Ashbury College - Ashburian Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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been no attempt to renovate the prefects' area, for this would leave the sanctum sanctorum as the last remaining common room. That is the arena of, would you believe, the wildest shenanigans. The story is told of the visiting parent who had not previously heard of the building project fthe ambassador to Lower Slobovia is not easily contacted, their postal service still as yet being limited to Slobovian pony expressj and was startled when he saw the fruits of W.N.'s labour. Opening the thick green doors he was shocked when, instead of the accustomed nineteenth century soccer teams and graffiti-covered cricket bats, exposed wiring and piled planks gaped back at him. What have we here, a fake front, Rockcliffe slum, no one could possibly go to school under these conditions, he was supposed to have remarked indignantly. I have news for the dignitary from Lilliput. We do! We do! Wait one minute, didn't the bell just ring? Everyone has stopped eating so it must have. The duty master rises to address his captive audience. Games as ..... buzzzzzzzzzz! They want me to knock on the window and ask the workmen to stop for a momentg well, why not? Excuse me, excuse me, could you possibly desist for just a little while? Thank you very much . . . Okay, go ahead sir! As I was saying, games will be as usual today. But would our over- enthusiastic baseball players please stop trying to hit home runs into the construction area. Workmen's Compensation refuses to cover such freak accidents, so please be careful. If there are no other announcements we'll stand and say grace. For these and all thy ..... buzzzzzzzz! Well as I told you all before they are really renovating Ashbury now! . . . . buzzzzzzzzzz . . . . . Amen! Amen! D. SIVERSKY DORMITORY RENEWAL PROJECT Two summers of hard work by Old Boys of the School tSandy Stiles - ,71 and Peter Johnston-'73J have brought about the transformation of fourteen old senior school dormitory rooms into accommodations which some boarders are said to prefer to the new rooms which have just been completed. The rooms vary in the color of the paneling installed, but all now contain lowered ceilings, new wiring and lighting, and new mirrors, towel bars, and shelves. It is hoped that the project will be continued until all old quarters throughout the school have been refurbished. B.W. 27

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it slobbers its dribble all over itself. A face lift or at least a mud pack is ap- propriate for this grand old lady, matriarch of so many fine young men. Hope- fully any jealousy on the part of the old school towards the new buildings will vanish as Mr. Wallin and company continue sprucing the ancient rooms up. The ceremony marking the commencement of construction must have made Ashbury feel very proud. The whole school turned out complete with masters and other assorted dignitaries. The boys were all clapping and cheering on the proceedings. Whether they were celebrating the construction of thc new or the destruction of parts of the old is hard to say. Hopefully it was a bit of both. Our senior old boy was also present, dutifully turning the first sod with the help of a brilliantly yellow bulldozer. The crowd admired the way in which he so ably cast aside top soil and went straight for the bedrock. I fear that at the age of that venerable gentleman the only apparatus I shall be operating will be silver winged harps. At break Cthat is between 10:59 and 11 o'clockJ I visited the infirmary in order to obtain an aspirin for a headache that strangely developed when they started working. The usually bright and sunny room was now dark and dreary. At first I thought something tragic might have happened and was about to go when my quick eye spotted the concrete blocks filling up the window holes. Is nothing sacred? I demanded. My headache then promptly worsened. The television commercial used to say, You've come a long way baby, and so has the construction at Ashbury. The fact is you can no more easily hold back progress than you can quit smoking which is what that ad is all about. Through the few remaining windows in the dining hall I am no longer obliged to watch worms bathing in the huge pit that was first dug. Instead I now see concrete walls rise skyward threatening finally to eliminate my view completely. Slosh goes the mortar, swish goes the trowel, smash' goes the block and the mason completes another portion of his task. His finesse and dexterity rivals that of any of the medical profession and with the money Ashbury's paying he probably is a doctor or a dentist. Actually I'm sure the cost is not bothering the school too much. There are always bank loans, mortgages, raises in tuition fees, and possibly even donations from an old boy or two. What worries me, as a concerned student, is what might happen if something like a ceiling collapses because of faulty design or poor construction CNot that I have any reason to believe that it mightj. But if it did and none of the belligerents were willing to own up, the administration would have to charge the cost of repairs to the boyis damage fund as the only alternative to bankruptcy. If that happened who would then pay for all the windows we break throughout the year. The weather has done its best not to co-operate