The last Heritage Paper in this series on the old Waterdown Public and High School that was located in Sealey Park is written after spending an afternoon reminiscing with Mrs. Hazel Hough of Aldershot. As Hazel Dale, daughter of Waterdown merchant Alfred Dale, she grew up in the village and remembers many of the old-time residents and incidents such as the Waterdown Fire of 1922.
Mrs. Hough was born during the first decade of the twentieth century on Pig Lane, Flamborough Centre. The family moved to Waterdown a couple of years after she was born when her father went into business, operating a grocery store at a couple of locations on Dundas Street. After the Great Waterdown Fire of 1922, her father sold his store to Wilf Langford. The two gentlemen shared the premises for a number of years, Mr. Dale still with his Grocery Store on one side, Mr. Langford with his Drug Store on the other. Eventually the Dale family left the village, moving to Galt, then Brantford and finally to Hamilton. When they left, Langford’s Drugstore took over the whole store at the corner of Main Street North and Dundas Street and remained there for over 50 years.
Hazel received all her education at the old Public and Waterdown High School, but because of the controversy surrounding the last years of the school at Sealey Park, she attended classes at a variety of locations. She began school following her sixth birthday, entering the Kindergarten class of Miss Buchanan. This was located downstairs in the Public School section. She remembers the Junior classrooms were warmed by large pot-bellied stoves, which the Senior boys brought wood for. All the teachers in the Junior School section were spinster ladies, most of them were very strict but fair, and under the direction of the principal, Mr. A. E. Smith.
Since the Public School was a village school only, everyone walked to school. Mrs. Hough recalled that school was never cancelled because of bad weather during the years that she attended. When walking became difficult, sleighs were used. The school year ran from September to July, but there were very few holidays for the students to look forward to. There were no P.D. days, or Spring Break and the only odd days of holidays came at Thanksgiving and Good Friday. Even so, Mrs. Hough remembered that attendance was very good, there was virtually no truancy and only when there was illness did children miss school.
Everyone was made aware of how important school was, even in the Junior classes. Good marks were required to get into High School, so if marks were poor, students were made to repeat the year’s work before moving on. As a result there were often one or two older students in each class. The school leaving age was 16 years, and although many students came from families who were experiencing financial difficulties following the end of World War I, their parents struggled to allow them to have at least a couple of years of High School.
The subjects taught in both the Junior and Senior classes were strictly academic. The three Rs were taught every day, with time also given to such subjects as History and Social Studies. The only science taught in the Public School was Botany. Other subjects were Art and Singing, and for girls there were needlework and cooking classes and Household Science in the last year. The students purchased all their own exercise books and supplies, but textbooks were provided by the School Board. After only a couple of years, students wrote their lesson with pen and ink – each school desk having a small stoneware inkwell that required constant filling!!!
Discipline in school was strict, teachers allowed little time for play, except at recess. Boys were often punished with the strap across their hand, and while the girls were not physically punished, they were made an example of, by being made to stand in the corner, or by time spent writing lines on the blackboard. Even the failure to complete homework assignments often resulted in punishment.
When Mrs. Hough entered High School, classes were held on the top floor of the new Waterdown Public School on Mill Street North. She spent three years there with classes in French, Latin, Science (Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Zoology), English, Mathematics, History and Geography. Most students carried eight or nine subjects each year, so there was little time for educational outings or visits to points of interest during the school year. There were concerts and plays produced by the students with staff supervision, but there were no organized school sports teams competing against other schools.
Many of the older students in High School played sports outside school, especially Baseball. There were even Baseball teams for girls to play on and compete against other village teams. Many of the older students had part time jobs. Hazel delivered groceries for her father in the evenings after school and on Saturdays. She used a small wagon for her route of Vinegar Hill, Parkside Drive and Snake Road in the early years, but later was allowed to drive the family car.
At the end of her third year in High School, Mrs. Hough left because of a job opportunity that was available. She went to work at the Waterdown Telephone Exchange which was housed in the Kirk Hotel. It had originally been in her father’s business, but was destroyed in the 1922 fire and relocated in the hotel before Mr. Dale rebuilt the store. Some of her friends returned for a final year of High School before going to Business College, Teacher’s College or work in Hamilton, but many who were fortunate to find work took jobs and said good-bye to school.
© The Waterdown-East Flamborough Heritage Society 1996, 2022.
