It was delightful dining with many seniors at the West Ottawa Community Resource Centre Diners Club in Kanata.  Carol Diguer was the hostess and Judy Laughton engaged everyone with a little fitness after the meal.  I knew several in the audience and met more people with stories to tell.

Dorothy Boone was born in Fitzroy Harbour in 1927 and started her education in a one-room school at the age of five.  Her mother, who was once a school teacher in Quyon, Quebec, pulled her out for a year when she got head lice.  She remembers walking three miles to school from her farm, but she couldn’t keep up with the boys.  Also, the priest was very strict.

From 1932-1937, June Joyce attended Grades 1-3 in the same room, and then Grades 4 & 5 in the room next door inside Caroline Street School in Longueuil, Quebec.  Her great grandfather, Isaac Walton, gave a piece of his land for the first schoolhouse in Bolton, Ontario.

Joyce Johnson Amos recalled that going three miles to and from Castlemore School, #3076 near Melaval, Saskatchewan, in the wintertime was bone chilling.  Her little brother would cry as they traveled by horse and buggy because his hands were so cold.  When she arrived at school, she would put her hands in cold water to get the sting out of them.  Joyce remembers accompanying singers on the piano for several Christmas concerts as there was no one else who could play.  A highlight was when she played “Star of the East” as a solo.

Jean Hansen, who is now 98 and attends Kanata United Church with me, bought a one-room schoolhouse with her husband, James, in Havelock, Ontario.  She lived in S.S. No. 2 Havelock for eleven years.  Thankfully, it had a bathroom inside and a huge garden outside.  Jean’s granddaughter, Laurie Clarke, used to volunteer in my classroom when I taught her daughter, Sarah.

Howard Baugh’s sister, Beatrice Dawson, went to Grades 1-7 in the one-room school in Lakefield, ten miles north of Lachute, Quebec.  She told Howard about the time boys threw bullets into the stove.  Beatrice later became a teacher and married a local boy.  The Dawsons were one of the original Irish families who settled in Lakefield.  Children at Beatrice’s school received a good education, but being a teacher was hard work.

I received the following email and wondered if someone could help:

I am in possesion of my mother's and her brother and sisters school bell from Norham, Ontario.  There is a number 5 embossed on the outside side of the cast iron.  I am having difficulty in trying to discover how old it is.  I do have knowledge that my Uncle bought the schoolhouse approx.20-- 25 years ago.  I guess I am looking for assistance on how to search for the info and if there is any need for this cast iron bell in some archives or museum.  The family's name would be Harwood from Scotland.  I would appreciate any input at all Sincere regards Suzanne

Tonight I was the guest speaker at Harmer House in Bells Corners.  Joyce was a delightful hostess and introduced me to many people who live in this complex.  About half of the 35 people in attendance had gone to one-room schools and there were two teachers in the audience. 

Rae Pedasen taught in 1995 in a one-room schoolhouse in Oxford Mills.  Florence Dervin had gone to St. Malachy  in Mayo, Quebec.  Claire Hughes did her schooling in North Gower.  Another Claire’s grandmother, Emily Gilchrist Stevenson, taught at S.S. No. 7 Fitzroy in Kinburn at the tender age of 17.  Her ancester donated the land for the school.  Neil MacDonald attended the Red School in 9 Mile Creek in Prince Edward Island.  Janice Mae Donall went to the one-room school in Suffolk, P.E.I. until 1941 when she moved to Charlottetown.  Lise Everett went to S.S. No. 17 Drummond in Innisville. 

Sharon Burtenshaw started her schooling at the one room school in Finch, Ontario.  Her brother, Albert, and her sister, Sydney Burtenshaw attended S.S. No. 17 Roxborough which is now part of the Lost Villages Museum.  There is a picture of them inside the school.  Sharon remembers the house she grew up in was burned to the ground and then flooded when they built the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Les Griffiths went to the Cheam School in Surrey, England.  The last child through the door in the morning, recess or at lunch would get the strap.  Kids sure got into school quickly!  He remembers that the toilets were built over a stream.  Children used to crumble up newspaper and set light to it.  The newspaper would drift down the stream under the toilet and everyone would wait for a “scream” from the person sitting on the toilet!