It was the summer of ‘69.
- All the grade 8s in New West. gathered in the Vincent Massey auditorium holding their computer punch cards
- Mixed in with all the rectangular holes was printed their block assignments for the first semester at N.W.S.S."
- Everyone's name was called alphabetically and assigned a homeroom . My homeroom faced 8th Ave. 104 if I remember right.
- It was strange being the first name on the roll call . Postma , Potavin , Potter .... This would be my "A" block. English
- That year "A" block was always your first class . There was no better way to start your day then listening to your teacher recite poetry for an hour. My "B" block was Math with Mr. Demert and his class room was at the far end of Pearson. Block "C" was gym class with Mr. Brajcich in the Massey gym. After the first week he got a little upset with me being a couple of minuets late almost every class. He cut me some slack when I explained to him I had to travel the whole length of the school to get there.
- That first year my locker was on the main hallway near the end of " Occ alley " . For the politically correct out there the occupational wing, "D" block was easy close to the Gym just up the stairs on the Massey end . That is if I remembered to pick up my French books at my locker on my way to gym class.
Imagine if you will ... you are walking the halls and casually drop a gum wrapper on the floor. Suddenly behind you you hear a booming voice, "DO YOU DO THAT AT HOME ?"
Turning around you come face to chest with the largest human being you have ever known. Your only response is a weak "UHH , no" as you quickly retrieve the gum wrapper.
From this day forward you would never again think to litter in the hallways of N.W.S.S.
Never again would you want to incur the wrath of one Mike Cacic, school janitor and former professional football player.
Study block "C"
When I took French 8 you had the opportunity to buy a set of eight 45 records to help with your study.
A couple of years later you could only purchase these lessons on cassette tapes.
Cassette players were a newer technology and expensive at the time and not everyone had a player in their home. I think it was 1971 N.W.S.S. built a study hall under the library with a sound proof booth.
They also had a cassette player you could borrow. So everyone had an opportunity to study their french lessons.
As it turns out a few of my friends also had study in block "c" . So we formed a study group.
Every "c" block in April and into May of 1972 we would get together in that sound proof booth .
When the weather got nice the study group broke up But by that time ...
... we knew all the words to Space Truckin , Hiway Star and Smoke on the water off of Deep Purple’s new album Machine Head (also available on Cassette ).
They called him the streak
There was a short lived fad happening in 1974 ... Streaking !
I heard a rumor that a couple of guys from the N.W.S.S. football team ran naked along Columbia St. I have no proof of this . Around the same time, I was told a student was offered five dollars to streak the length of the school and he turned it down. This guy hung out with a rowdy bunch so all his rowdy friends offered up $5.00 each to do the deed. Now he was looking at $40.00 or more. Of course, there were conditions that had to be met. It had to be done at lunchtime and he would have to enter Massey from the door facing 8th Ave and run the entire length of the school where a car would be waiting in the Pearson parking lot to whisk him away.
On the appointed day I stationed myself in the main hall close to hallway to the Pearson caf.
There were a number of other students in the area.
Also standing close by was a new teacher Mrs.Aynsley.
It was getting close to the end of lunch hour and I thought maybe this fellow might have jammed out.
Then off in the distance towards the main office I heard a commotion, and I could just make out a gold fleck motorcycle helmet bobbing up and down coming our way. This gold helmet with a blacked out face mask was strapped to this young fellow's skinny little body and he was wearing only his running shoes and the helmet leaving nothing to the imagination. Just as he turned the corner toward the parking lot Mrs.Aynley exclaimed in a loud voice "I can't believe someone would put their short comings on display that way! "
- Richard C. Postma class of 74