Timmins High and Vocational School - Porcupine Quill Yearbook (Timmins, Ontario Canada)

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77 T-T'- The PORCUPINE QUILL Mineral Collecting Are you looking for an excellent hobby, one that will hold your interest the whole year round? I have one that will nll the bill. It is the collecting of minerals. I began my collection when I came across a piece of pyrite. Of course, I thought it was g-old, and took it home as a treasure, It was not long until I had a box filled with different minerals, and it soon became evident that a mineral collection could not be kept in a mere shoe-Jbox. In the next few months I spent my time making a cabinet in which to keep my treasures. In it there was room for over two hundred specimens. Its construc- tion afforded me many hours of pleasure. When I had made a large number of small boxes to it the drawers, and had equipped myself with a pile of paper lalbels, I was ready to start a real collection. With the help of a text-book on mineralogy, I classified the worth-while minerals, which included mala- chzite from the Belgian Congo, lapis lazuli from Chile, asbestos from Quebec, iolilte from Norway, garnets from Alaska, and silver from Cobalt. The collection increased with such rapidity that it now contains more than one hundred species of rock. I also collect stamps, but the majority of my hobby-hours are spent on my collection of minerals. When you pick up a crystal of amethyst, you may be holding an actual piece of South Africa in your hand. ESSES Stamp Collecting Stamp collecting is one of the most inter- esting hobbies. It is the hobby of sheiks, of American million-aires, of sporting English- men, and it is also that of a large number of children throughout the world. I am just one of a thousand Canadian boys who have chosen stamp collecting as a hobby. Like all these boys I love to show my in- expensive, but neat, little collection. It is an interesting pastime. I believe that every boy tries to make his collection more complete than that of his friends. I first took stamps off the letters received at home. Friends began to help me, and now I am the pro-ud possessor of a collection containing over four hundred foreign stamps. Stamp collecting is slow work and many stamps are difficult to obtain. The most important stamp of my collection is a Russian stamp with a picture of the Czar of Russia. I also have a stamp of the time of Queen Elizabeth. Valuable stamps have been found in small collections. President Roosevelt and Pre- mier Bennett own valuable stamp collections. This hobby is now a form of tra-de. Valuable stamp collections are auctioned in stamp markets all over the world. I may have neglected my hobby at one time or an-other, but still I maintain that it is the mos-t interesting hobby of all. DAVY JONES Act IV Surface Showings Scene I: WINTER OPERATIONS Theres no place like home Dear Jean: If you were to come to Timmins during the Winter months you would find it very different from your Southern Ontario home. The mornings are for the most pmt. Cold and foggy, and before you knofw it, your hair and eyelashes are covered with frost. It snows nearly every night, and in the morn- ing, the snowplow, followed by children, is pulled slowly down streets, by a frost-covered horse. The town is always busy and full of life. Children are everywhere - children with skates over their shoulders, on skiis, or on a troop of the drifted

