Hillcrest School Memories

Hillcrest School Memories a look back at my public school days when Owen Sound's Hillcrest Public School celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1998.

In the years following the Second World War, North American communities experienced dynamic growth and expansion.

In Owen Sound at this time there was an increase in the construction of housing. These new houses were needed for the families which had resulted from the return of the young men and women who had served in the armed forces during the war.

By the end of the 1940s, it was apparent that new educational facilities would be necessary to accommodate the needs of the children who were part of the population explosion which would be called the 'baby boom".

1948: The First Hillcrest School

In 1948, a new school, Hillcrest Public School, was opened on 4th Ave. West, at the top of 8th Street. The physical structure of the school was an amalgamation of military buildings which had been used during the war at a nearby base. The new school was established to serve the educational needs of children from Kindergarten to Grade Four.

I remember this school very vividly. In 1955, I was enrolled in Mrs. Nystrom's kindergarten class. To a shy five-year-old, that old building was an imposing structure. The creaky, and sometimes uneven floors seemed to slant uphill from my classroom to the rest of the school which was inhabited by the much larger and intimidating students in the other classrooms.

As if to reinforce this fear, we kindergarten kids had our own section of the playground which was "out of bounds" to the other students. I remember watching them play and feeling a little envious of their freedom, and perhaps their maturity!

However, my time at this school was to be short lived! In order to accommodate the growing number of "baby boomers", a new Hillcrest School for grades from Kindergarten to Grade Eight was being built around the corner on 8th Street. Just as I was starting to feel comfortable in my new school, I now would have to start all over again.

The following year, I marched off to Mrs. Breen's Grade One class. At first, I was nervous, but as soon as I saw that all my old friends from Kindergarten, Craig, Allan, "Chuckie", and Bonnie were in my class, the world seemed secure to this six-year-old.

However, there was an irony for me. The previous year I had longed to be one of the "big" kids. I had been sure that once I was in Grade One, life would be different. But I was wrong!

I had not counted on the fact that my new school would have even bigger kids, now that the school included Grades Five to Eight!

I enjoyed my time in Mrs. Breen's class and Mrs. Black's Grade two class, learning to print and read. I was also learning that I had a life away from my family. Sure, there were parent-teacher meetings and report cards, but when I was at school, as long as I stayed out of serious trouble, my time at school was mine. However, Grade Three would be different!

My Grade Three teacher was Mrs. Hargest. Part way through the year, our teacher told us that she was leaving, and we would have a new teacher. Now Mrs. Walsh was a great teacher, but she posed a problem for me! The new teacher was a friend of my family. When my friends, Craig and Paul, suggested that we get into some mischief, I now had to be careful because the teacher might tell my parents. So much for anonymity!

Grade Four marked my last year in the junior wing of the school and my teacher was Mrs. MacLeod. I shall be forever grateful to her introducing us to the history of our area and exposing us to many great authors. Each day she read aloud an excerpt from a book and her reading of Ralph Connor's Glengarry Schooldays remains a fond memory.

Grade Five marked an achievement that I had dreamed of since kindergarten. I was now one of the big kids at Hillcrest. (Anyone who remembers or has pictures from that era will tell you that even in Grade Eight, I was still one of the smaller kids in the senior wing!) I now had to cope with rotary classes. Instead of one teacher, I had many. Mr. Hopper for music, Mr. Miller for art and physical education, and Mr. Wilcox for history and geography. In Grade Eight, Mr. Garvie our principal had the joy of trying to teach me mathematics.

Unfortunately, there is not enough space in this column to relate all of those wonderful experiences at Hillcrest Public School. Perhaps tomorrow at Hillcrest as we celebrate its 50th anniversary, we can talk about those "Good Old Days"!!

A version of this article originally appeared in my Local History column in the Owen Sound Sun Times on April 24, 1998.

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