Page 44 - 1st Anthology 2011

know it was grades one through three and that was one classroom. In the other room it
was grades four through six. There was two classrooms right beside each other, you have
the wall in between and a door, so there was a classroom with the smaller children then
the next room with the bigger children. We learned our basics like the ABC’s, how to
count and write. We got our everything because we had to know it.

I went back and forth every day. I think the only time they shut it down when it got really
cold. I think it was a little over twenty below and they wouldn’t have school. The children
still went to school. I didn’t think they cared.

My teachers were, Miss Zacharias, she used to teach the younger ones. There was Ms
Remple, she was a tall slender person, and she had one arm. She was a good teacher. My
wife and me were just talking about her the other day. She taught the girls a lot, like how
to knit. She had done it with just her one arm.

By the end of the day, by three o’clock anybody that was Catholic was pushed to one
room and the others in the other room. We believed in our own religion. When I was
going to school I never heard any of our own customs that were ever practiced. They
must have been but I was pretty young.

We would get our TB tests done at the old Bullhead hall that was just right across from
us, and they used to march us over there. The smaller ones we would push them on an
orange crate. I never did find out who that guy was that used to go behind the petition.
They must take a picture then go back, I don’t know. We thought it was a treat because it
took up most of the day. Sometimes nurses and dentists came, and that one time the
nurses came and we all got a needle. The next day, I don’t know what happened whether
she was using the same needle. Our arms were swollen. The girls couldn’t even move
their arms. I don’t know what happened, and nothing was ever done. The parents
complained.

In the hallway where we hang our coats I had to grab the coats, you know where you hang
your jackets and pull up your t-shirt. They had a glass with a needle and they would scrap
your back and I don’t know what that was for and that hurt.

The dentist was gross. I’m scared of the dentist to this day. I don’t think they ever froze a
person’s gums. I mean, from where they are going to pull a tooth. I’m terrified of the
dentist, because that’s a butcher shop.

During that time the teachers had a place right in the school there, a little room where
they stayed and during noon hour they made hot chocolate for us. They gave us a big blue
vitamin pill, tastes like cotton, but that was our treat.

Downstairs they used to have these big boxes. We used to call them dog biscuits and you
can take all you want. I don’t know where they got them. We always used to take a few,

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