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The Citizen, 1999-09-29, Page 6PAGE 6. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1999. Students spend time catching up with seniors The way it was Alt Sutton was one of several seniors to talk with the Grade 5/6 class from Brussels Public School on Friday, Sept. 24 during a special day held to commemorate the International Year of the Older Person. In addition to discussions with war veterans from the Brussels Legion, the children also learned what it was like growing up in a world without hydro or indoor plumbing. They also saw a collection of memora­ bilia from the war years. By Bonnie Gropp Citizen staff Even to baby boomers raised with television, electricity and indoor plumbing, the lifestyle of their par­ ents seems not so far removed. But to today’s kids, linked international­ ly by technology that seemed futuristic even 20 years ago, it is a world apart. Learning more about seniors and the life they experienced was the focus behind a special day hosted by Brussels Legion on Friday. In recog­ nition of the International Year of the Older Person, students from the Grade 5/6 class chatted with veter­ ans of World War II and senior members. During his sessions, Donald Dunbar offered a glimpse into a slower, gentler world, of life as a 10- year-old growing up in a rural area. Though the children were aware of some aspects of life six decades ago, they were often surprised by other realities. Dunbar told of a farmhouse with no hydro, no bathroom, no furnace. Bath night was a tin tub in the mid­ dle of the kitchen floor with water heated on the woodstove. Food he told the children was fresh, while meat was salted or smoked as there was no refrigera­ tion. Eggs and milk, of course, were collected every day for family con­ sumption. “You drank it cleaned, didn’t you?” one child questioned. “No it wasn't pasteurized then. We’d never heard of it. But here I am, yet.” To a generation entertained by video games, television and the internet, Dunbar fascinated them with tales of simpler pleasures. “What did you do ail day?” asked one student. His comment that in the summer there was swimming, prompted an immediate response. “Oh, you had a pool.” No, Dunbar explained, recreation in all seasons often came from the Maitland River, which he adds was a lot cleaner in those days. “In the winter we played hockey on the river,” said Dunbar. The players had real hockey sticks, but many, he said, used the “Eaton’s catalogue for shin pads.” Part of the activity involved preparing the ice surface. “We had to scrape all the snow off; it was hard work; then pile it around the edges. That was the boards. Getting to school meant a mile and a half walk, but in the winter there was often a treat as the cutter would be sent to pick up a group of children and make the trip to school, “Then it picked us up again at 4. It was a school bus.” This comment brought a shocked response as well. “You had to go to school until 4?” As there were no notebooks chil­ dren used slates said Dunbar, some­ thing his young visitors seemed familiar with. “That’s like a little chalkboard, right?” After supper, reading was a favourite pastime, by oil lamp, but it P.O. Box 100 26 Jordan Drive Belgrave, Ontario NOG 1E0 was bedtime at 8 p.m. Holidays were different too. There was a tree for Christmas but without hydro the decorations consisted pri­ marily of green and red rope. Stockings were hung by the chim­ ney with care and filled with the usual candies. A Christmas gift from Cutter picked up children in winter. ‘It was our school bus,’ senior recalls Santa back then could be anything from a sled or pair of skates to gloves and scarves. Mischief makers were around on Halloween. A favourite prank said Dunbar, was tipping over an out­ house. When Dunbar was about 12 Canada was involved in World War II. He told the students about rationing and how families had coupons to purchase everything from butter and sugar to gasoline. “Farmers had to have gas to farm, but they put purple dye in it. If you Phone: (519) 357-3010 Fax: (519) 357-3143 got caught with that purple dye in your car you were in trouble.” And as Dunbar had depicted an era of simpler times, the picture of life during the war was painted vividly for the youngsters by several veterans. Alf Sutton, who served in army communications told of his time in Europe. He explained that as the corps was mobile they often commandeered a house and would put 20- 30 men in each. “They didn’t want them all in one building in case the Germans bombed it.” Students asked many of the men about families. Sutton, who was married when he went to war, said the five-year-old daughter he left behind was 10 when he came home. Others spoke of uncles and brothers who had enlisted as well. We Deliver Your Freedom MED-E-OX 282 Suncoast Drive, Goderich (519)524-2020 1-800-265-5500 When air force veterans Bill Bremner and Charles Proctor were asked if they lost any good friends, a hestitation, a silent nod, a soft-spo­ ken yes, said volumes. Gord Workman and John Wright, who served in the Canadian and British Navy respectively, gave exciting accounts of their days at sea. Workman told of a day when his ship had cornered a submarine off the coast of Ireland. “I went on with a boarding party and that’s a scary thing. “You don’t know what they left behind, whether they left booby traps.” Wright spoke of the German tor­ pedo boats that dropped mines which blew up any boat that passed over them. Asked why they joined, the story was familiar. “Two of my friends had enlisted,” said Bremner. “It was the thing to do at the time,” said Proctor. Workman said he joined in 1939 also because his friends had enlisted. He was 16. “I lied,” he said, when asked if you didn’t have to be 18 to enlist. A troubled time, certainly, but the memories shared with the young­ sters were undoubtedly bittersweet. “My paycheque was $1.25 a day,” said Bremner. ‘That was about the most money I’d ever seen.” “That’s not even my allowance,” a youngster returned. And if you saved up enough money, you could enjoy a 48-hour leave from time to time. And if there was one thing good about the experience, it was the chance for a young boy to see the world. ‘I saw places I never would have seen if I hadn’t enlisted,” said Workman. Wright too said he travelled to the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, Austrailia, New Zealand and Africa. “It gave me the chance to see a lot of the world.” The experiences of this generation were related in often colourful prose, a fireside chat of interesting insight into a world as foreign to the children as the places seen by the young soldiers so many years ago. The day at the Legion provided an excellent opportunity for two gener­ ations to learn more about each other and the world in which each lived and learned. with: Home Oxygen Wheelchairs Electric Scooters Hospital Beds Bathroom Equipment Electric Reclining Lift Chairs