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

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BALLATER HOUSESL. CRAIG, HEAD BACK ROW-Diana Duncan, J. Davidson, P. Clark, F. Maefarland, B. M. Ormiston. SECOND ROW-J. Steward, S. Moore, M. Edmonds, Dawna Duncan, G. Brooking. THIRD ROW-S. J Selvice, M. R D. Ph' is E. Th ' . ' oss, im omson, P. Busby. FOURTH ROWHA. Brumell, S. Kelsey, J. Mathewson, M. Hunt, B. Atkin. FRONT ROW-M. Ford, D. Duncanson, D. Mathewson. G. Allman. ABSENT-B. M. Townsend, P. Perrin, G. Kilgour, G. McLean. R. Lynde. BALLATER HOUSE This year Ballater extended a warm welcome to its new girls, Diana Mathewson, Dinny Phipps, jane Mathewson, Maureen Hunt, Daphne Duncanson, Sandra lean Service, Shelagh Kelsey, Maureen Ford and jennifer Steward. We began our sports activities with a Track and Field Competition in which we were espe- cially proud of Dawna Duncan and Elaine Thom- son who captured the Intermediate and junior Championships, respectively. Through our volley- ball team's keen sense of interest we placed a very close second in the house championship. We placed first in the speed skating races with Mary Ross and Gail Allman carrying oft honours. We also did exceptionally well in the Ping Pong Tournament, to which a great deal of the credit goes to Muriel Edmonds who won the Senior Championship and to Gail Brooking who won the Intermediate Championship. In the two Penny Races, in the fall and the spring for the Com- munity Chest and the Red Cross, respectively, Ballater came out on top both times thanks to the great enthusiasm of the House. Everyone was very keenly interested in the Photography Contest and helped to gain points for the house by their many contributions. Towards the end of February we enjoyed an exciting and invigorating Tally-ho through the park, and then we went back to Elaine Thom- sonls for hot dogs and cokes. We are indeed grateful to Mrs. Thomson for her kind hospitality on that occasion. We still have house-basketball matches to play, to which I am sure you have been looking for- ward since the beginning of the year. At this point I would like to thank our staff members, Miss Dickson, Miss Hawkes and Mrs. Coulter who have helped us a great deal through- out the year. I would also like to thank joan Davidson our Sport's Captain, Frances Macfarland our secretary, and Betty-Mae Townsend our uni- form monitress, for their understanding and con- tinued support. Lastly I would like to thank all of you for the privilege of being your House Head this year. I feel that we have great house spirit, which has been shown to me on numerous occasions and of which I am very proud. I wish every success to our new Head and I am sure she will receive the same Hne sportsmanship and energy that you have given to me all this year. a ' Lorna Craig.

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IO DENTISTS I am sure that I will not meet with a great deal of opposition when I say that a dentist is not a popular man. Yet in the summing up, it is seen that a dentist must have most of the merits which men long to possess. For what man must be so meticulously groomed, so gentle, so cautious, --and above all so patient-as a dentist? Why then, if most dentists-QI won't say allj-possess these characteristics, do we, at their mention, instinctively feel a strong desire to grab our hats and high-tail it for the South Pacific? I think in recalling one's first visit to the dentist's office, the question could be partially answered. All is pleasant in the comfortably furnished waiting room, but when that figure clad in spotless white, summons you into the dentist's office-oh, then comes the shock. Not even the bland smile of the dentist can remove your lixed gaze from that hideous, spidery para- phernalia of wires, screws and other mysterious nxtures,-poised like a panther over the chair. When one obeys the order to sit in the chair, it seems utter suicide. The dentist then draws up a stool and perches on it. Using all his knowledge of psychology, he attempts to draw your mind away from your present situation, by trying to discuss the weather, school, and other well- exhaus-ted subjects. But he tries in vain, for how could you possibly forget the state of affairs with a long needle picking, sawing, and hewing at your teeth. After going through this procedure, the dentist has persuaded 'himself that he has found a cavity. Such cavities are produced with great rapidity and it is no wonder, for what better living could one earn than by discovering cavities at two dollars each? I also have reason to believe that dentists make part of their living by charging for, appointments missed. Although doctors are said to do the same thing, I fail to see 'them in the same light. Per- haps it is because my grandfather was a member of this noble profession, and the severest case he ever had to remedy for me was a head cold. He wrote out the prescription and I, with great importance, read what it ordered. One large apple. If nose gives trouble during the night, sing first and third verses of 'Ho, Boys, Here we are againf This prescription was a remark- able success. If a dentist advised me to brush my teeth once more each day, or to eat a large crust of stale brown bread, chewing on each side of my mouth twenty-five times, I would be far more likely to follow his directions, than if he recommended the newest brand of decay-prevent- ing toothpaste. Unless the dentist changes during the next half century, I think the bravest of mankind will continue to falter outside his office. I have been told that even a man such as Winston Churchill, who faced Hitler during the war with courage and confidence, thinks of the dentist with dismay and dread. If a man such as he is unable to bear the dentist, what hope is there for you and me? Cathy Young, Grade XI. BOARDERS' MOVIES We have been indebted this year to Mr. Vaughan who has often supplied us with films on a Friday night. These movies have made our weekends much more enjoyable than they would otherwise have been. One Friday evening, teachers, prefects, day students and boarders gathered in the drawing- room to see a Christmas movie- The Miracle on 34th Street. On another Friday evening, the drawing-room was crowded with girls who wanted to see again Great Expectationsn and still later in the term we saw The Bells of St. Mary's. It is fortunate that we have our own projector at Balmoral Hall. We take this opportunity to thank all those people who have contributed to the success of these Friday evenings. Nancy Ann Green, Grade IX. . .. YOUNG CANADA'S BOOK WEEK The week from November 11th to the 18th was observed throughout all Canada as Young Canadals Book Week. Dr. Margaret McWilliams of Government House was the patroness of the Book Week. In an article for the Canadian Library Bulletin she wrote: In the pursuit of knowledge, or of new experiences, there is no substitute for books. In Winnipeg, there were attractive posters and book displays in the public libraries. In Balmoral Hall there was a poster in the school library. Lists were placed in each classroom-one for students to indicate some book read with enjoyment since September, 1951, and a second s'heet on which to place suggestions for books for the school library. During Book Week we discussed books in our English classes, and considered the use that can be made of libraries and especially of our school library. Jane Gladstone, Grade XI.

