The cottage burnt down (laughs). They- the wood stove took on fire and the- burned the whole cottage down.

Yeah, it's- it's- it's a, ah- i-- it's quite a, ah- a fascinating story when you- when you can really get back to that point of the origins and, ah- and, ah, it was- the- the- the- the stories even gets even more difficult as- when they're coming over the steamship takes on fire. Like, they come over on the main- the main- I think the main ship and they land it in Quebec. And then they take a steamboat up the Saint-Lawrence and- and it takes on fire and they lose most- all- pretty- all of the things they had with them.

I mean, it 's a good album, but it didn 't- I didn 't take to it the way that I have the albums in the past and-

Yeah. The mother didn't- wouldn't take to them or-something.

We had sheep at one time and they're usually, usually was um- was some mother who didn't take to pet lamb so I had the privilege of feeding the lamb knowing that when fall came I would sell that poor little thing and get my five dollars.

They kind of thought you should just take to it naturally like a squirrel or-something, but I- I didn't, I didn't.

She did not approve and in front of my grade-ten class took me to task for being a not quite sure what she had in mind. And there always has to be somebody to spoil your fun. But oh that was exciting. My grandfather laughed because he had been not just a barber at times, but also a barber shop singer, barber-shop-quartet, and he sang in the old Griffin Opera theatre down here.

Being able to be silly and noisy and out on the street because during my teen years Mother tried to push me out of the house because of my difficulties with Father and often two or three gals would be making too much noise on Front-Street and we had a- a police officer friend at that point and he took me to task for it. Wanted me to be better behaved.

Like for some weird reason even though like my dad was take- like as my dad would say, taking the piss. Meaning you'd be make- be making fun.

Ah, we used to love to go to Brechin, which is just up the road here and the Catholic church used to run dances in their rec hall there which is right beside the church and the bar- beverage room, beer parlour was right across the road. So everybody over there and get tanked up.

This boy he was a tarter, his name was Jake-Moore and um he- I used to take the kids down you-know to when they registered and he wanted to go into mining engineering and the professor said, "now why are you thinking of mining engineering?" He said one of his best friends was going into mining engineering.

She was really an old-tarter but (laughs) you learned.

Because I collect dragon statues, and I have a lot of little chintzy ones from the dollar store that people see and go, "Oh you collect these, so I bought eight of them for you, they are a set, they cost eight dollars." So I have like these little- she calls them tchotchkys. That 's my sister's word for these things, cheap little pieces of junk that I like putting everywhere.

Oh it was- was just this- this girl that ah- she's retiring from the- from the auxiliary but she's- she's got a really nice touch with things. And ah it was beautifully done. She even had tea cozies. Do you know what a tea cozy is?

And there were school-dances of course and tea dances and formal things where you got all dressed up.

Yeah. You-know I was- if you got invited to it you were lucky. And then you could go down to the auditorium where they held the tea dances which were in the afternoons and hopefully somebody would ask you to dance. Stand there like a wallflower.

Speaker: Oh yes. That 's with the poodle-skirt-'n-days and the saddle-shoes and jitterbugging. Oh yeah. I- I never did that much involved but I mean, the- the experts, you went down under the- your- the- your part-- in between your partner's legs and up over their head. Yeah, never got that involved but- at- and that- at school, we had what they called tea dances and I used to- Interviewer: Afternoon-dances, right? Speaker: Afternoon-dances.

I thought "I 'm going to have to go on at least te-- tea dances." So I went to the tea- dance, and the boys were all standing around, the girls were all dancing together

I thought "I 'm going to have to go on at least te-- tea-dances." So I went to the tea dance, and the boys were all standing around, the girls were all dancing together

So I knew, that was so much, and I- I still didn 't know how to get to meet her, and then I heard they were starting tea dances at tea- at four-o 'clock on Friday, after school...