H. Pettit (00:09):
This is an interview with Angus H. Gregg, conducted by Harvey Petit on January the 30th, 1984 for the University of Guelph Alumni Association Alumni in Action Group. We're sitting in a comfortable living room in what appears to be an old home on a farm located in the north part of Halton County, Ontario, just a few miles from Rockwood. Do you know the history of this house, Angus?
Angus H. Gregg (00:41):
No. I don't know very much about it.
H. Pettit (00:46):
I believe you told me once that where we're sitting now was originally the summer kitchen.
Angus H. Gregg (00:52):
That's right. This back wing was the summer kitchen.
H. Pettit (00:58):
And how old do you think the house is?
Angus H. Gregg (01:04):
It's a hundred years old at least, but the definite age of it, I don't know.
H. Pettit (01:10):
How long have you lived here?
Angus H. Gregg (01:13):
Five years.
H. Pettit (01:16):
I believe the home of the Gregg ancestry was Ireland. When did the first family member come to Canada?
Angus H. Gregg (01:25):
1846.
H. Pettit (01:28):
And that would be your grandfather?
Angus H. Gregg (01:31):
Yes.
H. Pettit (01:32):
And what was his profession?
Angus H. Gregg (01:33):
He was a Presbyterian minister.
H. Pettit (01:37):
And when he came to Canada, did he have a church in a certain locality?
Angus H. Gregg (01:44):
For some time after he came to Canada, he had no regular church of his own. He did quite a lot of touring around in Eastern Ontario, visiting isolated farms and so on and holding services. That sort of work. First regular church he had was in Belleville.
H. Pettit (02:14):
What's your date of your birthday? What year?
Angus H. Gregg (02:20):
June 30, 1893.
H. Pettit (02:24):
Well, if my arithmetic's correct, you're in your 91st year?
Angus H. Gregg (02:28):
That's correct.
H. Pettit (02:29):
And I might say a young 91. Where did your parents live at that time, when you were born?
Angus H. Gregg (02:40):
I was born on Huntley Street in Toronto.
H. Pettit (02:45):
You're a city boy then originally.
Angus H. Gregg (02:48):
I was a city boy, yep.
H. Pettit (02:50):
What was your father's profession?
Angus H. Gregg (02:52):
He was one of the early architects in Toronto.
H. Pettit (02:58):
Can you describe to me some of your boyhood years in Toronto as you were growing up?
Angus H. Gregg (03:07):
I have no recollection of Huntley Street, except for later on, because when I was two years old, my father had had at a house built in Eglington on Young Street and that's where my early childhood took place.
H. Pettit (03:31):
And do you remember when you first had things that we take for granted today? Like electricity and telephone, radio?
Angus H. Gregg (03:42):
We had a rural telephone party line, about a number of people on it. We had no electricity for a little while after we moved to Wayne Newton, but we had inside plumbing and the conveniences of that kind. A lot of the houses didn't at that time.
H. Pettit (04:27):
When did you see your first car?
Angus H. Gregg (04:35):
Well, very early when I was... There used to be an odd one chugging along Young Street. One cylinder car with probably the engine under the seat. And some of them looked like mechanized buggies. And none of them were very successful. They were breaking down a lot. They didn't have much power. But there were very few at that time.
H. Pettit (05:09):
There would be lots of horses though?
Angus H. Gregg (05:11):
Lots of horses.
H. Pettit (05:15):
All your deliveries and for groceries and milk and bread would be with horses. Would they not?
Angus H. Gregg (05:20):
That's right. And at that time, the horse population in Toronto was very great and they needed a lot of feed and hay and oats and so on. And the farmers were driving into Toronto with their teams, loose hay and grain and so on. In the winter, when I was a little older, we had a great time when the farmers were coming back with their empty sleighs. We'd run behind them and pick rides and the farmer would often trip up the horses and make us run. We had a great time that way. I went to a four room school, but it was a country school, and a pretty rough place.
H. Pettit (06:19):
How many years did you go to high school?
Angus H. Gregg (06:23):
Four years.
H. Pettit (06:25):
When you were going to high school, did you do any work in the summertime?
