Interviewer: So as you moved on out of high-school, where did you u-- what was the first thing you did? Speaker: I really didn't know what I was going to do, I was going to go back and do grade-thirteen and I didn't because my uncle phoned and they were hiring firemen- Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: On the railroad and I hadn't even thought about it but anyway that's where I ended up for five-and-a-half years, fireman on the railway.

So I ended up, uh, as a guidance counsellor for an elementary- in an elementary school. I've taught everything from grade one to grade thirteen.

Speaker: Got my education up to standard. Grade-twelve and three subjects of grade-thirteen I believe. Interviewer: Wow. (Laughs) Speaker: Ah, two English and a History I believe. Interviewer: A rehab school, I've never heard of that. Speaker: Rehabilitation after the war.

Speaker: We boarded in town. We got our own meals, Jill and I. She- she repeated some of grade-thirteen to up her marks. So she was there- I was there with her one year and we boarded and took food in and ah-

Speaker: Um I was in the drama club in grade-thirteen but it wasn't the school drama club it was the ah- the Almonte-Town-Drama-Club. Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: That- that went a long way toward getting me out of my shyness as well.

... -- ah twe-- grades twelve and thirteen. Um 'cause we were learning things like constitutions which is not what you want to teach teenagers but we had to memorize the American constitution and the Canadian ah British-North-America-Act. And there'd always be a comparison and contrast question on the grade-thirteen exam. So you knew it was coming so you memorized this con-- that was terrible way to learn history. So I said never again and then I became interested in a local subject.

And they didn't call it Beaverton-High-School, they called it Beaverton-Continuation-School. But it went from grade-nine to grade-thirteen. And um- those were the years where Beaverton was small, wasn't it. That was in the years when it was about nine-hundred. But then, in the summer because of all these cottages, it became about three-thousand. Now I don't know what the population is of Beaverton.

Speaker 2: We both went to Beaverton-Continuation-School for- Speaker: For- well, thirt-- well thirteen. I was in grade-thirteen, you stopped in grade-twelve. I went to grade-thirteen and there was one more year of Beaverton-Continuation-School and then they built a big general, Brock-High they call it. And it was from Cannington, Beaverton, Sunderland, they all- it's still there. Our kids all went there.

Speaker 2: I was sixteen at that time. Was that fifteen or sixteen at that time? Speaker: Well um, not, yeah, seventeen, eighteen in- in grade-eight, grade-thirteen. In grade-thirteen, I was. But um- oh, there was so many changes.

My mother died in March um- where was I? Oh I was in high-school, I was in grade-thirteen. And she died and we had a big snow-storm. Now you don't know whether that's the one you were- they were talking about but there were no trains that came to Beaverton for about a week because we got flowers or- a good week after the funeral.

That was because Joseph was older than you. Yeah. Joseph got off um grade-thirteen, we had grade-thirteen in those years, grade-twelve and thirteen. And he got off because of the war. And he became a sailor.

Interviewer: (Laughs) Um what about um d-- did you finish high school? Did you go all the way through? Speaker: Yeah. Yeah I was- I've got my grade-thirteen that's- Interviewer: Oh okay. Speaker: My mother was a teacher.

Interviewer: Do a lot of people just come up here for the summers, or- Speaker: Used to be a lot more. Now ah- like when I got out of grade-thirteen I worked for the ah- the I-G-A. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: Was Freddy-Ander's but it was across where the small mart is. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: And ah it used to be significant like this place'd go from a thousand people to three-thousand in the summertime.

And um I remember in grade-twelve when I discovered um, unbeknownst to me our guidance system wasn't great back then, and I discovered that I didn't have the right selection of subjects to go on to grade-thirteen, and by the time I was in grade-twelve I had this education idea had really caught on and I wanted to go to university so I wanted my grade-thirteen.

Um- and then I was the first one to leave home. Um- I went to teacher's-college so I did grade-thirteen here and then I left to go to teacher's-college at eighteen.

Interviewer: Where did you go to teacher's-college? Speaker: Ottawa. And it was only one year at the time, eh? Mm-hm. You didn't have to have your degree. So I went from grade-thirteen, teacher's-college one year and then teaching. And we got a job just like that. You went- we went- people came, school-boards came to the ah Ottawa teacher's-college and you picked whatever county you wanted to go to.

Yeah because I didn't go into the high-school. The high-school here in Madawaska-Valley, I'm a first year graduate. I only went there for grade-thirteen. So from ah Saint-Joseph's we went to Stratford I think one year and then- and then we went to Expo. That was our big thing.

... new Catholic-Church, was the last school I went to. Then on to high-school at- in Barry's-Bay for ah, Matawaska-Valley-District-High-school for my grade-thirteen.

... there were kids that met kids from Killaloe or kids from you-know, Palmer-Rapids or Combermere, and they started to go together in grade-nine, they got married in grade-twelve or grade-thirteen, and they're still married today.

Interviewer: Have you ever been to the Wilno-Tavern? Speaker: Oh many times. Many many times. Yeah, yup. Yeah. It's fun to go there and- and ah- I didn't go there so much, 'cause when I was in high-school you could drink at eighteen, s-- and I was eighteen in grade-thirteen, so you could go to the bar when you were eighteen. And ah- but people- we didn't go to Wilno.