Interviewer: Wow, tell me- tell- tell me about the kid who got left behind. Speaker: Well it was her own doing. She was in grade thirteen and she had family out there and she just decided that she was going to stay.

Well I told you we were going to ah the high-school here in town which is huge now but in those days it wasn't so big. There were only ah four grade-nines and only one grade-thirteen or maybe two grade-thirteens. Maybe only one so you-know a number of kids would drop out over the year or there was also um the four year course which was considered finished high-school.

Unless you were going to go to university, you really didn't take the grade-thirteen so it was kind-of normal to start out with about a hundred kids in grade-nine and end up with maybe only twenty or twenty-five actually graduating so I went through um the five year course. Took my grade-thirteen and I- I always- I liked high-school. Took my grade-thirteen and I- I always- I liked high-school. I did fairly well in it and I- I always knew that I wanted to be a teacher. So I went to North-Bay-Teacher's-College after high-school and it was a one year course, you could become a teacher.

Interviewer 1: And then you went to college after that? Speaker: I went to university- well actually what I did a-- a-- I went to gra-- I graduated at grade-thirteen and I worked for a year- Interviewer 2: Mm-hm. Speaker: At the Sherman-Mine in Temogami.

Interviewer: So for how many years were you in a band? Speaker: Ah, f-- grade-ten right 'til I graduated. Grade-thirteen. Interviewer: Mm. Speaker: Yeah, so grade-nine, we- we- grade nine we- were kind-of fooling around with it, you-know? Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: And then gr-- by the time we got to grade-ten, we- we figured we were good enough to play in front of people ...

I met my wife um, in- well I guess in Cobalt I met her but she was- I was going into grade-thirteen- ... And she was going into nursing school which was at the Haileybury hospital.

Speaker: Yeah, so that's how they did it then. Interviewer 2: (inc) Speaker: Yeah and so I met her like that summer. So between grade-twelve and grade-thirteen summer, she had just come here- Interviewer 1: Mm. Speaker: She was going to start school in September and then-

And grad um- we had two grads 'cause we had grade-twelve and grade-thirteen. So my grade-twelve graduation um I graduated and then my grade-thirteen graduation, Parker was- was um graduating grade-twelve so we kind-of graduated together that year 'cause it was at the same time. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: But- so it's kind-of weird 'cause you guys just go once. It makes sense having one graduation.

Speaker: Because people would- if you were in the um applied stream, you wouldn't go- you ha-- you'd graduate grade-twelve and go to college. Interviewer 2: Mm-hm. Speaker: So if you're going to go to University you had to go to grade thirteen. So it's just like your O-A-Cs. Interviewer 2: Mm-hm. Speaker: That's- they're not even called O-A-Cs they're like- Interviewer 1: It was just grade-thirteen. Speaker: Tr-- yeah. They're grade-twelve-U's now right? So we had to have O-A-Cs or grade-thirteen so. Interviewer 2: Hm. Speaker: You-know? So it's- grad was pretty much like yours. Long and (laughs) Interviewer 1: Long and sweaty? Speaker: Yeah exactly.

Speaker: I don't think it was just up here, I think it was everywhere because there was a government program where you just- we had to go to grade-thirteen. You went to grade-thirteen and then you went one year of teachers'-college. No university. And then you were out teaching, but then you took your university while you're teaching. Interviewer: Wow. Speaker: There were outreach, their outreach programs.

Speaker: And it was- 'course it wasn't large, it wasn't a district high-school then, it was just a Liskeard and ah- so of course it wasn't that big. There were only um- see, in grade- well which would be grade thirteen when they had it- but we called it grade 5 and there were thirteen people in it- Interviewer 2: Oh. Speaker: And I always remember my French teacher. I just loved her.

Interviewer: Um, was it a different school that you went to for high-school? Speaker: Yes, I came to the high-school in New-Liskeard. Interviewer: Okay. Speaker: And I did the five years. Interviewer: Okay. Speaker: We had grade-thirteen back then, and then I went to teacher's-college in North-Bay for one-year and then I taught round about in New-Liskeard and um some country schools and ah I retired in nineteen-ninety.

He was not a great student, he didn't care. Not that he couldn't do it, he just didn't care. And ah in grade-thirteen, I think it was they let the kids go. If you want to be a mechanic, well, you go work, visit a garage for a day, if you want to be a teacher, we'll put you in a classroom. And so he went to the mining school and he come home he says, "I know what I want to do." And ah so he went to the mining school. In grade-twelve, the guidance counsellor told him there was no point in him taking grade-thirteen 'cause he was never going to pass but in the mining school, he graduated tops in his class, and he went to Michigan-Tech and graduated, got the Dean's Medal, tops in his class. So I have not thought too much about the guidance counsellor.

Speaker: ... when I was in grade-twelve ah we had a school in Hail-- high-school in Haileybury and Cobalt. And um, the idea was close one or the other and they decided instead they'd leave them both open and have one principal. Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: And ah, in my grade thirteen year, we were- in- in the first semester, we had all of our classes in Haileybury and the second semester we- all of us were in Cobalt ah to take advantage of the staff that were in both places.

Speaker: After university, I started work right away, here yeah. Interviewer: You came back. Speaker: Yeah, nineteen-eighty-three I- eighty-three there was a- um senior teacher on sabbatical. He had ah grade-thirteen Canadian history, American history, grade-twelve, ah- what was the grade-twelve? European history. Um, a grade-nine history, a grade-ten geography and a grade-thirteen sociology. Interviewer: Wow. Speaker: Baptism by fire.

Yeah. So there's- you-know, and you always hear the grousing from the business community. "Oh, they cleaned downtown Liskeard but they didn't clean Haileybury."

And- so you just ran and- and played the whole time for recess and lunch and also too, in the winter time there was the gully.

But yeah, that was the big thing in the winter time was- was- was playing in the gully going sliding and summer time and- and spring or spring and fall it was playground.

Mm-hm, so there was all ages just sliding all winter long in the gully.

That's where you went for recess, lunch and afternoon recess was the gully and go sliding.