St Johns Ravenscourt School - Eagle Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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This year the winter carnival was held on February fifth. The day was perfect as the temperature was twenty above and the sun was shining brightly. Events began at about one-thirty with a broomball game, which never did seem to end. Armed with brooms, shovels or broken hockey sticks, the broomball crowd set the jubilant mood for the rest of the day. Following the broomball game the senior hockey team played a game of HACK-EY against the fierce oppostion of four Balmoral Hall players and several other girls. Many thanks to those girls who helped to knock the senior team and its helpers down a notch or two. Several ski-doos were giving people rides and many thanks to their owners. Just before the ski-doo race was held, end¬ ing the afternoon, a toboggan race was run. The two teams, each consisting of four boys and four girls batted it out on the snow covered football field. There was no winner, as in the end, all the boys were pulling all the girls on the same toboggan. The afternoon ended with Mr. Gardiner winning the long and skill test¬ ing ski-doo race. Hockey and tobogganing seemed the favorites of the lower school. There were several families out at the carnival and I would like to express my thanks to those parents who helped supervise and support the carnival. The carnival ended for the lower school with a party for the younger boys and a tally-ho for the older ones. Events in the evening began with the annual beauty queen contest. Miss Bryan Ryder won the contest and Miss Jamie Little and Miss Peter Fahlgren were chosen as her princesses by the applause of the on¬ lookers. Following the beauty queen contest, the carnival mob left for the tally-ho at Western Stables. It was a warm evening, but many of the boys complained about the cold (?). On the arrival of the mob back at the school, Mr. Girard and two of his friends entertained the group for about half an hour by singing folk songs. After the hootenanny the dance began. The SPECTRES did an excellent job and the dance seemed to be a great success. At last, however, twelve o ’clock signalled the end of the 1966 winter carnival. It was a big success financially. The carnival committee now has a large sum of money which is going to be given to Fort Providence as a gift from the school for some object the town has urgent need of. In closing, I would like to thank Harold and Mrs. Fitzsimmons and all the boys who helped to organize the carnival, for there assistance in making the carnival the success it was.

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Never have so many people got out of S.J.R. in so little time. By 4:00, Friday, January 22, the two buses were loaded with their 80 occupants and on their ten hour trip to Fort William, Ontario. After a hardy, if somewhat late meal at Dryden, the senior bus settled down to the serious task of raising a storm. You haven’t lived till you’ve ridden in a bus at 1 o’clock when half the people want to sleep and half want to sing. We arrived at Prince Arthur Hotel at 3:30, Fort William time relatively sleepless. However, thanks to the masters’ tender care, we hit the slopes of Loch Lomond’s at 10:00 A.M. It wasn’t long before Ravens were hitting the slopes quite literally. Fortunately, lessons were given by Meredith, Malcolmson, Shandro, Gardner and Gray to the rank novices. However, this didn’t prevent the tenderfoot class from showing the rest of the group how to ski, and following McGoey’s example of taking full advantage of the powder snow. By noon, it became very easy to recognize a skier from St. John’s Ravenscourt. However, they stuck at it gamely, and by the end of the day, were greatly improved. Meanwhile, the other skiers took full advantage of Loch Lomond’s excellent range of ski runs, from expert to novice. Buses were scheduled to leave at 9:00 and after a slight delay for an overeager skier, we headed back to the Prince Arthur. At dinner, we were joined by Peter Schuldermann, and Bob Colquhoun who raced a downhill at Mt. Baldy that day, Cooney placed third and Schludermann came tenth. That night, most of the seniors went to the Forth Dimension for a dance, where everybody proved that dancing was much harder then skiing, except for Schmidt and Meredith, who played it safe, and got home early. As the 12:00 deadline approached, boys were stuck with the sobering problem of how to cover the five miles to the hotel in time. Various means of transportation were used, from taxi-cabs to G.T.O.’s. Sunday morning, after a good night’s sleep everybody was fresh and eager to get out on the slopes. Skiing was just as good as on Saturday, and S.J.R. somewhat regained status, by reinforcements in the persons of Calquhoun and Schludermann. Fortunately, casualties were light, with only one novice (Woodhead) and one intermediate (Magnus) sustaining injuries. After dinner and thanks to Mr. Weir, the buses headed back for Winnipeg. The trip home was somewhat more uneventful then the trip there and we arrived more or less intact at 3:00 A.M. The day was unanimously declared a ski Monday and so most people managed to get a full night’s sleep; although some felt that wasn’t enough and slept Tuesday also. However, except for Mr. Bredin, who lost a hockey player, everybody enjoyed the trip, which was very suc¬ cessful. Thanks gjo especially to Mr. Wellard, who worked very hard to make the trip a success, to Mr. Weir who so generously provided the skiers with free rooms, and to Mr. Leonard, Mr. MacKenzie, Mr. Geith, and the prefects, who so capably helped to manage the trip.

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%wlu on This year the school abandoned its customary pattern of biennial major dramatic productions, and tackled an interesting, unusual and challenging play — Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot. This play, written mostly in verse, relates the story of Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket’s return to England from exile in France, where he had gone as a result of conflict between him and King Henry and his subsequent assassina¬ tion in the Cathedral of Canterbury at the hands of the King’s knights. The play affords diverse, challenging roles and the unusual addition of a chorus, similar to that of Greek drama, makes it most suitable for a large cast. The casting took place in December, and all the major parts were filled in time for memory work to begin over the holidays. Rehearsals began in January on a less rigorous but more intensive schedule than had been adopted for former productions. One major rehearsal weekend was held in February, and it was not long before dress rehearsal and performance dates, March 24-26 had arrived. On the evening of the dress rehearsal the cast were the guests of Mr. Gordon at an excellent Chinese dinner held at Chan’s restaurant; everyone en¬ joyed this immensely. Due to the nature of the play it was obviously more effective to present it in a Church rather than in a theatre, and we were most fortunate in receiving wonderful co-operation from Holy Trinity Anglican Church, an impressive and beautiful building downtown. It is difficult in a yearbook write-up to assess accurately or honestly the performances of the actors. If one, or both, of the Winnipeg newspapers would accept our invitation to review the play we could then rely on their critical judgment and merely pass it on to the readers of The Eagle. In the opinion of those who voiced their impressions, the characterization of Becket as portrayed by Aaron Schwartz was a great achievement. Aaron gave to the role dignity and poise; he spoke his lines with feeling and sincerity and brought an understanding to the part which was remarkable for a boy of sixteen. In the roles of the three priests Muir Meredith, Bill