Oakwood Collegiate Institute - Oracle Yearbook (Toronto Ontario, Canada)

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ties for learning anything and everything. We will always remember the orchestra, the choir, the football games, the Aqua Shows, the dances, and above all, the classes, for what we learned here will go with us for the rest of our lives. Yes, we will always remember Oakwood. And now that we are all separated, some of us out working, and some of us continuing our education, we will look back on our five years at Oakwood and say Thank-you, to you who have taught us to play our part as citizens of a school community and to accept responsibility, and have changed us from those merely eager to learn to those ready to learn, for we won ' t stop now. I think I can speak for us all when I say we enjoyed it here and though we re sorry to leave, we re glad we came. Martha Brewin DEDICATION OF THE NEW FIELD The sale and demolition of Oakwood Stadium, the present site of the Dominion Store and park- ing lot, in the late 1940 ' s dealt a crippling blow to the sports life of the Oakwood district. The Toronto Secondary School Athletic Association was forced to schedule games at the Earlscourt Park dust bowl. Exhibition Park, Maple Leaf Stadium, or east of the Don River. On Thursday, September 29, 1960, a new page was written into the history of Oakwood athletics. The new Oakwood Field was formally opened by the Toronto Board of Education. In the pr esence of the Oakwood and Western Tech football teams, cheerleaders and spectators, Mrs. McBrien cut the double blue and gold ribbons. The new field and crushed brick track have provided a new impetus to football, and track and field events. During the Fall, eight double- header and several single football games were played. Some quarter and semi-finals were held at Oakwood. The Cross Country Team worked out in the mornings at 8:00. The new facilities are providing the greatest benefits to the Physical Education classes in the Fall and Spring. The expanse of green turf is adequate space for maximum participation. Seating accomodation for spectators is lack- ing at the present time. This, however, is under consideration by the Board of Education and bleachers will probably be installed in the near future. The V. I. P. ' s Mary, Carmen, Linda, Julie, Pat 11

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VALEDICTORY Mr. Tovell, Members of the Staff, Honoured Guests, Fellow Graduates, It is my honour to-night to say farewell to Oakwood on your behalf. That ' s what a valedic- tory is. Those of us who took Latin all know, of course, that the word valedictory is derived from two Latin words; vale ' which means farewell, and dico, dicere, dixi, dictum , the verb to say ' . But before I do say good-bye, I d like to reminisce a bit. We all know that last year was the 50th anni- versary of Oakwood. As I think over my past five years here, I realize how different and yet how much the same they were from those of the first students at Oakwood. School-spirit, then as now, was on everyone s mind. Editorials in the Oracles deplored the lack of it, or, in rare circumstances, praised the stu- dents for having so much. However I doubt if they ever won the school-spirit trophy as we did. There probably wasn ' t one then. The football teams, or should I say the rugby teams, all seemed to do very well in those days, even with- out such valuable players as our Caput president. They won basketball games in those days too and their hockey team was probably just as good as ours. The girls ' athletics were also pretty exciting. They seemed to win most of their bas- ketball and baseball games but the poor things didn ' t have a swimming pool nor a Miss Duff to coach them. It must have seemed strange not to see any drowned rats around Oakwood. One of the differences between then and now was the costumes. For five years we complained about those horrible blue gym rompers we wore. Be thankful girls; and boys too; the girls in the old days played basketball in baggy middies and long black pleated skirts. Speaking of costumes, that reminds me of the discussions that came up every year about uniforms. They did have them at Oakwood once, those same middies and skirts, very chic! I found out about all these things in old Orac- les. However I wasn t able to find out whether the Oracles came out in time in those days. They certainly didn ' t in ours. I must admit it gets bet- ter every year though. Last year they were out by the middle of June. In Grade nine — well you remember. About Christmas time, Mr. Stewart came into our room with one of his little an- nouncements. This one was about the school magazine, the Oracle, which would be on sale in a few weeks. Being keen and eager to do what we thought was expected of high-school students we all ordered one. When we finally got it we were surprised to find we didn ' t recognize any of the names and events mentioned in it. No wonder! It was the Oracle of the year before. But we must not forget the main reason we were here. Knowledge! Oakwood has always been known for its excellent scholastic record. Three Prince of Wales Scholarships, given to the stu- dent with the highest percent in the province, have been won by Oakwoodites over the years. A look at your program will show you how well we did on our 50th anniversary. And how could we have done it without our teachers. Good teachers seem to be a tradition at Oakwood. For example, the students as far back as 1920 have been lucky enough to have Mr. Jackson. I wonder if he al- ways said Zip, zip! and Get it? Mr. Horning who was then a great football player also came to Oakwood in 1920 and IVlr. O.J. Henderson, our fellow graduate, came in 1927. The science teachers may not have been as advanced in those days, but I m sure they all knew that, when you place a piece of cardboard on top of a completely filled glass of water, the glass can be turned upside down without the water spilling. However I m not sure Mr. Young knows it; at least he never proved it to those of us who were in 9A. He tried, but when he was waving it over Jean Lillie ' s head, the cardboard fell off and the water spilled. I ' m still not sure about that experiment. And as for our principal, well I ' m sure that the first principal at Oakwood didn ' t have Mr. Tovell ' s taste in curtains. Nor was he probably as frightening to newcomers at the school. When we first came to Oakwood, the proverbial little grade-niners, lost in the huge high school, we were struck with awe when we saw Mr. Tovell towering over us, telling us to stop talking. How- ever we soon realized that he wasn ' t really like that and I think I learned earlier than most. Our naughty class had been given a detention, my first, and I was afraid. I got up early, leaving plenty of time, but I had to wait at least twenty minutes for the bus. When I finally got there it was a quarter to nine. I was advised not to go in at all, but to tell Mr. Tovell at noon what had happened. I was also warned that he would be furious, and I would get at least two weeks de- tentions. So at noon, with much trepidation, I walked up to him in the hall and in a quivering voice explained myself. Much to my surprise he was not furious, nor did he give me two weeks detentions. Instead, he simply smiled down on me and said, Oh that ' s all right. I thought some- thing like that had happened. You, who are still here, don ' t get the idea that I am giving you a way to get out of detentions. All in all, I would say Oakwood couldn ' t be beaten fifty years ago and still can ' t. After all what other school has such wonderful opportuni- 10

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AWARD WINNING PHOTOGRAPHS r •• ' V r . 6 ' SJ (Howard Saginur) Op -vv 12