North Bay Teachers College - Polaris Yearbook (North Bay, Ontario Canada)

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MOTHERS Our mothers depart from us, gently depart. Will not save their souls nor ours. O11 IipIO6. They move further away, But we Sleep soundly Oll. Keep moving away, Sfuffed with food. Roused from our sleep, And fail to notice this dread hour. We stretch towards them, Our mothers do not leave us suddenly. But our hand strikes the air, No, it only seems so sudden. A wall of glass has grown up thereg Slowly they depart and strangely, We were too late, Taking short steps down the stairs of life. The dead hour has struck, 0116 year. nervously remembering, Supressing tears we watch our mothers, We make a fuss to mark their birthday. Pillars austere and grill But il'1lS belated zeal, Depaftilqg ffgm us. Al Scinto Form One. THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM Somewhere across this broad land of Canada to-night there is a lost and desperate man trying to find the smallest needle in the largest haystack in the world. He is one of the best journalists in the business. He has covered important stories in countless countries but this assignment has stumped him. His assignment is to discover, analyse and spread on paper for the public the inner meaning of Canadian life. What I have to find, he cried out in his agony, is the Canadian character ..... 1 I wish this journalist had come to see me before starting this long impossible search. Physically Canada is a country composed of ten provinces and two territories. Culturally, Canada cannot and never will be so easily divided. Within this confederation of provinces are housed enough different nationalities to probably fill half of the World Book Encyclopedia. Canada is the home for people of French, Italian, British, Scandanavian, North, South, East and Western European backgrounds not forgetting the Orient. In a country of such variation the discovering and spreading on paper of the Canadian character is truly trying to find the smallest needle in the largest haystack in the world . To take this argument from a generalization to specifics let me recount a personal experience which demonstrated this point to me. The story starts in September 1965. It was on the tenth day of that month, that ticket in hand I boarded an Air Canada flight bound from Sault Ste. Marie to Ottawa. Ottawa was to be my home for the next few years. Of course I was l'lOI going to forget the Sault as I planned on returning when school breaks were long enough, but Ottawa was going to be my place of residence for most of the academic year. In leaving the Sault I knew I was leaving many friends, and a warm, hospitable city. It seemed that every- one in the Sault always had a good word for everyone else whether he was a resident or not. They also had their disagreements over politics both provincial, federal, and municipal but on the whole they kept their politics to themselves. Now the Sault, as you know, is an area of mixed culture with a large Italian factor so by going to Ottawa I was merely exchanging the Italian populace for the French and consequently I had no apprehension of what lay ahead. The Canadian Personality Bruce Hutchinson 1948 . 96 i

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By Friday Harry seemed especially tense and when the scoldings started to fly I could feel their bite. Frustra- tion rushed through Harry's veins and pressed on his spirits. The anger and humiliation welled up inside, and then one heavy tear fell onto his desk. When Harry raised his head, there was no look of sadness in the lovely eyes: there was defiance. He didn't cower under Mrs. S-.'s heavy hand that afternoon, he twisted and pulled away. His gaze was directed toward the window watching the cars, the trees and the houses, seeming determined to find another world where he would not be subjected to the stings of injustice or humiliation. Now this child sits before me. I don't know what he has become but soon I shall find out. Oh Lord, if it is at all possible help me to right the wrong that's been done, and remind me every day, as I stand here, almost omnipotent before these thirty people entrusted to my care, that it is very difficult to build yet very easy to destroy. Allow me not to mar the chances of one small child, allow me only to increase them, and let there never be a Harry for me. Kari Soucie Form Four. I FIRST TIME OUT Shut your eyes. Do you remember your first week out? Your first lesson? Can you recall that feeling of panic the dry throat, the churning stomach, the last frantic glance at the inadequate plan? Well, I can. What was I going to teach? Oh yes! The Arctic! I was so cold, numb, and beyond reasoning that I might as well have been in the Arctic. In fact, the Arctic looked mighty inviting at that moment. Great Scott! Where do I start? I show a bathing suit. This fascinates them. Good! Now think children. Where would people be wearing this right now? In Africa? He's pointing at the Sahara Desert! Well now, do you really think that this would be a good place to swim? What do we have to have to be able to swim? Water? That's better. He's pointing at the Mediterranean. That's more like it. Remember now, pupil participation. Show me on the map. Now I gingerly produce a fur coat. I ask. Where would people be wearing this right now? This time I am holding my breath. Maybe someone will remember the true north strong and free. Good, a light has snapped on in someone's head. There's a bright one coming to the board. He made it! He's in the North. Maybe he'll even remember who inhabits the North. He did. Let's talk about the Eskimos. What do they eat? What do they wear? Where do they sleep? We are now proceeding at an even pace. We discuss the land. This is the spot where I am to produce the perma-frost. I've spent hours preparing it. OOPS! It collapsed. It's dripping on the floor. I'M so embarrassed, I could die. Well, carry on. , Is the teacher interested? I'll bet she wonders what will happen next. So do I. Here we have more pupil participation. They help to clean up the ghastly mess. So much for the Discovery Method. I seem to be the only one doing any discovering. Now, the Application. We will write a story and sing a song about Eskimos. Will those children remember the perma-frost? I will, for the rest of my life. I sit down. My knees collapse. It's over. Did you ever feel this way? Ina Hutchison Form One. 95

