High School, 1960-1964

High School 1960-1964

My parents found the social demands were too great at Avenue Road, so we moved to the West end of Ottawa to Rushton Road.  I finished elementary school at D.Roy Kennedy and it was there that I first met Art Beers, my high school sweetheart. 

The next three years my dad stayed at Headquarters downtown and we were able to do a three year stretch at one school, Woodroffe High.

It was a new school.  I remember getting lost in it several times and fighting tears of frustration figuring out how to get from class to class. 

My favourite part was the walk to school.  You had to pass through a forest and I found that so enchanting.  It must have reminded me of the forests of my childhood and the ravine in France.  I loved the smell of the ground, the sounds of the birds, the shade of the magnificent trees.

The inevitable happened of course.  Progress. I remember the day I walked to school and the forest was gone.  I had that helpless feeling again and an emptiness filled me.  Eventually houses, cars and pavement replaced the forest and the earth.