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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1971-12-23, Page 26-4B G,ODERIcil SIc,.,tNAt TAR. THURSDAY, DFf �EMBIR 23, 1971 Bv Ion Shows -7 c • • emories of the one room schoo!Christrncis concert Chrt:a s seems to be a time school tomorrow dress warmly '- 1, remember'so well the smell concert that must last about two ol$ great nostalgia to many. and wear your highest boots of 14 pair of water -soaked hours to justify the parents Perhaps the very fact that it is an because we are going out to get woollen socks, at least a dozen coming 'out • in such lousy biistorical event remembered at .. our Christmas tree.' Now that pair of soggy'mits and damp ski weather in the first place, is no , this time of year as well as one was . a somewt at _ Miotic pants drying by the wood stove . easy joie. Combine . this . with ' of great religious itfiportance statement jn itself right there mixed with the odour of sweaty exceptionally poor facilities, add •could.- be part . of the reason. sincew we always dressed warmly bodies and Judy's rubberized "l dash of bad luck, sprinkle with A tither is n • doubt-thatsand' hest„ of us probably only mitts melting because the' were a lack of ability and t arse tor • Christmas was so wonden,. to had one pair of boots but weleft'tgro near the fire. You lust, two weeks and the result was us as childrep we can't help but would •throw On an extra sweater doti"t .know what a merry r most definitely a . McGery's look back on those years gone 'or scarf as a token expression of Christmas is" until you've been, School Christmas Concert to be by with. fond memories. ,.the 'importance of this anneal through' that. • enjoyed and remembered by one One of the great events of event on the followingda and all. Y• Well the anginal plan had v�'° Christmas to many tf us as we . The next problem our teacher been')to get the tree in the , I remember• curtains, .r. .s_.....-,r.�.. •,.. ,F� ; �•��� �,„, ,.. , , which Were reP —t a %oor'back, ati"d sPecr�T fir Coad 'Was -solving w, ho would da r moining.,•.and decorate- it-during.�. ,, ,,'I...:,..,, ?! mem was the annual ,school' what and -being vniat`''to •this the afternoon (that was always scoffed from,. Christmas ' concert. Now ,I'm 'winter outing. You must the .plan) .but what . actually 'with safety pins only 20 ,years of age so what I .remetnber, of course that the happened was that by the time wire, stretched tier recall didn't really hapeen SQ whole st'hool was to go, not just we arrived back with -the tree the front, opening an �a long ago but it was part o way .one class or a chosen few. There whole school was so tired, and school chorus,• 14 str of life that changed immediately were two reasons for this I f'that .,infludes our poor • old on with about 15 after I left it. That is to say ' suppose;, one being that there teacher, that we resorted to that Christmas Carols. ..g .p . are the school to ever famous ,escape, the art ally too .bad, group norm 0 ofa those ,e Pthe my �'One would be no on 0 ` tiiSt' br the Mohicans as Tar, as take care of those left behjdd period ♦ It. Seems the art period . ,-,---t h ere -- „- wise si n o . the one room, township school and secondly there Were only 14 was always a device used with s accompaniment and s ea • an over' enthusiastic too tired to do anything else. ' Next little•G.ary, all dressed in Now our teacher, Mrs,his best Sunday" go to meeting Thompson I think was"the name, and Christmas Concert clothes, could hardly survive an , art came 'on to .represent the grade period. You see she had put my two•elass (hewa.s the only one in dad through' the entrance and that grade this year) , with a was around long enough to put„. recitation. The ,expression ,was my brother, who was three years•' great but it tended to interfere 'younger than myself, through. .with his memory so with the that grade as well, and all that help of continual prompting by walking was starting to hurt. his' moth'e sin the front row, he -• Well - the art' period did ``struggled Through and wound up prodiice some decorations for to'-thunde pts pplause from his the tree so the • day was not , whole family end at least polite totally `lose but the final recognition frim the remainder decorating of °the tme had to• of the.audience< ,lied sheets �. ,, t h>iy- r sdlilteet 