Trafalgar Castle School - Yearbook (Whitby, Ontario Canada)

Page 21 text:

VOXCOLLEGII 19 her, (solely on my account, I believe). There seemed to be something so fa- miliar in that clear gaze and the swish of the wrist as it flipped the pancakes, but I instantly dismissed the idea from my mind as foolish and fanciful. How- ever, when Flappity resumed her work I felt more at ease and as an uncontroll- able hunger overcame us we decided to partake of some of these delicious pan- cakes. It was now quite late and the crowd slowly dwindled away until there were only a few individuals left, so Flappity waited on us herself. As she famously flipped one of her famous pancakes for us I heard her mutter ' ' 0 Crackey ! to herself as one pancake ascended into the air an inch too high, and it was now that I had my su spi- cions of where I had seen this woman before, but I wanted to be sure. Later she joined us in conversation, and upon inquiring the location of some places — such as the public library — she lamented with a perfectly candid air that she didn ' t know anything. Now ray suspicions were confirmed. Certain- ly it was M. R., a graduate of O.L.C. even as I was. How could I have been so stupid as not to have recognized her immediately? Now her every move- ment seemed so familiar. How well I remembered her as a sweet girl gradu- ate — ' way back in ' 23. How strange it seemed to see her now. Once our lives had been so close together and then each had gone her several ways and now fat3 had brought us together again and each was so changed, with such a wide gidf between us. Well, odd is life and the best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agiae. Lillian Sparling During the summer of 1937 1 liad the pleasure to be visiting the Snoft ' oliski Yacht Club in Northern Russia. The night upon which I arrived was a very busy and excited one. There was to be a presentation of a life membership to a noted and enthusiastic member of the club. This member was not only a member of this club but I was told she had been connected with 89 yacht clubs. At all of these she had entered into the life of clubs and enjoyed it so much that they had all made her a life member. We all waited patiently for the speaker and the noted member to ap- pear. At last the speaker entered, fol- lowed by member of the hour. When the meml er appeared I could not see that she was any diiJerent to anyone else. She had fair hair, rather suspicious looking fair hair. There were traces of her former beauty still visible in those highly rouged cheeks. My attention was taken from the member by the speaker, who had Ijegun his praising speech on belialf of this noteworthy woman. He spoke of her long interest in yacht clubs. How, as far back as 1923 she had loved to at- tend the yacht club near her home. This first club was the Royal St. Law- rence Yacht Club in Montreal, Que. She had become so infatuated by clubs that she desired nothing else before them. He said a gTeat deal more; but I can- not take up your time to relate it all to you now. When the speaker had finished and presented the Life Membership, of course this wonderful woman had to address us. As she came forward I seemed to see something familiar about her walk. I tried to think where I had seen her be- fore. She had been speaking quite a while when she said Ab-so-lute-ly, my dear friends, this is the ' greatest pleas- ure I have ever had thrust upon me. Then I remembered, it was my old

Page 20 text:

18 VOX (M)LLE(Ul rormation. Such dissipation of EugHsh had never been indulged in by Edna since her youth, and do you know the Maggie look quite vanished, and the dear soul warmed up ; and what a time we had recalling experiences. She really became almost amiable. Hers had been a hard lot. It seemed that she, at the close of her graduation year had quite set her heart, with mat- rimonial intent, on a certain unrespon- sive individual of whom I have the faintest recollections. Finally, in des- pair at his indifference, she bethought her of her old ambition of becoming a nurse, and straightway began her train- ing. I was about to accuse her with utter lack of persistence in her matrimonial intentions when a din arose in the hall, indicative of excited girls. Immediate- ly the stern expression returned to Edna ' s face, and out she flew in a rage — an exaggerated replica of the Ed- die of ' 23 (I recalled that she had never been able to endure noise), I mn-er saw h?r again. While I was impatiently awaiting her return to the room the taxi arrived, but as I passed down the hall I made enquiry of one of the girls who informed me in awe- stricken tones that th nurse had shut herself in her own room, as was lier custom frequently, — especially on Sun- day afternoons. She said that if I were to look up to a certain room from the outside of the building I should se? the nur.se, chin in hand, gazing stonily, vacantly, into space. Once, in explanation of this strange behaviour, the nurse had mumbled, in- coherently, that she did not enjoy watching the squirrels and Bunnies frisking about the lawn; and signifi- cantly tapping her head with forefin- ger, the girl hurried along. Then it was I knew that Nurse Bas- sett was re-living her past, and that the disappointment could never be healed. I waved farewell from the taxi as I de- parted, but there was no response. Evi- dently she was entirely imconscious of her present surroundings. Sadly I returned home, soliloquizing ' Tis true; ' tis true, ' tis pity and pity ' tis, ' tis true. Marion Richardson Even before my husband and I had reached Africa we heard of the fam- ous Flappity, woidd champion pan- cake flipper and it w as with great an- ticipation that we looked forward to encountering this noted person, who, besides her great art in flipping pan- cakes was a great beauty and a con- firmed favourite with the men, many of whom threw their fortunes at her feet. It w as rumoured that her age was un- certain and it really was wonderful how she retained her youthful beauty. It was said she flipped as many as 47 pan-cakes a minute without so much as damaging one — was not this really an art worthy of great note? So it was with great anticipation that we looked forward to meeting this renowned per- son in our journey through Africa, and thereby vei ' ify the .statements we have heard. ( 11 reaching Africa we found that the papers were full of her wonderful achievements and her name was on ev- ery tongue. Ilowever, it was for sever- al days that v e were able to get so much as a glimpse of her on account of the perpetual crowd that invaded the region of her famous pancake estate. But when we d ' d see her — when we act- ually saw the pancakes emerging skill- fully from the flipper at an unbelieve- able sp3ed, rush into the air and return from the ordeal unscathed, we knew that all the praise we had heard of her was ju.stified. Finally she lifted her drooping eyes from her all-absorbing work and looked over the throng be- fore her. She instantly singled out my husband from the crowd and allowed her eyes to rest on him affectionately. I did not blame her altogether, he was a handsome man. Of course he ignored

