A meeting to commemorate the upcoming closure of the Nottawasaga and Creemore Public School building on Caroline Street West brought a lot of old stories out of the school’s bricks and woodwork.
Twelve people joined NCPS Principal Heather Birchall for one hour last Tuesday to suggest ways to celebrate a building that has hosted generations of students in this community since 1917.
“We’d like to honour the things that came before us and think of the things that are coming ahead,” said Birchall. Currently, she is proposing an Open House on Thursday, June 12 and possibly other events over the weekend, including student performances and photo displays. At this point, the details still need to be determined.
The first question up for debate was whether to invite all old grads of NCPS or keep the celebration local. Parent Council School Chair Sandra Gee said that it wouldn’t hurt to invite everyone and give them the option to come.
How, then, to contact all those people? To consult, the assembly turned to three notable Creemorites and former students, Helen Blackburn, Muriel Day and Gerry Blackburn, who shared their experience organizing quinquenial student reunions from 1979 to 1999. More than 650 people came to the first reunion from all over Canada in 1979.
“Now that is a hard act to follow,” Birchall said.
In those days, the organizers wrote handwritten invitations and made hundreds of personal phone calls to let people know about the event. Gee proposed using social media to help spread the word quickly. It was decided that Google would be a big help. “We’ll tweet them!” said NCPS teacher Bev Stableforth.
Next on the agenda was to entertain ideas for bringing current and former students together. The congregation was encouraging of Stableforth’s suggestion that NCPS students write old-fashioned letters to former students who might not be able to come. Birchall proposed that present-day students conduct video interviews with graduates from the past. Others wished to involve community groups in commemorative activities such as planting a celebration garden.
In keeping with rural tradition, someone mentioned making a quilt. Marion McArthur suggested that students decorate blocks of fabric, which could then be sewn together. Muriel Day remembered that a blue-and-gold quilt had been made for the first reunion. Gee offered to do some sleuthing to find it. She also suggested making two quilts: one each for past and current students.
At this point, the meeting turned philosophic. “In essence, things don’t change, they modify to become modern,” said Stableforth, reflecting on the quilt idea. “It’s a modern version of what was old,” added Councillor Thom Paterson.
Paterson proposed that the school host a sports game, “old-timers versus young-timers,” at which point Stableforth asked for further clarification about what an “old-timer” was. Paterson did not reply verbally to her question. He stood up.
For some, the evening offered a historical glimpse into the past. Muriel Day (whose children and grandchildren attended NCPS) explained how she had boarded with a family in Creemore because it wasn’t possible for her to travel to and from her family’s home in Banda every day. In those days, there were no buses or snowplows, she said. You could only get places with a horse and cutter, or a team of horses and sleigh.
To add a little intrigue to the evening, much secrecy swirled around stories about the attic in the old school, which Birchall has yet to explore, but which Helen Blackburn, Muriel Day, Gerry Blackburn, and Marion and Milton McArthur seemed to know quite a lot about.
“There is a lot of history written on those walls,” said Day, explaining that the attic walls are carved full of names.
In his day, Gerry Blackburn (who attended the school from Grade 1 to 13) said he would climb into the attic when teachers weren’t looking by using a folding ladder that hung on the back of a door. Other students who were as determined as a young Helen Blackburn would pull themselves up on a chair they had balanced on top of a table.
With this admission, Stableforth asked the obvious question: “Why were students going up there?”
“Because it was there!” replied Gerry Blackburn, who admitted he had visited the attic several times. No further details were revealed.
Not one person reported ever seeing the elusive NCPS ghost.
Moving on to more material things, it was unanimous that the school bell be preserved. Ted Stableforth, Principal of Connaught Public School in Collingwood, showed a photograph of that institution’s old bell, which now sits silently on a wooden base in the school’s foyer. On the base are small plaques with the names of people who donated money to its care. “It’s quite impressive,” Principal Stableforth said.
Parent Council Co-Chair Sharon Gummer asked Birchall if the School Board had designated any funds for “heritage” projects such as this one (Birchall said she would find out). Ted Stableforth came up with the suggestion to increase finances by charging interested parties money to go up into the attic.
At 7 pm Birchall thanked the group for their participation. She proposed to regroup at the end of the month.
Paterson asserted that once the idea for the event was out in the community, many people would want to be involved.
Birchall then asked the gathering if they had heard their friends and neighbours talking much about the closure. The meeting attendees all shook their heads.
“It’s too cold,” Marion McArthur said.