5.     HIGH SCHOOL....continued

Each year we were given a list of mandatory subjects- I will try and remember them: Math, History, Geography, English Literature, English, French, Art, Music, Science, Commerce or Latin, First Aid. I only have eleven and I'm sure there were one or two more. The only option was either Latin or Commerce. I took Commerce and we had book-keeping, typing, banking etc. I would have loved high school if only we did not have my hated subject - mathematics.

On December 27, 1942 a tragic event happened in Almonte.- A passenger train that picked up people every Sunday evening bringing them back to Ottawa to work, arrived in Almonte at 8 p.m. filled with passengers. There was a mix up in signals in Pakenham that should have warned the passenger train conductor that a loaded troop train was on the way. The troop train ran into the passenger train which was sitting at the station,and approximately 45 people were killed and many more injured. My father went into Almonte the next day and when he came home he told of gruesome scenes. Our class at school had just completed an in- depth first aid course including the proper way to treat a person who may have a concussion. Coleen, the dentist's daughter, lived close to the train station and her father along with many others, opened their homes to care for the injured. When school began in January, Coleen told of one man she was caring for who appeared to be well except for a severe headache. She told how she left him to go elsewhere to help a needy person and when she returned he was gone. Later he was located and diagnosed with a concussion and I clearly remember our first aid teacher saying, " We have just finished our first aid class and all of you were told never leave a person with a head injury - they may have a concussion".

During the winter months I lived in Almonte with my Grandparents. There were no big efficient snow removal machines at that time so often people were 'snow bound'.

My grandparents were good to Logan and I. Before bedtime, my grandfather would go outside and look at the sky, the moon and the stars and feel the wind. He would then come in and forecast the weather for the next day or longer. He rarely if ever was mistaken; my father could also forecast the weather. My grandfather sat in a wicker chair by the big radio at 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. to listen to the war news and one did not even whisper at those times.

My grandmother's personality was very much like my fathers, peace loving, quiet spoken and sincere. She made delicious pies made with 'goose fat'. We also had peas brose, not my favourite. On Saturday you prepared the meals for the weekend. On Sunday I went to the Presbyterian church with her. Afterwards we would quietly eat our lunch. Dishes were not washed but stacked in a large pan to be washed on Monday.

One Sunday my fingernail broke and I asked Grandma for scissors. She was horrified, and asked why I needed scissors and when I told her it was my nail, she said to bite it off. On the Sabbath day there was no baking, no cleaning, no mending, no noise, no deals made, no promises made. Of course we listened to the war news. Because of the war and the many shortages, we had tokens for sugar, butter and meat. If we were visiting someone for more than a couple of days we took tokens to our hostess.
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