Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Pleasure in Internet Search

      In 1957-58 I took a one year teacher training course. There were 400 in the class and the course was intense as we were expected to take over a class room and teach at the end of the year. So 400 young people met, worked and played for a year. Many good friends and acquaintances were made.

     I came from a small one teacher high school. For me to be thrown in with 400 other people was terrifying. My home village only had 235 people!  I survived and probably learned a thing or two. I got a job and could sort of teach. I was eighteen years old and if you think about an eighteen year old they are great but not very ready to teach.

    I left the teachers' college and began a career. I saw about six of my former classmates since that time. I left the area and at times lived far away So recently I became curious as to what happened to some of these people. Fifty five years have gone by. I wonder what has happened. 

    So off to the Internet to have a little look. One of the first names I Googled I found the person had died. I thought a bit and said well , since most of us are up in our seventies it might not be a bad idea to search obituaries. Fortunately, I found only one more obituary.

    I did find some interesting results. One guy became a school superintendent. Another a Lutheran minister. Another went back to the farm and farmed with his family. Another went back to his home town taught, farmed and wrote. He wrote columns for the CBC. He then put his columns in two books. So the results so far have been interesting and surprising.

     One challenge is that most of the women married so I don't have a name for them. The class was 75 % women. 

    So since I am curious and have some time I practise ( Bugs me that spell check doesn't know the difference between practice and practise) my Internet search skills.

27 comments:

  1. it is amazing what/whom you can find on the internet. scary but interesting, too, how much data is out there on us. :) good luck in your continued search!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You've really got me thinking with your comment , "wonder how much is out there."

      Delete
  2. I hope your internet search turns up more familiar names.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I will find a few more found one today who left teaching and went into the ministry.

      Delete
  3. My best friend in high school has fallen off the earth, basically because she went and married somebody I don't know. I do find people on Facebook or by surprise now and then through the Internet. Life is wonderful these days! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think in this case I was the one who fell off the end of the earth.
      Happy to hear you say life is good these days.

      Delete
  4. Sounds like your Spellchecker is using a US dictionary. They don't distinguish between 'practise' and 'practice', but use the latter for both nound and verb. Maybe you can change to a Canadian dictionary? Anyway, I understand your curiosity about old schoolmates. A guy from my former US Catholic high school started a great website covering all the year's of our school's existence. Anyone from any class year can load a page about themselves, including photos. And you can send a message to anyone else who has registered on the site. Through that website I made contact with some old school friends I hadn't heard from in almost 50 years. It's interesting to see what's happened to different ones - especially when someone surprises you and does something really unusual which you'd never have guessed from what you knew about them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are many sites set up for people to register their location. I think in my case some of the people did not become computer literate and very little is on the net about them.

      Delete
    2. Yes, I too find it sad that many of my contemporaries, such as people in our mutual support group for carers and their partners, are not computer literate.

      Delete
  5. Fun to find some people like this. I wondered if you had to get any other degree to teach.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The one year gave me an interim certificate. You had to take 5 more classes to get a permanent certificate. Qualifications went up from there. I ended up with a B. A. and B. Ed.

      Delete
  6. Red, if you want any contact open a Facebook page. People come out of the woodwork! People who knew you in name only want to be friends. :)
    Tex is right in that there is more info out there on us than we can hardly imagine.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do have a face book page. Maybe I should be more active on it.

      Delete
  7. wow, amazing what and who one can find on the internet.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow Red, what an interesting search! I wish you well in finding more of your former mates, have you tried facebook? There's quite a few women who list both their maiden as well as their married names. PractiSe makes perfect! lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am on face book but don't use it to look for much. I know whee I can find all my former students.
      I'll practice!

      Delete
  9. "Obituaries" !!!!!!!!!!, one column of the paper I give a miss to. I prefer the living, rather than the dead. Still old friends who have passed on might just be luckier than we, who are left. The World has changed so much in my years - best to stop there, I might upset some of your viewers, however in my youth we, kids, were respectful, that seems these days to be a thing of the past. I can't recall ever telling a Police Officer that I had my "RIGHTS"! A good kick up the bum and taken home to face embarrassed parents would have been the outcome.
    Hope that you haven't started to "Freeze to Death" - lovely weather here, but some nice drenching rain would be welcome to green the lawns and parks - one can but hope.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Obituaries are very interesting column unless you'r in it!
      I think we were sneakier in our day since we couldn't beak off.
      We've had snow and minus temps for ten days. How do you like that?

      Delete
  10. It is a kick to find out what folk from our past are up to and I imagine they'd quite enjoy hearing from you and reading this post. Some of them might be in contact with others.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would think some would be interested but it would be very long odds if they found me. It is interesting to see what happened to some of them.

      Delete
  11. I was looking at some old photos, too. You wonder how kids turned out. As a peer and as a teacher, later on. Amazing how teacher has changed!
    cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  12. My sentiments exactly as a teacher. since I spent 28 years in one place and still live there I have a lot of contact. I see former students everyday.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Nope mate! I'll take the present sunny Spring conditions - not sure if I'll change my tune come the possiblity of a REAL sauna summer and the storms - aka "the Sandy business on the US Altantic coastline". Horrific.
    What do you mean - "sneakier"! Tut tut - we had respect for the law - OR ELSE!
    Cheers
    Colin

    ReplyDelete
  14. I recently found an olde friend who I never expected to find, quite by accident on the internet. Fabulous how we are connected today and I have even stumbled onto older Teachers this way as well. I ran into my Art Teacher two years ago in St. Andrews and that was a thrill and he was thrilled to hear I had developed my love of Art into my Drafting Career. Neat and Kool Post Red.

    ReplyDelete
  15. so interesting and fun isn't it?! I am finding a kind of similar experience by seeing my kids friends become successful in their professions....i remember them all running around wild and dirty in my yard and now they have offices and secretaries and capital letters after their names...and I am amazed!

    ReplyDelete
  16. We always look to see if we are there....

    Linda
    http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
    http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com

    ReplyDelete