Angus H. Gregg (06:37):
The first two or three years I did a lot work on the property. My father had a big vegetable garden he was very fond of. My mother had flowers and had quite a lot of lawn. So there's lots to do. Later on when I went to high school, the year I started at Guelph, I had a summer job at the Cruickshank Farm at Wingham. It was right on the border of Wingham. And I put in the summer there. The Cruickshank's were the parents of...
H. Pettit (07:42):
It's Olive Cruickshank?
Angus H. Gregg (07:44):
Olive Cruickshank's parents. Olive and my sister, Marjorie, who was a year and a half older than I was, attended Toronto University at the same time and household science course. And she was at home in the summer while I was at the farm. Thought she was a very nice person. Quite a friend of my sister's.
H. Pettit (08:17):
Well, that's very interesting because Ms. Olive Cruickshank, she became Director of Home Economics at McDonald Institute at Guelph in 1920. And she was there until 1941.
Angus H. Gregg (08:34):
That's right
H. Pettit (08:36):
Now you registered at OAC in September 1912.
Angus H. Gregg (08:42):
Yes.
H. Pettit (08:45):
What influenced you to go to OAC?
Angus H. Gregg (08:49):
Well, my mother and father liked to be outdoors. They always had a good size lot and, as I said before, kept it. Nice garden of flowers and all that sort of thing. And they decided they'd like to be out in the country. And my father was interested in real estate and he thought it would be a good investment to buy a piece of land in the country, close to town. And he picked a piece of land near Oakville. And I was interested getting out in the country and interested in fruit farming apples. And the 50 acres my father bought had about 10 acres of apples of producing apple trees on. Another 10 acres of newly planted trees, which wouldn't be producing for a long time.
H. Pettit (10:16):
Who was the president of OAC when you started?
Angus H. Gregg (10:21):
Creelman.
H. Pettit (10:24):
I have read that Dr. Creelman's advice to students was, "Above all, have faith in God, faith in your country, faith in your work and faith in yourself." Do you remember him making those comments?
Angus H. Gregg (10:42):
I can't say that I do.
H. Pettit (10:44):
Would you think he would though?
Angus H. Gregg (10:46):
I think it's very good his place anyway.
H. Pettit (10:55):
Do you remember what the admission requirements were when you started at the college? Did you have to have farm experience?
Angus H. Gregg (11:02):
Have to have which?
H. Pettit (11:03):
Farm experience?
Angus H. Gregg (11:05):
Yes.
H. Pettit (11:05):
To be accepted?
Angus H. Gregg (11:09):
Yes, I had to have farm experience. My stay at the Cruickshank farm satisfied them on that.
H. Pettit (11:24):
How many would be in your class? Approximately how many members were there in your class when you started as a freshman?
Angus H. Gregg (11:32):
If I remember right there, there were about 60 in that. That included the two year course and the four year. The two year course was just the first two years of the general course at that time.
H. Pettit (11:53):
Can you remember any of the names of your fellow students?
Angus H. Gregg (12:00):
Yes, I could. A lot of names that came up afterwards that I saw a lot of.
H. Pettit (12:18):
Were you in residence? Was there a residence at the college at that time?
Angus H. Gregg (12:23):
Yes. The residence was the main building at Creelman's house, it was at one end of it. And there was a central park that sort of a rotunda opposite and so on. The rest of the building was residences.
H. Pettit (12:43):
Do you remember how much you paid for board and room?
Angus H. Gregg (12:47):
No, I don't.
H. Pettit (12:49):
I don't imagine it was very high compared to today.
Angus H. Gregg (12:51):
It wasn't.
H. Pettit (12:54):
Were there any special rules insofar as the residence was concerned and such as, when did you have to put the lights out at night? And could you smoke in the room?
Angus H. Gregg (13:07):
I don't think they were very strict on those things. They left us to look after ourselves pretty well. They had a lady that looked after the dining room and more or less supervised the whole thing.
H. Pettit (13:36):
Did you get good meals?
Angus H. Gregg (13:38):
Yes, they're very good.
H. Pettit (13:39):
Were they like your mother's home cooked meals?
Angus H. Gregg (13:42):
Well, there's plenty of quantity.
H. Pettit (13:47):
You always got enough to eat? Do you remember what the tuition was, how much you paid?
Angus H. Gregg (13:55):
No, I forget now.
