Back in the city, I admired the old red brick buildings while walking or taking the bus to school and work. I could imagine the people being excited when these buildings were first built and the excitement of moving-in day.
Old churches with first horses lined up outside then later, the brand new, gleaming Model T Ford cars, while beautiful old-time hymns poured from within. I imagined the school children walking to school on bright, sunny days along dusty roads, chatting with wonderful friends along the way, being welcomed into the bright, stove-warmed (on a bright, sunny day?!) classroom by a cheery teacher who smiled the whole time while ringing the Welcome to School bell. They would hang their coats in the cloakroom, then sit quietly and obediently in their seats while waiting for their sweet and darling teacher to take her place at the front. Somehow, their lips never get sore from constant smiling and their hearts just could not contain all of their joy!
Oh brother! Gimme a break, I was only 7 or 8 years old and knew nothing of the reality of those days. Some seniors recall their childhoods as exactly that idyllic but many more do not. Politics was just as alive and well in the church of yesteryear as it is now and brand new cars would only have served to highlight the discrepancy between the haves and the have nots even more. Many children went to school dirty, hungry and cold. They were the subject of ridicule and bullying on the walk to school, while at school and on the way home - and the bullying did not only come from the students. Teachers could be pretty nasty and had free reign with their 'weapons of mass destruction' - the yardstick, the wooden pointer and the belt. These poor kids often got it again at home that night for getting in trouble at school. And I haven't mentioned all the physical labour, both before school and after.
For grade 6, we started at a brand new school that was not even finished on opening day. For opening ceremonies that first day, we sat in front of an unfinished stage. We had a room just for science, one just for art, one just for music with all of the musical instruments for a 60-member band - clarinets, trombones, french horns, flutes, tubas, trumpets and extras of each. We had a full-time French teacher (Darn! Although I must say that Madame Smith was pretty nice.) Books and pencils were bought for us, unlike my kids' schools. A huge locker room held a locker for each student, pretty much unheard of at that time. We had a large home economics room with 2 fully-equipped kitchens and about 10 sewing machines that we actually used. We did a bit of written work but mostly we sewed and cooked and baked. I learned how nummy fudgy brownies could be as opposed to my mom's cake brownies. I also learned that there is very little that can be done to make powdered milk taste better, not strawberry syrup, not even chocolate syrup. (My daughters took home ec in school and pretty much never did any cooking or sewing, just all paperwork.) There was also a large Industrial Arts room with a band saw, a lathe, soldering equipment amongst other equipment where I learned to make a plastic keychain, a small metal box for holding pens, etc and large wooden salt and pepper shakers made on the lathe. 2 very large classrooms were set aside for handicapped children as well and they had their own entrance and elevator. The gymnasium divided into a boy's gym and a girl's gym by a folding door. It was the width of the gym and folded up into the wall like an accordion with the turn of a key. Both sides became the lunch room with the tables and benches folding up into wall and out of the way during gym. The best part of this school was that, during my last year there, grade 8, the school organized the equivalent of a year-end field trip every single month, and it was all free. Trips to places like Dundern Castle in Hamilton, Niagara Falls, Casa Loma (Toronto), The Hockey Hall of Fame (Toronto), African Lion Safari (near Cambridge), skiing trips, etc. and we could choose any that we wanted. Unbelievably wonderful and judging by my kids' experiences at different schools, equally unbelievably impossible today. They seemed to spend a lot of time back then, trying to figure out new ways, more modern ways to spend all of the money, they seemed to just want to get rid of all that money.
Although it may seem that I'm telling you this to brag, of course I'm not. I think everyone should have had these opportunities and today's kids should, too. I've heard of places having school 4 days a week instead of 5, buildings going unrepaired, libraries that do not receive books, art and science barely exist, forget music, home ec and industrial arts. Class field trips often no longer take place, holiday parties are not done as they might offend immigrants or someone might choke. There's now a new idea on the go from some parents to stop all pizza and hot dog sales at school during lunch time. I'm not sure of the why, just of the stupidity of it all.
I believe completely that the money is still there but the children, seniors, handicapped, preemies, homeless, etc. of this modern world are not going to get any of it. The weakest, the poorest, the neediest will not get their share. Why do I think that the money is still there? Because we never hear of the 'top dogs' going hungry, their children are still attending private school, they still live in their luxury homes, still drive their luxury vehicles, still travel around the world whenever and wherever they feel inspired to go in their own jets ... and then to top it all off, they get a raise! The things that happen when the inmates run the asylum!!
Maybe we've been pampered for far too long and it's time to stand on our own and do things for ourselves and each other. No more expecting much from the government, no matter who's running it - after all, an inmate is an inmate is an inmate. What does it really matter which one's in charge? With all of the talk of poisons in the air, on the land, in the water, in our food, etc., it would be nice to get away from as much of that as possible. Independence breeds strength (both physical and mental), tolerance (you have to learn to tolerate what you cannot control such as the weather), honesty (you cannot lie about whether or not you fed the animals, watered, weeded or planted the garden because the evidence will show itself soon enough), understanding and compatibility (you need these 2 things unless you want to homestead alone, completely alone, forever), humility (again connected to things that you cannot control such as the weather, market prices, etc.), patience (gardens and animals both take forever to grow and therefore, it'll take forever for you to see any returns compared to popping into the grocery store and buying whatever you want off the shelves). I'm sure that I do not have an over abundance of these qualities, having grown up spoiled and it would certainly do me good to learn them.
