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

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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.

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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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A BOARDING SCHOOL FEAST When no one is really paying much attention to us, we have fun. When I say we, I mean all the girls in boarding on the top floor in the White House. About three weeks ago, our room held a feast. Everyone who was invited crept silently into our room after lights were out. just when everyone got into the room, we heard footsteps. Had the seniors below us told one of the staff of our feast? The guests all made dives for the nearest cover. The person beside my bed Qno names permittedj then decided to choke on a chocolate, and choke she did. After her coughing spell, she topped off the noise and confusion by hitting her head on my bed. On doing this, she uttered a sharp cry, but still no one came. After all this commotion, which lasted for about an hour, we decided to hold our feast in the room adjoining ours. By this time most of us didn't care whether we ate or whether we didn't, as we were so tired. Most of the guests were so exhausted that they crept back to their own rooms to sleep. Because our room started the feast, we, at least two of us, went with two of the other girls into the closet of the next room. Would you like to know what we risked our necks for ?-Sardines, olives, crackers and chocolates. After eating a certain amount of food, we went to bed. When we all woke up in the INCID- ing, we were hungrier than ever. GLADYS WARD, Grade VIII. THE SHOOT It all happened so quickly that I hardly had time to think, and the next thing I knew was that I found myself crouched low in a canoe behind a thicket of reeds. It was a cold day and the wind blew from the north. Gun in hand, I waited patiently for a flock of ducks, which did not appear. An hour passed and then over in the west I sighted them. The flock looked like a dark storm cloud coming closer and closer. Lifting my gun I aimed care- fully and shot. The shot, being my first, was very poor. It was too slow, and by the time I had pulled the trigger, the ducks were nearly out of sight. That was my first attempt, and the noise of the gun left my ears ringing and me shaking! After a few practice shots in the water, I realized my errors. The next flock was sighted and I tried again. One small Mallard fell to the water and .EW . E-D E. . . . 23 I shouted with great Gusto. I had hit a bird and felt extremely proud of myself until my father calmly piped out that he had hit it. After a thermos of hot coffee, we left our hiding place and paddled downstream until we reached another suitable place. All settled again, we reloaded the guns and waited for the third flock. It came quickly. Hurriedly lifting my gun, I closed my eyes and pulled the trigger. Down came the duck, and fell with a splash. The shot had been successful. I felt like a professional duck hunter as we paddled home to the lodge for a night of rest. DIANA NANTON, Grade X South. JAKE THE GARBAGE MAN A certain character who stands out very clearly in my mind is jessiman Jakeman, the garbage col- lector. Everyone calls him jake for short. He is a very short, plump, jolly, little fellow with a chubby face and a ruddy complexion. His eyes are dark and flashing and he has a short, stubby nose which turns up at the end. He has a very tiny mouth with cheery red lips. jake has curly black hair and also a little moustache that wiggles when he laughs. Despite the fact that he is short and fat, jake is very strong. He works tremendously hard and enthusiastically. He is proud to be a garbage man, and he shows this in his eager attitude towards his work. jake whistles and sings while he works. I must say that he is no experienced tenor, but it does one good to hear him sing because he is so happy. His favourite song, and his only song is, The Old Gray Mare with which he constantly serenades the poor, old, sway-backed horse that pulls his wagon. As anyone can see, Jake doesn't take very good care of his clothes. They are very shabby and dusty, but he doesn't seem to mind. He wears an old blue, leather jacket which appears to be rather snug-fitting because each day the seams are split wider apart than the day before. His old, black trousers are in a sad state. They have many rips and tears in them and are frightfully dirty. Jake is an extremely well-mannered and polite person. He tips his gray, battered, moth- eaten old hat to all the people he meets. Everyone who knows jake likes him because he is such a good, kind, happy and courteous old gentleman. DULCIE ANN THOMSON, Grade X North.