The Citizen, 2012-02-02, Page 9THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2012. PAGE 9. Stewart’s memories show a different Blyth P.S.By Phaedra ScottOn Thursday, Dec. 15, I had thepleasure of interviewing JohnStewart, a well-known, respected
member of the community of Blyth.
We talked about his experiences and
the history of Blyth Public School.
I had received some information
before the interview for ideas to use
for questions and found out that Mr.
Stewart was very involved in sports
during his time at the school.
I asked him if he had any special
memories that he would like to share
involving athletics and he came up
with two of his fondest memories.
The first story involved indoor
recesses in the basement of Blyth
Public School. A student from a
Grade 7/8 class would draw a
student’s name from a Grade 6/7
class out of a hat. Whoever you drew
was your partner for the “ping pong
tournament”. Luckily, as Mr.
Stewart says, his partner turned out
to be an excellent ping pong player.
They went on to win the
championship two years in a row.
The second story is about the
school softball team. At the time,
there were still many one-room
schoolhouses and some had decided
to start a softball team. His school
had an amazing team and won one of
their games 25-0.
Mr. Stewart and his friend, Gordon
Haggitt, didn’t enjoy art class much
and when they were told to draw a
duck for art, they decided not to do
the project. Their punishment was
not being able to play in that day’s
softball game. About halfway
through the game, the principal, Mr.
Higgins, had sent a girl in to fetch
John and his friend claiming they
were losing the game and that art
class could wait.
When Mr. Stewart went to the
school it was very sports-oriented.
Outside, they had a volleyball and
basketball court, as well as a soccer
field and a baseball diamond.
Blyth Public School has always
had a fall fair and Mr. Stewart recallsyears when his class would workhard to win the marchingcompetition. He had a very
competitive teacher who would
make them practise by keeping beat
with a ruler. One step off beat and
the ruler would be smacked across
your knuckles or your backside.
He said that they would be
practising for the fall fair up to two
weeks before. I had asked him how
he felt about the possible end of the
fall fair and he says that it is sad to
see a change, but change always
happens and we have to look for
opportunities out of the change.
Stewart’s father was very involved
with the process of centralizing
smaller schools and was a respected
member of the school board. When
his father first got involved with the
old school it was a two-storey school
with Grade 1, 2, 7 and 8 students on
the first floor and the others on the
second storey of the building.
In case of emergency, every
classroom in the school practised
going out the main entrance of the
school. John’s father saw a problem
with this as the classes on the second
floor had no fire exits so they had to
evacuate out the front doors. He was
one of the first to realize that if there
happened to be a fire on the steps,
the students had no possible way of
getting out of the school. When no
one resolved the issue, Mr. Stewart
ran for a spot on the school board
and got elected. The kids upstairs
did get their fire escape.
From there, the province set up
area school boards with East
Wawanosh, Blyth and Brussels
Public Schools. There were no more
one-room school boards.
His father had to close one-room
schools because of almost the same
issues we face in closing the
school.
As far as the existing school goes,
there was controversy over how
many schools to put in the new area
in Morris Township. The first optionwas to have two big schools in themiddle of the new area and thesecond was to have three schools, in
Blyth, Brussels and Belgrave. John’s
father was determined for three
schools so that’s what happened.
When John was in his early 20s he
spent some time as a supply teacher
at Blyth. As coincidence would have
it, he ended up teaching his brother’s
Grade 8 class, who still says that he
didn’t each him enough. When he
supply taught after teacher’s college
he had a half-day job at Brussels
Public School. After he left teaching,
he came back to it 15 years later as a
supply teacher and a hockey coach.
He got to see the kids in different
lights as he taught and coached some
of them.
Mr. Stewart was also on the
Homecoming Committee but as his
sister Nancy and his mother co-
chaired, they had more involvement
that he did. But he does remember
details about the Stewart family float
for the homecoming parade.