H. Pettit (13:58):
I don't imagine it was very high.
Angus H. Gregg (14:00):
No, it wasn't high.
H. Pettit (14:03):
Can you recall say a typical days class work at the college, starting in the morning? What time did you have to get up in the morning?
Angus H. Gregg (14:18):
We had to be up about... I think it must have been about 6:30 or 7:00. And we'd have breakfast about 8:00, if I remember right. And of course, the different subjects were taken, took us to different buildings. We have to travel around to Horticulture and Animal Husbandry and Dairy and so on, apiculture.
H. Pettit (14:55):
Did you have lectures all day or was there some practical work?
Angus H. Gregg (15:00):
There was some practical work. We went out and worked on the experimental plots and had student labor that a lot of them took advantage of. They were paid a little bit to work on some of these plots in their spare time.
H. Pettit (15:21):
And could you apply that money you made on the student labor against your board and room?
Angus H. Gregg (15:28):
Yes, it help some.
H. Pettit (15:32):
And did you have classes every day of the week?
Angus H. Gregg (15:35):
There were no classes Saturday and Sunday.
H. Pettit (15:42):
Did you go home weekend?
Angus H. Gregg (15:45):
No, I didn't go home except for Easter and different holiday seasons. People didn't have cars and the roads were bad. And when you went to a college, found us staying there until the next holiday came along.
H. Pettit (16:09):
Was the trolley going then between the city of Guelph and the college?
Angus H. Gregg (16:17):
Which-
H. Pettit (16:17):
The trolley? Street cars?
Angus H. Gregg (16:20):
Yes, there was a street rail where it came up to the college at that time. There was also a radio that came out from Toronto to Guelph.
H. Pettit (16:35):
Oh yes.
Angus H. Gregg (16:36):
That was discontinued, I think while I was at the college. I'm not sure, but everybody traveled by train at that time.
H. Pettit (16:44):
Were you expected to attend church at the college on Sunday or were there any particular rules?
Angus H. Gregg (16:54):
I think there's a little pressure put on you for that. Remember the Catholic boys had to walk down to Guelph to mass on Sunday mornings.
H. Pettit (17:07):
And was it routine to have prayer meetings in the morning after breakfast?
Angus H. Gregg (17:14):
I don't think so., I don't remember them. There was grace at the dining rooms.
H. Pettit (17:21):
Did some of the professors and teachers come into and have meals in the dining room with the students?
Angus H. Gregg (17:29):
No, I don't think so, but there was a little low platform near the door of the dining room and a table and chair, and one of the professors or the... Forget the name of the lady that looked after the meals and so on. She took that position quite often, watched over us and see if we didn't behave.
H. Pettit (17:56):
That would be the dietician.
Angus H. Gregg (17:58):
Yes.
H. Pettit (17:59):
Now after you finished your first year at Guelph, what did you do during that period between your first and second years?
Angus H. Gregg (18:07):
I worked on a farm down in Leamington. Fruit farm.
H. Pettit (18:12):
Do you remember the name of the man who owned it?
Angus H. Gregg (18:17):
The Atkins farm. It was a large fruit farm. They also had big greenhouses and most of the greenhouses were... Or all the greenhouses were heated by gas and had their own gas well. What they'd done is converted a, in one case, an old coal operated furnace to gas. They even had a coal range in the kitchen in the house that had gas unit put in the furnace, in the burning section of the stove. They're right on the lake this farm, and they pump water from the lake with a big one cylinder hit and miss engine. So they had plenty of good water. Of course, they needed a lot for their greenhouses. And they grew a lot of melons, tomatoes and other things on the farm. And they started the plants and the greenhouses.
Angus H. Gregg (19:45):
And in the case of tomatoes, they transplanted them from one flat to another several times. By the time they put the tomatoes out in the field, they're quite big plants and even had small tomatoes on. In order to get the big price for tomatoes they took a chance on planting out tomatoes in April. They took a chance on frost and if they made it, they did very well. Later on in the season, when the tomatoes got cheaper, they went to the Heinz factory in Leamington, which is still running there. But besides the field crops, they had peaches and so on. It was quite an extensive farm. But interesting thing to resolve at that time was that they started growing Virginia pipe tobacco in Canada for the first time that year and outcomes had a field of about 10 acres of tobacco. And we had the experts from the Southern states to get started on the thing, and had two kilns built to prepare the tobacco after it was cut. And so I went through all the different processes on growing tobacco from helping to plant, to curing it and it was quite an experience.
