Westdale Secondary School - Le Raconteur Yearbook (Hamilton, Ontario Canada)

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AL I By Peter F. llenderso HEX school opened last Fall. we found that many of our friends had left us. Some were working, some were at home, but the majority were continuing their studies at universities. XYe sin- cerely hope that these people may continue to enjoy great success and prosperity during the coming years. Listed here are the various places to which our friends and former school-mates have gone. As usual, McMaster has claimed the greatest portion of our students. Those attending are: Mary Boutilier, Norah llrown, Elizabeth Chil- man, Elizabeth Chubbuck, Eric Crowther, McCon- nell Davis, Frank Dent, AYilliam Doherty, XYilliam Duncan, Mary Eager, Velma Shaver and Henry Sprague, stars of last year's lladminton team, ,Iohn M. Elliot, -loyce Ford-Smith, XYilfred Ginsberg, Lloyd Haines, Paul johns, Margaret Johnston, whose home is now in Spain, Alex. McKay, Eliza- beth Morwick, .lohn A. Oates, Mary Syme, Dorothy Yan Sickle, ,lean Morley, Inez XVarrender, Russell XYarren. David Moodie, Marguerite Young and Charles Peebles. Those accepted by Queens are: lien Finkelstein, Haig Leckie, Norm. Clark, Graham Eby. Ed. lloodless, hlohn XYilson, Gord. Baxter and XYilliam Looselev. Don Manson, -lack XYhiteside, Carson McGowan and Phil Ambrose are attending Toronto Univer- sity. Their sterling work here is proof that they will suceed in Toronto. XYith aspirations of becoming a sojer boy. George XX'ard is at Royal Military College, Kingston. At Business College are the following: lleryl Baines. Lois Crickmore, XYilliam llaslam, ,lack Heritage, Charles Scott. and ,lames Morrow. Normal School has picked up Isabel Greenhill, Betty McKerracker. and Hildred XValsh. Hoping to become housewives, dietitians and such, four fair damsels, namely, Mary Louise Har- rison, Mary Cattell, Dorothy Ketchen and Eleanor Magee, have decided to broaden their epicurean ideals at Macdonald Hall. lVe wish you the best of luck, girls! 26 A great many of last year's graduates are taking special Grad. courses at XVestdale Tech., while others are in Special Commercial. Those taking special Grad. course are: Kay Clark, George Drago- mautz, Richard Gill, Victor Harrison, Gord. Hazell. Tom Kernaghan, Frank Kirk, Webster MacFar- land, Matthew McPherson, blames Provias, 'loe Rosart, Douglas Sager, Mlilliam Szedor, Albert Young and Russ. Brown. In Commercial Special are: Ruth Abbott, Ettie Balloch. Freda Cooley, .lohn Greenaway, XVilhel- mina Koster, Edith Leith, Dorothy Liss, Helen Smith, Evelyn Swanborough, Constance Count, Grace Meiler, Audrey Jones, Mary Carrington, Helen Hausen, john Van Sickle, Pearl Chaunce. Richard Elstone, Mary Bilton and 'Io Spence. Others at school here are: Norma Crickmore. Arthur Strauch, Marion Thornton, Bert Duncan, lYill MacPherson and Lewis Smart. Last year's students at home are: Ivy Blain, Lawrence Chubb, Erma Hamilton, C. Murray, Lorine XVallace, Lloyd Gapes, Albert Baker, Mary Mulholland, Michael Romanoff, Thelma Adams, Myrtle Hoth, Naomi Knapp, Ross Lony, Irene Richardson, Michael Sansone, Margaret Thirston and Frances Thomp- son. Some of our students have taken positions in the Mcstinghouse factory. These include: Margaret Andrews. Emlyn James, Kathleen Slack, Mar- guerite Swarts, and Florence Bradley. Sam Agro is playing in an orchestra. Tom .Andrews is a clerk in Duff's store. Those who have secured positions in offices are: Mary Elliot, john Hill, Helen Mulholland, Mar- garet Vichett, Norma Santos, Eleanor Smith, Norman Wilson and Austen Akleatherley. Mary Fitzpatrick is doing secretarial work: Ava .Iannett and Ida Omerod are at the Bell Telephone. Monica McCarthy is in the Remington Rand fac- tory. Nettie Morton is with McDonald's Printing Co. .lean XYilcox is married, we wish her happi- ness. Stanley Brezicki is a truck driver, and Edward Burden is a shipping clerk at Eatonls. Leslie Clark has gone in for farm work. Vincent Elliot is sell- fContinued on Page 591

