The Rural Voice, 1995-12, Page 31time the first snow came the
schoolteacher had been reminded by
mothers, school children and all the
eligible bachelors in the community
that they were interested in the
Christmas concert. By the first of
December, when the snow was
usually deep, the poor teacher
became aware that in the eyes of the
school trustees, the concert ranked
next in importance to having her
entrance class pass all their exams."
Rehearsalsbegan in early December
and became increasingly frequent
and intense until the big night
arrived, he recalled.
Now the teacher in the one -
room school may not have
had to dress and parade
pupils downtown to the town
hall as my teacher did but the
situation may have been even more
chaotic in the improvised theatre that
had been created in the classroom.
W.G. Strong writing in Village
Squire magazine in 1980 recalls a
concert of an age earlier than the one
I experienced, but it sounds very
similar.
"An improvised stage of rough
planks, loaned by the local sawyer,
raised on blocks of wood across
which two-by-four scantlings formed
the base, was set up by a couple of
farmers living nearby. Make -shift
curtains of bed -sheets were fastened
by safety -pins to a length of stove-
pipe wire some six feet above the
floor attached by thumb -screws to the
front window frames.
"On the front blackboard, in large
capital letters, executed by the
teacher with coloured chalk, were
CHRISTMAS GREETINGS. Along
the top, bottom and sides, forming a
colourful border, were stencilled
designs of mistletoe, holly and
poinsettia in red, white and green.
"At times, the side -boards were
treated likewise lavishly. The stencils
belonged to the teacher who carefully
saved them from year to year."
I don't remember much about the
performances at the concert, only the
great difficulty with which the
teacher opened and shut the
makeshift curtain. What I do recall
was the grand finale when there was
a banging from the front porch, a
hearty "Ho, Ho!" and Santa arrived.
He had a pack of presents over his
shoulder and a place was quickly
made for him at the front near the
Christmas tree and he took out
presents for each of the children,
calling them by name to come up and
get something. Being a guest, there
was no present for me. I wondered
why Santa was discriminating against
us kids who went to school in town
because he didn't bring presents to
our concerts.
School concerts are back in favour
again now, although political
correctness has got in the road of
"Christmas" concerts in city schools
and certainly killed off the staple of
every Christmas concert of times
past: the re-enactment of the stable
scene of Christ's birth. Teachers no
doubt still dread the day the calendar
turns to December and they must
plan their class's contribution to the
annual event.
They should take comfort in the
thought, however, that they are
creating memories for a future
generation. And if things go wrong,
well they probably just make for
better memories.0
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