Last month Lady Grey School celebrated an anniversary. One hundred years since the opening of Lady Grey School in Golden. Along with the celebration it is the intention of the principal and staff to honour the school’s first 100 years with an exhibit inside the front door of the school. Pictures will be added to aid in the story telling process. A book containing past, present and future student and teachers memories, will be an important part of the exhibit.

That’s where you all come in! If you were a student, teacher, janitor, secretary of Lady Grey Elementary School, even through the years it was Golden Elementary we want to hear from you. Share with us your photographs and stories in whatever form you are comfortable with. Write it down, send us an email or give us a call, but please participate so that the history that is on exhibit represents everyone who attended the school. Call the museum at 344-5169, email us at museum@redshift.bc.ca or send us a letter at Box 992, Golden, BC V0A 1H0. If you would like to contribute but don’t know where to begin we have a list of questions that you could use to help inspire your memories.

We have a couple of months to put this together but you all know how fast time can get away from us so please don’t wait too long. To aid you in the kinds of stories we are looking for here is a bit of the history that was written by Ken Clippingdale.

My first teacher in Golden was one whose name I cannot recall. Suffice to say that she was very pretty with her stiff collar, red blouse and flowing black skirt. My next teahcer was Miss Mae Johnson who very kindly bestowed a Roll of Honour Certificate on me for Deportment, the only one in that status I received. The next teacher for a short period was a Miss McKenzie who was quite a disciplinarian.

However, it was as a disciplinarian that she excelled. She would leave the room and then very quietly enter through one of the doors. If she saw any sign of disorder from a pupil, she would pussy foot to where the victim was seated, pick him out of his seat by his collar, and, being quite muscular, have him dangling in space and then start twirling him around at an accelerated pace. At the correct number of RPMs she would let him go, and quite often the victim would end up banging against a desk.

She and Mr. Landells, the principal, had a feud going on between them. She was a great believer in taking her pupils for a walk in the morning, which did not coincide with his views. He would come into the classroom soon after school started in the morning, and say “Miss McKenzie, I do not wish you to take the children for a walk this morning.” He would barely have the words out of his mouth before “Shunt McKenzie” would say “Hats and cats, children” and would stream past the disgruntled principal.

I remember during the winter when the snow was deep, one of her pupils had broken her idea of rules and conduct. This time she lifted him out of her school bench, grabbed him by the seat of the pants, and told him if he did not promise to behave, she would let him drop from the second floor window into the deep snow.

My next teacher in Division 3, was like the calm after the storm, and was a very good teacher, a Mr. L. Richardson. I received my second Roll of Honour for Proficiency from him. He was Australian.

In the Junior and Senior Third Grades was a Mr. M.W. Mitchell, a good teacher and good disciplinarian, as many puffed up palms of hands that had been caressed by belting showed. I still have kind thoughts of him when I see the Roll of Honour.

Last but certainly not least, for a teacher, was Mr. Landells, the Principal of Lady Grey School. He would leave the classroom by one door, and then after a comparatively long period, would enter the room by the other door to the back of the pupils. Woe begone the pupil who was doodling and dawdling, The first thing he knew was two strong crossed fingers poking him in the side of the head, and gradually forcing his head against the desk with a bang, and a stern admonition of, “see, see.”

When cold weather hit each year, Mr. Brown, the janitor, was often too busy trying to get heat going at Lady Grey School to get things started at the little one room High School. Henry Scovil and I were generally requested to try to get some heat going until Mr. Brown arrived. On one occasion when the temperature was below zero, we were all sitting in our desks with coats and mittens on. Mrs. Lockwood, requested Henry and I go down to the furnace room and try to get some heat coming up through the register. On getting downstairs we both decided that for the good of the slower pupils, that we had no alternative, but produce a situation whereby school would be dismissed. So with lots of partly dry cedar, and after it got started burning we slowly closed the chimney damper. On coming upstairs we found the classroom enveloped in smoke, and as we looked so innocent, and Mrs. Lockwood had no solution, she dismissed school for the day. However, I must say that Henry and I felt we had saved many pupils from freezing to death.