what i remember

Mountainview road was aptly named. At one time from anywhere along its length Mount Saint Hilaire was completely visible. Mount Saint Hilaire is a beautiful little mountain a smidge over 400 meters high a few kilometers removed from the Richelieu river. The area is apple country. There are orchards everywhere between Mount Saint Hilaire, Rougemont and Mount Yamaska and regardless of the time of year it has always been picturesque country.

Between Prince Edward and Clifton and fronting on Mountainview is the low slung building of St. Martin’s Church. How old the building is, is anyone’s guess but it has the look and feel of something that was constructed in the nineteen sixties. At one time it housed not only a remarkably large group of regularly attending English parishoners it also housed a kindergarten which was connected to Mountainview elementary school. It was at St. Martin’s that my first memories of school were formed. We were housed in the basement of the church and I attended in the morning with one group while another group took our place in the afternoon.

Kindergarten is a vague memory really but there are some things I remember. Cheryl Morrison and Yvonne Laurin appointed themselves my protectors. Why they were my protectors I do not know but they were my best friends in elementary school. Really though I wanted to be friends with the other boys. Stephen Pennell was the coolest kid in class that much I do remember. Then there was a kid named Doug who had the blackest hair I had ever seen. I remember doing the hokey pokey, singing the colour song which was really just singing the names of colours, jingle bells batman smells, and nap time. I also remember this cool little patch of ice that was on the lot next door to the church in the winter. We had epic battles over the control and use of that little patch of slippery surface. The teacher banned us from playing on it and when Stephen, myself and one other boy who I don’t really remember (could have been Michael Richmond) were caught we were threatened with a spanking. We were all marched into the boys room where we full expected to have to drop trow and take a licking but as it turned out it was all sound and fury but it still had us crying – not that we admitted it.

That is pretty much it. Not much considering it probably represented a whole nine months of my life but really I don’t recall anything else about kindergarten – not even the taking of the class photo or the teacher’s name.

For those of a certain age who are familiar with the town of Otterburn Park  the name of Mountainview Elementary is mentioned the place that comes to mind is a two story brick structure along Chemin des Patriotes where the black ties of the railroad stand out in sharp contrast to the grey granite supporting the bridge over the road. Chemin des Patriotes used to be called Richelieu Boulevard back then. The building itself was rechristened Apple Valley Elementary School some years back as the former Mountainview High School took over the job of being an elementary school for the Protestants in the town of Otterburn Park.

There is a long and no doubt interesting history behind the religious division of schools in Quebec but that is for the historians. My history may have been effected by those things but at the time I had no real knowledge of them. To me there was just school.