EDUACATION OF A PRAIRIE BOY PART 7

          For me , going to high school was a complete surprise. Most rural kids in my generation dropped out of school. The main  reason was a lack of transportation to get to highschool and another reason that kids were used as farm labor . It was a challenge for parents and students to make highschool happen. 

        For me, economics and technology were changing  quickly and it allowed me to go to highschool. Our rural roads had improved and snow clearing machinery became available. This meant that a student could get to school and back home each day. I did have a place to stay in case a storm came up and roads were not passable.

     So in September of 1954 I began high school. Each day I would drive  5 miles into town with another family to attend high school. Today 5 miles would be nothing. At that time it was a challenge. Today in that area children ride the bus for two hours to get to school. There are very few people living in the area.

    So what was my high school?  There were 26 students from gr 10 to 12 and one teacher. That's right. One teacher taught all the grades and all high school subjects. Sound possible? Well, it happened. 

     Prairie boy's gr. 10 photo. 

    So you remember that I was the only one in my class from Gr 3 to  9? Now there were ten of us in the gr 10 class. It was quite a change I was not that confident or sure of myself in that situation. 

     I also look back and see that I was not that well prepared for high school. Learning on your own meant that you missed many things. However, I guess I was prepared as well as the others. 

     Again in many situations we worked in groups on assignments. 

    The years from 14 to 17 mean that you are learning many other things outside of school. We spent more time with other teenagers. We spent time with other people who we didn't know. I learned that there were different ways to do things and different ideas and opinions. Being raised in a very small rural community meant that you were not exposed to many different ideas. 

    People helped me and I was able to overcome the things I was missing. Anybody remember how to factor trinomials? I remember somebody showing me this concept and I found out that it was very simple. This opened many doors in math for me.

    I still worked for my Dad in the spring and fall . Teacher's comments on my report card always referred to the issue of me missing school. I improved as I went through gr 10 to 12. I became more confident and finished high school. Many students did not complete their high school even though they put in lots of effort. One teacher even, a very , very good one just wasn't enough so that many students could succeed.

    I got to know the kids in highschool very well. I even got to ride a school bus for the last two years of highschool. We couldn't even think about school busses when I started high school. 

    So like many other things in my life high school wasn't planned but it happened and turned out to be successful. 

     Gr. 12 graduation. Prairie boy is in the back row first on the left.

A SEVERELY HANDICAPPED GROCERY SHOPPER

     Yes , I'm the handicapped grocery shopper. How handicapped.? The first time I shopped for groceries was well after my eightieth birthday.  How did that happen? You had to get something to eat.

     I've been  aware of my grocery shopping handicap for quite some time. It all happened very innocently. 

    As you know I was raised on a farm in the late 40's early 50's. We bought very few groceries from a store: flour, coffee, tea, sugar, salt and a few other things from time to time. Now at that time no farm mother would ever send her son for groceries. 

    When I left home I boarded . This meant that I didn't have to buy groceries. 

    When I went to the Arctic I had to do my own cooking. When I moved into an apartment they brought two huge boxes of groceries that were supposed to last a year. Some things lasted a year. Some lasted forever and some like my case of tomato soup were gone by Sept. 30. Cooking with powdered eggs and powdered potatoes was interesting. Powdered milk at that time was more interesting. I never got powdered milk made so that it didn't have lumps.

     Then the big event of my life occurred and I got married. Lucky me. I get a good cook and somebody who will buy groceries.

     When I retired I received a promotion in the ranks of grocery shopping. I got to be the cart pusher, bag opener and the bad guy! I went along week after week attending shopping but not participating in the activity. The micro Manager makes a grocery list that makes little sense and leads to all kinds of errors.

    Well recently due to some severe foot problems the Micro Manager is unable to shop. I take her list and redo it so that it makes sense. I need to know , brands, sizes, prices and any other info about the product. With my list and notes I happily go off to get groceries. It works well. I get what we need.

    Now this big change has happened since I turned 80. I'm proud of myself. I'm not going to give up my grocery shopping duties.

EDUCATION OF A PRAIRIE BOY PART 7

        This section will cover my grade eight and nine years . Again for the same reason as other groupings...I had the same teacher.

       All the time that institutional learning takes place, lots of learning takes place outside of school. This is one thing I stressed at the beginning of this series. What you learn in school helps you make sense of things in society. The reverse works when we learn things in school.

