Advertisement
Published: August 27th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Class of '68
Just because there's snow on the roof doesn't mean the fire's gone out! So said a xenophobic old Englishman in a forty-year-old movie about an international airplane race from London to Paris. I could paraphrase the old gaffer by saying “the trouble with 40th high school reunions is that they attract too many old people”. So it was at my reunion, held last weekend in Surrey (a city very near Vancouver). The only trouble is, I was one of them!
“Vancouver” sounds so much nicer in Chinese—“Weng Ge Wa”. I don’t know pinyin very well, never having formally studied Mandarin, so there you have it.
The relationship between classmates is very different in Canada from the way it is in Taiwan. Over there, in my “other home”, classmates usually remain friends for life—except I suppose for the ones you don’t like. In Canada, it is more common for people to lose touch right after graduation—this being such a big country might have something to do with it.
When my classmates and I graduated in 1968, our school (John Oliver High School in Vancouver), was the largest secondary school in Canada. We received a good education there, as evidenced by the fact that per capita “JO” sent more students on to
Jim should have been a professional comedian.
His material is away better than mine. He once said, "To make a fishing net, cut the holes out of doughnuts and tie them together with string." post-secondary education than any other high school in British Columbia.
Taiwanese people generally meet for social gatherings in restaurants as opposed to people’s homes, but in Canada we use our homes for that purpose. Our reunion was at a fellow’s house. There was a lovely garden. South Surrey is very close to the American border, and it is very pleasant and semi-rural around there. We had a catered barbecue (employees did the cooking for us), and the activity was “BYOB”. This means “bring your own bottle” but when we were too young to drink we used to pretend it was “bring your own babe”. How mature and sophisticated we were, even at the tender age of our teen years!
For the most part, time has been kind to us. I was shocked that no less than nine of my classmates have already died.
My old neighbourhood in Vancouver was very stable when I was a kid. In fact, I graduated from high school with people I started elementary school with, and grade one is so far back that it’s scary.
It is said that the definition of “school reunion” is “the opportunity to relive your teenage
A Gaggle of Old Friends
It was good to see each other again. insecurities", but there was none of that.
”Mercy, some of the memories my reunion brought back to me! One of my earliest memories of school was Mrs. Toppings (my Grade One Teacher), praising me for how neatly I could write “see” and asking me to write it on the board. I couldn’t write on a vertical surface, and I still remember sobbing as my moment of triumph turned to disaster.
I remember studying French for the first time in Grade 8—my first year at John Oliver—and how our jaws dropped when Mrs. Estrin came out with what was to us a bunch of mumbo-jumbo. I remember having her for English 8 as well. Mrs. Estrin gave us Greek Myths to study, including one about a hero who escaped from his captors by defeating their king in a boxing match. When Mrs. Estrin asked Mark Andrews to summarize the myth, he simply said “the king got his head kicked in”—to our amusement and to Mrs. Estrin’s chagrin.
By the way, we had separate classes for boys and girls in grade 8, the rationale being that the boys weren’t mature enough to deal with girls in the classroom. Bra-snapping
Elaine was a gifted scholar those years ago.
I went to school with her from the time we were little children until we graduated from high school. and armpit farts aside, whatever gave our teachers the impression that we were immature?
I remember having Mrs. Olds for English in grade 11, and remarking to Judy Miller on one occasion “Do you believe this crap she makes us read?” Yet, I reread all of her assigned books and short stories as an adult, and thoroughly enjoyed them.
I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Nancy Greene, because in Grade 11 we got the day off school when she won a gold medal for Canada in the Winter Olympics. For the rest of the Olympics, I sat in front of the TV urging on our Canadians with exhortations such as “Get the lead out, you tub of lard! I’ve got a math test tomorrow!”
Now, here we are, all these years later. We have all had our share of joy and sorrow in forty years but, looking back, what do we really have to complain about?
Many of us want to have another reunion in a few years. We never know what life is going to dish up.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.099s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 16; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0601s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb
elaine.knight
non-member comment
reunion
Hi Doug: The gifted scholar has lost my message in the computer twice now. I didn't expect to see myself in your blog- especially the gifted part. It makes up for being called one of the"old people" at the 40th. Is there any way that I can get an e-mail copy of all the photos in this blog? I am amazed at your memory of high school and even elementary school stuff. I think you are the gifted one. I had long since forgotten teachers' names and things that were said in classes. I had no idea that I had a higher mark (by 1) on the social studies test or that it had bothered you all these years. waiting for your next blog Elaine