His father was in the grocery
business for 49 years, 32 of which
were spent in Blyth. When he
bought the store in Blyth, it was
called “Stewart’s Red and White
Store”. So naturally, the theme of the
family float was colour co-ordinated
with the grocery store.
Since Mr. Stewart is now a
member of the Lions Club, I asked
him how he thought the closing of
Blyth Public School was going to
impact public speaking and the
Lions support within the school. His
response was that the Lions have
always supported the school and
probably the biggest thing had been
paying for the fencing surrounding
the schoolyard. Although they won’t
host the public speaking anymore,
they may sponsor top students in the
new school from Blyth. This way,
they would still be showing their
support within the community and
would still be involved in the Blyth
public speaking.
As final thoughts, John had a few
stories that he wanted to share. John
remembers that every Friday, the
principal, Ron Higgins, (also the
Grade 7/8 class teacher) held a
spelling bee in the school. He claims
that the spelling bees were probably
the way he learned to spell well
because of the competitiveness of it.
He also recalls that there was
never once a snow day at the school.
All the teachers lived in town and
students were told to find a way into
the school no matter the weather
conditions.
In 1962, there was the Cuban
missile crisis when Russians were
sending missiles to Cuba to bomb
the U.S. When Mr. Stewart and the
other students left school at dinner,
they had to time themselves to see
how fast they could get home. The
ideas was if ever a missile was shot
on Blyth, they would know exactly
how long it would take them to get
home. But if you think about it now,
the whole idea was pretty far-
fetched.
It was such an honour to talk to
Mr. Stewart and beyond all the
amazing stories, I learned a lot and
have a newfound respect for the past
that he brought to life.
In my next column, I will share
my interview with Mrs. Cheryl
Cronin, former Blyth Public School
teacher.
Journey through the past
Phaedra Scott, left, took some time out of her busy
schedule at Blyth Public School to interview John Stewart,
a former teacher and active member of the Blyth Lions.
Scott asked Stewart questions about his time at the school
to help celebrate the school’s history in what is its last year.
(Denny Scott photo)
Blyth Brussels team takes first round of playoffs
The Blyth Bantaom Atom Rep
team met up with Bruce Peninsula
for the first round of play-offs on
Jan. 19.
On Jan. 15 Bruce Peninsula took
the first game 1-0 in Wiarton.
Back in Brussels on Jan. 21 both
teams battled hard back and forth
with the Atom Reps coming away
with a 4-3 victory.
The next day was game three was
held back in Wiarton. The Atom Rep
team came out hungry grabbing an
early 3-0 lead.
Then, still in the first period, Blyth
Brussels had a goal disallowed
giving the home team a boost to rally
back for a 5-4 win on home ice.
Game four in Blyth saw no scoring
in the first period.
The Atom Reps scored a goal in
the second and then went to work
adding four more in the third,
allowing them to cruise to a 5-1 win
and forcing game 5 in Wiarton.
The final match, a must win
situation both teams, was held on
Jan. 29 in Wiarton.
Blyth Brussels and the Bruce
Peninsula team traded goals in the
first and second. End to end, with
both teams getting their chances, the
Reps found the back of the net half
way through the third.
Keeping their fans on the edge
Blyth Brussels fought off Bruce
Peninsula for a 3-2 win and the
series.
The Blyth Brussels Atom Reps
will meet the Minto Mad Dogs in the
next round.
They will also take on the Mitchell
Meteors on Feb. 6 at the Blyth and
District Community Centre at 6:30
p.m.
Blyth Brussels Atom AE
The Blyth Brussels Atom AE team
started their six-point series with
Mount Forest Rams on Wednesday,
Jan. 25.
Nick McArter got the start in net
hoping to get the team off on the
right foot, however Mount Forest
had ideas of their own. At the 5:49
mark of the first period the Rams got
on the scoreboard first to
take a 1-0 lead to the end of the
period.
Blyth Brussels had good pressure
at times but were unable to get any
good scoring chances. With 3:58 left
in the second period Mount Forest
was able to rally again and take a 2-
0 lead to the third period.
