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Taking a break after decorating the community hall are former Stony Mountain School pupils Jack Wilson from Dartmouth Nova Scotia, Alwyn Ammeter, Marg Smith, Shirley Esaruk and Hank Ammeter.Mountain students back at schoolBY KELLY UNGEVINThere were the three R*s, the biffy toilets, the squeeky chaulk boards, and the infamous strap.Some of the things present-day students only read about in history books that were all part of school life for former pupils of the Stony Mountain School.About 300 former students and staff gathered near the former site of the building to recollect the learning years of their childhood.They came from all across North America - from Vancouver to Nova Scotia, to California and all points in between.They came back to remember a place that no longer physically exists - but still exists in their hearts and memories.Re-unitedAfter a hard-day’s work decorating the Stony MountainCommunity hall Joyce Campbell prepares to head home toprepare supper, when suddenly a familiar face walks through the hall doors.She stares at the tall grey-haired fellow for a minute - he looks back.“ Do I know you? ’ * asks the grey-haired man.“I know you,** responds Campbell.Suddenly the recognition comes back to Bob Colosimo who hasn’t seen his school mate Joyce Campbell for untold years.“No one looks the same/* he laughs, as the two school chums hug like long-lost relatives.A different placeIt was a scene repeated several times throughout the reunion weekend. Catching up on old stories of playground antics, class clowns, teachers, principals, school sports.Marg Smith can remember school being a very different place then than it is today - not just for the students but for the teachers as well.They had to behave themselves/ * says Smith, and not about the students. “Teachers were under the watchful eye of the parents. You were supposed to be above reproach/*Students were also kept orderly in the days. If they got out of line, the strap was still the means of discipline.But Jack Wilson, who left Stony Mountain School in 1941, can still remember some of the shenanigans he and his friends would pull off.Wilson remembers the water pipes in the school being made of galvanized steel, such that the water running through the pipes created static clcctricity.MOn wet days you used to get an awful shock, so we used to line up with one guy holding the pipe. When a guy wouldcome by you'd grab him, (giving him a shock)/*Hie former student also remembers the teachers letting the class rush outside to watch airplanes fly by.Pen schoolThe school was populated mostly by village children whose fathers worked at the Pen. Some kids, however, rode by horse to school, parking their horses in Mr. Snell *s bam. There were no school buses, and as the story is often told to their children, students really had to walk miles to get to school in those days.Wilson remembers school books being well kept in those days because they had to be purchased, then resold the next year to upcoming students.Marg Smith and Jack Wilsonalso remember the extracurricular activities - baseball, soccer, skating, hockey, curling, and the Christmas plays in the auditorium upstairs.There were no school dances, instead house parties were the rage with a few kids in the crowd playing the violin, trumpet, clarinet, - all the big band instruments to provide the entertainment.In 1939 the school took the longest field trip they ever had - to West Kildonan Park to watcl; Queen Elizabeth pass by on the train.Over the weekend the were a hundred stories told about the school, but more specifically, about the people who inhabited it’s walls up until March, 1955 when the ‘old Stone School/ burnt down.During the weekend tours were held around the village, the Pen, and Oak Hammock Marsh.On Saturday morning a pancake breakfast, and Saturday night a supper and dance in the community hall.On Sunday, many former friends and renewed acquaintances said goodbye. Goodbye not just to old friends they haven’t seen for many years, but goodbye to their school years remembered for one weekend.The old stone schoolStony Mountain School was built in 1909 -a four-room, two-storey building made of local limestone from the quarries.The school was constructed mainly for children of ‘Pen reserve’ staff.Staff of Stony Mountain Penitentiary were required to live in Stony Mountain at the time, whereas the village’s economy was solely dependent on the Pen. Hie school was built on the boundary of the Reserve and the village property, where the present-day curling rink sits.The two storey school consisted of four rooms. The west room held grades one to six while the cast room was for grades seven to 11.The village grew and diversified with the arrival of farm children and quarry worker kids inhabiting the village and attending Stony Mountain School. In 1929 four more rooms were added at a cost of$20,000and the second fl(xr was used as a community auditorium with social functions and concerts performed there.In the early years of the school it had few amenities. Biffies were located outside in thesummer while chemical toilets were in the basement for winter use. Eventually thechemical toilets were used year round.A hand-cranked pump with a crock was used for drinking water. The building was heated by steam pipes.But the school did have a chemistry lab -one of the more modem amenities of rural schools in those days.Stony Mountain School taught to grade 11, one of the few high schools in small rural communities at the time. After which some students, although few, commuted by street car to Stonewall Collegiate for grades 12.Miss Nesbitt, Eva French, Alice Willis, Isabel Dawson, Jennie Montgomery and Mr. Robinson were some of the many teachers of the school. Mr. S. Burland was a well-known principal.A sad day in the community, the Stony Mountain School burnt down in 1955. 'Hie fire eminated from the chemistry lab, although it is suspected the cause was an electrical problem.It was replaced by another school, the present Stony Mountain School which teaches elementary and junior high grades. The former Stony Mountain School, ‘old Stone School* as it is affectionately known, was replaced by the curling rink that stands today.
Newspaper Details
Stonewall Argus and Teulon Times
Stonewall, Manitoba, CA
Tue, Aug 03, 1993
Page 14
Full Page
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CA 22 May 2020
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