The Rural Voice, 1986-09, Page 20101/4 070
GI
(a+ ul Aug. 26/86)
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/ZEINVESTMENTS
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524-2773 1.800.265-5503
Big
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SERVICES
INC.
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or
WET CORN DISTILLERS
can help your feeding
program by:
• Providing a protein
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• Extending roughage
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• An excellent rumen
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• Available in full and
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Also available —
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For further information on
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BIG BEAR
SERVICES INC.
FEED DIVISION
50 Westmount Rd.,
Waterloo, Ontario
N2L 2R5
(519) 886-4400
20 THE RURAL VOICE
and while they undoubtedly taught
me a great deal I am unaware of
any single thing that they did or
said that made a lasting impression
on me.
I can't compare myself with the
modern child of the same age. My
knowledge and experience was
either vicarious through reading
or, if real, then very local. We still
did not own a motor car. I had
been to the London Fair once on a
train. I had been to Port Stanley
once on a picnic. My musical
knowledge was limited to the ex-
tent of my mother's piano playing,
the renditions of the church choir
on Sundays, and the entertainment
following the strawberry festival,
the fowl supper, or the Christmas
concert. My experience of drama
was limited to school dialogues
and the occasional three -act play
as presented by a group of church
young people. 1 had read a large
number of books but they were
door at 9:00 a.m. on that fateful
Tuesday, left a stranger amongst
the other milling youngsters, all ex-
cited and tense under strange con-
ditions. We assembled in two
rooms and we wrote papers of
varying lengths. The serious sub-
jects took two and a half hours but
oral reading was done individually,
taking less time, and spelling took
only half an hour. The exams took
three days to write. I passed. My
public school days were over.
My high school career was not
covered with glory. I woke up with
dread on Monday morning and
with rejoicing on Friday morning.
I was bright enough but I was
monstrously lazy and totally lack-
ed the discipline to make myself do
what I did not want to. I picked up
new knowledge fast but my at-
titude was deplorable. I looked on
education much as I would on
medicine. I didn't want it and I
didn't enjoy it, but it was good for
"By the time we left public school, we had read a
Shakespearean play, studied Canadian and British history,
and knew a little about geography, science, and arithmetic."
read for the story and not for exact
knowledge. I had been through all
the books in the school library that
had stories in them: R. L. Stephen-
son, Ernest Thompson Seton, Cor-
al Island, and Two Little Savages,
among many others. At home our
books came from my grandfather
as Christmas gifts. And so I grew
up on Horatio Alger, Henty,
Ralph Connor, Nellie McLung,
Gene Stratton Porter, and Eleanor
H. Porter, and of course the
bound copy of the Boys Own An-
nual, a weekly English periodical
bound as a book at the end of each
year.
This was the period of formal
written examinations and each
promotion was based on the marks
obtained. Therefore my entrance
examination was a serious business
for both me and my teacher. It
branded me as a bright and
reasonably well-educated young
man, while the teacher's future
depended largely on the success of
her entrance candidates. For a
month prior to my exams I stayed
for an hour after school and was
drilled on all the subjects that I
would be tested on.
I had to go to Lucan to write so I
was delivered at the high school
me and what's more my parents
said I had to take it and so I did. I
had a good imagination. I had a
good memory for anything that I
was interested in. And I was
logical. Thus mathematics,
chemistry, and physics were all in-
teresting and easy enough until
they became too involved. For the
first three years I got along well
and then started to falter. I
sometimes wonder what I would
have done with a little more
perspective or had I had a little
more experienced guidance.
I was on my own. I left home on
Monday morning and boarded un-
til Friday night in Lucan. My
mother died in the fall of my se-
cond year of school and what I had
known as home became nothing
much more than a shelter. I had no
idea of what I wanted to be
because I didn't know what oppor-
tunities there were, what was in-
volved, and whether or not I would
be accepted. I don't think anybody
disliked me but I certainly was not
aware of being admired by
anybody. I had companions with
whom I chummed but none of
them had any great ambitions nor
offered much in the way of inspira-
tion. Lucan High School was small
1