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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1998-12-23, Page 4444 Exeter Times -Advocate *1118 nfitE School concert memories By Kate Monk TIMES -ADVOCATE REPORTER EXETER — School Christmas concerts are a tradition in every community and although children and parents experience their fair share in a lifetime, school teachers have braved more concerts than anyone. Jean Hodgert of Exeter who retired from teaching in 1989, is one example. Her memories of school Christmas con- certsgo back to the concert at No. 10 Usborne the year before she started school. "I remember being dressed in a Chinese Komono with a parasol," Hodgert said. She stood on a little chair to sing about a Chinese child and can still sing the entire song, more than 70 years later. She said when she attended school, the school and church concertswere tied together with three or four schools per- forming at one concert. With 25-30 students in the school, -the teacher made up a variety concert that included carols, short dia- logues and the Christmas story. "Everybody was always happy," she recalls. Hodgert also reminisces about Roy Golding, an itiner- ant music teacher who trav- eled from school to school with a portable organ before the schools had pianos. When she started teaching at Exeter Public School in 1947, Golding's brother-in- law Lawence Wein was the itinerant music teacher and would suggest a musical piece for the class. 1t was up to the teacher to teach the piece and the actions. Costumes were a critical part of the concerts. :More emphasis was placed on spring concerts than the Christmas pagaents. liodgert said the teacher was expected to involve everyone in the class, even. her 41 Gr. 2 students. When she started at Winchelsea school in '56, Hodgert taught the primary grades and Jean Jolly taught the senior room. Together, they prepared a two- hour variety concert that involved all 52 students. Concerts were a major part of the school year with practices taking place each afternoon in December. While the children looked forward to the Christmas concert, it was nerve wracking. "Back in the one -room school, the kids didn't get far from home. They were nervous but they Tooke¢ forward to it," Hodgert said. Concerts were also important for the teacher because the quality of the con- cert reflected on the teacher. ' People looked upon the concert as the teacher's potential' Hodgert said. in 1966, Hodgert started teaching at Usborne Central School. Like the one -room schools, the con- certs involved all the students. For sev- eral years, the concerts had a theme, such as Disney. ' We had a much bigger school and more classes to work in,' she explained, adding the enrolment at Usborne Central was close to 300 students. One principal instructed teachers to start from scratch and write their own scripts. Whether the concert was in a one - room school or the central school, they were always well attended with the facilities overflowing, Hodgert said. School choirs played a large part, often with the senior, primary and junior choirs singing. What is the one memory that sticks out most in Hodgert's mind? It was an incident at a UCS concert and although it was serious at the time, Hodgert can laugh about it now. The audience packed the gymnasium and the primary choir's 75 members were about to sing. Hodgert explains the students were standing on risers when Laura Hardemann fainted and set off a domino reac- tion along the risers. Unfortunately, when she fell, she knocked out a tooth. "People were scrambling around look- ing for the tooth," Hodgert said. The lost tooth was found and Hodgert believes a dentist could repair the dam- age. "We got the choir straightened out and started a little and someone else faint- ed," she continued. "We took the choir out, talked to them and brought them back in later," Hodgert explained, adding teachers were stationed towatch for any students who looked a little queasy. The anguish wasn't over. Hodgert's class was to file onto the stage shortly after the choir performed. "The elephant was to have led the parade but he wasn't there. He had fainted! In spite of the years of concerts and the extra work that went into them, Hodgert thinks of them fondly. "I enjoyed the kids. That was the one thing I missed when i retired," she reflects. jean Hodgert Christmas back when by Ross Haugh What do I remember ahout Christmas many years ago? Well, I go back to the late 1920's and early 30's when the depression was well underway. Christmas was a lot different mainly because of the differences in lifestyles as compared to today. Artificial Christmas trees were unheard of. We would cut a tree from a neighbour's bush or go to the Pete Eisenbach tree lot near Grand Bend. i remember a lot of the trees were hemlock and the needles would drop off in a couple of days. When brought into the house, a tree was planted in a bucket of sand and would be watered quite regularly. As for decorations, without electricity on the farm it was a combination of strings of popcorn, candy canes and glass balls. Yes. the candy canes did fall off occa- sionally and were not be seen again. Talking about candy disappearing, dad used to hide Wednesday, December 