CLEARING OUT THE OLD FILES

With the possibility of visitors arriving in a week or so I declared it was time to clear out the old files in my home office and make more space. Some things must be kept like memorable pictures and family mementos. I am reminded of high school days, two years in Medicine Hat, one of them batching with my older sister and another working for my board while attending Alexander High School. It would be nice to see Joyce again, the first child of a pharmacist and his wife and would now be somewhere in her seventies. They were a nice family and I enjoyed my stay with them. Having lunch, doing dishes and scrubbing the kitchen floor every day during the one hour noon break, then dashing back up the hill to Alexander High School made the time speed by.

After a busy summer helping Mother with gardening, canning vegetables and meat for winter, I completed high school at a boarding school in Three Hills, Alberta. The crops were good that year and it was quite reasonable pricewise because we did gratis work for several hours a day to help pay our board and tuition fees. My first assigned room mate was from Olds, and a quiet pleasant girl. A few years later my brother and I spent a day with her at their farm. World War II was on and he was on leave from the army. It is always nice to visit a former room mate and I was always lucky to have a good one. After graduation from high school I registered for three years of Bible school there.

Finding out what gratis work would be assigned us was always exciting. I was put on the vegetable crew the first year and a senior student Ms. Steele was the pleasant boss of the crew and always kept a ready smile handy to cheer the moment if one of us contributed a bit of wit, or even if a potato displayed an identical twin stuck to it. Our peelers spun the brown covers off each one but later I was told by a diabetic friend that this skin is actually the most nourishing part with the interior just plain starch that records a high glycemic index making it necessary for some diabetics use caution. My sister was assigned to the laundry department and had a challenging boss. The next year I was put in the music department that included typing up the minute by minute radio programs and running them over to the boss before broadcast time. There were no computers at that time to send them by e-mail.

Evening meals were between five and six pm. At seven pm, we were not allowed to talk in our rooms until nine pm because it was homework time and we were not to disturb our room mates or talk in the halls. Of course my voice was too often heard as the hall monitor passed our door and finally I was punished by having to return to the High School building during those evening hours and do my homework there. I don't remember minding too much but one of the seniors (bless you Blanche) complained that I was often helping someone and it wasn't just empty talk. The dean of women wouldn't change my sentence but I felt flattered that a senior had tried to speak up for me. The next year one of the young men was returning to his dormitory from the high school building and stumbled into a steep narrow ditch that had been dug that day for installing pipes. The warning lantern had not been put in place. His face was wounded but his sister tells me he is still handsome and wears a mustache that hides the injury.

Oh yes, another rule, we were not allowed to run on the stairs. It 's a good safety precaution I now realize, but noisy on the plank stairs. Young and thoughtless, I raced up the stairs one Saturday morning . My room was on the fourth floor and it likely resounded throughout the whole building. The hall monitor - a staff member - opened her door and confronted me at the landing with a stern reprimand. I likely bowed my head in shame and apologized because next time I saw her she gave me a smile. I heard that later she went to Tasmania as a teacher. I truly hope she never got bitten by one of those Tasmanian devils. She was basically a good person. A smile always helps.

And how could we girls forget skirt measuring day. Oh yes, it was important to dress modestly. At an appointed time we would report to the office of the dean of women to see if we passed muster. Skirts must be no shorter than eleven inches from the floor, the written regulations said and we must have long sleeves at all times and wear no flesh colored or other conspicuous stockings.

There were a thousand students registered my last year there. The large dining room had a separation line with the feminine gender all seated on one side. A staff member (usually one of the teachers) was seated at the head of the each long table and we were served healthy meals from gardens largely grown on land adjoining the campus. Some students applied for a summer job to cover year's tuition.

During the summer months we were not permitted to visit or see a fellow student that we may have met at class or at gratis work. If this happened and was reported somehow, that student would still be able to graduate and receive a diploma but was not permitted to march to the podium with her class. One of the girls I always admired had apparently met a male student on the bus when returning home and been seen chatting together. I recall feeling very angry that she was not able to be honored by marching with her class to receive her diploma. It was mailed to her home in California. She is still likely as beautiful as ever and still living there. I realize now that the school was teaching us to be single minded and complete schooling first before any dating lest they become dropouts. I don't remember hearing about homeless people at that time in the early 1940's.