... oh he had some theory that it- there was another place in The-States that was founded by somebody from Belleville, and I think it's Belleville, Michigan or-something-like-that. And they said holy-wha too.

Yeah I do ah- yeah I do a lot of ah- ah- ah I got into a lot of hiking and camping and ah mountaineering and- and I- I do a lot of ah mountain climbing down in The-States. Uh this year I didn't do any in the winter but ah I generally try to get some done in the winter and summer and-things.

Interviewer: So um, why do you think then people would leave Belleville if they- either doctors or just people who (inc) Speaker: Well you- you-know we've been lucky that we haven't lost too many doctors but a lot of doctors will go down to The-States where they've got ma-- major incentives- major cash when- incentives and-things. Once we have doctors here we- we don't offer a- ah retention program at or- we haven't before.

Interviewer: Did you motorcycle a lot? Did you travel that way as well? Speaker: Yes. We went to the east coast two or three times. Went down into The-States, not too far down into The-States. We went to Newfoundland on a motorcycle and-that. Yeah we traveled every- every summer.

Ah well my mother was from here. She lived off of one-twenty-one over there on a farm and my dad lived in- well origina-- he was born in Burnt-River but he lived in Kinmount and here too. And then they went to The-States and he worked in um, I think it was General-Electric over there and then ah I was born and then they come back here.

... ah my mom came home for them to be born in Canada and ah- and then ah but she didn't come home when I was born. So that's how come I was born in The-States. Yeah.

Interviewer: Have you ever noticed um- one of the things we're- we're looking at is kind-of like Burnt-River slang maybe, or terms that you've only heard here or that people use in town? Speaker: No I don't think so, but when I phone my cousin in The-States ah- they cou-- they said, "Well ah- we can tell- we know who it is because ah by the- the way I talk."

... and I don't think that- I don't think leaving Belleville makes much sense. It's a beautiful city, it's- it's well located, as far as being in-between major centres. You're talking Toronto, or Ottawa or Montreal even. You-know, if you need to go into The-States, it's fairly close to The-States. And it's ah- it's growing up on its own rite with ah- you-know, we've just got a theatre downtown called the Empire-Theatre, and it affords a lot of cultural opportunities for- for those that live in Belleville ...

Interviewer: You can climb on the statue and sit on Lester-Pearson's lap if you want to. I had- like tons of kids who did that, like they loved sitting on Lester-B-Pearson's lap. But you can't- you can't do that in The-States, that's like- Speaker: The-States is so weird someti-- it's so- yeah. Interviewer 1: (inc), it really is. Speaker: To be fair, I think that like The-States has- has had a bit more security issues than Canada. ... I'm pretty sure we haven't had like a leader of our- of the country assassinated in such a weird way as Kennedy was.

Interviewer: You should find out where he- where he roams and sort (inc) yourself. Speaker: But he does everything, he'll show up into like- I don't know of- about Canada but all different places all over the-States. Interviewer: Oh so he goes to different cities and-stuff, I-see.

But yeah mom and- um my- like our grandmother came actually from the States. She moved here when she was three or five or-

Yeah, so he's like owner, operator so he kind-of works. If he wants to take a month off, he takes a month off. He um, he works down in The-States so I-mean he isn't- he's not (inc) where he goes to do that and then my mom works- has just done factory work out of Lindsay.

And now she's back in Belleville, like we're all living together again, and um, I used to do a lot of traveling, like down to the States, but nothing so much inside of Canada more so Ontario.

Ah Mick's in- He was- he was born actually in Canada, but he lived in The-States because his father- brother James all went down to Los-Angeles, he was a contractor- I think he did a lot of the work in the- on the- in the ah- ah the airport down there, but Mick was Canadian he came up and joined the forces up here ...

We would bring in ah small appliances by the car-load, train-load from The-States. You-know Dormar-Food-Mixers and-all-that-kind-of-thing and swing away can-openers and- it was interesting, but it wasn't really what I wanted to do.

I've noticed in the States though, when I go to the States a lot of people say- instead of saying "Where is it?" they're just like "Where is it at?" instead of like- why are you adding the "at" at the end? Where is it, where is it at?

My grandma lived here most of her life and then um, my stepmom grew up in North-Bay as well but she went to university in the States and ah, my step-dad was- I think he was born in North-Bay but moved to Toronto as a young adult or the other way around and then was- sort-of went away for university and-stuff but o-- like came back and ended up here so.

And he's written a couple books from prison about like against the death-penalty and ah one of his books is All-Things-Censored because he had been on- he was supposed to be on a radio-show called All-Things-Considered in the States but then they didn't let him- didn't let the show actually air. And it was supposed to be more like a left-wing show.

If I had have kept my union-dues up, I could have got back on somewhere else but I didn't bother. No, stuck around here most of my life. Pretty well all my life. That was the only time, you-know. Like I been out- I been in the States like Pennsylvania and different places. Ah I've gone out west several times. Went out to Fort-McMurray three different times, not working but visiting. So, the only place I haven't been is east-coast.

... like- like Canadians I think really have ah stigmatized the word "north" in a negative way I-think you-know. And ah having it as part of our city name I think has held us back you-know I-think- it's not like that in the States though. In the States when people hear "North-Bay" they picture something totally different, they think of like some sunny, pleasant vacation land or something-like-that you-know-what-I-mean? That's how they think of it, you-know yeah. ... Because there are places in the States that are called North-Bay. Interviewer: North-Bay California. Speaker: Yeah and they're all in warm places, there's one in Florida there's one in California (laughs) you-know-what-I-mean so people there "Oh North-Bay, oh yeah."