At that time when they tore that down you see there must have been then the market school house, and then they built Anne-Street School. I would say probably 'cause, probably nineteen-hundred and eight, ten, somewheres around there. Must have been when it was built.

No it was always who's gonna do the washing of the dishes, who's gonna dry. And my job on Saturdays was to dust the furniture, um. I guess we had little squabbles, but nothing. No.

... such foolish things as coffee breaks. In my day, if you couldn't go from your breakfast time until noon, you wasn't much of a man. If you had to stop for to...of-course we old ones know that it's just a stinking habit that had crept in. That again has helped to put the cost of everything up. Because you have a coffee break, the other fella (fellow) had a coffee break so what you're working at and what you're producing ...

Interviewer: ... how was the teaching done at that time? Speaker: Well if they didn't behave themselves they got the strap and I remember one time my baby brother ... they brought him up to Mr. Symons' room with some other little boys and he got the strap. Well I thought to myself he's going to strap my baby brother and so, he wasn't, he told me after he wasn't going to but he was scaring these little kids you see and he made them put their hands out ...

Interviewer: ... how was the teaching done at that time? Speaker: Well if they didn't behave themselves they got the strap and I remember one time my baby brother ... they brought him up to Mr. Symons' room with some other little boys and he got the strap. Well I thought to myself he's going to strap my baby brother and so, he wasn't, he told me after he wasn't going to but he was scaring these little kids you see and he made them put their hands out ...

Interviewer: … Um, what sort of disciplinary measures were there in the schools, at that time? Speaker: Well an elementary school of-course you were ah allowed ah to use the strap, as ah- as any kind, firm and judicious parent would use it. In secondary school, I have known the principal to use the strap.

If you wouldn't get the strap you didn't like it because when you went home they'd ask you, how much did you get today, how many straps.

They quit strapping them in Scotland just a few years ago and they had to bring it back again. The kids just don't, won't, obey a thing, you can't strap them and they had to bring it back you-know. They liked the strap there you-know but they only hit you once, over here they hit them a lot of times, don't they. Over there one's all you wanted, a three finger strap and when they used to just give us one.

The only thing we didn't like was the schoolmarm had a cane and it came across you knuckles. I didn't like that, I preferred the strap.

They quit strapping them in Scotland just a few years ago and they had to bring it back again. The kids just don't, won't, obey a thing, you can't strap them and they had to bring it back you-know. They liked the strap there you-know but they only hit you once, over here they hit them a lot of times, don't they. Over there one's all you wanted, a three finger strap and when they used to just give us one.

But there was one boy I- I- I gave the strap to oftener than I did another over at Queen-Mary. He was a young villain. And ah- but ah outside of that I- I didn't ah- the strap was the last thing as far as I was concerned but ah I did give it at times when I thought they should have it.

Speaker: I can remember getting in real kaka one day for throwing snowballs at the girls across the line. ... Interviewer: So how bad was the kaka? Speaker: Oh not bad, I ah- I never did get the strap. This was back in the strap days. ... I went to school in the strap days, I never got the strap so I wasn't that bad a guy really. (laughs) I never got the strap ...

... I can remember her taking me in to the principal, ... and I can remember sitting there waiting, like I was sure I was gonna get the strap. ... I was scared. 'Cause I was- I was small. I ca-- can't remember what grade it was. But I was scared. I I figured I was gonna get 'er. And I- I don't remember a bit what he said to me or if he said anything to me or- or-what. All I kn-- all I remember is that I did not get the strap.

Interviewer: Did you think you were going to be sent home? Speaker: No I don't think so, no. I thought the strap was the thing (laughs). ... But I never did get the strap, nope. And I spent nine years there, at Queen-Alex from kindergarten right through grade-eight and I never- no I never had the strap.

Speaker: Mom probably woulda had a little bit to say. ... She was the disciplinarian. ... I got the sorta strap from her. ... I can remember getting a- a- a little like- we'd would- she'd make us go out and pick a- a- a little ... stick off the maple-tree, and we'd get the whack- we'd get whacked over our bare bums with that. Ah- or the wooden-spoon.

A girl and I were doing the boards and she touched this drawing in Miss-Hayward's room, with wet hands and Miss-Hayward noticed it, more-or-less that I did it, and I said, "No I didn't do it." And the other girl, "Oh yes she did." And I didn't but- and I also got the strap.

Speaker: Oh I got in trouble at King-George though. I threw a snowball and hit a w-- I was supposed to hit a person but I hit the window and broke the window. Interviewer: Oh good move Lee! Speaker: Yeah and that's when they gave you the strap. I remember that. Interviewer: Oh so you got it? You got the strap. ... Cross my hands, you have to hold it out like this. Interviewer: How many times? Speaker: I only got three times.

And it was always amazing, 'cause we were still working you-know on word-families, and putting a sentence together, and- and-so-on, and ah but I always thought that was funny. "Why isn't my child reading such and such yet?" "Well you-know they're- they will but" so, anyway, that's ah- I always thought grade-one was the- a huge responsibility. But I al-- I loved it. And it was the grade of the greatest growth.

Speaker: So he died of asphyxiation and suffocation through drowning. Interviewer: And that's what it says on the certificate. Speaker: That's what it says. And he was forty-four years old. We didn't realized he was that young. I mean you put down dates you-know, he was born such and such year, he died such and such year, a lot of the times you really don't kick in on what that involve ...

And ah you could put a coat of paint on a- on a table and he could kno-- knock on the table and say, ah "That's a piece of maple." Or, "That's a piece of oak." Or such-and-such. He just had that knowledge of the sounds of wood and-so-on that he- he could ah mostly identify pretty-well any piece of painted furniture.