Balmoral Hall School - Optima Anni Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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PRINCIPAL FOR A DAY One morning the principal said, The school will open at nine-thirty. Instead of mathematics this morning, you will go up to the gymnasium to play basketball. In French period, you will have Art work. All girls who have their homework done will lose one house-point, and those who didn't do their homework, will get out of school half an hour earlier. The people who have read their History, may read it over again, and those who did not read theirs, may do as they wish. In Composition period, you will practise the play, and do remember girls not to work too hard, after all, there are many days ahead of you. You will then go down to the milk and bis- cuit room where you may have ice-cream and soft drinks as a special treat because you have been working so hard. In Scripture period you will be able to design a crest for Balmoral Hall. Then came the noon hour. The girls worked hard in the afternoon, afternoon school beginning at two-thirty. Those who had not done their homework for the afternoon sessions were allowed to go home. Thus ended a perfect day. I had been prin- cipal of Balmoral Hall for a day. LYNN MASSON, Grade VIII. OUR SCHOOL DAY We stroll into the classroom, when nine o'clock has come With Good morning, Mrs. Fallis, our day has now begun. We first take out our Math. books without a sign of glee. And when we hear the lesson, we shout, Oh, goodness me. Next we see Miss Boreham with her happy smiling looks, But when we've said Good morning, she says, Get out your books. And then we start to murmur-just deep down in our throats- Oh please, whatever else we have-don't give us any notes. - ANN CARROLL, Grade IX. 21 A RIDE OVER BEAR-TOOTH MOUNTAIN ........ATNIGHT Sounds exciting, doesn't it! Actually it's breathtaking, especially at night. We had never travelled in that part of the country before, and the road map showed no signs of mountains. It was just dusk when we reached the foothills. The road was in a spiral shape up the mountain, and by the time we had reached the second twist, it was dark. We were driving about ten miles an hour, but the few cars we did meet, were going at about sixty miles per hour. How they did it is beyond me. By the time we were half way up, I had had quite enough of looking down-down into a deep gully of nothing but bare rock with a river that seemed now, no bigger than a piece of string draped across the valley below . . . far below, and so I sat on the floor of the car until we reached the top. The higher up we got, the colder it became, so we all piled on a few more coats and blankets. Finally we reached the top, and after being coaxed for quite some time, I ventured to look out of the window and what a surprise I received. It was not all rocky, but level, like a prairie and on both sides of the road there were huge piles of snow. We stopped the car and got out for a while. When we returned to the car and were about to start again, we saw car lights ahead of us, so we decided to wait until this car had passed us. As the car drew closer, we noticed that it had a trailer, of all things, behind the car. What some people won't do! I thought the drive was bad enough in a car, let alone hauling a trailer behind it. After these daring people had passed, we con- tinued our journey down the mountain side. What a thrill! We then ran out of gas. However, we were going down instead of up. I managed to keep my seat going down. We arrived at Cook City at eleven that night, and after searching around, we found a place to stay. The next morning the owner of the camp told us that we had been up eleven thousand feet and that we had missed the most beautiful scenery in that part of the country. I, however, had no in- tentions of ever going over Bear-Tooth Mountain again, no matter how beautiful it was. DIANA DUNCAN, Grade VIII.

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20W g g ggggg rg HONG KONG As I woke up that morning, everything seemed the same as it had been for the last few days. I scrambled down from the top bunk-there were twelve bunks plus two babies' cribs, a washbasin and a table and our luggage in a cabin, the dimen- sions of which were about twelve by twelve. I might add, that the bunks were in three layers. I got up and pulled on my clothes. The breakfast bell clanged and we went in and took our meal. After that, I went up on deck. As I walked about, enjoying the fresh air, and loving the roll of the ship, I overheard someone say that we would reach Hong Kong today. I became terribly excited and ran to tell everyone I knew, The hours passed and then, on the horizon could be seen a bluish cloud that seemed to hang above the ocean. It came nearer and nearer. Soon the shapes could be seen. There was a hilly island and then the mainland. I-long Kong was the island and it was about a mile from the mainland. Tug boats came out to meet us, and our ship shrilled a greeting. By this time everyone was on deck, waiting, watch- ing. The boat was pulled in to the pier. Ware- houses towering above it seemed almost to be falling into the water, old and weather-beaten as they were. Then began the fuss and bother of the shore passes. That over, we went to bed. I woke up the next morning with the feeling that there was something unusual in the air. The cabin was sway- ing. We were standing still. It all came back to me-we were standing still, docked at the harbour of I-long Kong, and, today we would go ashore. After a hasty breakfast, we walked or rather ran, down the gang-plank onto Chinese soil. The idea was that we would go to the mainland by ferry, and see the sights there. We could explore I-long Kong the next day, as we were staying there three days. According to our friends, we would be obliged to get camphor wood chests. Our special friend knew of someone who made them. As we walked the streets, I looked very carefully at the feet of all the Chinese girls, and to my great