The transfer to the Surge Narrows school was a bit of a shock the first day as it was a new one room steel Quonset hut with thirty six students from grades one to eight; but all under the firm command of Miss Steele, a good looking nineteen year old girl just out of normal school. She was an in control kind of person and ran a tight ship, standing for no nonsense. I secretly kind of liked her, as she was young enough to appear good-looking to me even as a kid. Maybe it was because of that, that I got along with her and kept out of trouble.
Teacher number two, Miss Featherstonehaugh, was a thorn in the side, but not my worst nightmare. Even though I was sometimes in trouble, the students liked me. The first scrape with the law was during practice for our Christmas program that year. Some of us were mimicking a song while she was practicing it with another group. I unwisely did it one to many times and her wrath descended on me. She came flying over in a mini rage and broke the ruler she had been using on my hand. Some weeks later her sensitivity to me had reached a breaking point during class when we had doubled up for an assignment. My inability to curb my talking was again my undoing, when after a few warnings she unexpectedly called me to the front of the classroom, hauled out the dreaded strap and laid it on me. The pain from the strapping was insignificant, what really hurt was the pain and humiliation of having it done in front of the class. And to humiliate me further, after sending me back to my seat for a few minutes, where I had already concluded that anymore talking would be unwise, she suddenly and without notice sent me outside to sit on the step.
Of all the teachers through those five years at the Surge Narrows school the last one was my worst nightmare. It is far better to be tolerated or even disliked, but to be the teacher’s pet that is really “the worst nightmare,” It means that before long you are despised by many of the other students and even your once best friends. Miss Muir was an old maid and for some reason loved little Bobbie Betts. Slowly after she started to teach at Surge Narrows my once best friend Wayne Anderson gradually turned on me and in so doing turned the whole school against me. He was the leader of the lets make fun of Bobby movement along with Glen Fair. Most of the other kids would have been indifferent to my fate, but as Wayne, and his friend Glen, and maybe at times, Bruce, in the shadows, turned on me the rest of the kids followed their example. What saved me from any form of physical abuse was that I was big enough physically to take any of them on, but I wouldn’t because I was taught that a good Christian boy would not fight. I remember getting into a fight with Paul Poitras however and I took him down during a lets pick on Bobby moment, because he was the most convenient to confront, but I never had any hard feelings against Paul then or now. As I think back on those last couple of years in grade school I wander if I had whomped the lot of them my relationship with them may have turned out better. I can remember that last year and a half sitting all alone eating my lunch with kids all around. I used to dread going to school but would not let them win in their verbal threatening.
I look back on most of my time at the Surge Narrows school with fondness as during my first few years there I enjoyed the kids in class and on the playing field. Scrub was one of my favorite games and we played it every day during our lunch break. We would eat as fast as we could to get out on the play field as quick as possible.
Even though most of the kids in school were from homes where their father’s were loggers or fishermen there was very little swearing on the play field. The worst I ever heard was when Miss Muir got into an altercation with Bruce and he called her a SOB so everyone could hear, and our mouths dropped open in amazement. What his punishment was escapes me, probably not much as by now Miss Muir had already lost control of the more defiant students.
Christmas time was one of my favorite times at school and a time that I looked forward to with great anticipation. I loved being in the Christmas play. Some times I even got to sing. I remember Dawna and I sang a duet and I can even recall playing the part of a king in one of the plays. The play escapes me but I will never forget my last line, which happened to be the closing line of the play, “I love creampuffs,” and I said it with all of the fervor I could muster. I loved everything about Christmas especially when the Rev. Alan Greene, the skipper of the Mission Vessel the Columbia, came by, and dressed up as Santa and passed out presents to each student after the play. It was even a bigger hit when he would fire up his generator and show black and white silent films. This would be the only time each year that we would see a film. I think our parents loved the movies as much as we did.
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