Mice, milk and memories - a recollection of KHS from Larry Sharpe
I recently stumbled on the KHS Days site and of course I find it very interesting, even though the period I was there seems vacant. Maybe I can fill in a gap or two.
Rev. Horsefield in the 1936 school photograph. Click photo to enlarge
I don't remember if we passed Stratford (Ontario) station, or if he left the train there, but we did comment on Stratford House and the Avon Stratford where we (hitch)hiked to for play going. The Stratford (Ont) Shakespeare Festival, now famous, was just starting then, in some vacant railway sheds.
Miss Horsefield, his sister, was one of my first teachers. We had a map of Ireland,- she explained something about the country and told us to fill in the towns, rivers and so forth. I located Dublin on an island out at sea. Miss Horsefield tried to correct my slip. I still see her somewhat bemused look - how could she ever get across to this odd newcomer?
After the war John Woollan was the headmaster. During the mid-morning break we had a run round the rugby field (unless it was raining hard) then we drank a carton of milk with a thick topping of cream. The carton was a waxed pre-tetra pak container. One day there was a carton with a hole above the milk level which could only be the work of a rodent. Alarm. John Woollan came along, gave us a short talk - I imagine about the docile nature of local mice - opened the carton and drank the milk down to the last drop. No more alarm.
On another occasion we were all seated for an exam, everyone seemed to have a cough or at least a sore throat. Mr Woollan asked if anyone needed medical attention or a cough lozenge. No takers. So no coughing or throat clearing would be called for. The exam was enjoyed in silence.
I was glad to leave the Hill in 1951 and didn't get to appreciate my school years, and the school itself, until the 1970s when I joined the teaching world here in Spain. (State secondary high schools). There's a lot to be said for a student to be responsible for sweeping, washing, helping with kitchen chores. And sewing buttons, darning socks, shining shoes. And organized letter writing. And digging drainage ditches in the cricket (or was it the rugby?) field after the final exams in my last summer.
And a few questions. Whatever made them sell off Plymouth? How about the orchard? And Stratford? And the farm land? There must be other survivors of the 40s/50s. Try to track them down!
Larry Sharpe was at KHS between 1940-1951
A note added in postscript from John Glover. "I have a vivid memory of the Rev. Horsefield with his interesting moustache which I think hid a mild deformity of the upper lip (hare-lip?). He returned to the school on one occasion after John Woollan was the Warden and gave a sermon with the text 'Its not what you want: its what you want to want'. Must have made an impression on me!".
