My Early School Years

This is my first alma mater, Uxbridge Public School as it looks now on Google. From Sept. of 1952 when I started kindergarten through to the beginning of Grade 5, this was my destination on school days. A few random memories have stuck in my mind about those days and I imagine they will highlight some of the differences between school experiences then and now. I’m not exactly sure why these particular recollections have lingered, but perhaps you will have some suggestions.

The school entrances (and perhaps the playgrounds?) were segregated back then so the boys went in one door and the girls another. The door in the photo at the top of this post was on the girls’ side, but the fence was not there. The photo from the 1920’s shows the boys’ entrance.

I remember how we lined up in rows at the end of recess or lunch time according to our grades. Once everyone was in an orderly line, the on-duty teacher let us into the school.

One interesting thing to note in the photos is the difference in the size of the windows between then and now. The new, smaller windows are probably much more energy efficient.

As we entered the door and climbed the half flight of stairs to the first floor, our kindergarten room was to the right. In this photo of the front of the school, the windows of the kindergarten room are on the left side.

My  favourite memory of kindergarten is that we each had to bring our own blanket with our name sewn on it for nap time. We all laid down on our blankets on the cold floor for a nap part way through the class. I wonder if students today still have a nap or bring their own blanket to school. One important detail about my blanket – it was blue and my sister, who started kindergarten 3 years later, had one that was pink. My aversion to the colour pink seems to have started very early.

For some reason, I kept my blanket around for many years – well into my 40’s before disposing of it. Sentimental perhaps?

More memories

Nothing about Grade 1 seems to have stuck in my mind, but I believe Grade 2 was taught by Miss Anderson whom I seem to recall liking very much. I found a photo online of Miss Anderson from 1963 when she retired after 41 years of teaching – 38 of them in the same classroom, probably the one that I was in across the hall from the kindergarten room. She is seen in this photo with 3 generations that she taught. Remarkable!

I have a picture in my mind of sitting in a row in her class and learning the Roman numerals. The letter “L” representing the number 50 lingers as being very important to me at the time. To  my right high up on the wall was a large clock with Roman numerals on it similar to this one. It might have even said “Regulator” on it.

One memory doesn’t have anything to do with a classroom or teacher. It is a recollection of all the students lining up to see the nurse to get a needle, probably a vaccination for something. I can clearly see the line-up snaking out through the door of the small room, down the stairs and into the hall, and I can still feel the apprehension. My aversion to medical procedures has not changed to this day.

In 1955 an addition was built on the boys’ side of the school. It housed classes from Grade 5 and up, and I recall spending my first few weeks of Grade 5 in the new building before my family moved to Bothwell, Ontario. The reason for our move in 1957 and my adventures in Bothwell I’ll reveal in another blog post. Stay tuned!