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SO ETYl.Daphne Etherington - Rlorna Bari-layl Variety is the Spire of Life. TERM without social doings would be like bread without butter, and who likes that? Nobody at VYestdalel Hence dances and other entertainments which add zest and variety to our school life. The year is not yet over, but already the follow- ing events have lightened and brightened the burden and gloom of pursuits academical: THE CAST DANCE First of the events since last year's Le Racon- teur went to press was the Cast Dance, held in the boys' gym for the cast of the Variety Show, mem- bers of the orchestra and magazine staff. Everyone deserved the good time they had after their excel- lent performances, and who wouldn't have a good time at a school dance with Fred Sweeney and his orchestra providing the music! THE EASTER TEA DANCE lt just wouldn't seem right if each term didn't close with a Tea Dance, and so, at Easter, the last social event until the Fall was held. Vvith music provided by Freddie Arthur and his orchestra, the boys' gym was again the scene of this happy event. A record crowd turned out to celebrate the hnish of their exams and the beginning of the Easter holidays. COMMENCEMENT The Annual Commencement took place in the Auditorium on Friday, November 15. Prizes and other awards were presented in the presence of all parents and friends who cared to attend-and, needless to say, the hall was filled. Speeches of various kinds were made, and medals awarded to those gifted students among our numbers. Gradu- ates received diplomas on their farewell evening at VVestdale, and each member of our hockey team received a W. Many of the teachers, and well- known Hamilton men and women connected with the Board of Education were on the platform, and the school orchestra, as is its custom, provided an excellent program of music. THE- CHRISTMAS TEA DANCE NVith the exams over and Christmas just around the corner, what could have been a better send-off for the holidays than a tea dance! The Stlhiul Spirit came down to earth for once, and a large crowd, attracted by the rhythm of llal lladlieldl orchestra, was in attendance. .Xnd so the old year passed into the new, and the first social event of lfliltj took place in -lanuary. This was the .Xnnual ,Xt-liome. THE ANNUAL AT-HOME Friday night, .lanuary 231, was the date of the .Xnnual .Xt-Honie, held in the boys' gym, which was brightly decorated for the occasion in the school colours. llal lladheld's orchestra again provided the music. Several of the teachers and their wives graciously acted as patrons and patronesscs, and we're sure they enjoyed the dance as much as the students. A short floor show was presented during the intermission, and then the dancing continued till everyone regretfully had to say Good-night at the end of another successful .-Xnnual .Xt-lioine. THE OLD BOYS' AT-HOME On Thursday. February lil, the Brant lnn was the scene of the fourth Annual .Xt-llome uf the XYestdale Old lioys' .-Xssociation. Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Simpson, Mr. and Mrs. K. F. Ettinger, Mr. and Mrs. gl. R. Fee, Mr. and Klrs. ll. O. Klc.Xndrew and Mr. and Mrs. R. Xfkalker acted as patrons and patronesses. The music was supplied by Bert Niosi and his orchestra, and the Inn was tastefully decorated for the occasion. The committee, Mc- Culloch, Booth, Harlatt, Turnbull and Hedley, must be congratulated on their excellent manage- ment ofthe affair, which was voted a huge success. THE OLD GIRLS' AT-HOME Last on our list of social doings was the XYest- dale Old Girls' Dance at Roberts' Cabaret on March 5, with music by Nick Stout and his orchestra. Mr. and Mrs. Simpson, Mr. and Mrs. Bates and Klr. and Mrs. Miller represented the teachers. and an excel- lent door show was provided under the guidance of Doreen Groom. Annabelle Smye, Norma XYake- ham, Peggy Sawdon, Jeanette Gray, Clara Dell and Doreen Groom made up the committee which arranged the affair, and to these much credit is due for the success of the dance, which was the second At-Home of this comparatively new organization. 25 l A

