Agnes and I and our six-weeks-old son, Richard, first arrived in Canmore on August 24th, 1937. I had been appointed vice-principal of the Canmore School by the official trustee, David Sullivan.
After meeting the principal, Tom Baillie, and his wife, Frances, our next concern was to find accommodation for the family. Mr. Baillie had arranged with the former vice-principal, Norman Wade, who had taken an appointment in Medicine Hat, to rent us his home for $25 a month. The house had four rooms and was located on a two lot property across the street from the principal’s House.
For the last week in August, I was busy with Mr. Baillie preparing time tables and arranging textbooks for the high school as these books were supplied by the school board. The school staff consisted of Mr. Baillie, myself, M. Robins, K. Wallace, Edna Hill, Ada Wright and Eva Louhela. Agnes was busy settling down in our new home. In 1939, a new member, Doris Sheppard, was added to the staff. Some of the highlights of the school year were the annual school play, track meets in competition with Banff and at the provincial level. One year the high school staged an operetta, “Oh Doctor”. Doris Sheppard was the music and singing director and I was the Drama director. This one day we were in the staff room after school practising a dance to be performed. Some of the students were having a hard time doing the simple steps. After a thirty minute long practice some progress was being made so we told the students they could leave and to shut the staff room door on their way out. After they left I told Doris how simple the dance was and I asked her to do it with me. As I held her in my arms and we were doing the steps, the staff room door opened and there was Mr. Pearce, the school caretaker who quickly said, “Excuse me,” and left, shutting the door behind him. He had no sooner gone then away went Doris. Left alone, I put away the music player and other items we had used during the rehearsal and home I went. When I arrived home, Agnes was laughing her head off. Doris had come in to tell Agnes what had happened and to tell her that if the rumour got around town that I had her in my arms, Agnes could explain what happened. Oh! to be a teacher.
Perhaps the outstanding event of the year was the industrial tour which was held in May or June. A bus was hired and all of the high school students were taken to Calgary to visit radio stations, the zoo, bakeries, etc. and returned to Canmore in the early evening. On one occasion our last call before our return home was the Calgary Zoo. This year as we had all settled along the fence of the lion compound, I had chosen a spot in the centre of the line-up. The lions and tigers were sunning themselves by their cave. A tiger got up and slowly advanced toward the line-up. He was coming straight to where I was. When he reached the fence he looked at me, slowly turned around and generously sprayed my light grey trousers with his urine. Well, that brought a laugh from the students. We then went back to the bus and boarded it for the way home. Every fifteen to twenty minutes the whole bus load chanted, “Hold that tiger. Hold that tiger”. I’ll never forget that industrial Tour.
Dr. Gelfand arrived in Canmore shortly after our arrival and through one of his nurses, Eunice McKinnon, we got to know him and Jim Reid, a biologist; the three of them became good friends of ours and many pleasant evenings were spent at the LeBlanc home. Jim Reid had an extensive collection of minerals, fossils and crystals and he gave me many samples of them for a school display. It is through Jim Reid that I met Lawrence Grassi, who also had numerous biological samples that he gave to me for the school collection. A friendship soon developed between Lawrence and me. I had the luck to go on many excursions with Lawrence and spend many evenings watching his numerous pictures and slides.
In June, 1943, I accepted a teaching position in Edmonton and we returned to our place of birth with our children, Richard, Julien and Carmen. During our stay in the capital we returned to Canmore as often as feasible. While in Edmonton I taught at St. Joseph High School, the Extension Department of the University of Alberta. For ten years I taught French methods at the Nova Scotia School Teachers Summer School. Every year we would return to Canmore for a two-week vacation.
All of these years Agnes was busy as a loving mother, raising the children and working when she could as a saleslady for Eaton’s, Jack and Jill’s in the children’s department. During these years our family kept on growing and we have five children – Richard, Julien, Carmen, Margaret Ann and Marie Ellen, nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. We returned to Canmore to retire in 1983 and intend to spend our remaining years in the most beautiful city in the world, CANMORE.
Here Comes Charlie drama program
In Canmore Seniors at the Summit, ed. Canmore Seniors Association, 2000, p.162-163.
