Back row: Drew Millard, Rod Johnston, Bev (Acton) Leontowich, Lanny Perry, Tim Bains, Glen Hancock, Bob Walker, Bill Walker, Greg Suchan, Otto Dobler [High School teacher]. Middle Row: Wendy (Bridges) Suchan, Margaret Stark, kneeling: Ian Kelln & Gerry Fletcher. Front Row sitting: Terri (Gerrand) Hilderman, Bill Mann, Josie (Sapara) Shiell, Darlene (Chelak) Romanchuk, Gladys (Kantor) Uguh [High School teacher]
Submitted, Wendy Suchan
June 24, 2023
Our class held a reunion in Govan. We met at 2 pm and visited. From 3 to 4 pm, thanks to Ron Hassman, we were able to tour the Govan Museum in the old Carl Frederickson School. It was like a walk down memory lane. We then returned to the Govan Hotel for more visiting, pictures, and supper provided by the Govan Hotel (Charlie's Place).
In 1958, at age six, our education began in the white one-room school. At the back of the room, behind a partition, were the girls’ and boys’ cloakrooms. Due to the lack of indoor plumbing, necessities were found in a private room in the cloakroom. In the centre of the room sat a pot-bellied stove that provided heat on cold winter days. Our desks had wooden tops with an open storage shelf below, an inkwell, and iron leg supports. Blackboards covered the walls, and there was a map of Canada rolled up, ready to use, above one blackboard. We started the morning with “God Save the Queen” and the Lord's Prayer. Our day ended with “O Canada.” Days were busy learning first the alphabet, then moving on to reading “Dick and Jane” (Run Spot Run) and using blocks to add numbers. Some students left us after grade one, and others joined us when country schools were closed.
Following grade one, we moved to the grey two-room grade two and three building. More students left us at the end of grade three when they changed the school boundary between Govan and Semans. There were 33 students at the end of grade 3, and during ensuing years, numbers ebbed and flowed as students came and went in and out of our class.
After grade 3, we moved into the big two-story brick school, which has since been demolished. To get to the school, you walked through an entrance gate, down a long corridor of trees that dwarfed a six-year-old, to the tall red brick school. To young grade 4 students, this huge building, with the polished wood banisters and railings, seemed daunting. We learned to walk quietly in the halls and not to run. We had Phys. Ed. down in a room in the basement, next to the furnace room. Recorder and music lessons came via the radio.
We continued in the brick school until the end of grade 8 when we moved to the recently built Carl Fredrickson High School. We thought we were the big kids now. We had four classrooms, a science lab, and a library, but unfortunately, the gymnasium was not built until after we finished school. Our grade 9 class was quite large, but by the time we reached grade 12, we were down to twelve students. Graduation was held in the Govan Town Hall, where we proudly marched across the stage, and later, we enjoyed a banquet downstairs. We were now ready to step out of our comfort zone to pursue our dreams of the future.
The halls of the various schools hold many memories for us. If they could only talk, what tales they would tell.