23, 1994 IMP Favourite memories at Christmas By Sarah Vermont • SPECIAL TO THE TIMI7S-ADVOCATE ZURICH — Christmas is a time of family traditions and childhood memo- ries. The fondest memories of Christmas often date back to our child- hood years. Christmas was so exciting then. Things we consider simple pleasures today seemed like an explosion of excitement at the innocent age of seven. Many of traditional festivities that we share with our families today are the very same traditions that we once took part in with our families as small children. Christmas unites people of all ages together in the joy of the season. A child's smile on Christmas morning brings us,back to our own childhood and we can remember the joy of this season. Philippa Steckle and Esther Makins, residents of the Bluewater Rest Home in Zurich, recall their childhood Christmases as some of the most memorable times of their lives. For Steckle, Christmas was a time. for family. The family celebration was always on Christmas day. not Christmas Eve or any other day. Her family had an organ -and as it was played they would all gather around, it to sing carols. She remembers it as a very happy time foe her and her two older brothers. She especially looked forward to the Christmas dinner her mother would prepare. They had a chicken dinner with special deserts afterwards. "There was always Christmas cake and a Christmas pudding - that was very special," she remarked. Steckle finds it strange everybody gets so caught up in the commercial aspect of Christmas. She remembers her Christmases as a quiet, but spe- cial, time to spend with her family and said, 'We didn't make such a fuss'. Makins remembers the Christmases of her childhood as a, time of tradition. Her family always went out together to cut down their tree. 'We cut down our tree from the bush and decorated it. 1 can still see it sitting beautifully in the living room corner,' she said. it is not only recently that children have started to _sneak a peek at their presents early Christmas morning, because Makins admits she used to do it as a child and then sneak back to bed so her parents wouldn't know. In the morning everyone would get up to receive their presents. "We didn't get much for Christmas back then," she said. "We just couldn't afford it". The children of her family would receive an orange and candy for Christmas. - At the age of 15 they would get one special gift. Makins remembers that Christmas as her favorite because she got a -watch. She recalls, "I wanted that watch very badly. Getting it on that Christmas morning was very special to me". Makins thinks Christmas is a time of love between families and she would have enjoyed it as much even if she didn't get any presents. "Even though we didn't get very many presents as children, my memo- ries of Christmas are still my favorite memories," she reflected. Bluewater Rest Home res- idents Philippa Steckle, !eft, and Ester Makins look fond- ly upon their child- hood Christmas memories. the Christmas candy in the back of the battery radio console. We youngsters found that out and helped our- selves, once and awhile: Funny thing, despite this, the hiding place remained the same for a number of years. Thinking about it now, it was either that dad didn't have much imagination or he also liked to dip into the supply. Because of the economy, Christmas presents were very simple and practical, usually cloth- ing. t do remember one year getting a kiddie car when I was about two or three years old and became very proficient at racing around the kitchen table without any serious injury. Back to gifts, handkerchiefs were very popu- lar and useful. Those were the days before kieenex and the hankies came in handy: They were used because colds were more prevalent then as Tylenol and antibiotics had not yet been discovered. Turkey was not always the main menu for Christmas dinner in those days as we would get roast chicken or hams. But, the dessertswere plentiful with both pies and Christmas pudding along with the traditional Christmas cake. Concerts at both the public school and church were a big part of the Christmas celebration. In both instances, the students brought presents for the teach- ers and vice versa. The bags of candy -were also very popular. I remember in particular at the Dashwood Evangelical Church getting an orange, a Jersey Milk chocolate bar and lots of hard candy. . A lot of these goodies would disappear on the two and a half mile trip home in a horse drawn cutter. The church Christmas concerts were at that time held on Sunday nights. This was at a time when twice a day Sunday church services were a must. The programs would be at least two hours in length and began with the children and their recitations, skits and songs. Then came an adult cantata with what seemed to be elaborate and very authentic costumes. 1 remember my father being a part of one of these and he was one of the wise men. They practiced for many weeks in advance. especially the singing In summing up, what is the biggest change in Christmas celebrations from the days some 70 years ago? That's easy. With so much commercialism and a dramatic change in lifestyles, it's the fact most of us haveforgotten the real, true meaning or Christmas.