Sir Adam Beck Secondary School - Lacedaemon Yearbook (London, Ontario Canada)

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REFLECTIONS Why did you hold your hand ' til now within the reach of mine? Was it your loss-your only link to love? When did you seep into reality and caress away my tear? Was it youth? Christina Dawson 13B BOYS Men in so many ways, Boys in so few , That is the way they want Us to think too . Bolster their ego, and Mention their charm, Say they are handsome- (It can ' t do much harm. . A shoulder to cry on, A smile or a tear Is what they expect, but Don ' t be fooled, dear They ' ll love you forever As a friend tried and true, But when seeking a sweetheart They ' ll overlook you. anonymous Let me walk alone through the forests of my mind, I take th is trip with no goal only a hope of peace and love; a desire to understand myself . Fred Lesser 13C 68

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OPPORTUNITY I get discouraged now and then. When there are clouds of grey . . .Until I think about the things . . .That happened yesterday . . . I do not mean the day before ... Or those of months ago . . . But all the yesterdays in which.. I had the chance to grow . . . I think of opportunities . . .That I allowed to die . . .And those I took advantage of . . . Before They passed me by . . . And I Remember that the past . . . Presented quite a plight. . . But somehow I endured it and . . . The future seemed a 1 1 right . . . And I remind myself that I . . . Am capable and free . . . And my success and happiness. . . Are real ly up to me . MEDITATION May it be said of us that having come to an open door, we c losed it; having stood at the stair of learning, we refused to ascend it; having come to a lighted candle, we quenched it; having heard a brother begging bread, we denied h im . 67

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Travelling is a stimulating experience . It dispel Is boredom . It opens the mind. It is an inexhaustible provider of new experiences. I believe every young person should travel . And yet there is one problem with the tourist life which unfortunately grows so as to become a complete barrier: it is far too expensive. And yet did you know that a total of 12,000 young Canadians have been on the move about Canada for the last three summers without paying a cent? This program is part of the activities of the Centennial Commission of our Government. The object is to awake Canadians to the distinctive character of our country ; to have them experience a sense of Canada ; to move our trains of thought in an east-westerly direction instead of in a southerly one . These phrases are almost meaningless, I admit, unless you were as fortunate as 1 when asked to join the Youth Travel Program . Groups of Voyageurs du Centenaire come from all over Canada . We from the London- Dorchester-St . Thomas area went the farthest from home of all, to Trail B.C. And a more en- joyable two weeks I have never spent. Trail is the ideal place for the sports ' enthusiast. When mountain-climbing one afternoon we were told that Nancy Green, Canada ' s woman champion skier, trains during the winter on the very slope that we were struggling up. The natives boast that Red Mountain is the best slope in all Canada. And during the winter everybody skies. The lakes are clear and deep and very blue, certainly very tempting to the water-skier. And just about every teenager spent about three quarters of his summertime life out on the lakes. This sportsman-like attitude is understandable considering the fact that a simple walk up the street involves climbing at a 70 degree angle or restraining yourself from running down the same slope I learned that gravity is a very influential force! I was impressed understandibly by those experiences for which there is no parallel near London, Ontario. The Ainsworth Hot Springs, for example, were unique. Boiling mineral water pours out of a crack in the mountain-side and is collected in a swimming pool . And people just sit in it, not moving, and become cured from asthma or other bodily ailments. We novices begin by diving energetically in and racing the widths. We were warned not to continue our activity, and I am afraid those of us who were enjoying ourselves too much to sit still, exper- ienced complete physical exhaustion several hours later. One just doesn ' t cavort in boiling water! On the educational side we were not neglected. But what an effective and permanent way to learn about Froth Flotation (note Chemistry students!) first hand in Canada ' s biggest mining and smelting plant — Cominco , the reason Trail B. C. exist at all . The week went very quickly. People whom none of us will ever see again became for one week our closest friends through no other bond than the fact that we are all Canadians. And the trip home was ideal . Twenty-four friends in a railway car: some became chain cigar smokers, others kept the paperback makers in business. The bridge and euchre fanatics monopolized the upper births, and the rest watched the unbelievable vastness that is Canada fly past. In the Rockies the train (in many places) travelled only a few inches from the brink edge; far too close for my personal comfort. Several people in the party were almost always left in places like Jasper or Winnipeg because there was so much to see and the stops seldom exceeded thirty minutes. The prairies were flat and to some, monotonous. But I wouldn ' t have missed the Prairie sunder, because there is nothing like it in Eastern Canada. And we can be proud of Northern Ontario because its rugged beauty is something not common in the rest of Canada. And so a sort of nationalism was instilled which had not been there before . I have an ambition to go back, at a slower pace. Three thousand miles in two weeks tends to leave the head spinning, but it was really wonderful . Marg Gordon -Grade 12-