Speaker: Yeah, same connections all at Newtonbrook and um, extended-French and French-Immersion. Emma Thrombly's in that and so I ve had a class with her as well. So I've known her through that.

You-know Newtonbrook is said a lot of times to be let's say more Russian but I was in the extended-french-program and there we were getting a lot of um, it was just a huge mix there. Um, however if you go to something- some of the clubs that are more like a softball or Scouts I found that it was a lot more middle-class-white.

Interviewer: She goes to Newtonbrook? Speaker: Yeah. She's in extended-French as-well. So yeah- Interviewer: Why was it important- I guess for your parents- that you learn French? Speaker: No, not at all actually um, it was more when I went to Newtonbrook I do pretty well in school and I was looking at the regular program and I thought Id be kind-of bored. And so I sat down and my mom had sat down and this other thing about extended-French. And so I sat down with this and I was like, "Oh, this is kind-of interesting."

Interviewer: How long have you been taking French? Speaker: Um I started extended French in grade seven and I did extended French in high-school as well so I took nine courses in French. I took um geography, history, civics, careers, computers all in French, and, including my French courses.

... after that I went to King-Edward-Public-School which is right at Bathurst and College. Um, so I went there for grade-seven and eight and I-think that was probably not a very good experience overall. Like it was okay like- a-- education-wise. Like I went there for extended-French and-all-that and I met some good friends there but I-mean, lots of like sort-of social conflicts started to happen ...

So I was in grade-eleven and um- wait, September two-thousand-and-one, yeah, starting grade-eleven. So it was this class where, like I said before how I was in extended French. Basically what they did in grade-eleven and grade-twelve was that for some reason, they thought it would be a good idea to like combine extended and immersion French kids together.

Speaker: ... one of them is at ah Fricker for grade-seven and eight and our youngest one is at E-T-Carmichael but he actually will go to Fricker next year for the extended-French program. So, that will be- that will be a big change for him.

Interviewer: And- sorry, so which one go-- which one's going int--to the French program? Speaker: Ah, the youngest one. So they have a l-- sor-- it's- they call it an extended-French program. It's sort-of the late immersion program, so they go for grade-five, six, seven, and eight and they do close to sixty-percent of their day in French for grade-five and six and then it's about a fifty-fifty split for seven and eight. And he can still take some extended French courses at Widdifield or he can choose to go to Chippewa for full immersion.

Well I can be a drag-queen but I don't want to be. Like, "I can be the overly-effeminate guy or I can just be really vocal." And so he's the really vocal- i-- if- if straight girls had an equivalent it would be like their fag-hag. ... He likes to collect straight girls, in that sense and be their best friend. It's a little odd that way. Interviewer: Interesting, role-reversal.

Speaker: But um, it's like his thing, he just really likes lesbians. Interviewer: So he's like the equivalent of the girl who likes all the gay guys. Speaker: Yeah, yeah he's all- Interviewer: (inc) Speaker: A les-bro, instead of a hag-fag, or a fag-hag. Whatever they- that's what he calls himself (laughs). Anyway, he was there and he was doing shots of absinthe.

Speaker 1: I guess. (laughs) Well there were some things that, ah. Now, a lady that was here last night- and I never heard this word before, was "falderal". Speaker 2: Oh yeah. Speaker 1: And she said it was big- "Don't make a- a falderal", don't make a big fuss.

My father fell the logs and ah- and ah- and limbed them.

Well with the wind blowing you-see when you go to fall a tree, the wind can whip it around and-

Ah, ah fellow was falling- fell a tree in a lodged and then he fell another one to bring it back down and the (inc) come right back down.

I get a gentleman in just so I'm able to fall the tree where I want it.

And um, I grew up with that experience ah, learning many skills that you learn on a mixed farm, so that you knew how to use a hammer, you know how to use a saw, you knew how to fall a tree, you knew how to treat livestock

Fall the tree and skid it to the landing and land it back and pile it up.

In this tragedy of young people today, Sunday-school has taken a back seat hasn't it. We had several hundred children in Sunday-school and it was a real family affair. There are two many snow-mobiles and skiing trips in the winter and summer camps in the summer, and to be frank about it, I have come to the conclusion myself that, the family pew has come more important than the Sunday-school.

Interviewer: I understand a lot of the carriage manufacturers were, in Ontario, very small businesses, family businesses. Do you know of any large manufacturers that were sort of province-wide? Speaker: Yes. As you say many carriage plants, well they hardly deserve the name plant, well they were family affairs such as ours. My father, my grandfather, and myself, were all involved in this in turn.

Interviewer: What about Christmas? What was the s-- way you used to celebrate Christmas? Speaker: Well Christmas is a family affair, and it still is with our family too. We always have Christmas together, uh, and, not always New-Year-s.