U3A Writing: Canadian School Days
Getting to school for some Newfoundland children necessitated a journey of two days on a train and a night on a boat, recalls Moira Marchant.
Getting to school for those children living in Newfoundland who were sent abroad necessitated a long journey. For me to reach Nova Scotia meant two days on a train and a night on a boat or two nights on the train and a day on the boat, depending on the time of year.
As there were several of us plus university students from all over the island, the trip was quite an adventure and not at all boring. In the winter the landscape was a mainly flat and frozen white wilderness and the sea full of pack ice and the occasional iceberg.
Lessons were in the mornings only with afternoons spent on crocodile walks with a teacher or the usual sports like skating and riding. As our school was in a famous apple-growing area, on our walks in the autumn we were allowed into the orchards to help ourselves to the windfall apples.
The oldest boys’ private school in the then British Empire was a couple of fields away but, needless to say, fraternization was not allowed except for a yearly graduation dance for the older girls. However a few years ago both schools amalgamated and now occupy the same campus, so doubtless there are plenty of high jinks now!
