Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

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Our next trip was a hayride. One afternoon Mr. Jackman took us down to the barn and introduced us to Mr. Howarth, the farm manager. Mr. Howarth talked to us about the farm and told us a great deal about raising cattle and operating a farm. Then he took us for a hayride all around the farm, showing us the places we should and should notgo, and telling us of the things we should and should not do, if we were to have the privilege of enjoying our school farm. We all thought it was a good afternoon and we had a lot of fun. Since then we have spent much of our free time down there and most of the time we have kept out of mischief. Every once in awhile theboys put out a little newspaper called the Pickering Prep Press . In it you will find stories about our school its people and what goes on around it. Mr. Jackman tells us that the Press has been published periodically since 1940. Almost every boy writes articles to be published. In fact, this account of the Preparatory Department was written in a similar manner by many boys writing articles on various topics which were then combined. At Christmas time the boys of the Prep had two parties, one given by the Headmaster and the other by Mr. Jackman. At both we had a wonderful time, a good snack and delicious punch. In June we had a party with Mr. Jewell as the chef. We had hot-dogs, potato chips, drinks, cookies and ice cream which we all enjoyed very much. That was the final party of the year. Despite the injuries and suspensions we had a fairly successful hockey season due to good coaching by Mr. Mike Peet and Mr. James Wright. Our team won four games, lost four games and tied two, which is a good record for a small school. We travelled to various cities and towns to play St. Andrews, Upper Canada, The Grove in Lakefield near Peterborough, Appleby College in Oakville, Hillfield in Hamilton, and St. Georges in Toronto. Crescent School and some of the others came to play us in Newmarket. Our regular players were: Lush, Spadafora, Fraser, Zakoor, Lockhart, Grimshaw, Beal, Hammond and Peterson. The goal-tending was done by McWilliams and Westra. The spares who played one or more games were Pottruff, Shipley, Fish, Packham and Aiken. Another winter sportwas skiing. Someofus skied on the farm on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. We made a ski-jump. Gary McWilliams went over the jump and landed on his head. There were some trips to Honey Pot for skiing where we had a lot of fun. On Valentine's Day Leonard Connelly had an accident and broke both his legs. By the first of June he was just learning how to walk again. Early in the fall we began practising soccer. Mr. Mucy and Mr. Leach coached us. We played a number of games with schools such as Appleby and Lakefield which were some distance away, and some with St. Andrews. A team lost all their games except one which they tied, while B team did win one. However, we enjoyed them all and we enjoyed the bus trips. Twenty- three

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-1-rw -V --ifi i - -. ,. ,. . lx A ey . 4-'fpgxw . .. - . , ,-, . , . snr... . 7. A t ' -Q ' - f . ' if '.:' f,,:fi'1i-59415 fffim 4 c Preparatory Department W.H. Jackman, B.A., M.Ed., Director A.H. Jewell, Housemaster R.M. Mucy Eric Ferguson Mike Peet Jim Wright Those of us who were returning to the Prep for a second year were naturally curious to find out who would be in the department this year and where they came from. While most of them were from Toronto, some boys came from places such as Midland, St. Thomas, Windsor, London, Chatham, Montreal, Thornhill, Ottawa and even Newmarket. Later in the year a boy came from Sarnia and another from Martinique in the Caribbean. One ofthe tutors came from Toronto, one from the Lakehead, and one from Geraldton. We made an interesting group and learned much just by living together. We all live in Firth House, along with some grade niners, above Mr. Jewell in his apartment, and Miss Forsyth in her infirmary. Shortly after the term began, on a rainy Thursday, we went on our first trip, to Black Creek Pioneer Village. We arrived there after about an hour's ride. A guide escorted us to the first building which was the barn, where an elderly man talked and explained about the tools the settlers used, such as the harrow, sickle, plough, pitch fork, broad-axe and broadcaster. From here we went to see some houses, the first a three-room cabin, the others becoming larger and better- equipped as we moved along. In one of them we saw a woman using a spinning- wheel. Then we went on to a mill where they grind wheat. Near the mill was a little schoolhouse that had contained eight grades in one room. To us this seemed very small. To end the trip all of us went to the lunch counter where we bought all sorts of things to eat. Twenty- two

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Our next bus trip was the trip to the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto at the Coliseum in the Exhibition Grounds. We broke up when we got there after arranging to meet atacertain spot and at a suitable time for the return trip. We saw cows, horses, sheep, pigs, and poultry as well as such things as tractors, automobiles and farm implements. Back at the school we had a discussion about the things we saw. On Saturday nights the Prep boys are allowed to go to downtown New- market to see the movies. They work very hard and are on their best behaviour to earn this extra privilege because sometimes if we do something wrong we lose this privilege and are not allowed to go to the movies. During the winter we sometimes had the choice of going to the movies or skating. Some of the pictures we saw were In the Heat of the Night , The Taming of the Shrew , and UA Man for All Seasons . We have a house committee in Firth House. They work with the staff to solve problems concerning the house and help make decisions in some areas of activity. They do things such as collecting skates from the hockey team and taking them downtown to be sharpened. Each one ofthe five members is associated with one of the masters and acts as an assistant to him on duty days. When school first opened the staff chose five returning boys to act as I-louse Committee until Thanksgiving. They chose five boys who had been here the year before. They were Gary Peterson, chairman, Jim Lush, David Pottruff, Tom Shipley and Bob Spadafora. We then had elections at Thanksgiving, Christmas and after the spring holiday. The next three committees were: Gary Peterson, chairman Jim Lush, chairman Jim Lush, chairman Scott Hammond Scott Hammond Simon Fraser Jim Lush Bill Packham Scott Hammond Dave Pottruff Dave Pottruff Bob Spadafora Bob Spadafora Bob Spadafora Richard Zakoor Early in the fall term, based on daily work, boys were chosen to be placed on the Headmaster's List. This list gives recognition for those boys who receive honour gradings in a majority of their subjects, or they may be placed on the list for putting forth a great deal of effort in their school work even though their grades may not be particularly high providing they have had no failures. During the year Gray McWilliams, Tom Shipley, Norman Beal, Jonny Diamond, Simon Fraser, Jim Moses, Bob Spadafora and Richard Zakoor had the honour of seeing their names on this list, some of them a number of times. Mr. Leach who teaches us arts and crafts, also teaches us literature and composition. One day he got tired of the classroom routine and decided to do something different. In class we discussed what to do. At first we thought of putting on a play but changed our minds when one boy suggested they we try to make a film. The subject chosen was A Day in the Life of Firth House . Mr. Leach was the producer and the boys in grades seven and eight were the actors. The first film dealt with what goes on in Firth House after lights out . Twenty- four