we were gonna be there all night

Growing up in Chilliwack.................1948

Grade two......I'm an old pro now....all of us grade twos are.....a year under our belts and well adjusted to the grade school life.....the morning routine was old hat now.......Miss Anderson rung the bell outside on the school stairs ...the basement doors slammed shut ...usually there was some kid on a frantic run across the grounds or whacking a bicycle into the bike stands and trying to make the big doors before Mr. Manuel closed them....All the boys in the basement quickly got into their class lines...twelve rows, 6 on each side ....2 classes of all grades up to six. A pause....it's quiet ..... making sure everyone was orderly ...Mr. Manuel standing between the six rows........then Miss Anderson started pounding on the piano keys ...sounds of a loud marching song drifted down the stairs .........and we began our daily trek upstairs to our classrooms....tromp , tromp, loudly on the stairs.. ..the grade ones first ......out they go, followed by the next class , then the twos and soforth......this always led to lots off goofing off...you can imagine the shenanigans well over a hundred grade school boys would pull off on that march...............That routine was a tradition in Chilliwack Central School when there was a girls side and a boys side ...of course the same event was happening on the girls side...I am not sure if they still do that today.....The school was completed in 1929 and students are still using the same hallowed halls...not much has changed.....just general maintenance....in the first year I attended there was a class of grade sevens in a room in the basement.........
I lived only 2 short blocks away........If I rode my bike or walked it was only a minute to the school grounds....so, I went home for lunch every day.....Dad worked only a block away and he was home for lunch as well......on occasion when I took my lunch it was always an event.... eating with some classmates , trading sandwiches and doing the noon hour thing was very occasional and very new to me....It sure gave a long time to play in the grounds or in the basement when the weather was bad. Marbles was king of games in those days.....the east side of the grounds were used.....grade twos had to be careful learning their skills...the older boys were very good at it so one had better play with his own...and keep his marbles.....A unique game was invented by throwing a marble at the hard wall and bouncing back to a line in the dirt.....there was no name for it , but it was played a lot.......Big Ring, Little Ring, Chase and Pot were common game names. Trading comic books , everyone traded comics.......a bit of that on the grounds but mostly by appointment....take a whack of books to a clients home and trade away......we also had big little books .........most of the main comics but special to Don Winslow of the Navy and others that were only in big little books.........in the corner of the pages there was a moving picture that could be watched when the pages were flipped..big little books were black and white comics. Model airplanes were big with kids, they could be constructed with balsa wood frames and covered with colored paper using airplane glue....some were very elaborate...I was in awe of the bigger boys efforts.....an wound elastic band and propeller was installed on some of them......but crashing was a drag, they were fragile and broke up.....We often bought 10 cent balsa wood gliders and played for hours with them.... Balsa wood models were handled by the sport shops........a cheap bag of balsa wood....assorted sizes (factory cutoffs) supplied hours of fun. That was my favorite.
We did not have bubblegum yet....we heard about it....but we never had it...bubblegum did not appear until well after the war was over....I can remember the first time I had it.....I was at Earl Goodrich's place ....he gave me a piece ....I think he got it from the States.......it had a wrapper with some black and white comics on it......you chewed a pink block of it .....hey......this is great........Earl already knew how....he showed me how to form it on my tongue...we were both blowing bubbles in no time......how cool is that.
My teacher in grade two was Miss Barrett........she was a real disciplinarian.....and could yell louder than any teacher I ever had......one fine day one of the kids made a rude noise while the class was in a lesson....it was towards the end of the day (why do I remember this?...I dunno) and the culprit had to own up or no one could go home....well we sat, and we sat...it seemed like an eternity...I really thought we were gonna be there all night.....so I got up ...and walked to those mean eyes and said "I did it".....she softened ...actual smile marks came to her eyes and she said "but you didn't really ,did you Gary........" umm...no mam".......Okay, you can get your coat and go home.....what..what....I thought as I went to the cloakroom......all the others were sitting there, eyes ahead....I had no idea things could come out this well....She eventually freed them all.....I was playing on the cellar door at the Baptist church when Simona Hopkins passed by , she told me of staying in another while, until she admitted she had done it....I thought she would get a terrible punishment but, Simona said she let everyone go including her when she owned up....I guess Miss Barrett's bark was worse than her bite.
On the way home there was a chestnut tree.....when they fell to the ground the green casing broke and exposed these beautiful big chestnuts.....kids tended to head to school a little early to pick up as many as possible...they were shiny and felt good in your hands...I always managed to get a few of them....If they were cut in half the meat looked delicious, but we were warned off it and afraid to try it....a few years later we used them to make pipes and smoked corn silk.....that should have had a warning label...gawd awful stuff. The school grounds were huge and the ball diamonds monsterous...that's what I remember thinking...I drive by the grounds once in a while now and my memory jogs back to those early school days .....The old school still is going full tilt and looks as good as it did in 1945.... it is even the same color...but the ball diamonds are much smaller than when I was eight years old.