      As I grew up I gradually did more work on the farm. Much labor was needed on small farms. People like my Dad couldn't afford to hire people to work for him so his sons pitched in and did much farm work. We could run most farm equipment. We milked cows and fed livestock. Most of the time it was pleasant and I learned to work hard. Making hay wasn't much fun. As a result I missed many days of school in the spring and fall. In the fall I had to help with harvesting.We put in long hours and worked until midnight. Absence from school was also caused by some illness and times when weather prevented us from getting to school. 

    My grade eight and nine teacher had taught in the same school from 1938 -44. She was known to be extremely tough and was very much disliked. In 1953 the school board needed a teacher and asked her if she would teach again. Her comment was that she had mellowed. Indeed she had changed greatly. There were about 12 kids and I remember her usually standing in the middle of the group and giving directions and helping kids. It was a good strategy as all kids received attention. It was like one big family. Yes, she had mellowed and was liked. 

     Again, I got to spend time in the library lost in some books. Other kids didn't care to visit the library so I was not interrupted. 

     I was now one of the two big guys in the school. We had clout! We got to organize some of the activities. 

   At that time many of the farm boys dropped out of school at the end of gr. eight. I thought that I would drop out. But not me! My parents insisted that I continue with school. 

     Grade nine was a whole new world. They didn't teach grade nine in the country schools. They had a system called Correspondence school. All lessons and assignments were made up and sent out by the Dept. of Education in the mail. There was a schedule for the student to do the work. For me , it was decided that I should sit in the school and work on the lessons. It was thought that this would keep me more structured. I needed help sending the lessons to the Dept of Education for marking. I credit my Dad for helping me to stay organized and do assignments on time. I remember him going over the corrections when the lessons came back. With Dad's help I was able to pass gr. nine. Since I'm a bit of an introvert this program suited me.

THE BEST WAY TO EAT A TOMATO!

      I love gardening...vegetable gardening. I like to eat fresh produce that comes directly out of the soil. I do not like produce from the store. So when I write about a garden it's not as many of you think as a flower garden. I'm not very good when it comes to growing flowers but I certainly appreciate them.

      Gardening is in my genes if that is possible. My maternal grandfather was  obsessed with gardening. For part of his life he made his living with a market garden. My paternal grandmother worked hard at her garden as it was a vital source of food. My Dad loved gardening so gardening is in the family.

     Now one of my favorite plants to grow and eat is the tomato. Now I have a favorite way to eat a tomato and I learned it as a boy. We would come home from school and usually we had some small thing to eat before we did our chores. In the fall there was usually a box of tomatoes at the door. We would help ourselves to two or three of the best. If somebody managed to grab a salt shaker so much the better. Then we would eat tomatoes as you would an apple! These tomatoes were fresh and juicy. I ate one the other day . It was just great.

     Try it!

EDUCATION OF A PRAIRIE BOY PART 6

      I will include years 6 & 7 together as yes, I had the same teacher for those two years. Also remember, that my gr 6 and 7 happened in 1950 to 1952. Most of you weren't running around at that time.

     First, I will cover something that applies to all years of my education...outdoor play. Playing was for most , the very best part of school . When I think back I am surprised at how much we did and how much fun we had. The peak enrolment when I was in the school was 17,  from gr 1 to 9. We had recesses of 15 minutes in the morning and afternoon. We had an hour at lunch time. Sometimes lunches were eaten very quickly so that we could resume play.

    All play was organized by the students. The older kids did the most of the organizing.

     The main activity was ball. One side was always short one player as you need 18 players. Not to worry. The little guys were the fielders or ball getters. They were like a dog and ran and got the ball and brought it back. Arrangements were made so that every hit wasn't a home run. You only got one base on an infield ball. Two bases if the ball landed in the oufield.  There were variations that were played. Scub! There were many names for this game. Students were placed in an order...first batter, then catcher, pitcher , first base. The idea was to hit and run to first base and back. You stayed at bat as long as you could do this. If you went out you went to the bottom of the numbers and the catcher became the batter and everybody moved up one place. 

     Another version was 500. A batter would hit the ball into a group of players. If you caught a fly ball you got 100 points. A grounder 50 points . The first person who got 500 points became the batter. 

   This certainly added variety to our playing.

   In the winter we played Fox and Goose, prisoner's base, soccer and built snow houses and made tunnels in the snow. The prairies were open . The wind blew the snow for days on end. The blowing snow formed many snow banks. The snow was quite hard as you could always walk over it.

