St Johns Ravenscourt School - Eagle Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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LITERAIV

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KJM This year, for the first time, the school had a Drama Club, whereas in the past, only those associated with the School Play had an opportunity to participate in and learn about acting and the theatre in general. Under the direction of Mr. McLeod, the club started off early in the year by electing an executive, who were as follows: President: Aaron Schwartz, Vice President: Muir Meredith, and Secretary and Treasurer: Doug Mac¬ Donald. During the year there were read-through’s of various plays, followed by open discussions. The Adding Machine” by Edgar Rice, an expressionistic play, was given the most detailed analysis. In November, Mr. Edward Gilbert, from the Manitoba Theatre Center, presented an interesting and well-received talk on the forth¬ coming production of Andorra.” One evening, members of the Club went to see the play. The show was fol¬ lowed by Chinese dinner at Chan’s. The latter part of the year was spent mainly on working with the school production of Murder in the Cathedral.” Every member of the Drama Club took some part in helping with the production: some boys had roles in the play, others helped with costumes, make-up, lightings and props, while yet others took part in ticket sales promotion and advertising. Thus all members of the club had an opportunity to take part in an actual theatrical production, some of them for the first time. We feel that the Drama Club got off to a good start this year, and hope it will continue with increasing suc¬ cess in future years. The members of the Club wish to extend their sincerest thanks to Mr. McLeod for the time and effort he put into it. EImUoim The electronics option is an extension of last year’s electronics club. Its primary interest is the education of students in the field of electronics using a learn-while-you-work ” technique. In this direction the group has had a great amount of assistance. Quite a number of radios have been donated in a working or semi-working state. These have either been repaired or dismantled completely and used for parts. With these, a high voltage direct current power supply was built by George Black which will prove useful in future projects. The group has also received three television sets, of which one is in working condition and is now in use. The remaining television sets have been salvaged for working parts and there is talk of building an F.M. radio with them. The club is financially independent of the school and has its own treasury from which money is drawn to buy tools and other necessary equipment. The initial membership fee is five dollars and is made to go a long way. Operating from the school as the club is advantageous in a number of ways: there is a vast number of prospective donators of radio equipment; the club receives a fairly substantial discount on all equipment pur¬ chased brand-new. The group just recently received some amateur radio or ham” equipment and work is underway to set up a small radio station. As soon as one of the members becomes a licensed radio operator, the station will go into action. . . , Although the group is primarily interested in electronics, it does do the occasional electrical work, such as re-wiring the ovens in the lab, and, occasionally, designing electrical equipment that would be useful to the school. The school has been fortunate in having a plant laboratory with artificial lighting. Students have been using the lab to start many new projects. During the coming year, plant breeding experiments are to be started with a view to producing new varieties of some plants. Much of the material produced will be used in the future to beautify the school grounds. In the spring term it is hoped that at least two classes will visit the Pinewood Forest Nursery. Also, a new outdoor experimental plot is to be prepared where further work will be started. Growing plants and trees is a slow projectwhich takes time. The results of the work which has been started this year will become much more evident in the years which follow.

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A The scorching summer sun hung halfway down the sky. The three of us had been driving all day with a break for lunch. Despite the rolled down windows, large drops of perspiration ran down my uncle’s fore¬ head as he drove the car along the twisting road. My aunt lay stretched out in the back seat, dropping off into small dozes only to be reawakened by another deep pit in the road. It was Sunday, our fifth and last day in the mountains. We were winding our way out of the south-east corner of the Canadian Rockies. The large mountains were long behind us and now we were just making our way back along the broad wooded valleys. The unbearable heat and our boredom brought about by long hours in the car, was having its effect on us; as for me, I had a hollow pain in my stomach. Out-stretched across my knee lay a half folded map of British Columbia and Alberta. I etched another pen mark along the red line on the map keeping track of our journey through the mountains. On the previous days I had done this at night, but now every few miles I extended the pen line a little further. During the course of late morning and early afternoon it had gone through Wardner, Elko, and Fernie, and was now twist¬ ing its way up to two small twin towns, Natal and Michel. I was looking forward to them, for they were the last towns before Crowsnest Pass. I wanted to see this famous landmark for it would be some thing in¬ teresting in this uninteresting day. With the long summer day the torrid sun still clung above the mountains. No cloud moved across the blue sky. No birds flew from bush green trees. No car drove on the long black mountain road, just us. It was quite lonely, but we knew that around a few more bends we would be in Natal and her twin town. Yes, just around a couple of bends and there they were. I lifted my head from the map in which it was buried, and looked around. My aunt opened her bleary eyes and gave a noisy yawn followed by a question: Is this Natal?” My uncle stirred from his trance-like posi¬ tion at the wheel and answered in the affirmative, and continued, But it sure doesn’t look like the Natal I saw here ten years ago.” I did not think it was worth the commotion. There it lay just in front of us, black and lifeless like a ghost. Nothing stirred down its main street, the highway. Maybe it was just because it was a Sunday afternoon? Two rows of houses stretched down the road getting more closely packed and nearer to the road as we went along. Each house was a blackened brown, not a patch of white showing through, except maybe a board just recently nailed across a window. Each house looked the same, each with the veranda hanging off the house like the tongue of a baby. Their tiny yards were unkept, but someone must have cared some; many had small neatly built fences a- round the house. But they had deteriorated: the fences were dark, many had lost their gates. The remainder of the gates hanging cockeyed leaned on the old stone paths leading to the rotten brown coloured steps of the verandas. Some verandas had screens, but they had been neglected for some years now. The windows were dark, not only from the shadow of black protruding roofs. If there was a store or a church among these first set of houses they were well disguised, yet this was just the entrance to the town. If these first houses were drab and slummy the following ones were worse. The high¬ way served as a kitchen view for many and we could see the odd clothes line strung across the small deep grassed yards from dark timbers. We passed some brick stores, but they had also turned black. We never did see a church; maybe it was down one of the muddy lanes? There was a half mile break between Natal and her twin. From a large hole in a ridge on the left a mining car rail came out. My uncle began explaining that this was not a ghost town, despite its looks, but still a much lived in coal mining town. Beyond the ridge and around the town was a large coal mining industry. A coal mining town deteriorates much more quickly than any other town because of the coal dust in the air. The town had been left uncared for over the past couple of years and now the black coal dust had found its way into everything; the town had taken on a de¬ graded look. The half mile was just a small break between two ugly spots. Michel was every bit as black as Natal. I was greatly depressed by Michel. It was dirty. Not just coal dust but litter, muddy ditches through the middle of town, and dilapidated houses. Actually in most re¬ spects it was much the sameas the other. It was just my impression that was worse; having to go through a second town of this ugly blackness and being depressed by its surroundings. Then suddenly in the midst of this darkness I saw a glimpse of light. In front of the most black houses with a dark veranda declining for¬ ward from its original level near some half dead scrub bush sat a girl on some brown stairs. I saw just one glimpse of her: — a red blouse and yellow skirt which matched her golden hair, far out of place in these ugly shapes. We drove on into the sunset. We passed through Crowsnest Pass. I can hardly remember it now, but I will always remember that day. I will forget some of the magestic mountains or the beautiful waterfalls. I probably will not remember many of happy moments on the glaciers or in the hot sulpher pools, but I will always remember Natal and Michel, and my glimpse of the girl on the stairs. ANGUS CAMBELL FORM VI