disappointment, none of them were bound. We passed shop windows where beautiful objects were displayed. In one window I saw an extremely pretty fan, which I had to buy. I was prepared for an argument, but to my surprise I was allowed to buy it. Chinese money is in dollars, although their dollars are of much lower value. At last we got to the chest makers After exam- ining the chests, we decided on three. Mummy, Bill and I were to have one each. Bills and mine were to be early Christmas presents. I chose one heavily carved with Chinese figures. On the side of the box, the carving showed a Chinaman pull- ing a rickshaw, while the top of the box displayed a festival scene. On the borders were deeply carved roses. Mine cost twenty dollars-a robbery there, but to us a bargain, as at home the value would probably be five times as much. Camphor wood has a beautiful scent. The next day we decided to explore Hong Kong, as yesterday we had explored Kowloon. We donned topies and sun glasses since it had been quite hot the day before. Hong Kong is quite a small island, the middle part being a hill. To get to the top you go up on elevator trains. Going up, the scenery is beautiful, but when you get to the top, it is breathtaking, for you can see for miles. We took pictures of course, for who is found in a foreign country without his camera? There we enjoyed the view while we waited for the next train down. That night, we left Hong Kong to continue our journey, and I wondered, as one does when one leaves a country, if I should ever see Hong Kong again. JOAN SHEPPARD, Grade X North. HOMEWORK Why do they give us homework? Why must we slave all night From four o'clock to ten o'clock- To make wrong answers right? Why must we ruin eyesight Burning the midnight oil? When we could do so many things Without this care and toil. Life's not a bed of roses, There's good to take with the bad. And if we don't do homework now- One day we'll wish we had. GAIL MACDONALD, Grade X North.

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22. D-.- HDARLING BABY I'm the second oldest of four children, two girls and two boys. The youngest is a four year old boy. He is everyone's favourite and is quite aware of the fact, so he thinks he can get away with anything and usually does. One of his favourite tricks is to gather up all his toys and trucks and hide them. Then he will make an aw- ful fuss and everyone will have to stop what he is doing and start to look for his toys. After the search has ended, Darling Baby will laugh glee- fully and confess that he had hidden the toys and knew where they were all the time. A year ago my sister finally got a beautiful blond oak bedroom suite that she had been beg- ging for, for the past two years. One day Dar- ling Baby found he had nothing to do, so he decided he would go through the drawers of the dressing table. While he was doing this, he found some True Red nail polish. He'd seen sister put it on and it looked so nice and bright that he decided he'd try it. The top came off easily enough, but the cardboard stuck, so he got the nailfile to pry it off. The cardboard finally came off and he began to paint. Like any four year old child, he made an awful mess. When he was finished, he decided that it wasn't quite as nice as he had first thought, so he reached for some Kleen- ex to wipe it off. In doing so, he knocked over a bottle of perfume which knocked over the nail polish, it promptly spread all over the top of the table. When he tried to wipe it off, it wouldn't come off. Darling Baby began to get worried and just then Mother walked in. When she saw what had happened, she screamed and ran to wipe it up, but it was too late-the nailpolish was on for good. When Father came home that night, he was met at the door by my sister who was crying her eyes out. When Father found out what had hap- pened and who the guilty person was, he took my young brother into the bedroom and closed the door. After a minute or two the most horrible sounds came from the bedroom. Darling Baby was finally getting a well deserved spanking. He's still bad, but he has never again gone into my sister's bedroom. DOLORES PALMATIER, Grade X South. DILL'S SURF-BOARD RIDING Have you ever seen a dog surf-board riding? I did this summer for the first time. Dill, our husky Labrador, stayed at the lake with us this summer for a week. He is our watch- dog at the office, but he now had a week's holiday. He can do quite a few tricks, but when he man- aged to surf-board, that topped all his tricks. We were all down on the dock one day, rest- ing after a strenuous swim. Some of us had been surf-board riding and we were relaxing-until Dill came along. He wanted attention, and so we started throwing sticks into the water, making him retrieve them. This was just what he wanted as Dill loves the water. Soon we were all in the water with him and the surf-board was in use again. Somebody got the idea of trying Dill on the surf-board. Everybody laughed at the idea but we tried it anyway. . We helped him on to the board and then the boat started. Poor Dill! He floundered about for some time and then he stood still and looked around. He then tried to shake himself-and into the water fell Dill. The second time was a success. When he was shoved on to the board, he grabbed the handle! What a sight that was! He stayed on for some time in that position, but eventually fell off. My brother turned the boat around and picked him up. When Dill jumped out of the boat on to the dock, everybody tried to pat him at once, but poor Dill had had enough. He ran to a nice quiet spot to rest. We didn't blame him for after all, not every dog can ride a surf-board. Fortunately we have pictures to prove his feat as my brother took them while driving the boat. CAROLYN DYSON, Grade X South. TO MY SCHOOLMATES To Balmoral Hall We came in the fall, To a winter of work and of play, And to kindly instruction each day. It will soon be the spring, And, oh, what will this bring- Exams! So good luck to you all. PITSY PERRIN, Grade VIII.