But this village helped raise them you-know? They couldn't get away with anything. Our neighbour across the road, he'd say, "I heard your son was doing such-and-such a thing." So- then we'd speak to them and s-- you-know they were, it was a g-- a good neighbourhood, I just think Beaverton is the best place I could raise the boys.

Speaker: They would go to the bush, saw logs all winter, saw lumber, and they would come and they would frame the barn and then h-- he would say "Al ah, you've- you go round- round up a hundred men for such-and-such a day." Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: "And we'll put the barn up." Interviewer: Now that- okay.

Interviewer: But ah yeah- 'cause a lot of kids now are left out. Speaker: Yeah. Interviewer: 'Cause you- Speaker: Because everything is- Interviewer: It's 'cause they don't have the money to- to do it. Speaker: Ord- ordained to such and such and such Interviewer: Mm. Speaker: And if you're not good at it, well then- Interviewer: Yeah too. Yeah. Speaker: That's- it's too bad, it's ah-

Uncle-Jimmy's who was- died when he was ninety or ninety-one after- just a few years ago and he had a great Lanark-County accent. He had the real thing and- and one of his- "Do you mind the time- do you mind the time when such and such a thing happened?" And ah, and then I heard him use the expression storm-stayed which I'd never heard which I'd read about in the- in Peter-Gzowski.

Speaker: And, you know, I'm sorry to say I don't remember the na-- I don't know my birds anymore. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: But I did when we went to school. Interviewer: Mm-hm, 'cause you would learn it. Speaker: You'd see the bird- "Oh, that's a such-and-such a bird." And you'd hear the- Interviewer: Mm-hm, mm-hm. Speaker:- the call and you'd think, "Oh, I know what that bird is."

They had both- one or the other and so Kris said- and they treated me just like family and all through the years they said ah you will come to our reception and you'll do such and such and I said, "I will do anything to help you prepare but I don't want to go." And they were having a dance in the- one of the halls. Ah and Kyle said, "Well if Ray was alive, he'd go." I said, "That is utterly different."

Speaker: You're- you're really- things were so much simpler then- Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: But, um- and everything didn't have to be colour-coordinated (laughs) Interviewer: (laughs) Speaker: Like you- you- you didn't ah the people on the farm didn't register at such-and-such a place for china and this type-of-thing. It was anything they- anything that was given to them they appreciated.

Speaker: And it did, ah- Mister-Watts- he was a very, very nice man. He lived here in town. He, ah, w-- would go up and d-- he had such-and-such a route to do and the bus was full by the time- like you were squashed in- one right- Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: Beside the other.

Or there was one teacher that- in math that um, he- he would make us, ah, all of a sudden go up to the board and, you-know, "Give me the answer to such-and-such a question." And if I didn't know the answer, I felt so dumb standing up there and trying to- "Okay, I'm supposed to kn-- write the answer down," and all the other people seemed to know what they were doing.

Speaker: She tried to get her, and, ah, then she- she got- get- got back to me, and she says, "You realize how many, ah, such-and-such gr- (inc) names are in the phonebooks?"" Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: She says, "There's, ah, maybe about two-and-a-half pages under the same name. How am I going to pick that name out?" "Oh," I said, "I didn't know that."

Speaker: We- and when we were kids we used to go sucker-fishing. Interviewer: Oh, what's that? Speaker: Ah, th-- the- they're fish.

Pike, bass, um, my mom- we- she caught a sucker fish one time. Yeah, like a- it was like a- I think it's called a ping.

Speaker: Ping, it's like a catfish. It had whiskers and it looked all like- Interviewer: Yeah? Speaker: Sucker-ish, fishy.

Speaker: Yeah, 'cause eating a sucker fish is weird. Interviewer: It's kind-of gross.

Twice today- Calathumpian, yeah I have two and I can't remember. Ask Lue, he'll know what a Calathumpian is. And see when they used to- this time of year, they'd go sucker fishing.

Yeah, dad used to grow some good potatoes here. He used to grow some good pees and goa-- oats too because he had lots of cattle eh? You'd have big piles of manure. Sucker fishing time is when we always drew the manure out and then you had to feed the sucks to eat them.

So if you're sitting here a lot and reading and you could be watching T-V or you could be reading a book or doing a puzzle and you go to sleep and if there is a build up, you want the sucker at the same level as what you're breathing or sleeping because it'll go off.

There was the odd mud pout and then the spring, there was quite a- we got quite a few sucker out of there in the spring, yeah. And I don't care, they talk about their pickerel and their bass and-all-this but you get a sucker and clean it up well out of that cold water, I think it's just as good.

That's right. And, ah, anyway the- this- w-- we used to spear sucker fish there and bring home, you know, a couple hundred of them (laughs) and we got a- a tr-- a fellow from Tat-- ah, from Tatlock, an Armitage, ah- ah, Johnny and Sammy-Armitage used to come up and, ah- with a tractor and they had a big box on the back of it and we'd go back

Um, me, I never really got in trouble. Other than sucker fishing too late or staying out too late at night at that fort, building a fort, working on this or that.