{"id":6769,"date":"2020-12-04T12:06:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T17:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=6769"},"modified":"2020-12-04T12:12:53","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T17:12:53","slug":"episode-185-history-department-parkdale-collegiate-institute-circa-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=6769","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 185 HISTORY DEPARTMENT PARKDALE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE CIRCA 1980"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 185  HISTORY DEPARTMENT    PARKDALE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE   CIRCA 1980<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
dec.  2020<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
left to right, back row: Gerry Wagner, Frank Bitonti, Susan Gilmour, Sam Markou, Terry Wickstrom<\/div>\n
front row left to right: John Maize, Lynne Roddick, Alan Skeoch, Phil Sharp<\/div>\n
(picture taken at Centre Island fun park for kids)<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
When I was hired as a history teacher at Parkdale Collegiate Institute there were two great educators involved\u2026John Ricker and Evan Cruickshank.<\/div>\n
Both of them said the same thing.  \u201cAlan, if you take the job at Parkdale you will never leave.\u201d  It seemed strange since both of these people<\/div>\n
did not know each other well.  \u2026both heads of history departments and both eventually teachers of teachers<\/div>\n
at the Faculty of  Education.  My thought? \u201cThese guys must know what they are talking about.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
So I took the job and  never looked back.   No other job in education appealed to me.  The students at Parkdale were family.<\/div>\n
The kind that punched  you on the shoulder and said \u201cGood  morning, sir\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
I think this photograph says it all.  We loved teaching.  We loved each other.  We loved Parkdale.   And let me add with pride<\/div>\n
\u2026I think we did a good job with our kids.   <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Especially when we came to school dressed  like the picture above. (not true)<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Each face is  a story.  But let me tell one story about a teacher that could  have been ignored.  Gerry Wagner, with the<\/div>\n
Coonskin Cap.  His family once owned  a factory in, I believe, Czechslovakia.  World War II intervened and the factory was<\/div>\n
seized.  Somehow the Wagners escaped.  Gerry ultimately got a job at Parkdale.  A quiet man.  We called him \u2018the Wag\u2019.<\/div>\n
He was a great poker player.  Bob  Marshall and  George Stavropoulos (not in picture) tried to bluff Gerry in a game we called<\/div>\n
East York #$%$    Gerry took their money.  The poker game was so silly that it is worth describing.  Each player took a<\/div>\n
card face down and put the card on his forehead.  Then the betting began to force others out of the game.  Bob and  George were<\/div>\n
determined to make Gerry fold (even though Gerry held a king or an ace)\u2026they upped the anti, again and again.  Gerry took<\/div>\n
all them money.  And he grinned\u2026a quiet grin. Any man that had escaped Nazi Germany could not be bluffed.  We played<\/div>\n
that poker game in our old farm house. Some beer may have been involved.  Good times.  Nickel dime poker\u2026no one loses much.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Sounds silly?  Each of these people could be a story as silly as the story about Gerry.  Let the good times roll, as they say.  Before Gerry died he bought me a<\/div>\n
wooden fish from Mexico.  It sits  above my head right now.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
So I owe much to John Ricker and Evan Cruickshank\u2026and to Parkdale.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Dec.  2020   <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODE 185  HISTORY DEPARTMENT    PARKDALE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE   CIRCA 1980 alan skeoch dec.  2020 left to right, back row: Gerry Wagner, Frank Bitonti, Susan Gilmour, Sam Markou, Terry Wickstrom front row left to right: John Maize, Lynne Roddick, Alan Skeoch, Phil Sharp (picture taken at Centre Island fun park for kids) When I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}