Students, teachers and parents/guardians have hopefully settled into a routine over the past month. So now, I think, would be a good time to take a mind trip to back-to-school Flin Flon in the ’40s and ’50s.
The Flin Flon mine was booming. Literally and figuratively, there were kids galore (Baby Boom!) and new schools were being built to meet the demand.
As an Uptown Church Street kid, I attended Main School – built in 1932 and renamed McIssac School in 1952 – now long gone with the early 1950s addition to the Flin Flon General Hospital.
The school grounds have since been obliterated by the new emergency services addition.
Grade seven (1952) saw our gang head for Hapnot School on Hiawatha Avenue.
We moved to grade eight in the new Hudson School and then back to Hapnot for grades nine to 12.
Hapnot and Hudson School, Ross Lake School on Adams Street, Birchview School on Green and Whitney streets, the original Willowvale School – now the site of École McIsaac School – a portion of Parkdale School (now Many Faces) and Channing School (Yes, there was a small school in Channing!) all went under the wrecker’s ball.
Ruth Betts School on Terrace Avenue still stands, having been built following the destruction of the original Terrace School by fire.
The school system was one of the best in
the province, with many well-trained and
competent teachers.
Bill Hamilton, whose father was superintendent of the Flin Flon School Division from 1941 to 1965, says his father was authorized to offer salary premiums to prospective teacher candidates.
This, of course, was a means of encouraging the teachers to move to – and remain at – this then-isolated location.
“Given the community focus of HBM&S at that time, I would assume that the school board had sufficient funds to enable them to attract quality teachers,” Bill said. “Dad used to talk about it. They [HBM&S] were very active with the school board in doing things like the engineering design for new schools, supporting shops programs, scholarships and providing summer work for university students.”
Nowadays I witness the annual scramble for school supplies as parents wander the box stores dazedly attempting to gather up the long list of required materials.
It was not so much of a hassle in my school days. My childhood recollection is that a list of needed supplies would be provided a few days before school. There would be a bit of a mob scene at the stores – Burkett’s Drug Store on Main Street was a favoured location – and then it was over.
The list of required supplies then was small. A few aptly named scribblers, a bottle of Lepage’s mucilage (glue), pencils, crayons, a ruler and a geometry set in a tin box. Everyone had a wooden pencil box.
Grade-four students were introduced to nibbed pens with little inkwells in the corner of their desk. Ball point pens didn’t arrive until around 1950. Some teachers banned their use.
Junior high school students graduated to using binders for their notebooks.
Today’s ubiquitous backpacks were unheard of. Personal computers had not yet been invented. The internet and cell phones were far into the future. Hey, you were lucky if your parents had a phone.
If you lived in town, most kids either walked or rode their bike to school, and went home for lunch. (Boys who rode their bikes to school after grade 6 were considered to be dorks.)
The kids from Beaver Lake Road, now Creighton, would hike to school via a path that skirted the south end of the open pit. They would bring their lunches to school.
Say…who remembers these school flashbacks? The days of the three Rs…only one started with an R! “Put your thinking caps on!” Getting the strap. Detention. The smell of Dustbane. Cleaning the chalkboard brushes and leaving chalk residue on the outside school walls. Fire drills followed by a talk by Chief Walter Redman. The spiral fire escape at Ross Lake School – impossible to climb up! The Main School fire escape that was easy to climb and provided hours of summer sliding fun. J. B. Kines. Those were the days!
And these are the days. Today’s students have many advantages over those of us from way back when. The introduction of new technologies, advanced teaching techniques and access to a wealth of information from the internet has allowed for immense opportunities for today’s students.
Great learning opportunities, indeed, but didn’t we have tons of fun!