Blyth Brussels continued to have
some chances but with 8:16 to go in
the game Mount Forest scored to
make the score 3-0. Three minutes
later, after a scramble in front of
Mount Forest’s net, Blyth Brussels
was finally able to solve the Rams’
goalie. Tanner Boven jammed home
a goal, assists went to Cole Zwep
and Connor Brooks.
The boys were beaten twice in the
regular season by Mount Forest with
3-0 and 3-1 scores so this game
seemed to have been a bit of deja vu.
Game two of the series was held
on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. in
Brussels. A final score was
unavailable at press time.
Blyth Brussels Novice Local League
On Thursday, Jan. 26 the Blyth
Brussels Novice LL team hosted
Wingham and came away with a 2-0
shutout.
After a scoreless first period the
team came out and shoved two past
the goalie to light up the scoreboard.
Goals were scored by Colton
Beaven and Mitchell Townsend with
assists being awarded to Joel Nesbit
and Aliya Dauphin.
Wingham pulled the goalie with
minutes remaining in the third but
Blyth Brussels played
defensively and Ty McNichol got a
shutout.
Skips and Stones
– By Bruce Skinn
Strong winter winds and a two-
and-a-half-hour power outage
forced the Country Men’s bonspiel
to be shortened to two games each
draw this past weekend at the
Wingham Golf and Curling Club.
Don Hawkins’ Teeswater rink
were winners of the first draw with
the Mac Inglis rink victorious in the
second draw. The Hawkins team
edged out Inglis by a point to
capture the Bull Trophy in memory
of the late long-time member JR
Coultes.
Organizers Marg Moffatt and
Ross Peacock did another stellar job
putting this event together and
Cheryl and Candace would also like
to thank Linda Meier for her help in
the kitchen.
In regular league action on
Tuesday, Jan. 17 Emily Elston along
with the Eadie sisters Kelsie and Jill
helped curl their teams to wins. The
competitive winning skips were Earl
Fitch and Jim Ross. The Wednesday
night mixed league saw Jill Eadie,
Rob Middleton and Robert Grein
take home wins.
The Thursday daytime winners
were Bob Johnston, Clayt Ruppel,
Jim Taylor, Les Shaw, Wayne
Forster and Mac Inglis. The
Belgrave league skips coming out on
top were Jim Scott, Bruce Howson
and Dave Inglis. Friday night Bill
McDonald and Murray Fear skipped
their teams to wins.
This Saturday, Feb. 4 the club will
be host to the Ladies Bonspiel with
the Sweetheart Spiel to be held Feb.
11 and 12.
OUT OF THE HACK NEWS
The bonspiel season brings out the
true meaning of small club curling
rinks and without volunteers would
not take place. The Wingham club is
truly lucky to have Marg Moffatt
and Ross Peacock who spend
many hours on the phone and at the
rink to help put these events
together.
The curlers and all the staff thank
you for all your hard work.
Lightning teams claim first berths
With a light schedule of only one
game on the final weekend of the
regular season, the Saugeen
Maitland Bantam AA Lightning
clinched first place in their division.
The Lightning lacked their usual
speed and tenacity, but still managed
to pull off a 1-0 win over the
Kitchener Lady Rangers.
Ashlee Lawrence potted the only
goal of the game, stuffing the puck
in the net past the Ranger
goaltender’s pad. Cassidy Mason
was awarded the only assist on the
goal.
Midget AA Lightning
The Saugeen Maitland Midget AA
Lightning clinched first place in
Lower Lakes League play when they
beat the Waterloo Ravens, 5-1 on
Jan. 21. Saugeen scored three power
play goals and Brittany Butcher had
three assists to propel the Lightning
to a well-earned victory.
It was a different story on Sunday
evening when the Kitchener
Rangers bounced back from a 2-0
deficit to edge Saugeen 3-2 in a
lacklustre effort by the Lightning.
The Lightning concluded league
play with a final game against
Cambridge on Saturday.
For current schedule and results
go to www.saugeenmaitland
lightning.com