School Days at King Edward Elementary School, 1957 - 1962, by Sheila Thompson

Some of my fondest childhood memories are of King Edward Elementary School (1957 - 62). Stopping by as an adult, I was surprised to see how barren it was. No adventure playground at this school, just a neat front lawn enclosed by a single line of green pipe fence and a paved back courtyard. How could we have had so much fun there? But we did.

Racing outside at recess we would hit the home plate shouting "First up! Second up! Third up! Catcher! ..." Until everyone who wanted to play had a position in the scrub baseball game. There was Double Dutch skipping and marbles in the spring. Before they tore down the old school, we played Jump with our solid, black, India rubber balls - tossing the ball high, high up the three storey brick wall and timing the drop so that three or four children could jump each successive bounce.

One piece of playground equipment was the green pipe fence that surrounded the school lawn. It was 30" high and consisted of eight-foot crosspieces supported by similar verticals. We would patiently wait our turn to practice our twirls: one-leg forward - lefts and rights, two-leg back twirls - careful with the handgrip so as not to lose hold and land on our heads. We wore a deep groove under the fence in our twirling spots and, as we were not really supposed to be there, the teachers would occasionally come by and move us along.

When the recess bell called us back to class, girls and boys knew where they belonged for the words BOYS and GIRLS were carved in stone over the east doors.

The school lawn itself was a tempting playground. Children would meet on warm spring evenings for a rough and tumble game of British Bulldog. As word spread, more and more children came to try their luck at running the line. The game began with one child standing in the centre facing all others and calling out, "British Bulldog!" Everyone would dart and dodge, running to the far side. Whoever was tagged or knocked down joined the centre for the next go. The school lawn was the perfect playfield as the grass was thick and soft to land on and the fence defined the boundaries. What fun we had until one night a car pulled up and out jumped the principal shouting at us to stop. Twenty-five children disappeared in a flash. That was the end of our game but not our reprimand. The next morning at school the dreaded announcement came, "Whoever was on the school lawn last night, report to the office." Only four of us came but the principal doggedly pursued the rest and eventually we all received the strap, two mighty whacks to each hand.

Looking back, King Edward delivered a solid education, instilled confidence and accomplishment in its students and fed our sense of fun and independence as we explored the world of our childhood in 1950's Edmonton.