While his musical calling may have come to him late in life, a retired local farmer’s health won’t hold him back from pursuing his new-found passion.
For this week’s edition of People of Collingwood we sat down with Howard McBride, 87, a retired farmer who lives in Duntroon.
Last week, the newly formed non-profit organization Living Wish Foundation reached out to CollingwoodToday about McBride, a terminally ill client whose wish was to be in the news. CollingwoodToday decided to grant that wish.
Q: Have you always lived in the area?
A: All 87 years, but in three different places. I grew up in east Duntroon near the railway station.
I went to elementary school in Duntroon. We came to this house in November of 1945.
I didn’t go to high school. I’m the youngest of 14 kids.
I’ve been a farmer all my life. My brother and I bought this farm from my dad.
I also play music.
Q: What do you play?
A: I play the accordion.
I can’t write music, so I just picked it up by ear. I just played with my brother. He played guitar.
I also play the mouth organ too. It’s a six-sided harmonica.
Q: You’ve been a farmer all your life. What did you farm?
A: We had cattle, pigs and chickens.
We sold milk to the village for quite a few years. That was before you had to have it pasteurized.
We had an apple orchard too. When we were kids and had nothing better to do, we had apple fights in the orchard. (laughs) Raspberries, strawberries and plums. We were kind of self-sufficient.
We’d pack bags of apples and take them down to Stayner to Reinhart (Foods Limited).
They’d give us a pail of apple butter back.
Q: Can you take me through your average day when you were farming?
A: I’d get up at 8 a.m. I was supposed to be up earlier than that, but I didn’t always make it. (laughs)
I worked all day and sometimes into the night.
We had hay to take off, and grain. We grew corn. We would work at that all summer.
Back then we would thrash the grain, but now they have combines for that.
We’d milk the cows, clean the stalls. I started when I was 16. I just retired a couple of years ago.
Q: Did that change it technology make things easier? Did you ever wish you could go back to the old ways?
A: All the time. We worked hard.
I wouldn’t want to be at it today. It costs (farmers) way too much money now. It’s so expensive to farm now. We didn’t really have much money back in those days, but we had lots of seed so we had a big garden.
We just had little tractors then. Now, they have huge tractors.
I don’t like it as much now. You don’t have any freedom anymore. Now, you have to have a license for everything. Back then, we just sold milk, we didn’t need to have a license. You have to tag your cattle now. They tax everything now. Back then, we had to pay taxes on the farm, but that was all. It was nicer back then. Now, the government has to know everything you’re doing.
Q: You still live on the farm, but do you ever miss farming?
A: I do, kinda. But I have cancer in my one lung. If it wasn’t for that, I could still work.
Q: Can you tell me about your illness?
A: I’ve had the diagnosis for about a year, two years ago, but it hasn’t really got any worse. I was gradually getting weaker, and I didn’t know why.
I was surprised, but I didn’t feel any different, really.
The doctor said I won’t get stronger again.
I was diagnosed with Farmer’s Lung a few years back. I had started slowing down with the farming then.
They never did a full diagnosis because of my age, but it’s not aggressive. I’m always on oxygen.
Q: When Living Wish reached out to us, they said you wanted to be in the news. Why is that wish important to you?
A: Well, I wanted to be on TV. (laughs)
I wrote a song, you see. I thought it would be nice for schoolchildren across the country to sing it.
The name of it is Canada, Our Home.
Everybody seems to like it.
I played it on my six-sided harmonica so people could get a feel for the sound. I wrote the words. My niece took that to Barrie to someone she knows, and he recorded it and sent it back. I have it on a disc.
When people come visit, I like to let them hear my song.
When I retired, I thought I’d like to write a song about Canada.
I also wrote songs about my brother being on the railroad, my mother and another about the changing of the leaves. I’m writing one about my nephew who is a hockey player, he’s 12 years old.
I didn’t know I could write, but it just came to me one day.
The one about my mother, I like very well too.
It’s really just like writing poetry, I find. I put lines together that rhyme. It just comes to me.
I’m surprised I can do it. (laughs) When I was farming, I never thought about writing songs.
It’s funny, because when I went to school, I failed the music exam very badly.
I did always like music though, and I would hum to myself all the time.
Q: When you look back on your life, do you have any regrets?
A: No. Farming was my life.
For our feature People of Collingwood, we’ll be speaking with interesting people who are either from or are contributing to the Collingwood community in some way. This feature will run on CollingwoodToday every Saturday. If you’d like to nominate or suggest someone to be featured in People of Collingwood, email [email protected].
