... and you-know, you-know but I still wouldn't wanna live down in the-States you-know. ... And I don't know that I'd wanna live in any other city in Canada. I'd like to visit but I like that we're so close to everything and I like that we have everything we could want here.

I-mean when they talk about the-States being this land of you-know opportunity and all that shit, I don't think so. I think it's Canada and we 've only been our own country for thirty years you-know, forty years since the sixties so I-mean I wouldn't wanna live anywhere- anywhere else.

I'd like to be able to go to the-States to make money but I wouldn't wanna live there.

We've had a little boy who came up from the States and he said he just noticed a big difference. He really thought the kids were great and the staff. So he's just noticed the behaviour was- was good. 'Cause it is. It's a lovely community here.

Yeah, I mean I- I guess like the- I didn't s-- I didn't see cocaine until I went to- got a job in the States and- and then it's just prevalent. But I knew guys that were doing it um, not really cocaine in high-school, I didn't really see that but

He wanted to- he wanted to get away, go to the new land of- I- think he- he was thinking about going to the States but it was a lot easier to get into Canada, and um, I think he just wanted a change, like in a- a sort of adventure and just- and he liked it here.

Interviewer: Right. Do you think it affected Toronto? Speaker: Yeah. I think it did. I think it did. Yeah I think that- I think that um, it certainly uh like- I think that it united you-know Canada and the States in an- even just symbolically you see like lots of American flags going and stuff like that, which isn't exactly the most popular thing to do in Canada.

... a small town in Sicily, and literally, there's more of us here than there are over there through just population- like, everybody just left. Most of them came to Toronto. Maybe I- I'm just estimating. I think a good eighty to ninety percent. The rest did go to like, the States, New-York being prime- but not a lot, and I 'll get into why um, that was the reason. They were farmers, you-know?

... um- some of them had gone to military school, and they were so disillusioned by the war, and they had such a terrible time, and I didn't hear a lot of their stories, but they just couldn't face going back to the States, and so what they did was, they worked in these r-and-r places, um you-know ski instructors or uh, you-know whatever was going on, you-know working the dances and all of that for the soldiers, that would go there...

Interviewer: Right. Ah, what- what did y-- uh your kids do for a living? Speaker: Oh, I've got one who's a mathematician, he works down in the States for um the weather office and he also teaches in the high-school down there. This year he's teaching chemistry and ah, ah calculus.

... like it was bizarre like you- you never think- like you- you do fall into a false sense of security thinking that you're - you're gonna be alright you-know living in the States, living in North-America, but you're not- you're - you're no more safer, no matter where you are.

And then you realize, "Oh the lights are out there, the lights are out- wow this is really big," then you find out, "Oh this is in the States k-- Ontario," It's like "Whoa." And then, you-know you realize "Okay barbeque" and we went biking that night, we bi-- we went biking, just see what people are doing.

Interviewer: Alberta mm-mm Speaker: um British- Columbia, um then down in- in through the States. Um, where is she? Washington-D-C, um another- 'cause she gets some of the Canadian television right? So she wrote to my husband and said, you-know "Do you think we're family?"

And they had six children there. And uh, somewhere along the line, they went back and went to the States, and lived in the States for a while, in Virginia, and that includes their- the seventh child, that was her child from her first marriage. And I only know this because one of my cousins is going through all- a terrible try-- time to get- trace all of our history.

The older daughter stayed in the States because she was older and she married somebody in the States. But the other six came here and married here. All six of them- all five of them, one, one died. The five of them all married here and lived around.

No, Wellesley- Wellesley is uh, a private girl's school in the States.

Never String-Cheese, that was- that was- that was big, like I mean we never got up to that- but um who was that other one, there was another really big jam-band from the States that we opened for, I don't know, we used to play like all the Comfort-Zone shows so

Speaker: For them- 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.

So we go, C-N-N is on, we're watching, in disbelief. In dis-- it was just like "Nah that can't be. That can't be. That can't be." It was just like "It can't be." And then it became uh "Serves The-States right." You-know, they think they're the untouchables, they go into other people's countries and start dictating and you-know. That was a shame.

Speaker: Um just I guess our family members like everybody got together at the white house when my dad who's comes from a large family so his brothers and sisters come in from Nova-Scotia or other parts of Toronto where they lived. Or you-know family came up from the States and that. There'd be big musical evenings at the house.