H. Pettit (21:49):
That would be some of the first tobacco growing in Canada, would it be?
Angus H. Gregg (21:53):
No, they were growing in Burley for some... The Burley industry was quite well established at that time. It was barn cured, not heat cured. Had barns with the sides that could open up to let the air through. This was the first year for the Virginia tobacco.
H. Pettit (22:19):
And did they have tractors and things like that at that time?
Angus H. Gregg (22:22):
No, it was all horses.
H. Pettit (22:23):
All horses.
Angus H. Gregg (22:25):
They had two row or single row planters. Two men sat down close to the ground at the back, were very much like to have still. And there was a tank on the vehicle to spout little water for each plant. And we had experience doing that. You planted alternately, the two men on the back. And the harvesting... Or before you harvest, there was a lot of work with the tobacco. You had to sucker it and top it. Tobacco plant shoots grows a shoot at every leaf crops. These had to be all nipped off when they took the top off and all the leaves up the stalk were relatively the same size. The leaves were not picked off the stalk in the field. They were the stalks when they were ready, were put on laths. They had a tressel arrangement that held a lath. You put a steel point on the lath and speared the stocks onto the lath. It had about half a dozen on and the heavy end up, and that was ready to hang on racks in the kiln. I forget how many tiers went above the other, but several tiers.
H. Pettit (24:21):
Well, this would be a very interesting summer's work for you since you were interested in horticulture.
Angus H. Gregg (24:27):
Of course, when the heat was on, the leaves were very brittle in the kiln. And when they decide it was time to go on with the process, they had to let the air in, and you have to put steam in if the air was not moist enough. So the leaves could be handled. That was the time they took the leaves off the stalks.
H. Pettit (25:06):
Did you smoke?
Angus H. Gregg (25:11):
I think I smoked a little bit then.
H. Pettit (25:18):
Can you remember any of the names of the professors that were at the college when you were there? The heads of the departments?
Angus H. Gregg (25:32):
Yes.
H. Pettit (25:33):
For instance, Animal Science? Horticulture?
Angus H. Gregg (25:40):
Horticulture I don't remember. Field husbandry was Savage. His son was in our year at the college.
H. Pettit (25:53):
Well, his name was Rusty, wasn't it?
Angus H. Gregg (25:55):
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
H. Pettit (25:56):
Yes.
Angus H. Gregg (25:56):
Rusty Savage, yes.
H. Pettit (26:00):
And do you remember the man in charge of the poultry?
Angus H. Gregg (26:02):
What's his name?
H. Pettit (26:03):
Graham.
Angus H. Gregg (26:04):
Graham, yes. He was quite a man. One thing about Graham, when we were in residence I liked to do a little cooking in the rooms. And some of the boys would pick up eggs in the poultry building and take up the room and Graham would see a bulge in their coat pocket and he wouldn't accuse them of anything. He'd managed to get the pocket a slap and-
H. Pettit (26:34):
The eggs would break. Well, that was one way to let the students know that he knew what was going on. Angus, when you were at the college, the McDonald Institute girls would be there too. And did the OAC boys and the Mac girls get together and have social events?
Angus H. Gregg (26:53):
Oh yes. They had dances and different things.
H. Pettit (26:58):
Halloween parties?
Angus H. Gregg (27:00):
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
H. Pettit (27:00):
Did you have a conversat in those days?
Angus H. Gregg (27:03):
Yes. A conversat was a big thing.
H. Pettit (27:07):
Following completion of exams in the spring, sometimes students in order to let off steam are responsible for what might be called unexpected events. Angus, do you remember any special pranks?
H. Pettit (27:22):
Did anything take place between one year and another?
Angus H. Gregg (27:25):
At the close of the first year I was there. The sophomore year thought they did go off with a bang and the old cannon was out in front of the main building at that time. And a wooden carriage, the way it is now. It wasn't spiked and filled with concrete at that time. And they thought it would be a good thing to make a little noise with it. They put a big charge of black powder in it and filled it up pretty well with wood and rags and everything they could find and set it off at four o'clock in the morning. It wrecked the dug end of the gravel were sitting and wrecked the carriage pretty badly. And the lawn right over to the road looked as though a snow storm had hit it. But the worst thing was in the circle of windows around the campus there were 90 windows broken by the concussion.