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Very shortly I discovered, somewhat to my horror, that the five hundred miles separating the two cities also had a meridian of character change included in it. The people here were hard to understand. Everyone seemed wrapped up in his own little impregnable world. He was concerned only with himself and no one else. Sure, they had something to say to everyone but it seldom dropped to a personal level. Usually it concerned politics or else that deplorable creature the Teenager. Try as you might, you never were able, it seemed, to gain their complete confidence and trust. Certainly, they put on a good front of confidence but you could always tell they were holding their real feelings back. For this reason on Iune 10, 1967 I had no qualms about leaving Ottawa. It would be foolish on the other hand to say I had not made some friends there but these people I will remember as persons not merely as being Ottawatonians. Once more I was back among the kind of people I liked. Friendly, cordial people who always made you proud of being a Canadian and knew how to make a person feel at ease. But, when you are enjoying yourself time slips away all too quickly and once again it was time to be on the move for another year. This time my destination was North Bay, Ontario, a small community lying about half way between Sault Ste. Marie and Ottawa. North Bay is considered by many The Educational Centre of the North and rightly so as it houses the Teachers', Nipissing, Cambrian and Nurses' Colleges. On this trip I harboured no illusions. I headed for North Bay expecting the worst and decided that I would make no effort to attempt to win confidence as I was only making this locality my home for one year. After two days in the Bay I received a shock which really set me back on my heels. The incident occurred in one of the local stores. At the time I was merely doing a little window shopping when rather a tall, well dressed man approached me and offered his services. I explained my purpose for being in his store and was quite set back when he asked if I were new in town and going to one of the colleges. I gave him an affirmative answer and told him the college at which I was enrolled. Then to my surprise he began asking where I was from, ifI knew certain people, and from there proceeded to inform me of various places I should see in North Bay. We must have talked for nearly an hour during which many customers passed through the door and never once did he move to help handle the rush. The customers' reaction was also shocking as they patiently waited and the occasional one even ventured an opinion on the topic which we were discussing after having over- heard us. Upon leaving this store I proceeded to various other establishments as well as conducting a small survey on my own by merely picking people at random on the street and asking directions. The result was always the same in over 75070 of the cases. The people all appeared eager to help and never too busy to stop and talk. Here at last I found a place where people were just as friendly as those back home. The final incident I would like to relate to you on this topic occurred only a matter of weeks ago. The time was New Year's 1969 and I found myself in a small community just outside Timmins fwhich bears the name of South Porcupinej. Now, Timmins is a rather large community and seems to always be on the go. The people are friendly and reasonably hospitable but you can detect a lack of interest in talking either about their community or the area. On the other hand, South Porcupine must be a hand-picked, screened community. Though only a mere four miles due east of Timmins the people are completely different. They are never too busy to talk, always willing to give information on points of interest and directions on how to get there the quickest and easiest way. Unfort- unately 1 was not able to stay as long as I would have liked but I will return to that community many times in the future. Therefore you see why I wish that journalist had come to me before starting his search. From my travels over a very meager portion of this large land mass known as Canada, I know he will never find what he is looking for because it does not exist in the form he wants it. To put on paper the Canadian character is truly an impossible dream. Alan Plank, Form Nine. 97