University of Toronto Schools - Twig Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

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THE TWIG Recollections The Twig is delighted to present the following Recollections contributed by early graduates of the University Schools. first comes Professor B. Brebner, of Columbia University. Somewhere among my papers is the first fee receipt issued at the University Schools, which I received because l had bagged the back seat by the window in the Old Fifth Form and Mr. Bolitho began his collections there. Our form was the rowdy top of the rowdy first year of the school. lt seemed as if every boy who had been in trouble at other schools had entered U.T.S. We in the Fifth should have been an example of up- rightness, but were not. We collected keys which let us wander around the bowels of the building and which explained the famous occasion when limburger on the air-con- ditioning pipes almost emptied the school. We published a most scurrilous paper called Scoop, and shoved it under class-room doors until Jock Carlisle's shrewd guess as to the authorship frightened us into giving it up. The contrast between pupils and masters was too great to last. The original staff of U.T.S, was composed of the most brilliant teachers in the province, and they gradually licked us into shape. The Boss CI-I. Crawford, infected us with his love of Horace and of good food and drink. His namesake T. Crawford, made mathe- matics seem an exciting kind of mental gymnastics. Mr. Stevenson somehow con- nected literature with life, and Mr. Fer- guson almost succeeded in making us sing French and German songs. l myself owe more to lVlr. Macpherson than to any- one else. He won me from loathing history to enioving it enough to try to excel in it on the scholarship examinations. in suite of the fact that there was no scholarship given in history in those dave. Perhaps that is whv. after two years of Classics at Varsity and four years in the army, when 1 forgot every- thing l had learned, l turned back to history at Oxford in 1919 and tumbled into the pro- fession of teaching it, first at Toronto, and for the past ten years at New York. Since l teach Canadian history, and have always been busy at research in it, l spend a good deal of time in Canada. Some of my old masters have died, and a large number of my own generation were killed during the war. But every now and then I run across some one who remembers the mix- ture of hilarity and true education at U.T.S. in I9l0-1913, and we savour it together. l hope the tradition goes on. Now we present Mr. John Porter-Red Porter to hockey fans from Halifax to Van- couver. Mr. Porter is now in the advertis- ing department of the Robert Simpson Co. Mr. Workman seems destined to enter my life asking questions. Seventeen years ago, he asked me eight questions on a geometry exam, but, as I couldn't answer any of them, l received zero. Seventeen days ago, Mr. Workman asked me, along with a number of other Hold timers, to recall some memories of school days on Bloor west. Unfortunately, l recall absolutely nothing of geometry, but l do recall, with a feeling bordering on acute nostalgia: The succulence of the hot roast beef sand- wiches in the first cafeteria. The standing wager of Paul lVlcVicker to drink six bottles of pop-one bottle per swallow. McVicker always won. The stakes were the price of the pop. The great heights of verbiage scaled in the oratorical contest between John Marsh and Herb lrwin in the old Assembly Halt Candy Day in old 3A.

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THE TWIG Macpherson, who as a member of the original staff was an inspiring teacher of History, and later, lecturer in the College of Education. Each of these made notable contributions to the success of the Schools. We mourn, too, the passing of a number of our graduates who were taken on the threshold of useful and honourable careers. Among these we recall Allan Crawford, the youthful but heroic leader of that ill-fated expedition to Wrangel lslandg Maurice Cody and George Lucas, who each gave his life in the effort to save anotherg William Brebner and jack Hendry who, under strangely similar circumstances, contracted fatal illness while engaged in medical research: John Copp, whose tragic passing two years ago shocked the whole province. Splendid lads, all of them. Twenty-five years have passed into his- tory-years crowded with incident and blessed with achievement. ln the beginning an experiment, the University of Toronto Schools have proved worthy of the honour- able name they bear and have fulfilled the prophecy implied in Headmaster Crawfords happy adaptation of the motto Velut Abror aevon of the University of Toronto. in the motto of these Schools, Velut Arbor. ita Ramusf' J.G.W. ,JR Sq ' ,ut 'Q Klembers of the original stall who are still associated with the Schools: Front row: Klr. Irwin, Professors Ferguson, Cornish, Carlisle, Coombs. Back row: Klessrs. Scarrow, lVorl-Lman, Bramfitt, Grainger.

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THE T WIC The terriffic excitement occasioned by lVlugsy Calvert's motorcycles. The cross country run in High Park- without the benefit of The cadet uniform training. with the moth holes. Mr. lVlurch singing Die Lorelei during the IA German class. Mr. Lougheed's machine gun delivery when writing on the blackboard. The belief that Mr. Carlisle had inside info on the exam papers and that only a strict moral code prevented him from divulging it. The two base hits that smashed the win- dows of IB. The treacherous holes in the south hand- ball court. Mr. Bramfitt achieving high C. Next comes Mr. E.. B. fTed.D McPherson. another of the originals on the rolls of U.T.S. Mr, McPherson is now a successful lawyer. He has always taken the keenest interest in the success of the Schools, and in the achievements of its boys. He recalls .... The opening of the School and the first assembly in September, l9l0, in the old Hall, then at the south-westerly corner of the original main building, presided over by the first Headmaster, Professor H. Crawford, and supported by the original staff. The first allotment of seats in the original class of Tommy Porter and being given a front seat and later becoming adept at dodging chalk. Tommy's effective methods of teach- ing: his lectures and the class being kept in and fed candy. The later School assembly when Velut arbor ita ramus was first given by the Head. The Handball Courts and dozens of bicycles in the old racks at the far corner of the Schoolyard. The defence of the old ash heap be- hind the School at recess time. Major Bramfitt and the Cadet Corps and in particular the Annual Garrison Church 21 Service at Massey Hall when the Engineers upset the collection plate and kept most of the proceeds. Curly Carroll and the indoor Baseball diamond. Dud Garrett and the Football field at the east end of the School. The old Hockey rink and Hughie Fox. The opening of the Royal Ontario Museum by the Duke of Connaught with the Cadets as Guard of Honour. The lady students during the hour after lunch. Freddie Coombs and the lacrosse days. The Art Room and Kemerer vs. Perry. The Latin stories of Jock Carlisle, which made Latin easier. Robt. Scott is one of the few Old Boys that are entitled to the prefix Rev. Bob was one of the originals and specialized in Clas- sics. He is now on the staff of the United Theological College in Montreal. He has always retained a keen interest in U.T.S. affairs. lt is all very well to be an Old Boy until someone cruelly suggests that the accent has shifted from the noun to the adjective. Johnnie Worknian has given me the shock of my life, and l can upbraid him from the safe distance of Montreal. But if we niet face to face, l should be very meek, and call him 'Sir', which shows that the accent is still on the noun after all. To recall the day of the opening cere- mony at U.T.S., in that old Noahis Ark that did duty for an Assembly Hall in my time. is to realize that twenty-five years is not long. The Head calling us to order for the first time fin a voice like the Last Trumplt my father's opening prayerg Tommy Por- ter's silver head among those on the plat- form, one familiar sight in strange surround- ings to those who had come from the Model School: a hall-full of new boys taking stock of each other and of this new place called U.T.S. Well. the Rranch, like the Tree, has grown since then!