H. Pettit (28:38):
Did they know who did it?
Angus H. Gregg (28:41):
Well, the-
H. Pettit (28:42):
I just wonder who paid for the broken windows?
Angus H. Gregg (28:47):
The second year. I don't know just how they worked that out, but there were some penalties, I know that.
H. Pettit (28:57):
That cannon's still on the campus.
Angus H. Gregg (28:58):
Yes, it's still on the campus. It's been painted every year.
H. Pettit (29:03):
I know. That's one of the things that happens. Gets a new coat of paid every year. Some year it doesn't?
Angus H. Gregg (29:08):
Yes. But it's not fireable now.
H. Pettit (29:18):
No, I guess that's right. Tell me, were there organized sports activities on the camp?
Angus H. Gregg (29:27):
Oh, yes. Yes, I played football for the college at that time. Played on the year team as well.
H. Pettit (29:35):
But they played against other universities or other colleges?
Angus H. Gregg (29:40):
We played against Foresty Seconds, McMaster and different colleges. And the only athletic field we had was the main campus in front of the building. Spectators stood around.
H. Pettit (29:55):
Yes, there weren't any seats those days.
Angus H. Gregg (29:57):
No, no bleachers.
H. Pettit (29:59):
And would you have hockey teams, basketball teams?
Angus H. Gregg (30:03):
Oh, yes. They had-
H. Pettit (30:05):
They had all the sports?
Angus H. Gregg (30:08):
All the sports. The old gymnasium had a swimming pool and a lot of apparatus in the gymnasium. They had a lot of stuff there.
H. Pettit (30:15):
And were the students encouraged to take part in-
Angus H. Gregg (30:18):
Oh yes.
H. Pettit (30:18):
On the teams?
Angus H. Gregg (30:21):
Oh yes. I'd played at high school in Toronto before I went to Guelph.
H. Pettit (30:28):
How many years did you spend at OAC?
Angus H. Gregg (30:28):
About two.
H. Pettit (30:30):
Two years.
Angus H. Gregg (30:31):
Two years.
H. Pettit (30:32):
Well, then you'd get a associate diploma at that time.
Angus H. Gregg (30:36):
That's right.
H. Pettit (30:38):
You'd get that. You'd stop then in the spring of 1914.
Angus H. Gregg (30:42):
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
H. Pettit (30:43):
Was it your intention when you went to OAC to just take the two years and then return to your father's farm to do some farming?
Angus H. Gregg (30:54):
Yes. That was quite a common thing. I took the regular exam the same as the rest of the year that carried on. I came about halfway through, as a medium student.
H. Pettit (31:08):
Well, that's good. Now, just the year that you finished at Guelph, World War I started. Did that change your life in any way?
Angus H. Gregg (31:20):
Well, when I started, my father had bought the farm at Oakville and he'd had quite a large house built on it. There were four of us in the family at that time. We were all at home. I had a two sisters and one brother. So I went right from the college to the farm and got things going there. And of course, I was pretty well established by the time the war broke out. That changed things. I decided that it was my duty to go to the war and possibly get away, but I couldn't just get up and leave. My parents were dependent on me to keep the place going and all the rest of it. But eventually got hold of a conscientious [inaudible] that took on the farm and looked after my parents. And the college students had organized a field battery. So I went back to Guelph, joined the field battery.
H. Pettit (32:55):
It was organized at the Guelph?
Angus H. Gregg (32:57):
At Guelph, yes. And it was, I would say about 90% OAC students. The remainder would be some of their friends and some from other colleges. We had couple of St. Mike's men, a couple of Presbyterians and so on. Was a nice group. And we organized in the winter of '15, 16. We took over the horses from a battery that had just left for England. And before the battery that the other battery left, we were building up at the college. As soon as the battery left, we took over the... I think it was the chicken department at the winter fair building. And well weren't given any bids, but we all got together and bought some spring cots. And we just had our blankets, and the first war you didn't have any sheets or pillow slips or pillows. We just had blankets and slept in the closure in more or less in the winter. You put on everything you could find.
