Interviewer: Do you remember your graduation? Speaker: No, I didn't graduate, I went- finished grade-thirteen- grade-twelve. Grade-eleven, I finished grade-eleven and then I went to work. Interviewer: Where did you go to work? Speaker: Ki-- (laughs) at the Be-- at the telephone office.

And he'd show my dad a postcard his son send him from Mexico- New-Mexico. And he says "Oh." He says, "Janet- Janet is saving postcards. Get your son to send some postcards." So I knew- I remember Jack from when- he was in grade-thirteen when I started grade nine and I knew him and ah he was a good-looking guy oh.

Speaker: Back then the drinking age was eighteen- Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: You-see so when we'd go to grade thirteen, so some people actually used to go the Princess-Hotel and play pool or-something at lunch then go back to school (laughs) in the afternoon, right? Like- but that was normal.

And grad um- we had two grads 'cause we had grade-twelve and grade-thirteen. So my grade-twelve graduation um I graduated and then my grade-thirteen graduation, Parker was- was um graduating grade-twelve so we kind-of graduated together that year 'cause it was at the same time. Interviewer: Mm-hm. Speaker: But- so it's kind-of weird 'cause you guys just go once. It makes sense having one graduation.

Speaker: Because people would- if you were in the um applied stream, you wouldn't go- you ha-- you'd graduate grade-twelve and go to college. Interviewer 2: Mm-hm. Speaker: So if you're going to go to University you had to go to grade thirteen. So it's just like your O-A-Cs. Interviewer 2: Mm-hm. Speaker: That's- they're not even called O-A-Cs they're like- Interviewer 1: It was just grade-thirteen. Speaker: Tr-- yeah. They're grade-twelve-U's now right? So we had to have O-A-Cs or grade-thirteen so. Interviewer 2: Hm. Speaker: You-know? So it's- grad was pretty much like yours. Long and (laughs) Interviewer 1: Long and sweaty? Speaker: Yeah exactly.

We all had to pass them so the people who were really strong in maths and sciences tutored me and I tutored them. And we did that- this group of kids, we hung out right through grade-thirteen and I laugh and I say to my friends who are through- went through engineering, "Yeah I got you through English." "Yeah we got you through- we got you through functions ah nevermi-" though it was so true, we just clicked.

But we um we- there was a room in the school when the-- if you took advanced calculus or advanced functions or advanced- they all took that stuff, I took just the plain old get-me-through-grade-thirteen-whatever-I-need, you-know? Um but we would sit around in this room and- and the teachers would come in and um hang out with us and- but we were always working after school on something or we played intramural sports.

Speaker: I don't think it was just up here, I think it was everywhere because there was a government program where you just- we had to go to grade-thirteen. You went to grade-thirteen and then you went one year of teachers'-college. No university. And then you were out teaching, but then you took your university while you're teaching. Interviewer: Wow. Speaker: There were outreach, their outreach programs.

Speaker: And it was- 'course it wasn't large, it wasn't a district high-school then, it was just a Liskeard and ah- so of course it wasn't that big. There were only um- see, in grade- well which would be grade thirteen when they had it- but we called it grade 5 and there were thirteen people in it- Interviewer 2: Oh. Speaker: And I always remember my French teacher. I just loved her.

Speaker: So there's grade-ten to thirteen. Four years I was there. Interviewer: And can you remember any ah events or things that happened during that time? Speaker: I could remember some naughty things we used to do. Interviewer: Oh! Tell me about that. Speaker: One of the older girls in grade thirteen had a boyfriend and his mother was a great friend of our matron. So when ah he'd find out what the-- they were doing, he'd let her know and she'd let us know and then we get friends in and we dance and we'd dance ...

Interviewer: Um, was it a different school that you went to for high-school? Speaker: Yes, I came to the high-school in New-Liskeard. Interviewer: Okay. Speaker: And I did the five years. Interviewer: Okay. Speaker: We had grade-thirteen back then, and then I went to teacher's-college in North-Bay for one-year and then I taught round about in New-Liskeard and um some country schools and ah I retired in nineteen-ninety.

He was not a great student, he didn't care. Not that he couldn't do it, he just didn't care. And ah in grade-thirteen, I think it was they let the kids go. If you want to be a mechanic, well, you go work, visit a garage for a day, if you want to be a teacher, we'll put you in a classroom. And so he went to the mining school and he come home he says, "I know what I want to do." And ah so he went to the mining school. In grade-twelve, the guidance counsellor told him there was no point in him taking grade-thirteen 'cause he was never going to pass but in the mining school, he graduated tops in his class, and he went to Michigan-Tech and graduated, got the Dean's Medal, tops in his class. So I have not thought too much about the guidance counsellor.

Speaker: ... when I was in grade-twelve ah we had a school in Hail-- high-school in Haileybury and Cobalt. And um, the idea was close one or the other and they decided instead they'd leave them both open and have one principal. Interviewer: Oh. Speaker: And ah, in my grade thirteen year, we were- in- in the first semester, we had all of our classes in Haileybury and the second semester we- all of us were in Cobalt ah to take advantage of the staff that were in both places.

Speaker: After university, I started work right away, here yeah. Interviewer: You came back. Speaker: Yeah, nineteen-eighty-three I- eighty-three there was a- um senior teacher on sabbatical. He had ah grade-thirteen Canadian history, American history, grade-twelve, ah- what was the grade-twelve? European history. Um, a grade-nine history, a grade-ten geography and a grade-thirteen sociology. Interviewer: Wow. Speaker: Baptism by fire.

I had a nice teacher, she had blonde hair, blue eyes, she was young. Probably twenty-one, twenty-two. 'Cause in those days you could go to grade-twelve, grade-thirteen and then go to one year teachers'-college in North-Bay.

Um, and then some of the older students just didn't like grade-nine students. They had grade-nine with grade-thirteen. And we'd have to pass them and we'd have these little briefcases (laughs).

Okay, that's- I think that's all for photographs. Oh, when I was in grade-thirteen we had to apply for- we were encouraged to apply for our social-insurance card.

Speaker: ... Kathy how many graduates would we have had out of high-school. S-- say grade twelve- Speaker 2: Um- Speaker: Eighty- Speaker 2: I would say- Speaker: Ninety? Speaker 2: Yeah probably. Speaker: And then grade thirteen would have been about fifty- Speaker 2: A little less, yeah. Speaker: So, you-know, th-- the high-school was still fairly packed like it wasn't like it was back in the fifties or sixties, but it was s-- still a busy place.

I-mean, you-know, the reality when I came out of high-school was there was not a lot of job opportunity around th-- this area because of the state the mines were in and that-sort-of-thing and of my grade thirteen graduating class. There's probably only about three or four people left in Kirkland, you-know, out of a sixty person graduating class, you-know, th-- the reality was everyone ended up in Ottawa or Kitchener or Toronto or-whatever 'cause that's where the jobs were then.

Interviewer: So they scrapped grade thirteen quite some time ago? Speaker: Um yeah they- they did it actually I don't know what year, but they got rid of grade thirteen a long time ago. Um (coughs) you have the option of going an extra year. Um I needed it just because of um how my grades went in certain classes but ah, ah yeah, no, it's optional for people to take it.