McBride School Sept 1951 until 1957
- Crossing Guard Certificate held
Vincent Massey Junior High School 1957 to 1960
- Looked after the Bike Locker under the Gymnasium
- Found many special 22mm lead bullets in the Bike Locker, within the sand pile up against the Gymnasium exterior stairs.
- Spent many a time assisting with the many events in the VM Auditorium and had many interesting times exploring the upper and above stage areas. It was always fun to take the time to look out the high round windows located at the upper areas of the Auditorium back stage looking out onto 8th Avenue.
- One of my passions was to take wood working in the shops, and, while our projects were very small in stature we all had a great time drawing them first in the drafting class portion and then actually getting to use the various types of machinery after having received instructions from the Industrial Arts (IA) teacher.
- Other Classes like Math, English, French and Social Studies were taken but none were as interesting as Woodwork and the very exciting times we had playing with meters and other projects to learn how electricity really worked., and how we could make it work for us!
Lester Pearson High School 1960 to 1963
- I took the regular and required classes again, but continued with my strong interests and continued to take Woodworking, and now Metal Working was also available at LP in the shops. We all had lots of fun learning how to weld the projects we had to design, get passing marks on and approval to build before we were allowed to light up a torch to weld that special project, or use the electronic welder to weld the expanded steel onto my book rack, which I still have and now holds our many cook books. The IA teacher liked it so much he asked me to make him one to display on the wall for future students to see the type of products that they could make.
- In 1963 in Woodworking we were allowed to draft a very large wood project, which we were then expected to build, at our own expense, depending on type of wood selected. The better the type of the wood the more it cost you to build. Well, I selected to build a 5 foot long double layer, Black Walnut Coffee Table. The four legs had to specially glued and had to be turned on a lathe and with mortis and tendons joints then glued to rails which would be screwed to the underside of the flat lower table surface. The upper surface picture frame was the same size but only 2 inches wide and would hold a piece of commercial store front glass that Royal City Glass would cut, grind and fit into the frame. After the glass fitting I was then allowed to return it to the class for mounting onto the table surface with four turned black walnut dowels at the corners, also turned on the lathe. The easy part was to finish it with Danish Watco Oil. You know I still have this table in our living room and now its over 65 years old and has been refinished by me many times with that wonderful Danish Watco furniture finishing oil from Home Depot. Naughty Students we were …..
- In one of our classes the teacher always paced across the front of the class during our exams So to increase his tension we used to grind up Dad’s Cookies onto his trampling area and would watch his reaction as the sound of his pacing got ever so much louder during the exam period.
- In one class, before it started and before the male teacher arrived we would leave the door barely open to the inside of the room but just where the top of the door has escaped the door jam we would place a half-full foam glass of water. Upon entering the room, and as the teacher would have to push the door open into the room …. DOWN would spill the water onto the/any unsuspecting intruder.
- Another time, our teacher suspiciously found that the leather brief case that used to be sitting next to his desk at the start of the class disappeared after he left the class. We it was found by him that very sunny hot spring afternoon, but, it was found hanging outside tied to the end of the raised blinds cord, hanging very much in view of the window in the classroom below.
- Chemistry Class was always very interesting at LP. In the beginning of the course our teacher would admonish any student found to be disobeying the rule, NO GUM ALLOWED! We only a very few got to serve the punishment, and that was, they must bring to the next class Gum for all their class mates. WELL, we soon learned that this was a punishment we could use to our advantage. Very soon we always had one student supplying gum to the whole class, every class. Unfortunately, we were soon found out and this game of class enjoyment was soon stopped permanently.
- In 1986 my wife Leona and I and our two children moved to the Royal City and our son Garth started IA classes. Well to assist him with his projects over the Christmas Holidays he could bring home the project and we could finish the construction. Once the Instructor learned of our technique successes I suggested that on the Monday Classes I would be pleased to attend Garth class to assist the students who might need personal instructions or special supervision to pass the course. Approval was granted, and, many students learned more as well as how to make the simple projects I was preparing to let them understand how to use the various saws lathes and drill presses in wood working.
- Bob Collyer
