Shawnigan Lake School - Yearbook (Shawnigan Lake, British Columbia Canada)

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Head Boy ' s Letter I suppose I ' ll have to start this letter the way I start nearly all of my letters — by stating outright that I am at a complete loss as to what to say. I suppose that I could tell you, truthfully, what a great honour and experience this last year has been for me, but I don ' t think I will. There are many of you to whom I owe a lot of thanks, but I wouldn ' t know where to begin. Maybe by the time I get to the ' P.S. ' I ' ll know. And right about now is where I am no longer at a loss for words. One thing that really has stood out to me this year is the spirit and liveliness of, well of everyone really, but especially the Grade Twelves. It is a difficult thing, being a Grade Twelve — you find yourself not just at the end of so many years at Shawnigan, but facing the rather abrupt end of a long and sheltered era that started the day you were born and finished on June 22nd, 1968. Faced with this prospect you can no longer carry on the way you have done for eighteen-odd years; a change is necessary but it doesn ' t come easily. A fundamental part of this change is learning to get along with other people, even if they aren ' t exactly your cup of tea; to realize that you cannot solve anything through dislike. And this year there were no intense dislikes among the Graduating Class. Not everybody liked everyone else, by any means, but it seemed that people made a concentrated effort to really co-exist. Personally, although I had my differences with other members of the Class of ' 68, I think I can say I had no more enemies among them at the end of the year . . . than at the beginning! In fact, possibly even fewer. There honestly is nothing that harms a school such as Shawnigan more than intense personality conflict, and nothing does the spirit of the school more good than the absence of it, and th at can not be stressed enough. To those of you coming up through the school, the oppor- tunity is constantly wide open to you — the opportunity to learn to get along with your comrades, be they staff or boys, older or younger. It is an invaluable lesson to learn and a rich asset. The sooner you acquire it, the easier life will be to live. And the time to learn it is now, be- cause you ' ll never do it at forty, and even thirty is pretty far gone. In fact if you don ' t learn it pretty flippin ' fast, you may never reach thirty anyway. There really is at Shawnigan a great efort to afford you this opportunity. That is the main reason, for in- stance, that corporal punishment is no longer handed out by prefects, as it was, only last year. It was well worth any difficulties it caused the prefects because of the ease in tension and the drop in bullying that, I believe, directly ensued. In fact, at Shawnigan, you are given a vast num- ber of opportunities to make a success of your school career and a start on a successful future. I have briefly dealt with one important one, but there are many more, equally golden. For God ' s sake, it ' s too early in life to be a failure, especially when you are given so many chances for success. A little effort and a little determination is all it takes, and at the end of your final year, as you sit up in the front of the Assembly Hall as a member of the Graduating Class — you ' ll be genuinely proud. C. G. 30

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Tony (1964) One of our imports from south of the Rio Grande, Tony Shepard didn ' t quite succeed in his ambition to hustle every girl at Straths, but he got an ' A ' for his efforts. A pugnacious member of the 1st Game and Eight, ' Hawk ' was also prominent in the Film Society, as a Ripley ' s House Prefect. After a rest at home in I North in September to attend U.B.C., where he will conquest. hard worker on the 2nd various Stage Crews, and lexico City, he will return find many new fields of Dave (1963) A founding member of the ' Kitchen Hustlers ' , Dave Sutherland also enjoyed the atmosphere of the ' Cheen Sha ck! ' A talented guitar player, he could often be found quietly strumming up a tune. Also one of the school ' s top scientists, Dave got quite a charge out of the physics equipment. Next September he will attend U.B.C. Randy (1964) Randy Thomson managed to set a new style in footwear this year, and when ' Rat ' wasn ' t playing rugby on the 2nd Fifteen or running school-colour calibre track, he could be found organizing the dances, inspecting the ' Cheen Shack ' or out on the Lake somewhere. He was also a member of the notorious ' Kitchen Hustlers ' . Next fall he plans to attend U.B.C. Dave (1963) Dave Winslow, one of the Junior House veterans, proved once and for all that there is always ' room at the top ' . Whether he was a peon or Head of Lake ' s, on the 1st Game or 1st Fifteen, in the Choir or Philosophy Club, ' Rudy ' s ' infec- tious sense of humour and independent thought made him a valuable asset to Shawnigan. Next fall he will begin at Amherst where he will undoubtedly miss Mr. Anderson. Greg (1966) Greg Williamson, a Copeman ' s House stalwart and well known patron of the B.C. Ferries, talked and played his way onto the 2nd Fifteen and 1st Hockey Eleven, which he captained, and into the front desk in the Math 12 and Physics 12 classrooms where he kept up good family relations. It is next to impossible to picture ' Bum ' without a smile on his face. We hope U.B.C. won ' t change that. 29

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' What ' s the inner meaning though? ' Gr-r-r-r-r!! ' 1 The thinker ' Veil, vhat did you expect, lemonade? ' 31