Speaker: So, we tried to severance the lot and ah- back in them days to get farmland severanced off a farm was almost impossible. Interviewer: Why was that not allowed? Speaker: Because the government wouldn't- wouldn't- didn't want productive farmland to go to housing.

And in- in them days it was all horse and wagon that you drew the gravel out of the pit down on the six line and you could draw that from here up to near the school up here, ah Ray's-School as we still call it. It's a bake shop.

... the-Manor-Old-Folks-Home as it was known in the back road then. It was built in ah I'm only guessing but about nineteen-eleven, and my grandfather Bill put his- applied for the job and they called them matrons them days, like you're the boss but you're a matron. And he applied for it and he got it, so this is how my father and them got up here.

Mother, she come from Rice-Lake. Her name was Willsons, there was quite a large family of them and ah they had ah what they call a um saw-mill them days, down on Rice-Lake and there was a big island out there, now I don't know where it is but I was talking to a fellow the other day that knew quite well, an it was named after my grandfather Willson, Willson's-Island.

And they run a mill there for quite a number of years. And the only thing that was on that park in them days was a little cabin or a small cottage right out at the very point where you look across at the arena. Or if you at the arena you can look across at that point before you go up the channel into the big lake.

Interviewer: And did you know her? Speaker: Oh all my life yeah. mm-hm. Yup. Interviewer: And how did you- Speaker: Used to visit back-and-forth on the farm in them days. Yeah, yeah.

Interviewer: How many do you think you've shoten over the years? Speaker: Oh too many. (laughs) Too many, in them days oh I'm telling you it was unbelievable you-know the deer that was in that park up there. And that's a big park that Peterborough-Game-reserve.

Speaker: Just ah oh I done some foolish things sure. Interviewer: Oh you did? Speaker: Oh yeah. But um you-know them days were a little different nothing serious you-know, just a little crazy. Crazy in the head as they call it.

We were getting sixty-five cents an hour, and that'd pay a streetcar to Sudbury from Copper-Cliff, and m-- room-and-board. So th-- you can see right there I didn't have much money left. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: That was the wages them days. During the w-- last of the war. Nineteen-fourty-four. And nineteen-fourty-five, yeah.

Today you use electric blasting caps, ah- man, it's a little more technical than it was in those days. And ah- and ah- it's ah- but it was- it was just as hard in them days to do it as it is today. To- to work in the mines. As a matter of fact today- Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: Ah, today mining is- how should I say that? Is ah- today, mining is ah- I would say ah- a little bit different ...

Interviewer: So was that when you began to lose your hearing? Speaker: Oh yeah. Interviewer: Oh yeah? All the blasting? Speaker: From the drilling, mostly. Interviewer: Drilling. Speaker: Yeah. Interviewer: You didn't have any protection at all. Speaker: Well, they didn't have protect in them days. Interviewer: I see. What would you wear? Speaker: Just a hard hat. We used to put Kleenex in our ears, ah- that's it. Today they had mufflers, uh, and so on, but in them days they didn't have that.

Speaker: Ulcers is not a big thing today. They just give you some pills and say "Take them for thirty-days and-" But in them days it was a little different. Interviewer: So they view- how did they view it? How did they view ulcers back then? Speaker: They thought it was very serious. And ah I had to go on a special diet and-all-this-stuff and ah- and ah they put me in the hospital ...

Speaker: And today the kits are plastic and they just break them apart type-of-thing but- no it's different now, it's a little- it's a little harder now too. Interviewer: Oh. I wouldn't have guessed that. Speaker: No I-think it was harder in them days than it is now. Interviewer: Mm-hm. So when you were growing up you were building airplanes and playing s-- football.

Speaker: I'm a people person though, anyway. Interviewer: (inc) eh? Speaker: Yeah, but I'm honestly, them days, um, we were more mature than they are now- Interviewer 1: Yeah. Interviewer 2: Really? Interviewer 1: Probably (laughs). Speaker: Oh yeah like the maturity level and responsibility level of ah, children now a days are not the same-

I can honestly say I always did that. But it ah- it helped me make money for my daughter to go to university. My one daughter is a triple gold metal in skating. She teaches figure-skating now. And that go-- that was a lot of money in them days. In nin-- na-- that made all the money for me to- for them to go.

What you grew in the garden is what you- what you lived off of. What extra you had, you went and sold it. So, you-know, we've come a long ways. People don't think so but we've come a long ways. But them days were a lot of fun too.

Oh, give him something in one thing- he didn't give any- didn't do any good. So she took him to Toronto and of-course he'd had peritonitis, and at them days they didn't have the antibiotics that they have now. And that's- he died. So that's our last f-- brother.

That was the one paper I always l-- looked forward to. To get my patterns and-things-like-that. I'd get- "Oh there's something I'd like," and I'd take that out and you'd be sending for that pattern. The patterns are on-- in them days were only about fifteen or twenty-five cents. But they're a whole lot more now (laughs).

Speaker 2: Well, Gooderham I think was founded around eighteen-seventy-three, so it's probably around there. Interviewer: And do you know why they ended up up in Gooderham? Speaker 2: No. Speaker: God knows back in them days (laughs). Speaker 2: I don't know if- sometimes people move to get free land grants, you-know?

Speaker: When I was a kid this- every place up this road was a farm. Believe it or not. Interviewer: Wow. All beef cattle or- Speaker: Well yeah. Nobody had dairy cattle back them days. Interviewer: But I'd suppose you'd have a cow to get some milk though? Speaker: Oh yeah we had three we knocked. And the rest of it, registered angus beef. The three jerseys.