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MUIIERN S The French of Quebec By F. G. Millar, B.A., B.Paed. T IS a commonly accepted notion that the French spoken by our fellow-Canadians of French origin is a corrupt habitant patois, very different from Parisian French, and that, if one wishes to learn French, he should by no means take the easy and inexpensive method of sojourning for a time in our sister province. Quebec French does differ from Parisian French: but then so does Toronto English differ from Oxford English, and for similar reasons. The people of Quebec were completely cut off from France from the time of the Conquest up to almost the end of the ninteenth century. Even since that time, a comparatively small number of French-Canadians have had any contact with the mother country. It is, therefore, quite understandable that some dif- ferences in speech have developed in more than two hundred years of separation. The French-Canadians, to begin with, were of two classes: the clergy, army officers and civil officials who spoke the court language of the seven- teenth century, and the habitants, speaking a com- posite of the dialects, but mainly the Norman speech of the race of sailors and farmers or Nor- mandy and Brittany. The crucible of time fused these elements into a speech hardly distinguishable from the French of the classical period interlarded with modes of speech and turns of expression derived from the people of the northwest coast of France. You may call this a patois, if you like, but it is of high descent. The main peculiarities of this speech have been carefully studied and accounted for historically by a number of competent students. The Societe du Parler Francais au Canada has collected and pub- lished in its journal very complete vocabularies of French-Canadian words. Mr. Adjutor Rivard, author of Chez Nous and other fascinating essays on French Canada, wrote a small book entitled La Langue Francais au Canada, which sets forth the main pecularities of Canadian French. A few of the characteristic differences may be of interest to readers of this magazine. The first and most characteristic difference is the archaic pro- nunciation of the oi in moi, toi, soir, which is sounded moe, toe, soerf' Louis XIX' prob- ably said L'etat c'est moe. lt is easy to prove by the rhymes in the poetry of this epoch that the above was the current pronunciation. The oui of the afiirmative and of Louis was sounded none and Lorie, and so on. :Xt first these sounds are very confusing to one who expects the sounds of Parisian French, and they have been one of the main causes why visitors have thought Canadian French a miserable patois. They are merely archaisms no worse than the New England gotten. The vowel is generally given the open sound, as in English bit, instead of the closed sound, ai is often sounded like the a of English pat in the ending of the imperfect and conditional tense and elsewhere and the and e are given the same sound. Another peculiarity is the sounding of the final consonant in places where it is silent in modern French. Proper names like Amyot, Pouliot, .loliet sound the t, lVords like droit, froid. are pronounced drct, fret fnote the voiceless t sound for the final Md in both singular and plural. It is quite natural that a race of sea-rovers like the Normans and Bretons should retain nautical phrases even after they had swallowed the anchor and set up on shore as farmers, traders and coureurs de bois. So a fall of snow is une bordee fbroadsidel de neigef' To my surprise I was once ordered by a friend: .Xmarrez fmoorl le chevalln I ani told that marrer and demarrern are used of automobiles too! Quaint arcliaisms abound: icite for ici, itou for aussi. Some small English boys in a certain school were asked by the French master if they could speak French. Nearly all held up their hands. One lad was slow but finally raised his hand with the words: Moe itou! Louis XIV would have understood him perfectly even if a modern Parisian would have been puzzled. The word patates fpotatoesl is universally used for the more modern Upommes de terref' Patates is a word about which many jokes have been made, and the car- CContinued on Page 611 27 P J