The first person was Graham Ritchie whose story appears on page 121 of my book. He recounted his fun rolling tires down a hill at S.S. No. 2 Gloucester, laden with apples from a nearby orchard. Of course the apples would go flying in all directions. Graham purchased another book for his son Neill, who is currently the owner of Ritchie Feed & Seed. http://www.ritchiefeed.com/
The second person was Doug Fleming. Doug used to manage many large craft shows around the Ottawa Valley. My parents and I used to sell hand-crafted jewelry, china painting, knitting and woodcarving at some of his shows. Doug was a former pupil at Sadler’s School (S.S. No. 2 Pakenham) from 1939-1945. He informed me the school is now a home. All his memorabilia from that time is now at the Archives Lanark at Drummond Centre.
A couple of other people I met were Teresa Robson (Chevrier) who attended S.S. No. 5 Morrison Township in Gavenhurst, Ontario and Kathi Timmins who went to S.S. No. 22 Mountain from 1960-1967. This was a two-room school. Every winter her Dad (who owned the General Store) and a farmer would take turns flooding the school yard so that the children could have a skating rink. Then the community would have a winter carnival with hot dogs, homemade baked goods and candies, and of course skating races.