Ah but I was an Ontario-Scholar and for somebody who had a real struggle, I was an Ontario-Scholar and I had- I th-- I'm pretty sure I got an award for French. For core French and Spanish 'cause I excelled in languages. I found my- my niche so I had applied to Laurentian-University ah for translation 'cause I thought, you-know, I was going to be an interpreter, you-know.

Interviewer: So you speak English and French? Speaker: Yeah. Interviewer: And English is your first language? Speaker: Yeah, and French- my parents- my mom she took core French so she just took like the French that like English people would take in high-school. Um well she took more courses of French in high-school but it was more for beginner sort-of thing and when she went to university, she took French too I think ...

Speaker 1: Yeah. And I've- I used to corn them too. Interviewer: What's that mean? Speaker 2: Feed them corn.

Interviewer: Did you have family reunion this year? Speaker: ... no but we are having one. ... um the long weekend in September at the trailer. ... Yup a corn roast.

Speaker: But the club was ideal because there was not- nobody around. It was all family and ah there's no hydro or anything out there but ah it's still good. We had ah- we had a corn roast and- Interviewer: Oh I- it took me a second. I was like a corn roast? What is- but I know what one is (inc). Speaker: Yeah, oh yeah we had a big corn roast for everybody and-

I thought we- I'm pretty sure we had a potluck one night. We had a corn roast. But um it was ah- it went good. The only thing we had to do is like- whatever it cost me- like it cost me probably about nine-hundred bucks I guess to get everything.

... then we came to the railway place, it was built up a little bit. And the other side of that was the sandy beach. Trees right to the water. And we used to cut some of the trees down on water, make a spot where it was sandy. Have our picnics. Corn roast, corn- weiner roast down there as kids.

... there was- you-know, other family, kind-of extended family that would come too and we'd have a whole crew and we'd pick potatoes and we'd have a corn-roast and-all-that afterwards.

Speaker: And- well, I used to have a- a corn roast e-- every year. I'd have a cor-- corn roast and invite all the- well my parents did, you-know, but I'd invite all the kids and- Interviewer: That's nice. And then, is that over a fire, again? Speaker: Yeah, yeah, an open fire, yeah. And then my father would put up a big tent in the backyard ...

That was- one of the Thickssons' main corn roasts was on the long weekend in September. So me and another guy cooked fifty-two dozen cobs of corn and drank a bit of rye.

... she was always there. She was always there to get us up in the morning and- and ah yeah they didn't- very seldom did they go- the only time they would go out is to other neighbouring farms where card parties would be going on or corn roast in the fall and yeah.

Speaker: At my dad's was all round, and- well we built- the building part was built the cow-byre after my- after my time. I was about eleven year old when they built the building, like built the inside of the building. You-know the cow-byre? Where you put the cows in?

Interviewer: Like, what would you call the building that you kept the cows in, then? Speaker: We, ah- they called it- the Scotch people called it cow-byre. (laughs) Interviewer: Is that what you called it? Speaker: Cow-byre. Interviewer: You called it that, did you? Speaker: Oh, yeah.

Interviewer: Yeah. You said you had another building for the calves though. Speaker: Yes. Interviewer: What did they call that? Speaker: Well, the calf-house. (laughs) Interviewer: The calf-house, not the byre? Speaker: No.

People milked out in the byre- out of the byre and then out at the barnyard we called it. And these- (inc) is still there. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: Nice clean place. Interviewer: Mm-hm. So we were going through the buildings weren't we? You've got your- the barn that has the cow byre with it.

Interviewer: I see. And then what do they call the upper part of the- the barn like that? Speaker: That's the barn, up there. Interviewer: The which? Speaker: That's- (laughs) the upper part is the barn, and the upper part is the cow- is the cow-byre. Interviewer: The- the lower part's- Speaker: Yeah. Interviewer: The cow-b-- Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. The cow-byre, yeah. Interviewer: The cow-byre. Was the- was the cow-byre sometimes separate from the barn? Speaker: Oh yes. That's the proper way to have it too.

Speaker: And the cattle the horses was in the bottom and the loft on top. Interviewer: What did you call that shed? Speaker: Stable, cow byre. Interviewer: Okay. Um now where would the ah- where would the cows g-- go out to ah to graze? Speaker: Well, it was around- they had to have ah- it was a field someplace, you-know. Fenced. We could turn them out in the daytime, bring them in.

Interviewer: Um what about the um- the building that you'd keep the cows in then? What would it be called? Speaker: That would be the cow byre. Cow byre, that's what they called it. Now they- they don't call it that now you-know. They call it the- well it's just the barn. But it used to be the cow byre.

And the pigs, they uh, they had a- a- a place of their own w- what's it called, pig-sties I guess- And uh, and the cows, they'd be in the cow-byre and the horses would have the horse-stable-

Interviewer: ... things you remember, interesting things that happened when you were farming or working in the bulldozers. Speaker: Yes I got- ah, there was two of us working on a bulldozer up at um, above Calabogie and ah, we were about a mile apart and there was a trail, up- a (inc) track, cowpad through the- this hardwood bush.... So I thought I'd go over have lunch- eat my lunch with it- with the other guy. ... And there was a bunch of (inc) about the height of the table there. ... And the pad went through them and all at once, this old lady stood up and give me a roar at me.