Finally................Souris Regional High School 1971-1975

This is the SRHS of my past, my memories, and for a lot of you out there. A lot has changed.

I'm sure that I speak for many others when I say I was t-e-r-r-i-f-i-e-d at the thought of leaving Rollo Bay School and entering High School. Us little country kids didn't stand a chance against the town kids. They were so lucky to live in the town of Souris and were familiar with the school for many reasons. Sports events, concerts, some even spent time in the hallowed halls working with their mom or dad. I don't think we even had the grace of an Orientation Day, which all students who matriculate get today. Just were given a date for Day One, and be ready.

I remember vividly getting on a new and strange bus, while Walter waved at me as he passed my gate in my old bus. The new bus was loaded, I didn't know a soul, just my childhood friend Mary, who had boarded ahead of me. I can't speak for her, but I was petrified. We never spoke a word. And once we got off the bus at the school, I might as well have been on the moon, I was so out of place.

Nothing was familiar. Hundreds of students I didn't know coming at me in waves as I stood in one spot and they parted around me, like something you'd see in a movie.. Dozens of teachers, all new, and how in the name of god was I going to find my way around this enormous place? It had so many corridors, two full floors, a gymnasium, chem labs, home ec labs, band rooms, it just went on and on.

Well, somehow it all got sorted out, although until I took my very last bus ride on Lorne Dingwell's bus, I feared every day that I would board the wrong bus. And for those of us who remember Lorne, wasn't he the sweetest man? And of course I think we all had a crush on his son Roger, at some point.

And speaking of crushes, Mary and I kept in close contact. One of us would phone the other to find out "What are you wearing tomorrow?" Or "Do you think he looked at me?" And we have to remember in those days if a family was lucky enough to have a phone, it was hanging on the kitchen wall with a short cord, and Momma's patience would be even shorter. We had to be pretty careful of our conversation. No wonder there was a path worn in Mahar's Woods between her place and mine!

Mary had a great hand with make up, I learned how to apply mascara from her. She has the most beautiful eyelashes, me not so much, but grab that tiny little red Maybelline mascara, where you pulled out the little drawer, and inside was a tiny brush (it looked like a doll's toothbrush!) for application, and a wee tray of dry mascara, just wet it, load the brush and voila! Heavy brown/black mascara!! Let the young ones put up with that.

Grade Nine was quite an iniation. Some of us were very quiet and kept to ourselves, didn't make any waves, so as not to get noticed, because that equalled drawing attention. The townies and upper grades were pretty entertaining, but they were intimidating too. They were loud, cocky, and ran the joint. They organized the weekend dances, the festivals and proms, they played all the good spots on all the teams. A couple of them even ran the school "canteen" where all you could really buy was chips and bars. And one other thing.....

Cigarettes. Yes sir, many a day some young blood would be roaming the corridors bumming enough nickels to buy a smoke. As the song goes, those were the days. There was even a large Smoking Room at the far end of the lower corridor, if you can imagine. And here I am thinking if I had some nickels I'd be buying some chips! But I wasn't one of the popular crowd, so they didn't bother with me. Too small a fish.

Here I am in Grade 10, although that was to be our phase of "years" or "levels" instead of grades. It gave students a chance to take courses from different grades instead of what was offered, it was an experiment of sorts I think. So this was "Year 2" but the next year I was back to Grade 11. No wonder some of us got all screwed up!

It's a great picture, and lots of my Face Book friends will see themselves here. And the enrolment was so high in the 70s that there were 5 full Grade 10 classes. This is jut one! I don't have a Grade 9 Yearbook, there was probably no money for one, but my remaining three years in SRHS resulted in three yearbooks that I still treasure and I share once in a while with friends I can trust.

I sure wish I could draw, there are so many things I remember clearly, but are hard to describe. I walked down street one day to the Matthew Mclean Building with my sewing class list clutched tight in my hand. One of my first and lasting loves was Home Ec. I was in absolute heaven. Foods class. Sewing class. In a lot of cases, I've carried what I learned in those years to this day, it was a well founded education not wasted on my eager young mind. I absorbed it all faster than Bounty, the quicker picker upper.

My first Home Ec teacher was Isabel Christian and we loved her. We had to learn a lot of theory first, and study the sewing machine, then pass all the tests that would qualify us to cut a piece of fabric and sew it all back together into a simple piece of clothing. Lucky for us, it was a cotton peasant blouse. This was the 70's after all, no boys in home ec in those days! So a peasant blouse it was. It was amazing. I wore it til I wore it out.

What did I know about shopping? I was rarely in Souris, let alone in a store. Even rarer to be hanging around til a clerk noticed me and asked to help, of course she knew the class would be doing some purchasing.

I will remember the fabric as long as I live. It was amazing to watch her pull out the one I pointed at, unfold it and cut it, I can see it all so clearly. It was a soft brown colored paisley print, which is still a favorite pattern of mine. And the project came out great, it turns out I had an aptitude for sewing and homemaking, and the rest, as they say, is history. By the end of the year, my projects would be finished so fast that I was quasi-teaching the rest of the class. I loved it. Every chance I got I was sewing everything I wore and half of everybody else's. Blouses, corduroy pants so tight you could crack a walnut on my ass, or bellbottoms so full I tripped going upstairs. But those were the days.

Albert Fogarty was our Principal and he was legendary, no need to add more. Except that he was never my teacher, and I was so under the radar that he wouldn't even know I was there for 4 years. Except one day the crackle of the loud speaker came on and indicated it was just our classroom getting the message, not the whole school. I'll never forget how impressed I was with the "technology." I don't know how I didn't take a stroke.

We heard the familiar throat clearing that always preceded Mr. Fogarty's speech.

"Hello, Sister Hickey?" And she would answer. Even that was amazing to me.

"Do you have a Nova Chaisson in that class? Is she present today?"

My head snapped up quicker than Bambi in the headlights.

"Send her to my office please." Click. The line went dead. I was frozen to the spot.

Number one, I wasn't sure I could find the office without getting lost on the first attempt.

Number two, the groans and whistles and catcalls as I slithered out of the room. "Oooooohhhhh, Nova's in trouble....." And I'm sure I was red as a beet. And ready to throw up. But you'll find that's a common refrain throughout my life.

Number three, I know I didn't "do" anything, so what was I in trouble for?

Because let's face it, the only time you get called to the principal's office is for some infraction, real or imagined, and Mr. Fogarty ruled with an iron fist.

Jesus, take me now.

I found the office, and my fertile imagination was already lining up lies to get myself off the hook for whatever jam I was in.

Well, to make a long story short, he was hiring me to babysit. I wasn't in trouble at all, he was smiling and friendly and it began a long and sweet relationship between he and Judy and the kids and me. They were so good to me for many years, they kept me in much needed spending money for my high school career. Once they found out that Judy and I had the same birthday, well, it was kismet!! (Except for that forbidden boyfriend that I kept sneaking in when they were gone for a late evening. But a girl's gotta have SOME secrets...............)

And by the end of the year I was growing and finding my way.