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I2 BALMORAL HALIJS MENAGERIE Pete and Repeat are two turtles that belong to Nancy Ann Green. Nancy 'brought them back with her in September to give an official beginning to Balmoral Hall's Menagerie. The next addition came in October, to wit, a cat. It, rather he, followed some boarders to school, when they were returning from the Com- mand Performance of the Winnipeg Ballet Com- pany. He was named naturally enough, Philip, fit would have been Elizabeth otherwisej and he became a very much beloved pet. The next addition did not stay very long, fortunately! They were bees, which Miss Sharman brought to show the Science classes, three of these being particularly noted for escaping from their box and flying down the basement corridor, much to the consternation of the lunch lines. They were rescued without damage to anyone, or themselves, and were safely restored to their box. The most recent addition has been Pongo. Pongo is Sue Carnegie's little black cocker spaniel, who arrived with Sue after Christmas. Pongo was petted and fed, and was generally made a fuss over by everyone. Philip merely tolerated her, which was very good of him. What with turtles, cats, 'bees and dogs, I hardly think the girls would be surprised if Carol Cross brought her horse to school, or would they? Eirene Landon, Grade IX VALENTINE DANCE The main event for the seniors after Christ- mas was our Valentine Dance, Cupid's Capers , held on Saturday evening, February 16th, in the school gymnasium. There were red pillars of crepe paper decorated with cupids and hearts which hung from the tops of the windows to the floor, and also red and white streamers, between which hung rows of multi-coloured balloons. The music was supplied by Eaton's junior Council Executive Bandbox. All the latest records were played and to these we danced spot dances, broom dances and just ordinary dances. In the gaily-decorated school dining-room soft drinks, sandwiches, doughnuts and cookies were enjoyed. Naturally the most outstanding event of the dance was the dismantling of the balloons. Con- fusion and destruction reigned as everyone scrambled for at least one balloon. Footsore but very contented everyone agreed that the evening had been a great success. Moreover, from the proceeds of this dance we were able to make a contribution towards furnishing the new Senior School Common Room. Lorna Craig, Grade XI. THE WAVES The Waves by Virginia Woolf is, without doubt, the most unusual book I have ever read, not in plot but in style and thought. The empha- sis in this novel is not on story, but on the inter- pretation of the author's view of life. The book has six main characters-Bernard, Louis, and Neville, Susan, Rhoda and jinny- and is a sort of biography of all six characters, of how their differences in personality develo ed and led them on separate roads through liife. Perhaps I should say autobiography, for one of the peculiarities of style in the book is that it is written from beginning to end in the first person -quotation-with the six characters taking turns in telling, in a meditative fashion as a rule, of their feelings and moods and their various out- looks on life and people. All this is written in an impressionistic style-vivid and modern- which, although hard at first to take in large doses, soon becomes a part of one, and lifts one up and over into the mood of the book. The book is divided into several sections, each preceded by a sort of prologue. The lifef or livesj of the six characters is likened to a day on a shore by the sea, and each section or stage in their lives is a stage in the day's progress. The first section's prologue describes dawn as the sun is just coming up over the horizon, but as yet everything is dusky, indistinct and still. This depicts the first stage in their lives, their early childhood, the dawn of life, so to speak. In this part the children are all playing in a large, treed garden in the morning before lessons, and from the text we understand, as throughout the book, what is going on-we gather the story fwhat there is of itj from their speeches, although it is never told in direct form. In the next section, both the sunrise and the lives of the characters having progressed a bit farther, the children are sent away to school for the first time, and life begins to take on a new meaning. In the next part, as depicted by the further rise of the sun and the increasing pitch of the drama, as the waves come crashing and rolling on to the beach with greater force, the six people, now men and women, leave school and set out into the world on their own, their characters meanwhile having become quite distinct. Bernard, for example, is poetic, Louis becomes a banker, jinny becomes a fashion- able figure of society, and Susan remains a rather countrified, nature-loving type of person. At the end of the book, Death comes at last, as the sun sinks below the horizon, leaving the world in darkness,-and The waves broke on the shore. Although I personally do not always agree with Virginia Woolf's philosophy of life-I think she makes it appear unnecessarily hopeless, dreary and tragic-I do think she has a wonderful gift