H. Pettit (34:29):
Well, after training in Canada, you went to England? After training in Canada, you went to England?
Angus H. Gregg (34:35):
Well, we trained in Guelph. Our early training was a cavalry drill with the horses and learning to ride, and so on. As soon as the weather was mild enough in the spring, we went up to Petawawa camp, and that's where we got our... Well, they weren't the guns we were to use in France. There were guns that had been used in the South African war. They're obsolete, but we did our live firing with them with South African ammunition. And we got good training in Guelph, in the Petawawa. And in September, we left there sealed from Halifax in a convoy of four old ships and accompanied by a cruiser. That's the way we went to England.
Angus H. Gregg (35:38):
When we got to England, our original battery was a four gun battery. And when we got to England, they'd changed all the batteries from four guns to six guns, or from two sections to three sections. And the batteries were all broken up. Our college battery that was the 56th, ceased to exist. And when we went to France, our battery consisted of one section of the 48, one of the 55th, which is the Guelph battery, and one of the 56, but we were the center section. And the headquarters party and signalers and signaling officer, and our section commander were all 56. So we had pretty good setup.
H. Pettit (36:37):
And you'd be in France in the final years of the war.
Angus H. Gregg (36:41):
Yes.
H. Pettit (36:41):
In the front lines.
Angus H. Gregg (36:42):
Well, we're close support of the infantry, especially through the... Well, we had quite a siege of trench warfare and all that sort of stuff. But last hundred days were, you might say, it was a continuous batter. We never let up. And the Canadian Core were shocked. Troops they made the breakthrough at the point of the wedge. Very strenuous time, but very tough.
H. Pettit (37:12):
Well, after the war was over, you returned to Canada and to your father's farm?
Angus H. Gregg (37:18):
To the farm. Yes. I went on farming for some years, but the farm was not... My parents had bought the farm without consulting anybody too much. And it wasn't the right kind of land. It was a hard, red clay, and it wasn't enough acreage to run a general farm. And the orchard was old. The other part, the young orchard wasn't producing. It was very hard to make a living on the place.
H. Pettit (37:59):
So it wasn't a viable farm at that time.
Angus H. Gregg (38:01):
It wasn't a good deal.
H. Pettit (38:04):
I believe you got married after you came back from the war.
Angus H. Gregg (38:07):
I got married. Well, it was several years after. I couldn't afford to get married before that, but I bought 10 acres from my father, built a house on it. And I took a job with Aladdin Homes Limited. And I was with them for quite a number of years.
H. Pettit (38:35):
Did your wife have any particular interests in agriculture?
Angus H. Gregg (38:40):
She was the girl next door. Her father was a farmer, an old Scotts family, third generation from Scotland. Their three brothers came out about the time my grandfather came out from our Ireland. They had a dairy farm.
H. Pettit (39:03):
I believe that she liked horses.
Angus H. Gregg (39:05):
They were very interested in horses. Later on my brother-in-law gave up the dairy farm, and he was raising thoroughbreds and we had a very active riding club there. But after I came back from the war... Well, I've told you about that.
H. Pettit (39:36):
How many in your family?
Angus H. Gregg (39:39):
My family?
H. Pettit (39:40):
Yes.
Angus H. Gregg (39:40):
I had a sister a year and a half older than myself, and a brother four years younger, and a sister eight years younger than myself.
H. Pettit (39:55):
And did you have family yourself?
Angus H. Gregg (39:58):
I had one boy.
H. Pettit (39:59):
What's his name?
Angus H. Gregg (40:00):
Bill.
H. Pettit (40:01):
Bill.
Angus H. Gregg (40:01):
And he took up farming.
H. Pettit (40:04):
He's a farmer too.
Angus H. Gregg (40:05):
He took up farming. He's a farmer now, among other things.
H. Pettit (40:12):
Now you told me that-
Angus H. Gregg (40:14):
He's in a lot of things besides farming.
H. Pettit (40:17):
You told me you were working for Aladdin Homes. That's building houses. Was it?
Angus H. Gregg (40:21):
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
H. Pettit (40:22):
And do you travel all over Canada on that or Ontario or-
Angus H. Gregg (40:27):
All over Eastern Canada.