'ge"ttiii` ` osras "[ • me and""'flng looked for the thumb tack om stovepipe the school punched in the floor marking his the whole movements,- the concert ended ng, comingand everyone poured out into inutes of the school yard looking like they It wasn't had emerged from a steam even. oiisidering On the way home we were o' r ted r mus -icy c. ng, atula . . b� p Qud_ parents me girl in on the fine job we had done and out to be Mrs. Thompson escaped from onotone. her self made trial, with •another reprieve. d • - Oh there were always after effects but they seem to be slightly` foggier in my mind than the concert itself and the preparations. I believe pneumonia was one result, stemming from the crowd of overheated parents anc� children And so it 'continued. The old. wood stove had begin fed a good big hardwood, biot k and threw. heat waves so thick you could see them. Someone opened the door yfor a moment but it was short eed relief as it had to be closed Wain When_..the ladies in the hack row began to complain of cold ankles, • �< Finally with only two other mishaps of note, the curtain falling down in the middle of "Away in a Manger” ode one of house ' is cttcerned. We students in the whole school, great success to justify our being Fade five had turn graduated through the entrance anyway', to school at all when we were " (remember that w:hat they used ' to 'call grade eight)Jbnly a short Well 1 was always honored with time before the • new county • bringing either an axe or a saw school boards were' instituted. or whatever was to be used to Well back to the Christmas cut, the tree since 1 lived right Concert since this'is not meant next to the school and therefore to be,c an article of modern 1 guess the teacher assumed the history on the•'Ontario School odds. were better that I wouldn't Syst'i'n. . kill myself with the tool before 'If 2hremory serves me delivering; it at school. The - correctly the school in which I' others were • delegated to being , received my grade one through' rope, sleighs, toboggans, eight, education was,..knci,_wwn by:. snowshoes, shovels ' and an Oh yes back to the problem. two names, Both. it 'seems, ,were official' enough but •fbr some reason they were two seperate' , identities in, a, way .that IR haus never- understood. Ah yes good old S,S, '12 Drtimmbnd (that stands ,for School Section Number` 12 D'r-ummond Tbwnship) or McGary's School (this name came .from a prominent family who settled the area -at some remote time in history and whose last living • descendent died before I was born). " So here it is Christmas and the whole school, all 15 of us including the teacher, --are beginning .;to get into the festive mood despite the fact that plans are already 'underway on that annual, disaster "McGary's School Christmas Concert." • Before the concert can -be held however Proper decorations -of the •season must' ' be assortment of other tools, On the 'morning of the big day we all arrived with our share of the implements. loaded them- wait until etssedasses so se ,-' ss.,,..ss.,,..,,,, The thirdsitem?, on the and the younger students in ' Well the Christmas concert , schedule of events' was the grade one or two onto, the was just two weeks away ,now headliner of the whole e4enin.g, a sleighs and toboggans and. nand everyone had to realty get massive two act play. I had 'se'seer'seeress started off in search of the everbusy and get that showtogether, rehearsing my lines for weeks in etusive Christmas Tree.Everyone worked like a trooper . this my first step towards. ar'�t Nov either I don't rememberon the project because after all. 4cadem ', ward but as the ,bed <<er� accurately from one year to sheets party ;;orsjogegs.,lp,ptswWO `i, ,even at the worst of times;.tioing - the next or we were all rather a Christmas concert was • etter ply curtains; I'' froze, caul el stupid. You see we arrays went than ._..all those motet li ation 1 }self blLshing and sweat was o _ p , starting -run dawn -mu-•sides • into this otie bush lot; which was tables or that See Spot Run �. located" reasonably "close to the,trash Wasn't jt school, in search ,ot the tree. - ' �'' Poor Mrs. ompso , That's, right, year after year we For us the concert was just a ough ,her'papers at stage left went into the same woods, over chance to take a break fro' dull ,ing to" find the play and humdrum . studies , and do