and there have been many days when the construction crew could not carry on with their work. Even after we had come back from the Easter break and the temperatures were high it suddenly began to snow and in one day we got five inches of the fluffy white stuff. Fortunately this was the beginning of the project and it didn't take long for the sun to pull back the infant's snowy- blanket and expose the framework of the future Ashbury. The construction has brought its share of grief to the school. One of the greatest tragedies was the loss of the ski room. For many long winters this narrow room known as Niles' Nook faithfully contained everything from sticky screwdrivers to broken television sets. At times we even found ski equipment inside. Now all that remains is a dirty brown jacket belonging to the ski-team's ex-manager. It hangs profanely where down-hill racers once solemnly placed their winning or prize ski-poles. By tomorrow this too may have gone the way of the carpenter's magic wand. Less significant to posterity but important in any case was the removal of the senior common room. Oddly enough it was first to go, possibly to discourage the wild shenanigans that often took place there. Unfortunately the pranksters simply moved on into the prefects' common room to wreak even wilder shenanigans. This progression is obvious and you might notice there has 26

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MEDITERRANEAN CRUISE One result of a 1972 trip to the Holy Land by the Chaplain and a group of students was another cruise in the Mediterranean in March 1973. On Satur- day, March 17, fifteen students of the Senior School, accompanied by the Rev. E. E. Green, set sail from Venice aboard the S.S. Uganda, a 'School Ship' oper- ated by P. and O. First reaction to our floating home for the cruise was stunned disbelief: lf the first thing they show us is where to stand when the ship sinks, how safe is it? I recognize the knife and fork, but is this really food? You mean that guy who acts like Hitler is going to make me go to bed at 10:30! Towards the end of the cruise 'muster stations' are a matter of course and the ship is obviously safe. The food is not only recognizable, but edible. The Sergeant-at-Arms isn't so bad after all, and most nights bed-time is welcome. After a day sailing the Adriatic, we found ourselves on Greek soil for Monday the 19th. Our chief interest was a visit to Delphi, the ancient sanctuary of Apollo, where Pythia chewed on laurel leaves and gave her ambiguous pro- phecies. After another day at sea we landed at Crete for Wednesday the 21st. The Minoan civilization surely reached great heights, as our inspection of Knossos revealed. The next two days were shore days. On the Thursday we crossed the Peloponnesus by bus, stopping at Palamidi Castle, which the Turks had built, Epidaurus with its acoustically superb theatre, Mycenae, where we saw the famous Lion Gate, Ancient Corinth, where St. Paul preached, and the Corinth Canal, which allows passage between the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic Gulf. Although it was a long, tiring day, we still had lots of enthusiasm for a typical Greek meal in the port of Piraeus. We invaded Athens on Friday, the 23rd. It was a glorious day in the Mother of Arts and Eloquence. We took pictures of the Evzones Lpalace guardsj in their traditional costume, sampled more Greek food, strolled and shopped in back streets of the city and, of course, had the day crowned by a visit to the Parthenon on the Acropolis. The hectic pace was broken by spending Saturday at sea. It was a typical school day with periods for lectures and sports. As usual the evening saw most students on the dance space having a thoroughly good time. Other night time events were movies, ship's concert, dress-up evening, 'horse' racing and quizzes. Ashbury won its preliminary round in the general knowledge quiz and had a third place finish in the ship's finals. After a very early worship service on Sunday, the 25th, we drove through the Turkish city of Izmir, through tobacco, cotton, fig and olive plantations to the House of the Virgin Mary and St. John's Basilica. Many believe that the mother and friend of Jesus spent their latter years in this area. Even though only fifteen per cent of the ancient city of Ephesus has been unearthed, it was easy to picture the magnificent city teeming with a half million inhabitants and visitors. Our stay at Izmir included an evening at a night club. The unabridged floor show was enthusiastically applauded. For Monday and Tuesday we sailed through the Aegean and westward to Naples. It was an unique experience to steam into and around the extinct volcano of Santorin and to see the rock strata and layers of lava deposited hundreds of years ago. Some of us think that Santorin is the 'lost' Atlantis and that the tidal wave from its eruption wiped out the advanced Minoan civilization on Crete sixty miles to the south. A real spectacle was to watch Stromboli colour the darkness of night with its dazzling red fireworks. One boy claims that ash from the volcano hit his eyes. Goethe said, One who has seen Naples can never be sad. Things have changed. Most of us were disappointed in Naples. You could hardly take a step without being accosted by a sidewalk vendor of extreme persistence and doubtful wares. Some delicious pizza moderated our view, and our excursion won Italy 28