Billings "good old days" theme.

Andrew Seary a Winning Driver.

Lynn Beauvais & Sons.

Randi, Ann-Christine,Mom&Dad Gurholt



The “good old days” theme.

My parents moved to Chateauguay where their children would be exposed to ‘good’ people.

When we moved to Seigniory Park, I was one of a few on my hockey team able to even barely keep up with the likes of Bobby and Barry Oliver/ Roddy Artagnan, in the Heights or the Heggisson/ Kaye/ Laroux/ Cutway line in Colonia, or the Carl Noble factor in the Terrace. I could at least score one goal to their five for Seigniory Park.

Seignory Park development (Concordia Estates) only went as far as Woodbine street. Concordia Street and Oliver Street near ‘The Pines’, were still fields. Barry Jones, Pierre Lacroix, Willy and Sandra Traynor, Mark Hacon, Glenda Drummond – were still yet to be a presence.

Craik Street had just evolved from a dirt path beside “Northern Circle ( the domain of Glen Finnerty, Susan Wilding, Gary Roundtree and Andrew and Kaj Larsen) to become a street connected to Saint Francis street -which only went up as far as Maple at this time.

We were vaguely aware that Indians lived nearby, but our exposure to that culture was mostly through movies featuring Ronald Reagan and other celluloid icons.

My dad had been a lacrosse player for Verdun. He bought his sticks in Kahnawake. Later when he began to teach me this game, he brought me over to Kahnawake to a sport shop owned by Mr. Two Rivers. While Mr. Two Rivers and my father chatted, I took my stick outside. I met a boy who told be I could braid the leather strands that came out the bottom of the ‘basket’. This was my first contact with a new (actually a much older) culture. I liked this village. People were friendly –they seemed to really ‘know’ each other when they stopped to talk and pass the time of day. I enjoyed that brief glimpse of their world.

In grade 8 (1969), the people of Kahanwake, (Kahnawakero:no) consented to have their children, (many who already attended school in Lachine), go to HS Billings. Whether we know it or not, due to their consent, we were indeed privileged to acquire a very real educational experience the "school of life”. We were (through this experience) enabled to widen our cultural horizons.

It was at this time, both in the United States and Canada the concept of integration and “inclusiveness” found it’s way into the High School system. We were in the throws of an alleged “age of Aquarius”. New ideas and courage were needed by all. HSBillings at that time, was bussing students in from St.Tmothy, Beauharnois, Maple Grove and needed numbers to fill this “Regional” institution.

I noted that those from Chateauguay, who wore fear of this integration openly, had rougher times than those who used their sense of humour, or became involved in “common activities” – football, wrestling, field hockey and athletics.

I made new friends –many; names like Beauvais, Snow, Loft, Rice, Deere, Deerehouse and many others entered into my lexicon.

It could not have been easy for these children of Kahnawake to enter this place of East,West,North and South Wings –especially with some very uniquely behaved adolescents on our paler side of the cultural equation. It would take time and some very real ‘human dynamics’ and empathy on all sides to reach a working balance.

Was high school easy?
No! Everyone who enters high school no matter where or when, are at a very sensitive stage of their own personal evolution.

Where does a school spirit come from?
Individual students? The times we live in? Is it bottom up or top down in nature?

What is a “Good Old Days Theme”?
Simply remembering the "good"? Simply engaging in nostalgic gibberish?
Would it be of particular benefit to focus on the negatives of adolescent behavior? Are negative stories from the past what we wish to focus on at a Reunion? I doubt it.

What Makes A High School?
Is it the teachers? The administration? The mass of students? The programs? The white or blue collar nature of the working environment surrounding it?

Community Makes a High School
I had neighbors, friends and acquaintances who made up our common communities and High School, who led by example; good people with good names - such as Stevens, Reid, Oliver, Hart, O’Hanley, Kane, McComber, Lamarre, Houston, Lahache, Hillock, Johnson, Keipert, Ghorayeb, Darcy, McManus, Stark, Montour, Zimmerman, Gurholt, Bobbitt, Noble, Seary, Maclean, Bates, Allen, Rennie, Kaye, Holden, O’Connor, D’Aguilar, Pinter, Muir, Williams, Goodfellow, Markhauser, Parent, Culham, Lee, Robichaud, Cutway, Mackenzie, Poirier, Perry, Gulkin, Artagnan, McKee, Spratt, Burton, Dempster, Bennett, Jones, Young and Toth to name only a few.

Their parents passed on an element of strength to their children – positive attitude- to compete, to persevere, to be strong in character and to survive.

We had some excellent teachers – Howes, Dawson, Green, McElrea, Mahabir, Thomas, Calder, Bush, Munkittrick, Elias, Radakir, Maynes, Proulx, McKesey, Strike, Falcon (to name only some.)

This Reunion ‘movement’ has already become a positive experience, for many who have begun to use it as a point of reference for where they are and where they have come from – from the adolescents they once were, to the evolved and mature adults they are now (well o.k., most of them).

As a participant, it is those of positive attitude I wish to see, those who recognize that this event is not simply a nostalgic look at a contrived ‘Polyanna’ past, but rather a celebration of who we are now as adults some 30-35 years later.

There are those (not many) who wish to remind me that the “good old days” were actually –for them in particular, -the “bad old” days. I think we already know and remember the ‘bad’ as all high school students must.

We can go back to a litany of things:
- remember the loneliness, until our FRIENDS found us.
- remember the bullying by those who had trouble within themselves and at home.
- remember certain racial tensions for those who had not been prepared by parents to be open minded.
- remember that some teachers were really not cut out to teach and had to find out by experience.
-we remember that some students were neither ‘ready ‘nor properly trained at the art and skill of ‘learning’ but could they ever distract.

High School was and is a system, just as society is a set of cultural sub-systems. To make it work, one needs the ‘right attitude’.

To enjoy a Reunion, we go back, visit the physical structure for an hour or so, perhaps bump into someone pleasantly remembered – perhaps one last time – and then we leave it, once more – to retire to the reception and celebrate life in the "HERE & NOW, with old friends and acquaintances.

The Reunion is a way of recognizing and then burying the past- one last time with those who will perhaps derive some of the greatest ‘meaning’ by seeing “you” in particular, -that you have actually grown older and perhaps, - wiser.

Of course one can always announce that one is not going, and then proceed to take pot shots at it – so much for wisdom. What is gained by this? (Misery loves company?)

For some it is more comforting to remember and nurse the hurt.
Ah well, -It takes all kinds to make a world.

What “kind” are you these days?

Look at the pictures above. Here are some who have "become".