the same'trails and found the � something different. Forspoor completely and if I looked same stunted, scrawny, lousy old Mrs. Thompson it•was�much ..» lookingtrees staring back at us. seared and ' embarrassed she g ; .more. Reniember�',these are, the We knew all the trees in that da�,s before open house was held1 oked- ten “times worse. Finally', bush were rotten Christmas trees ' Pe 'of my supporting roles. at school and this once, year°' b but in the excitement of startingprompted me .and I quickly event the ,LL car, ly time m y of ut I •coul'dn't remember a line, ,'�'' �1� Th n rooted bersting out of a school 'where the temperature hung around the 110 'degree mark into the 20 below December night.. Of course'Sa 1ta had'been`the final arttraction''of the event and ,had brought along a gift for each of 'us (usually a toy) and we enjoyed• many hours of fun with. it as we awaited the arrival of Christmas proper. , • Boy as I look back_ we 'Ida a" really merry Christmas in those sCIUX,snQr , k.te aren't great . hi time of" like Isa�t s now but year brings on my annual case of acute nostalga: sr' ? I'm going home for Christmas and i#, will sure be great Co see that little green and white school house -. again. Nobody goes to school there now,, as ,a_ matter of fact there's a family living in it. It's been altered of course ,,but somehow it still looks the same to me. How' many of yau.went to a one room school house, 'or remember a Christmas concert a lot like mine? No doubt a great many. Merry Christmas to you all frot'n the class of '62 at S.S. No: 12 Drummond Township. • .w Health, wealth, and happiness! CRAIGIE'S 5 6-224 5m1,,45 ;‘,S AZx5t F5*5SzaAgxVE5;1;4=g $ xt5gza 3 OPEN r12t�6P.M. SUNDAY, DEC. 26. w SUNDAY , J A N 2 �;Cbfi✓`�3Z5F5""r. a5w". 5a3"S�ii) ss5.Es55tZ Avmmitzt-wev:NumoivgarsAt • • was e n off it seems no one ever said the parents were ever insi a the came back with'his line, and we Where shall • we go this year", school. As . a result teacher 'Itopped. There was another completed: Now I'm sure I doh t " instead we all took •off to that moment • of dead silence as e know to what lengths school alc�_ys seemed to feelshewas on ng predetermined spot like.- thetrial. Of course such was not the realtp d-ssshe ea h -a a -and then swallows returning 'to'case since if we had been jedged. „he prompted again atm name bac )b with his next line. children today ge io decorate their classrooms but I'm sure it ,,,,,,r, couldn't hold a candle to the efforts, we expended on the project. On about the second Thursday of the month of • • December, a date almost as fixed as Christneas itself it seemed, the teacher would announce. "Now Capistrano, -, on our ability as actors, singers 'To -make w•hat•w•as a brutally . Finally after this had been or recitation reciters • Mrs. repeated a half dozen times we long story .short we. eventually Thompson..would hong _t, efc re• switched. ,parts, even ; if the tramped around• in waist deep T' been hung froth the snow' until we were so tired we.. now have costumes +~were--wrayng;• —and-_ • Christmas tree or any other Struggled through the first""act: ' was could hardly mpve and ,then overhanging object thatl chopped down a tree close by handy. sur . point of • exhaustion and - • ,e with great difficulty -dragged it a To give credit where cr dit Is ' -__children. when you .come. to baelLto the .school • r due • putting on a ' Ch 'stmas ' • ;1 • ;41 '0 . V. .... . . A ""CIVIC and PUBLIC HQLIDAY ?,(i i It And Call Upon All Citizens To Govern Themselves Accordingly W " the second act went a bit better . but the audience seemed a little unfused when I,reverted to my ♦ �•�+5 :-��`� �.?Ca':�'.'��. �.: :�� .' .. .=�a - . y�io. C�'��. i�A:a io. fib► ion. i� Nk. o The Citien of the Town of GODERICH As _Directed By Resolution Of The Municipa I Hereby Declare 7 BOXING DAY MONDAY, December2lth, 1911 Council ♦,;ar,ap . y X6C7YN nrwvx. . �'(. . • ori a, r, k1 a pp r .' 't • ,1 • r,4 /,t 4. M1.. q� , : , 10' • ... , i ..a,,, etre, . , Thy'II Find .SLIPPERS SHOES or BOOTS Under the Tree From Ross Shoe Allow Us To Slip A )g) Merry .Christmas UNDER EVERY TREE A `Ct kr ♦ . r y h . r 00 „ awn r ,, J"lft7,"i From The Staff Of . - hX `.iN1.w.ry •.,rtvgr•.n. ,y sir •r.r, ., . ,C�'3lP"'„k ".. j, , . .n,. ri ,.,,t a:•�.91(S,.r rr: .+".. +r.•, .. • ;r1�F'JL d' ,Y'. � :.Q; 'h• . Rv' . . A IR