The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
I suppose everyone recalls their elementary school with a smile. It's where we chased girls at recess (or sometimes vice versa), met our first friends, and learned many early lessons life has to offer. But something beyond all of that made Parkdale School distinctive. As Parkdale's original wing is demolished, the victim of structural concerns, I've been thinking a lot about the friendly brown and yellow building. Parkdale is my alma mater, the first school I attended. I still remember walking into that kindergarten room full of strangers all those years. It was a time of fear, excitement and uncertainty all rolled into one. Part of what made Parkdale exceptional was its size. It was always a small school, the proverbial runt of the litter. By 2001, it had just 168 students (though that number did grow in the ensuing years). Some in the public saw Parkdale's diminutiveness as a negative. Fewer students means fewer staff, and fewer staff means fewer services. How could Parkdale compete with larger schools? There may have been some rhyme or reason to those concerns, but any downside was more than balanced out by the close-knit nature permeating Parkdale's hallowed halls. Parkdale was a neighbourly place. You got to know everybody in your grade, and many of those in other grades. At recess, what grade you were in didn't often matter as kids scrambled to fill roster spots on makeshift sports teams. Location also made Parkdale unique. Every spring, we would dig out our markers and rulers to craft miniature boats that we raced down the stream not far from the jungle gym. We would build small forts in the bush surrounding the school grounds. On our more adventurous days, we would trek out to nearby "Deadman's Rock" (also known as "White Rock"). We had to be watchful, though, as this area was technically out of bounds. On our more mischievous days, our proximity to Hapnot was a source of fun as we'd goad the high schoolers into chasing us during noonhour and after the final buzzer. I have so many other memories. We'd pull our shirt sleeves over our hands and slide down the smooth wooden rail in the east staircase. We'd spin until we were dizzy on the creaky old merry-go-round by the rocks. Looking back, the teachers were pretty good, too, even if we weren't yet mature enough to realize it. When my sixth grade class graduated beyond Parkdale and headed to McIsaac, many of us were saddened. We truly didn't want to leave this great place. We knew things would never be the same. In recent years, a cloud of uncertainty hung over Parkdale. Closure rumours were common as our population dwindled. Students, I'm sure, were on edge. The final word on Parkdale came last year when structural concerns forced the school board to close the building. The original wing will reopen in 2007 as the new home of Many Faces, University College of the North and Campus Manitoba. Now a new group of students will create their own memories in what was once Parkdale School. They've certainly inherited a special place. Local Angle runs Fridays.
