Gotcha! A story about children's games in Edmonton during the Second World War

A game played by grade five students during the Second World War baffles teachers.

When I was a young boy in Grade Five at Edmonton's McDougall School during the 1940-41 school year we played a popular game called 'Gotcha'. Most male students had button fasteners on their trousers, not zippers, because of a metal shortage during the second world war. If you were called upon to come to the front of the class to read the lesson to your fellow students, you walked down the aisle with caution. It was not unusual for another male student to reach out as you passed by and quickly claw at the front of your pants, popping the buttons open and whispering 'gotcha'. Some teachers could not understand why some male students had such poor posture. These boys held their lesson books down below the belt line and tight against their trousers. They humped their backs, bent their necks down to read, and some had difficulty talking. One teacher suspected a vision problem and sent notes home to the parents suggesting a visit to an optometrist. No one seemed to realize that these young men were desperately searching for some form of closure.