Note: POSTSCRIPT: Next Episode will be memories of football at HCI. Sound boring?
Not so. 1) “Now Alan, if Eric starts convulsions, shove this needle into his arm immediately.”
2) “The blood was seeping through the cast as I got on the streetcar.”
3) “How was the game boys?” “Eric got into an accident,” and I Threw his crushed helmet up the stairs
4) Beer in a violin case thanks to Jarring Jack Osmond — who was suspended
5) Wrong Way Cush (how he earned his name)
6) “He started to twitch and foam at the mouth,” Burf put a pen across his mouth to save his tongue
7( Playing football should attract the girls. A false statement that we believed.
8) Alan, you must be suspended like the others.” “Thank you Mr. Couke…thank you, thank you”
EPISODE 912 HUMBERSIDE OLD BOYS REUNION — NOV. 8, 2032
I Am a joiner as are the eight Humberside C.I Old Boys in this picture.
Why did we join this elect group of 80+ year old club. We enjoyed high
school….liked our teachers (most of them) and liked each other.
THE HUMBERSIDE OLD BOYS REUNION (RIGHT TO LEFT) — MARINO BASADUR, GARY LOGAN, ZIG NOVAK, (host) THE RODIN BROTHERS,
GORD NICHOLS (chairman), ALAN SKEOCH,
PHOTOGRAPHER, THOM NORRIS (above left) see note from Thom in postscript
ABSENT — BOB CWIRENKO, RON CLARK, JEFF SCOTT, JOHN FUTA, ROB WILDMAN and others
ONLY 8 OF US HERE TODAY (NOV. 8, 2023)
We meet two to three times a year when Gord Nicholls and Zig Novak can get this lunch
table at the Burlington Golf Club. That’s a long way from HCI and West Toronto. Very few people even
know we exist…or care. We have no grand project now in 2023.
In past years we were a much larger group…perhaps 20 or so. and we began just to meet once more with
our football coach Fred Burford and Track and Drama coach Dunc Green and basketball coach Big Al Merritt.
Those fellows have departed this world now but we remember them still. We remember lots of things
that bring us together. One of the Rodin brothers does an imitation of Les Devitt, an HCI math
teacher who had idiosyncrasies.
My memory of Mr. Devitt is slightly profane. He was checking homework …moving down
the fifth row of seats where Christine Skironsky sat. She had a particularly low cut blouse
on that day. I noted thins like that. I was not alone. As Mr. Devitt approached the low cut
blouse, he said “What have you got there”
Christine shrieked and put her hands against that blouse. The class went wild. I think Mr.
Devitt put a couple of us in the hall. I am not sure if he knew why we were laughing.
I honestly believe he had no idea but I could be wrong
When Devitt retired I was asked to give a speech honouring him. “Be funny, Alan.”…said Roberta
Charlesworth, our English teacher. She knew there were many stories about him. I did a little research and
discovered Les Devit was a test pilot in World War I. If he thought an airplane was not
good enough then he brought it down to a very hard landing…a damaging landing.
Why? Because he did not want young pilots to be endangered. We never knew this
courageous side of Mr. Devitt. No one laughed as he sat on the stage. All applauded. Some with
tears in their eyes. Even Christine Skironsky who never wore that blouse again. I would have
noticed.
Stories like this have been shared over and over again by the fellows. Les profane.
We are all in our late 80’s now. Real Old Boys. Some have departed. Some are ill.
Some live far away. Some, no doubt, do not have fond memories of high school. Our
own two boys do not have this nostalgia. They never mention high school days as we
do. Too bad.
alan
November 15m 2023
POSTSCRIPT: Next Episode will be memories of football at HCI. Sound boring?
Not so. 1) “Now Alan, if Eric starts convulsions, shove this needle into his arm immediately.”
2) “The blood was seeping through the cast as I got on the streetcar.”
3) “How was the game boys?” “Eric got into an accident,” and I Threw his crushed helmet up the stairs
THOM NORRIS REMEMBERS
HUMBERSIDE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE
From infancy, Humberside Collegiate Institute was part of my life. I remember my mother in long gowns going to the At Home dances and bringing home hats, horns and treats. The Toltons, Wismers,(relatedto us) bachelor and later married Stuffy MacInnis, LaPierres, Devitts, Coukes, Talbots, Cruikshanks ( related to us),)Maclellans and more were on our doorstep as almost family., All were my teachers.. The wives were like a club. Noreen Couke, Helen Tolton, Ellen Wismer , Mrs. Talbot and others were like sisters .d_The McHoull’s lived in the apartments at Clendenan and Bloor and paid $9 per month rent frozen during the war and said they had so little furniture they kept their Christmas tree up for months.. My father joined the Humberside staff in 1922. In 1952, upon graduation, I received the Alumni Award before heading to Normal School.
Helen Tolton and Doris Norris were my Sunday School teachers at High Park United, the largest Sunday School of any denomination in the British Empire when my dad was Superintendent of the Sunday School in 1934 when I was born. 800 soldiers came out of HPU and Alhambra United ( our H.C.I. 125th Anniversary venue in 2017)including my brother John born in 1925. Everyone lived nearby and either walked to H.C.I. or drove, as when Dad was in shock that Romeo La Pierre moved across the Humber to Glenaden bordering on Park Lawn Cemetery. He would have to drive to work Dad said in amazement , as he couldn’t understand why anyone moved to the Burbs with no transit nor sidewalks nor stores to which to walk . Why was I not so wise? Especially why would anyone want to give up High Park ???. 60 Pacific Avenue was 12 houses from my extended playground-High Park.
It was after the war that immigrants flocked to High Park as was typical of European culture. All Toronto teachers’ cheques were deposited by the Toronto Board of Ed.in the Bank of Toronto on the north-east side of Keele and Dundas. The Manager was their financial advisor.After the war he advised ones like Romeo La Pierre to get a new house in Etobicoke since with immigration from Europe to disturb our British milieu ,Polish and Ukrainians were willing to pay $6200 for the old three story houses in High Park./Runnymede.
It is interesting on this Victoria Day weekend that I have the Union Jack flying out front that fluttered on the eves of 60 Pacific Ave. along with all other loyalists with the same, t hat has fluttered over 4 Coronations in 1936,1937, 1952 and 2023.
GOD SAVE THE KING
HELEN IVENS REMEMBERS
You write a great story Al. I’m sure your 300 pager was unique also. Who knew that you and I tackled a Master’s degree about the same time – mine an M. ED. at OISE, Computers in Education. I was on a 12 year “sabbatical” raising our 2 girls and when ready to teach again, there were no jobs available, so I looked to the future to upgrade my qualifications. It ultimately worked and I got in 13 more years to add to the earlier 13.
My husband, Bob, would have been very interested in your grad degree, as he worked at Massey Ferguson for a time in the 60’s and turned down a move to Desmoine Iowa. Whenever we travelled, he was on the lookout for Massey equipment that he might recognize. It finally happened in 2000, when he saw an ancient looking tractor in a field in Western Turkey and yup – it was a Massey. Then we saw a bright new one at an Outdoor Museum in the same area. It made his trip!
Coincidently, my dad, Tom, had also worked for Massey Harris, as it was then, when my sisters and I were little tots. Even a math teacher couldn’t stretch an end of June pay cheque to the end of September and that’s how he got us through the summer for a few years. I’m sure dad would have loved your agricultural treasures and might have even read your whole 300 pages, if he’d still been around. That was the total of my agricultural experience – more or less.
Keep them coming Al. Your slice of life is unique and quite fun and interesting to read.
Helen
alan skeoch
Feb. 3, 2023