Speaker: Wasn't a wasn't a big deal, they didn't make as big a deal back then for grade-twelve graduation, wasn't like grade-thirteen, and I did. Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: I didn't- I did the ah five-year course but I never did thirteen. Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: I just did the five-year course up until grade-twelve. Interviewer: Oh. So then you were part- so you didn't go to the grade-thirteen graduation? Speaker: No. Interviewer: Oh.

Speaker: (inc) grade-twelve grad. We didn't even get cap-and-gown (laughs). Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: Which they have at daycare now, but anyway (laughs). Speaker: Back then you had to have thirteen. Interviewer: Wow. Speaker: You had to- in Kirkland-Lake, if you weren't taking your O-S-S...G-H-D with the H for "Honours" you didn't get it (laughs). Interviewer: Oh no- oh! Speaker: They only did it for grade-thirteen. I know, King-George does it, they they do it now for grade-eight and you're staying in the same school (laughs). Cap-and-gown and you're staying in the same school, what (laughs)?

Speaker: Grade-seven and eight. And then of-course K-L-C-V-I grade-nine through thirteen. Interviewer: Hm. How was th-- Speaker: Yeah. Interviewer: That was when they had thirteen. Speaker: When they gra-- when they had grade-thirteen, yup. Interviewer: Ah.

Interviewer: Okay. Now so what- you said earlier that you originally were going to go into marine biology. What changed your mind? Speaker: Um let's see in grade thirteen I was sick a lot and I blew a lot of my grade thirteen credits so going off the Guelph wasn't going to happen. Interviewer: Ah, okay. Speaker: So I applied to one college and ah got in. 'Cause I was actually in the hospital when they were- are- you-know all your forms are due.

My sister had come over here in grade-eleven and twelve and boarded to finish her eleven and twelve and then she went to Lindsey for grade-thirteen.

011> Or you could wade out, you could wade down through the snow and get on it you-know? And then when summer came, we- we'd sometimes- that's the school I went to. Um- isn't that the Wilberforce-school? Interviewer: Wil-- Wilberforce-Consolidated-Continuation-School. Speaker: Yup, went right up to grade-thirteen at one time. Interviewer: Wow. Speaker: I went to ten there. And then I was part of the- the ah f-- but I was going into grade-eleven. I was fortunate- I was the youngest in my family. My sister had come over here in grade-eleven and twelve and boarded to

Interviewer: So what have you- so you finished high-school and then where did you go to teacher's college then? Speaker: It was the last year, they called it normal-school and I went to Peterborough and ah boarded there for the year. If you had grade-thirteen, like your full c-- full year, you went one year to- to normal-school. And that was the year they changed their mind and started c-- the next year it was called teacher's-college. Fifty-two, fifty-three was the last year it was called normal-school.

So I asked my husband if I could go back to grade-thirteen and go get- become a teacher. So- he decided he would too. So we both came up here- back up to high-school. We were the first married couple to be accepted. 'Cause you had to get special permission from the school board.

Speaker: And then of course when I went to high-school and I took Latin, if I had that, I would have spelled it correctly of course. Interviewer: Mm. Speaker: Um, yeah in high-school I took Latin and French right through to grade-thirteen, which was ah, a- a really good thing.

It was a good school and a wonderful principal that I had and my wife ah, was a better student than me, she went to grade-thirteen there and ah, went to teachers college and as in those days you could teach with one year teacher's college but she finished ah, a Bachelor-of-Arts by the time she was forty.

... yeah it was a good school. My sisters went there too, my sisters went to grade-thirteen in the old high-school because they were gone before it was closed.

Yeah, summer of sixty-eight, I graduated class of sixty-nine, seventy from high-school, grade thirteen. From Brock-High-School. Five years there.

Speaker: Um high-schools- there was people up here north of Argyle that jumped on the train and- and went to ah Uxbridge high-school. Interviewer: Oh okay. Speaker: Because they had a grade-thirteen. Interviewer: Ah. Speaker: And- and some of them didn't.

Speaker: ... there were so many good teachers and in fact, I'll tell you, one of my teachers that taught me in grades one, two and three, also went to Almonte on the train with me that have- when I was going to the grade-thirteen. Interviewer: Oh, to Almonte-Industry-High-School, I-guess. Speaker: Yes. Because she had to improve her standing as a- she had- had only a second class and she wanted a first class.

Interviewer: So as you moved on out of high-school, where did you u-- what was the first thing you did? Speaker: I really didn't know what I was going to do, I was going to go back and do grade-thirteen and I didn't because my uncle phoned and they were hiring firemen- Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: On the railroad and I hadn't even thought about it but anyway that's where I ended up for five-and-a-half years, fireman on the railway.

So I ended up, uh, as a guidance counsellor for an elementary- in an elementary school. I've taught everything from grade one to grade thirteen.

Speaker: Got my education up to standard. Grade-twelve and three subjects of grade-thirteen I believe. Interviewer: Wow. (Laughs) Speaker: Ah, two English and a History I believe. Interviewer: A rehab school, I've never heard of that. Speaker: Rehabilitation after the war.

Speaker: We boarded in town. We got our own meals, Jill and I. She- she repeated some of grade-thirteen to up her marks. So she was there- I was there with her one year and we boarded and took food in and ah-

Speaker: Um I was in the drama club in grade-thirteen but it wasn't the school drama club it was the ah- the Almonte-Town-Drama-Club. Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: That- that went a long way toward getting me out of my shyness as well.

... -- ah twe-- grades twelve and thirteen. Um 'cause we were learning things like constitutions which is not what you want to teach teenagers but we had to memorize the American constitution and the Canadian ah British-North-America-Act. And there'd always be a comparison and contrast question on the grade-thirteen exam. So you knew it was coming so you memorized this con-- that was terrible way to learn history. So I said never again and then I became interested in a local subject.