H. Pettit (40:29):
Is that right?
Angus H. Gregg (40:30):
Yes. Well, then-
H. Pettit (40:31):
Well, then World War II came along. What happened then?
Angus H. Gregg (40:40):
When World War II came along, they wouldn't take me in the army. I was overage. But on account of my experience with wartime housing, with Aladdin Homes Limited I got a job with wartime housing as construction supervisor. And I spent over three years down in Nova Scotia and I was moved to Hamilton after that. I was wartime housings representative on different projects. The work on the project was done by local contractors. It was all rush work, and I had a great time keeping Toronto office posted by long distance every night.
H. Pettit (41:39):
After the war was over in 1945, what did you do then?
Angus H. Gregg (41:46):
I started contracting. I started building custom houses, architect designed houses in the Port Credit area, Clarkson area, and a little bit in Oakville too.
H. Pettit (42:05):
How many years did you do that?
Angus H. Gregg (42:05):
I think it was quite a long time. When I was 60, I had an ulcer that was bothering me and I was doing all my own estimating and leased paperwork myself. And I thought I had to ease off a little bit. So I took the job of building inspector for Trafalgar township. The Ford company had just moved out there and there's a real building boom there. And later on the Oakville and Trafalgar amalgamated. And I had the whole thing. I had quite a big department. I worked for the town of Oakville until I was 73.
H. Pettit (42:58):
When did you retire?
Angus H. Gregg (42:59):
Then I retired.
H. Pettit (43:01):
Your son, Bill, did he go to college?
Angus H. Gregg (43:03):
He went to OAC, graduated and he was a three years with the feed company as a district manager in different districts. And he got interested in the research end of things. And after a lot of advice, he went through veterinary college.
H. Pettit (43:27):
Well, he's got two degrees then.
Angus H. Gregg (43:28):
So he's got the two degrees. And instead of starting a practice, he went with Connaught Labs. And he's with them until about five years ago, I guess it was.
H. Pettit (43:48):
And where does he live now?
Angus H. Gregg (43:49):
Well, he's got quite a lot of land and-
H. Pettit (43:54):
Close to where you're living now?
Angus H. Gregg (43:57):
Where I'm living now? Yes. I'm on the second house on his farm.
H. Pettit (44:00):
Oh, I see. He owns this farm and he's got other farms in the same area?
Angus H. Gregg (44:04):
Yes.
H. Pettit (44:04):
So he is doing a lot of farming now?
Angus H. Gregg (44:06):
He's doing a lot of farming and he's also got interested in World War II and Canada's effort in industry, in World War II. He's written several books on the subject and he's also got the largest collection of World War II army vehicles in Canada.
H. Pettit (44:31):
Well, that's very interesting.
Angus H. Gregg (44:35):
And of course, I'm mixed up in that.
H. Pettit (44:40):
Now you're living alone. How long have you been a widower?
Angus H. Gregg (44:44):
19 years.
H. Pettit (44:45):
Now, Bill's family. What family does Bill have?
Angus H. Gregg (44:49):
He has three boys.
H. Pettit (44:51):
Do you think there's any chance that possibly one of the three boys might go to OAC and then there'd be three generations of the Gregg family?
Angus H. Gregg (44:59):
I don't think any of them will be in agriculture. One of them may go to Guelph College, I don't know, but-
H. Pettit (45:05):
Well, that's pretty close if he goes to Guelph.
Angus H. Gregg (45:08):
Yes. One of them is in his third year at Carlton College in Ottawa. He's taking journalism.
H. Pettit (45:18):
I believe that Bill has his pilot's license and I believe he owns his own plane.
Angus H. Gregg (45:26):
Yes, he got a little tiger moth World War II initial trainer. Got his own strip.
H. Pettit (45:34):
Have you ever been up in the plane?
Angus H. Gregg (45:36):
Oh yes. A nice way to see the country. They're going about 80 miles an hour, which is very slow in the plane. You see the country very nicely.
H. Pettit (45:52):
You really enjoy the plane, do you?
Angus H. Gregg (45:53):
Oh yes.
H. Pettit (45:56):
Well, Angus, thank you for your memories. I know you would do your utmost to enjoy every day in the future.