Memories Of Bobcaygeon Continuation School – Hillcroft By Lois Bottum (Jewett)

I attended Hillcroft from September 1937 to June 1942. The classrooms were on the north side of the school, three of them contained about forty desks each. The fourth room was a laboratory for Chemistry and Physics. There was one curriculum for everybody. The languages taught were English, Latin and French. We studied Ancient and Modern History, which included some United States and European history. The sciences studied were Chemistry and Physics. Our text books were purchased at Hamilton’s bookstore and our resource centre was the public library. There was a lot of homework assigned. I remember trying to do my mathematics (Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry) and listen to Lux Radio Theatre on Monday nights. Lunch hour was from 12 noon to 1:30 pm, and we raced home to eat lunch and listen to the Happy Gang on the radio.

The principals that I recall were Howard T. Pammett and A.C. Anderson. Teachers were Miss East, Miss Watt, Miss Mason and Miss Honeywell. Mrs. Isla Moore, Herbert and Mr. Ouellette were the music teachers.

Miss Watt taught mathematics, she was our Marilyn M. and all the boys loved Math. Miss Mason was everyone’s grandmother in her knitted suits, and frilly white blouses. She lived at the Rockland House, and improved our accents with her Parisian French. Miss East, a patrician lady with dark hair in a chignon, taught English and Latin. We used to copy Latin sentences from each other in the bicycle shed, and Miss East wondered why they all had the same mistakes! Mr. Anderson (the old lad) loved to compact waste paper by putting his foot in the large metal wastebasket. Someone put about 6 inches of water in the basket and threw in crumpled paper on top. The inevitable happened and the culprit was asked to stand. No one did, so the whole class got a detention. It think it was Mr. Pammett who initiated a school yearbook called “Caygeon Campus.” It was compiled by the Hillcroft Literary Society. It contained short stories, poems, jokes, athletic news and photos of each year and the graduating class.

Transportation to and from school was interesting. With wartime gas rationing, very few persons drove to school. Many of us rode bicycles; in winter we walked. Elaine Ormiston and Lois Adams walked five miles each day to school. A pair of overshoes lasted one month. John Patterson rode horseback, and some pupils hitchhiked, skied (Gus McIntosh) or even skated on the highway after an ice storm (McNeils and Stinsons). Our trip to Toronto to see King Geroge VI and Queen Elizabeth in May 1939 was an exciting event. Students went from both schools, and for many of them it was their first train ride!

There was no gymnasium, Drama Guild or Glee Club at School, but we managed very well. For Physical Education we stood in the aisles between the rows of desks, windows open, and did head, shoulder and arm movements followed by deep knee bends and split jumps. Posture was very important and no one was allowed to slump in his/her seat. We had a basketball court and a baseball diamond on grass at the school. In the spring a Field Day was held in the fairgrounds. There were sawdust pits for the high jump and foot races were run on the track. There were Junior and Senior Boys and Girls Athletic Competitions. Wooden plaques with their names and the crest on them were hung at the school. A felt replica was given to the winners. The Thespians among us took part in Mrs. Wilkie’s plays in the village, while students with good voices sang in the church choirs.

Other persons I have spoken to recall Halloween and Valentine’s parties, but the church halls were the social centres for students. Toboggan parties on Kennedy’s Hill, skating parties at the rink or on the marsh, and sleigh rides followed by hot bean suppers in the parish hall are happy memories for all. A lot of boys played on the local hockey team. Their families drove them to the games in Fenelon Falls, Kinmount and Minden. We didn’t miss much!

When we reached Grade 13, we had to write Department Examinations. That was a heart-stopping time. In 1942 mostly girls wrote the exams, as the boys were given their diplomas if they joined up, and most did.

Some graduates went to war, and some went home to help on the farm, while some apprenticed in local trades in town. Others went to Baker’s Business College in Lindsay, Normal School, or on to Nursing Schools or University. I felt we all received a good basic education at Hillcroft.

By Grace Oliver (Barker) and Sheila Junkin (Purdy)

In 1953 when the Victoria County District High School Board designated Fenelon Falls Continuation School as the high school for the northern part of the county, pupils from the Bobcaygeon area were transferred to Fenelon Falls. Hillcroft, the school that had been home to high school students since 1929 was closed. Students gathered at Harold Devitt’s service station on the main street of the village, where one bus transported them to Fenelon Falls, picking up additional students along the way (County Road #8).

Gone were the days when students from as far distant as Red Rock walked, or jogged, up to five miles through sleet, hail, rain storms and heavy drifts of snow to further their education. Faced with the return trip at four o’clock, they felt no need for organized physical education routines. Baseball and soccer were played in season, during lunch break on the ample spread of green that made up the grounds of the school. In winter, the steep hill behind the school echoed from the shouts of the students tobogganing and skiing. Lunch hour was one and a half hours long so the students could enjoy their noon-hour activities and the ‘town kids’ who lived on the other side of town could jog across three bridges to their homes for a hot lunch. Some of the students drove horses to school, especially in the winter. At lunchtime they had to go out to the barn, which was on school property, to feed their horse his lunch… oats and hay that were tucked under the seat of the cutter in a burlap bag.

Hillcroft had been built by the Comber family as a private Preparatory school for boys aged 8-15 years with Walter Comber as the Headmaster. It opened in 1909 and contained a four-bedroom Headmaster’s residence, with a large dining room, a common room, two classrooms and sleeping space for 12 boys, two to a room. This school closed in 1918 due to World War I and Mr. Comber went to teach at Ridley College in St. Catherines. The school was sold to the Department of Education for $10,000. In 1929, the village bought Hillcroft so students could complete their high school education, rather than have to travel to Lindsay.

The school principal lived in the residence and the dining room for the boys was converted into a third classroom. From 1929 to 1953 three teachers were employed to teach five years of schooling. Grade 12 and 13 Science and Math Courses were taught in alternate years. Latin was a compulsory subject.

Grace Oliver (Barker) remembers the day in late March when a group of students decided to skip afternoon classes (it was too nice of a day to sit in a classroom). The next day, no mention was made of our absence until classes were over at 4 pm. At this time the principal, Mr. Pammett casually announced that all students who had been absent the previous afternoon would remain in school and work on a mural depicting the placement of the planets in the March sky. It was 7 pm when the planets were visible and 8 pm when we finished our project. I think we all appreciated the way Mr. Pammett handled the situation. The after school assignment allowed us all to come away with our dignity intact… we had paid the price for our afternoon outing, and felt square with our teacher again. The placement of the planets in a March sky has intrigued me ever since.

Sheila Junkin (Purdy) remembers the biggest challenge facing students living in the country in the mid thirties was getting to school in winter. We had no choice but to walk, as roads were not snowploughed. Many students walked up to five miles, from Red Rock and the concession Roads. Bruce and Cliff Stinson, Jean and Winnifred McNeil, Lois Adams, John Patterson, Gerald and Joyce Martin, Geroge, Neil and Grace Oliver were a few of the students I walked with. Looking back on those days, walking home was half the fun of attending school, taking twice as long as the morning trip. We did not have a gym at Hillcroft, so there was no organized physical education curriculum. But no doubt we were physically fit on our daily walk.

Former students of Hillcroft have special memories of days spent in those hallowed halls and in reminiscing about bygone days. They all first mention some of the teachers, ranging from brilliant to definitely eccentric. Teachers who are able to instill knowledge and a love of learning in a student are the key ingredients in an educational experience. Buildings come and go and the luxury facilities which students attend today are icing on the cake. It is the teacher who turned you off or on that leaves an indelible memory with a student.

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