Well I went on and got my first class certificate. A lot of them at that time are just getting your second class. And I went ah another two years. It was then ah and got my first class and I took the matric as well as the teacher's. And so ah I- I took everything they asks me to take because I thought someday I might want this and I might want that and I didn't know just what I was going to do altogether and so I took ah junior and senior matric and junior and senior teacher's- normal so-

I attended Queen-Victoria-School. And I- and I to-- and then ah Queen-Victoria-High-School was above Queen-Victoria's- ah Public-School, at that time, and then I went to Queen-Victoria-High-School and then I went ah- I got my ah- ah matric and ah- and seni-- ah junior and senior matric and-so-on there and then ah I went to faculty in Toronto and came back and started to Queen-Victoria-School to teach.

And of-course that meant much more freedom and study-hall so I read the comics and, you-know we chatted and I didn't do the studying I would have done if I'd been at home so I failed one subject, didn 't get my senior- matric 'cause back then it was senior-matriculation set by the province. Everybody- you could only graduate if you wrote that grade-thirteen exam and passed.

Anyways, stayed with them, and well I took night classes and uh, I finally got matric, but uh, uh well a certificate equal to matric it was. Uh, and actually it stayed me in good stead because later on in the army, I was put up for officer's training and you had to have matric so, I had to get that- that uh certificate from the government.

I had my junior matriculation and that's all that you went to- the only time you went and took grade-thirteen or senior matric is if you were going to university. And out of the class that I was in, at Runnymede, there would be about twenty of us and only two went to univesity. Very few people went to university.

Speaker: And out of the class that I was in, at Runnymede, there would be about twenty of us and only two went to univesity. Very few people went to university. Interviewer: And very few girls, right? Speaker: Well yeah. Interviewer: Yeah. Speaker: And ah so it was strictly- junior matric was it. And you needed junior matric to get a decent job, but senior matric, as I say, the only people that ever got one were those who're planning to go on to university.

... the family needed um some assistance and right after that, I joined the Air-Force. And I know when I joined the Air-Force, fortunately it was getting to the point that they're getting a little hard-up for air crew. At one time, you had to have your senior-matric, or high-school graduation, to go be a pilot or navigator. And at this time, luckily, they ah gave me an aptitude-test and I passed that and they sent me to special schooling for about three months, I guess it was, to learn all the mathematics and everything else ...

Interviewer: What do you remember about- about being in high school? Speaker: Ah- I don-- I don-- (laughs) it's- it's different than now. Interviewer: Oh is that right? Speaker: Yes. Because ah- um ah- like there was commercial and matric, and that's all you just had the choice, that's the only choice you had. Interviewer: Okay. Speaker: Commercial is if you want to be a bookkeeper, or-things-like-that, matric if you wanted to be a nurse or a doctor, or- ah, things-like-that.

Speaker: And ah I didn't ah- I-don't-know, I just didn't feel I could do it. Interviewer: Oh okay. But some of your friends went to university? Speaker: Oh all. All m-- I took a five year matric and so- Interviewer: Okay. Speaker: Most of those- most of those kids became doctors and- Interviewer: Oh wow. Speaker: I don't know about all else.

Interviewer: Did ah- did very many of them stay in Kirkland-Lake? Speaker: No. They went- mostly went to university. If they were in five year matric, they went to univer-- they took off.