Page 22 text:

20 VOX COLLEGII school chum, Lillian Sparling-. T could hardly get to her soon enough. After she had stared at me for fully two minutes she recognized me. While chatting to her, two little gii ' ls came running up to her said said Mother, Papa Frank is getting rather impatient waiting. I asked her the little girls ' names. She answered The older one is Gwendoline and the young- er name is Mabel. She asked me to go home with her, which of course I did. We enjoyed the time to -ether ag-ain. She spoke of the good old day.s at O.L.C. and of how we had enjoyed them. Evelyn Symon One day in the year 1927 I was very Inisy shopping in Batons. I had to make a hurr ed luncheon and decided to go to Child ' s. When the girl came 1o take my order T thought I recog- nized her face. When she returned T spoke to her and found her to be Ev- elyn Symon. my old College friend. We talked for some time about our College life and of our experiences since leav- ing school. She said that she had been clerking in Simpson ' s for several years and had just secured her new position. This post had always had a certain at- traction for her as she loved to work in a kitchen. Even the making of pan- cakes and hash interested her. In a few minutes she was called to wait upon another table. I was very pleased to have spoken for those few moments to my old chum. I hope she is able to keep her pleasing and busy position. Marg-aret McNab In 1947 I happened to be spending a few days at the Watt Hotel in Hamil- ton. As this hotel had been recom- mended to me for its excellent meals, I was exceedingly anxious to go into the dining-room. While 1 was waiting for the first course I noticed many delicious des- serts on the menu Init what appealed to me the most was the banana pie. After having ordered and tasted the pie, 1 thought to myself, Where have I tasted such wonderful banana pie be- fore? Then my curiosity was aroused to find out who the cook was because 1 thought no one could excel in this, like a class-mate 1 once had at O.L.C. I called the head waiter and asked him the name of the cook. He blushed with pleasure and bowing to m? said, Zee luime of zee cook most exceelunt am Maggie McNab. I exclaimed witli surprise, How long has she been here? I til ink she is an old school friend of min Then I asked if she would be allowed to come to my room. That even ' ng a rap sounded on my door and upon opening it, sonieone in a sweet voice asked if T had sent for her. Oh! Yes! Are you the cook? Why! M-a-r-g-a-r-e-t ! How you have chang- ed! Sh came into my room and we chat- ted about old times and Margaret told of her experiences after she left O.L.C. She had tried several times as a steno- grapher in offices but decided she would do better by going as a cook in a hotel. This was my last day at the hotel, so Margaret and I said farewell ; then we both prom-sed to kep in touch with each other by writing. Winifred Hambly It was the first time I had attended a meeting of the board of directors of that large orphanage in New York. After the meeting the members were shown through the building on a tour of inspection. We were first conducted to the office of the matron and dieti- tian. Upon entering, to my great sur- prise, who should I see but my old class-mate, Winifred Hambly. I decided that my identity should re- main unknown, for the time being at least. After the necessary formalities, she offered to accompany us ; and throughout the tour I watched her in- tently. She was a stout motherly