he outdoor rinks I mean we played like um I don't know the schools now, but we you-know for broomball and-so-on we had our outdoor rink in Swastika. We had to shovel it ourselves. Um for the most part- I don't think the janitors did that, I wouldn't think so. I- I remember we shovelled the rinks and ah that's where we played broomball and boys played hockey 'cause girls weren't allowed at the time- I was allowed in Kenogami, but not.

I remember when we played broomball without helmets. But mom made me wear helmet when I was playing- going back to elementary-school, no helmets.

A lot of the times you'd play broomball 'cause the ice wasn't terribly good for skates, but um ah yeah we, you-know, get out there and play.

But the problem- there were problems, why she said- Erin said that there's ah generally broomball because broomball doesn't require very good ice.

But ah ah they had at that time in Kirkland, they had ah kind-of ah competition among the schools that- for the girls, instead of hockey they played broomball, but they played it on skates. Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: Sp-- sp-- it sped the game up. It was like hockey with ball, but you're on- on- on skates. It's much much faster than the broomball, but not quite as fast as hockey.

But they had ah- oh and on the reserve too, (inc) broomball was in there eh? But r-- real broomball, not skates eh? And ah Erin's gang the- I wish I could find the- see if I- knew where the picture was. That's pretty well your broomball team. But the little kids- the boys had ho-- went in- they got skates and went in and played hockey against the N-M-R kids in town. If you get to town. There was no league or-anything. But if we got to town- we knew the- the pilot in there and the game-warden or the game-wardens and they were good at this kind of stuff. They- they go out of their way to fit you in eh? To get the kids in there. And ah they- they would- Erin's gang- I don't think they ever lost, they tied a couple of times, but they generally won on the broomball.

Speaker: I-mean, I played hockey until I was twelve and then I wasn't allowed to in those days because girls weren't allowed to play hockey. Interviewer: No. Speaker: Yeah and I played broomball. Interviewer: Oh tell me about that, I don't know what that is. Speaker: You don't know what broomball is? Well instead of ah- you play with running shoes on. And it was on the outdoor rink in Swastika. We had an outdoor rink in Swastika. And ah you- you have broomball shoes which we running shoes but they had a special sole on them. And you had a broom which was cut off. The bristles were cut off to where- that. And you had a ball about that size and ah you hit it. Interviewer: Wow. Speaker: And I- and it- and everybody played it. It went- went 'til we were growing up. We were grown up women with children and we still played broomball.

Speaker: In elementary school, you know Jackson-Ross, me, him, and my twin Jason used to play broomball. Interviewer: broomball? What's that? Interviewer: (inc) Speaker: I-don't-know, it was like- the-- these sticks with styrofoam ends at the end. Or I-guess that makes sense.

Speaker: Um, yeah, we'd play, like, ah, broomball, I-don't- do you know what that is? You're on the ice with these, like, kind of special shoes, with grip on them, and you have a- like a- broom-like pole, I guess, and then on the end it's like a hard plastic thing, and there's a big- big blue ball. And you have to hit it into the net.

Speaker: Made her own bread and- and, ah, made her own porridge. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: And I can mind when, ah- when we used to eat pea brose that we used to- she used to dry the peas in the oven. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: And take them down to Brown's-Mill in Carleton-Place to get them ground to make pea brose. (laughs) Interviewer: Pea brose? Speaker: Yeah. Did you never taste that? Interviewer: No. Speaker: Well, if you could get some good brown peas well roasted in the oven- Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: And ground they're a very nice, ah, breakfast dish in the morning.

You're better just to make an- an individual cup. Put in a couple of tablespoonfuls of the pea-meal in a cup. And the water real hot and, ah, you're going to stir and the- (voices in the background) Speaker: Pea-- oh yes. Pea brose as we called them. It was a- for me it was a nice dish.

Interviewer: Mm-hm. Um, that cornmeal, you never ate it in the morning? Speaker: No, Interviewer: In any kind of ah- a pudding or-anything? Speaker: No. I never ah- I never bothered with it in the morning. There was pea-brose, made out of peas. Interviewer: Pea which? Speaker: Pea-brose. Interviewer: Pea-brose. Speaker: Yeah. The- they roast the peas and grind them. Interviewer: Uh-huh. Speaker: And it's very nice. You want a nice cream or-something to put on it.

I thi-- it's a good thing they have other offices or there's something else in there, because just for a library to function on its own, you-know, it's a- And then they made this brouhaha 'cause the police wanted a new police-station. Well, my gosh, the place they were in there was terrible!

I- I'm sure wha-- I'm sure when they had school dances, oh I'm sure there was drinking involved, and kids would sneak in stuff, you-know. But there was never any brouhaha about it if they did it. There was never any fights or tha-- not that we ever witnessed anyway.

So I gave them my name. Well, she said, "We have a D." "Oh," I said, "That's my husband. He passed away, like, thirteen years ago and I never changed it." And I guess that's where all the brouhaha came in. I don't know what they figured, so I said to the lady at the gas-company, "You mean I have to pay eighty-two dollars and-whatever to change an initial on a gas bill?"

Yeah. And even in a volunteer-groups that I took part in and I was, I volunteered for the cancer-society and I was a brown owl at the church and you-know, um, whatever the kids got involved with I got involved with. Home-and-school. But again, it was, it was, it was the same. People from the same, same type of background. And I didn 't go downtown very often.

Ah I was out working out west, and I was a brush-cutter, just kind of clearing around trees and what not and bears would come out and just out of curiosity come and check us out, and not put us in any danger or anything, but just kind of- curious, you-know?

Speaker: No, never, no no it was my own car. I had a car for only a month (laughs) yeah, so I was like "Fuck" and then- it was wrote off, so I'm like "Ah I just bought this car and now I owe all this money on this car, what do I do?" So that's when I went out west and was a brush cutter out there. Interviewer: What is a brush cutter? Speaker: Ah you just- you know where they- they would do a clear cut in the bush, clear cut all the trees down then they go in and plant smaller trees?

... my grandmother got kicked by a cow once. ... Yeah she was ah she was working um with the cows and she was milking them and one of them started being stupid and ah (laughs) so she decided- well it sort of like- like I want to say bucking, but that's what horses do. Um just like kind of like getting pissed off and ah my grandmother just stabbed it 'cause it was like it was kicking her and stuff.

Interviewer: So you just ride him around in your fields? Speaker: Mm-hm. Pretty much. Interviewer: That's funny, nice, did you ever fall off? Speaker: He bucked me once, like the only time. Interviewer: What? Speaker: I think he was spooked by something but other than that, no, he was a really calm horse. Like, I'd put my niece on it and she was like two at-the-time, well with me, not by herself.