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76 The PORCUPINE QUILL - d Coach Building . Building miniatures of famous coaches is a most interesting h-obby and appeals to mo- dern boys with a creative spirit. You do not need an expensive set of tools, or special wood and materials, to engage in this pursuit. In fact it is much more instructive to fash- ion almost everything you use yourself-to make special tools to go into all the little corners out of the ends of old files. Very few tools are necessary-some models have been built with little more than a jack-knife- and you can get almost all the material you need from box-wood and scrap lying around the house. To transform a bunch of junk into a masterpiece of beauty is an achieve- ment worth while. Not only is this pastime interesting, it is also instructiveg for one must learn to be patient and pnecise when working on little things if he wishes to create ia beautiful ex- ample of craftsmanship. There are many coaches which may be built-the glamorous Royal Mail of England with its bevy of armed guards, the stage- coach of such importance in the last cen- tury-fbringing back the spirit of the bad old days. Then there is the famous Napoleonic coach in which Napoleon rode to his coron- ation. and other notable examples of coach- craft worth copying. JAMES BROWN Bulb Growing Growing bulbs is an interesting hobby. It is fun to watch for the first sign of life, to see the first green sprout poking its head upward, and to wait patiently for the bud. And when the bud opens, and there is H beautiful nower, we are more than repaid for the time we have spent, and only wish we had planted more. I planted paper-white narcissus for the first time, last fall. A dish of pebbles, a sunny window, and water enough to cover the pebbles are all that is necessary. The paper-white narcissus can be placed in the sunshine las soon as they are planted, and when they bloom they fill the room with a fragrant perfume. Bulbs in the home during the winter make spring seem a little nearer, especially in Tim- mins, where our winters are So long and flowers are so scarce. A. C. M. Architecture Ever since I can remember I have been in- terested in buildings, but it was only last year that I conceived the idea of collecting pict1u'e-s of them. I had to make a scrap book for my school work, in which were to be pictures of buildings as well as of many other things. When the book was complete, I discovered that I had unconsciously saved many pic- tLu'es of architecture that appealed to me, and had stored them away in portfolios, or whatever it was convenient to keep them in. In this way I began what is now a fascina- ting hobby. One of my most prized pictures is of a ferryboat built for fun making. The ferry- boat is really a grown-up play house, and iS used especially for entertaining. The build- ing is an exact duplicate of a ferryboat, with pilot house, life boats, deck, and iron gates complete. The prow of the boat is realisti- cally resting in the water of a large swim- ming pool, and the whole effect is made beautiful by trees. It is great fun to look at a plan and ima- gine what the house would look like. It is even more fun to imagine what the man who made the plans is like. Is he really inter- ested in his work? Has he imagination? Does he like comfort? Does he think of others rather than of himself? I find the answers to these questions in the plans. Even after writing this long, and exceed- ingly dry account, about which, despite my efforts to make it interesting, you Will doubt- less exclaim: How dreadfully boring! I can still truthfully say that I am very much interested in architecture. .. BARBARA LUCAS

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78 The PORCUPINE QUILL sleds pulled by dogs-fine husky-looking dogs. of no special breed or variety but with a loyal, trustworthy look. The jingle of sleigh bells is often heard on the main street and a team of horses drawing cutters full of people covered with fur robes, is not an infrequent sight. One of the oddities of the town is the little green houses that are placed over the hyd- rants to prevent them from freezing, during very cold weather. They are not unlike dog- houses, and are the source of much laughter and inquiry from visitors. Another curiosity is the overhead tent, that is placed on the telegraph wires while cables are being put up. Many of the houses are bare and unpainted, with porches open below, showing the four posts on which they are built. This gives appearance. The as you approach them a rather unstable houses improve, however, what is commonly known as the Hill g here they have a more settled comfortable look. The absence of trees around the houses and throughout the town is very noticeable to strangers, but residents of Timmins do not seem to miss them. The miners' houses are another of the town peculiarities. They are small, bex-like affairs, each being exactly the same size and shape as its equally box-like neighbour. Evening in Timmins is the nicest time. The west becomes Va glory of crimson, orange and emerald. The lovely tints are never the same for an instant, and their changing beauty is reflected on the white snow. The picture made by the low, blue mountains with the fblack sentinel-like Er trees outlined against them, in the distance, and the teams of plodding horses, pulling logs to the mill, in the foreground is one never to be forgotten by a beauty lover. -Gradually the rosy glow in the west fades, and night draws her dark curtains about the winter world. The stars come out, one by one-twmkly, friendly stars that seem to be near enough to reach. Just outside the town a blaze of lights that themselves look like a myriad of sparkling stars, but that are, in reality, the lights of the famous Hollinger Gold Mine, flash a cheery 'fgood-night. There are many other interesting sights in Timmins, but I should like you to have a few surprises when you come to visit us. SI-IEILA LANG Hollinger Mine by Night Courtesy of Mr. J. S. Kitchen