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Next door east of George McClement’s was a small house, very low, covered with red insult brick and it was the home of one of my most loyal customers. Mrs. Dickie had at least one daughter still living at home, but she was always there when I dropped the paper off with her before crossing over her yard into the corner lot which belong to Wilfred and Anne McKillop.
Anne McKillop was the principal of Langbank’s school, one of the things that she was proud of and needed to be proud of, was that everyone succeeded in her class, failure was not an option and every student did everything they could to live up to her reputation and her expectations. She could be very cross, very stern, but I love that woman, she was an outstanding accompanist played the church organ and for me, a budding singer, it was a delight to have her play accompaniment. One of the things Anne had going for her was the school organisation.
The first room had grades one to seven and her room had grade eight to twelve. Under those conditions much of the work was done orally and repetition really works. By the time you came to taking Rudyard Kipling’s novel “Kim” you had already heard it three times and when it came to Shakespeare, it was more of a review than anything. The thing that made her a consummate teacher was the respect she showed her students and the way she treated their opinions. As a keen news hound she relied on me to keep her on her toes with current events and as a teacher, I mimicked her methods. Billy used a ruler, I did things by hand, but we shared and worked together. I helped Margret with social studies and Billy taught me physics.
Wilfred was a different kind of man, he was a squarely built, with really really thick glasses, earned his living by delivering mail on rural routes and was the first guy in town to have a snow machine about that year. Wilfred was an alcoholic, it was really something for me and my friend Melvin, to know a person so dedicated to doing something about his life. I may only have seen Wilfred once while he was drinking, I only knew him as a man struggling and striving to stay sober. I'm part of his process of staying sober. He decided to take up the game of golf, it was a 16 mile drive from Langbank to Kenosee Lake where one of the best golf courses in the provinces was located. This began when I was in grade eight. Melvin and I were introduced to the game and would go right off to the lake at least once a week to play golf with Wilfred. Though it was supposed to be therapy for him, it was really a positive experience for ourselves, I learned to play golf and I learned a huge amount about human nature Melvin was a friend for life and Wilfred was there for us. By the way, it cost us $2.00 a round for green fees and $2.00 for our clubs, we usually found more balls then we lost, well Melvin did, I seem always to be borrowing balls.
The third member of the McKillop family was Wilma Jean. She was a year younger than I and would be described is cute as a button, she was a pretty little girl and I think that everyone in the school truly loved her and wanted to look after her as much as they wanted to please her mother, the remarkable thing about Wilma Jean was that she was a gifted talented musician. She became a consummate pianist and piano teacher, my sister took lessons from her, her mother was determined that she would learn the violin and she played the violin beautifully, often accompanied by of their dog a cocker spaniel as I remember. When I was sixteen Wilma Jean would travel with me all over that part of the province as we would go to weddings and occasionally, funerals. Wilma not only was my accompanist but we remain friends to this day.
Anne McKillop was the principal of Langbank’s school, one of the things that she was proud of and needed to be proud of, was that everyone succeeded in her class, failure was not an option and every student did everything they could to live up to her reputation and her expectations. She could be very cross, very stern, but I love that woman, she was an outstanding accompanist played the church organ and for me, a budding singer, it was a delight to have her play accompaniment. One of the things Anne had going for her was the school organisation.
The first room had grades one to seven and her room had grade eight to twelve. Under those conditions much of the work was done orally and repetition really works. By the time you came to taking Rudyard Kipling’s novel “Kim” you had already heard it three times and when it came to Shakespeare, it was more of a review than anything. The thing that made her a consummate teacher was the respect she showed her students and the way she treated their opinions. As a keen news hound she relied on me to keep her on her toes with current events and as a teacher, I mimicked her methods. Billy used a ruler, I did things by hand, but we shared and worked together. I helped Margret with social studies and Billy taught me physics.
Wilfred was a different kind of man, he was a squarely built, with really really thick glasses, earned his living by delivering mail on rural routes and was the first guy in town to have a snow machine about that year. Wilfred was an alcoholic, it was really something for me and my friend Melvin, to know a person so dedicated to doing something about his life. I may only have seen Wilfred once while he was drinking, I only knew him as a man struggling and striving to stay sober. I'm part of his process of staying sober. He decided to take up the game of golf, it was a 16 mile drive from Langbank to Kenosee Lake where one of the best golf courses in the provinces was located. This began when I was in grade eight. Melvin and I were introduced to the game and would go right off to the lake at least once a week to play golf with Wilfred. Though it was supposed to be therapy for him, it was really a positive experience for ourselves, I learned to play golf and I learned a huge amount about human nature Melvin was a friend for life and Wilfred was there for us. By the way, it cost us $2.00 a round for green fees and $2.00 for our clubs, we usually found more balls then we lost, well Melvin did, I seem always to be borrowing balls.
The third member of the McKillop family was Wilma Jean. She was a year younger than I and would be described is cute as a button, she was a pretty little girl and I think that everyone in the school truly loved her and wanted to look after her as much as they wanted to please her mother, the remarkable thing about Wilma Jean was that she was a gifted talented musician. She became a consummate pianist and piano teacher, my sister took lessons from her, her mother was determined that she would learn the violin and she played the violin beautifully, often accompanied by of their dog a cocker spaniel as I remember. When I was sixteen Wilma Jean would travel with me all over that part of the province as we would go to weddings and occasionally, funerals. Wilma not only was my accompanist but we remain friends to this day.