School Days, in Westmount and Glenora, 1940s, Denny May

My memories of School in Edmonton are few - but each one vivid.


Kindergarten was held in a house across our back lane - on 24th Street. I don't remember the name of our teacher but what I do remember was that she grew wonderful Tomatoes and one spring day gave each of us a lovely red one that I took home and shared with the family.


My first day of school I can remember well - we lived at 10929 25 St - Westmount School was a few blocks away. My Mom walked my sister Joyce and I to school - we were introduced to our teacher Mrs. B.M. Battrick who asked "are any of you left-handed"? My sister, wanting to be different (I guess) put up her hand and was sent off to stand against one wall, and later was taught to write with her left hand which was difficult as she was right-handed. I stayed with the crowd and then mid morning they let us out - I said to myself "is that all there is"? And walked home. Mum walked me back to school. I graduated to Grade 2 with Honours.


Grade 2 at Westmount my teacher Mrs. L. Northey said I was "quiet and retiring but capable" and passed me on to Grade 3 with Honours again. In grade 4 I had two teachers - Mrs. M. Livingstone and Mrs. Vivian Anderson - they had nothing to say on my report card but there a lot of Av. (Average) marks


In 1944 the family moved way out to the west end of the city to 10122 42 Street. The nearest school was Glenora - a short walk through the forest that lined both sides of 2nd Ave. The school Principal was Alex Stockwell and I can remember him well. Grade 4 was an interesting year.... My teacher Mrs. Anderson moved with me but I seemed to be getting a lot of average marks and I was in trouble a lot and Mr. Stockwell had the pleasure of strapping me - I had dipped a girl's pigtails in the inkwell that was on my desk. I remember being led into his office, the door being closed and the strap retrieved - I had to hold out my hands and received 2 or three blows to each. I did not do the pigtail thing again. The next time I got into trouble was by getting my sister Joyce into trouble. We were not supposed to play on the school steps during recess but that day I was standing on the steps making faces at my sister and she threw a snowball at me - just as Mr. Stockwell came out the door - it got him right in the face and this time it was Joyce being led into the office - then me. I have, in another story told about Jerry Hyndman and our encounter with Mr. Stockwell.


Grade 5 at Glenora School was obviously a difficult year - Mr. Stockwell said, on my report card, that I was a "day-dreamer" and reluctantly sent me on to grade 6 where he suggested I "must take my work at Oliver seriously and work hard right at the start" then sent me on to Grade 7 - I suspect he was glad to see me go, particularly after I had put a fake ink block on the teachers paperwork on her desk and a rubber Weiner in his Hot Dog at the end-of-school picnic at Victoria Park. The thing I did best in these years was never to be late. I did serve on the AMA School Patrol where we stopped traffic on 2nd Ave to let the kids walk across.


In the fall of 1947 I went to Oliver School - a few memories linger from those days - the gym which was upstairs was the place where we went to stand in rows and swing "Indian Clubs" in intricate Patterns. Our teacher Mr. Thomas led us in this fascinating exercise that we all hated. At that time of my life I was embarrassed by my name and told people to call me Maysie - that turned out to be worse than Denny so I went back to my real name. I remember a few other names from Oliver school: Eddie Lechter - he threw his shoe in class one day and became known as "Shoe Throwing Lechter"; Daisy Mae - I have no idea to this day who the girl was that phoned me at home almost every evening and talked to me in a southern accent claiming she was Daisy Mae (a character from the Lil' Abner comic strip); Tova Crystal who sat behind me was a nice girl but she bugged me and I got into trouble one day by hitting her with a book - I've always regretted that. Ken Singleton became a good friend - we chummed around together - visited each other at family cabins every summer and when our family moved to Vancouver in 1949 Ken came to visit - we are still neighbours and friends. In Junior High School my best marks were in Industrial Arts and I still have the table and shelves I built. Mrs. M.E. Walls sent me on to grade 9 and the family moved away from this wonderful city.