Yeah (laughs). That's true. It's good for you. A little bit s good for you.