   Anty I Over was enjoyed in the summer. 

   Also for gr 6, we got a brand new school building. No more wind moaning through the building.. It was a treat. We had oil heating so the room stayed the same temperature all day and night. 

   The new school had one tiny room as a library and more books than the old school. As I said before I finished my work as fast as possible so I could go in the little library and read. There was a very old set of encyclopedias which I spent a lot of time reading. My favorite book was Planes for Bob and Andy. So I really wanted to be a pilot. I did get my pilot's license when I was 25. I also remember reading Smokie and Black Beauty. 

    Again, I was the only student in my grade. I worked hard so that I could have free time and avoid the teacher. The teacher had to spend the most time with the little guys. I bragged about being first in my class but Yorkshire Pudding also reminded me that I was last as well!

     The teacher was pretty good with music and she worked hard. Our work was marked which is more than some of the other teachers did. She made the mistake of praising everything about the previous school she taught in. Very soon she had lost our report. We did not like her .

    I have no pictures from this time as the teacher did not organize photos. She took photos for herself but they were not distributed to the students.

BIRDING AT THREE MILE BEND

      This Saturday we spent 2 hours at a location called Three Mile Bend. It's an area along the Red Deer River that was mined for gravel and was not reclaimed. Most of it has been left for 50 years so there is a combination of ponds and forested areas in various stages of recovery.

     It can be an excellent birding area in June when there are many warblers along the banks of the river. This Saturday was poor as it's an off leash dog park so there were too many dogs and people for good birding.

   We did see 14 species.

    Freestyle skiing had been very active here for a long time. This is the practice facility. This is the top of the ramp . Water runs on the ramp surface and they can ski down the ramp. 

EDUCATION OF A PRAIRIE BOY PART 5

      I will put years 3,4 and 5 together simply because I had the same teacher for those years. 

     First to cover something I should have mentioned in a previous post. When I started grade one in 1945 there was one other student in grade one with me. At the end of Grade 3 she went to another school so I was the only one in the grade. So I was top in my class from gr 4 to 9. Ha! Ha!

    Now the teacher I had for these three grades had almost ten years experience. She obviously liked teaching and she was good at it. In fact, she was a way ahead of her time when it came to teaching strategy. She had field trips. Who else had field trips at that time. We would take our lunch and spend the whole day wondering through the nearby trees, fields, grasslands and wetlands. We had our lunch out in the field which was cool. We each came back with a collection. The collection might include, leaves branches, flowers and insects. The next few days at school we did many different things with our collections. We traced and did art projects. In science we learned the names of some of the things we brought back. We also had to write or draw about our observations.

    This teacher was also exceptional at music. We did much singing and had a few rhythm bands. We also all bought small coping saws and made fancy designs in wood which we would paint and take home to our Moms. My Mom still had one of mine when she died.

    We also went to other schools to play ball. We also had some picnics. 

    In these schools we all ate lunch in the classroom including the teacher. This teacher had her own little house on the school yard and she would go to her house to have lunch and leave us to eat our lunch in the classroom. Well, one day some little guy threw a chalk brush and instantly bedlam broke out. Chalk brushes flew. Many hit the walls so there were chalk brush marks all over the room. Dust? Lots of chalk dust.  We were so involved in this activity that we forgot all about the teacher. She came in the room and stood for a minute before we knew she was there. She had ample time to see who the culprits were. To say the least she was upset and we got the strap.

    Lunch was an important part of a one room school day. Most of the time we ate in the classroom. But if it was nice we ate outside. Kids would pick a favorite place to eat with their friends. Sometimes it was in the shelter of deep grass. sometimes it was in a sunny location. I remember one of these lunches eating the biggest juiciest pear ever. We traded lunch all the time.

    We always had to say grace before we ate. The grace we said or sung depended on the teacher we had. So sometimes it was "Come Lord Jesus be our guest" Sometimes it was "God is good. God is great." And sometimes we sang "Be present at our table Lord."

    I didn't take a horse to school but some kids did. That meant that they had to feed their horse at noon.

   This teacher was on the go all the time . Lessons were taught even though they were brief. 

   I was on my own for gr 4 and 5. I liked being told what to do and then go and do it. I liked to be by myself. If I finished my work I could read. 

    This teacher made sure that pictures were taken and that she got copies for each of us. Somehow she found a commercial photography who would take a school picture. No other school had this. So this photo was done by a special photographer.

    You've seen these photos on another post.