Early Life

Early Life

When I was in grade six, I was a big, mature young fellow. I was promoted to be a crosswalk

attendant. You had a sign on a little board, and you would make sure the kids crossed the street

safely. Well, at that time, the arterial highway went in front of the school, and it was quite a large

elementary school.

When classes were over at the end of the day, there was a fair number of kids crossing the street,

with some as young as first graders. They were not very cautious and tended to just run across

the street.

A friend of mine was promoted to crosswalk attendant. Then, for some reason, the school

decided that we needed more authority, so they promoted the two of us to junior policemen. I

have a vivid recollection of going to City Hall at the time: a courthouse-type configuration, a

judge, a court office, and an elevated bench where the judge would sit and listen to a court case.

I can remember being sworn in as a junior policeman by Robert Harshaw, the Chief of Police.

For a kid, going through that exercise was quite solemn, quite responsible. So, I became a junior

policeman. The title made my work more official and gave me more power, though not more

prestige. We had kids that would not pay any attention to the attendant. They would just cross

the road whenever they wanted to. I went after one kid from the neighbouring Roman Catholic

school. But I would not have done the same thing to a kid from our own elementary school,

which was closer to the crosswalk.

I tried to cuff the kid and take him to our principal to point out that he was ignoring the

attendants. But this kid just did not want to be controlled and told when he could go across. The

kid put up one heck of a good fight and managed to almost break my nose. I got a very severe

nosebleed out of it, and I had to let the kid go. I do not remember ever having any more trouble

with the kid, although he probably crossed the street every day coming and going from his home

to his school.

I can still remember another incident that happened in the school. We were making little baskets

out of pine needles from what is called the Ponderosa pine or the Bull pine. The pine needles

were six or seven inches long. I'd been given a used bicycle, and being a senior, I was allowed to

go and get some pine needles from the branches at a local park. I had a devil of a time taking any

branch off a tree or getting some pine needles, but I got a branch or two—enough to take back to

the school. The teacher would send us out to get these pine needles off the tree without cutting

down the tree. That's what they did at elementary school at the time, I guess.

After elementary school, I went on to junior high school. I was just an ordinary student, except

that I was what they called a house president. The school was divided into four competitive

groups for all types of competition. One was the athletics group, and we had a competition once

a year for that.

We went down to the local quarter mile racetrack at the civic centre grounds. There was a parade

that we were part of, and there was almost, well, a bit of a competition. It was fun to be in the

parade, but I remember borrowing or having my dad loan me the pick-up truck that the family

owned.

I had kids in the truck, and I did not even have a driver's license. I was not yet sixteen, but I

drove to the racetrack with half a dozen kids or so in the back of the truck. But today I would say

that would be a terrible risk, with kids horsing around.

In high school, I was quite diligent and responsible. I was not the smartest student, but I was very

faithful. I would have received the award for being the most outstanding student in the high

school, but I was tied with another chap who was quite athletic. We tied, so nobody got the

award, and this award was only given out every two years. It just had to be somebody who was a

little bit outstanding. But anyway, the next year I won the award for being the most outstanding

student, which was kind of a feather in my cap.