Class of 1959: Frogs, friends and firsts
Early grads reflect on the year Sir John Franklin High School first opened its doors
Elaine Anselmi
Northern News Services
Friday, April 17, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Dressed in pale pinks, blues and whites, with high heels and pink flower pins, the original graduates of Sir John Franklin High School are lined up on either side of their teacher, Mrs. (Zaida) Douglas, in 1959.
Sipping Coca-Cola at a slumber party are Hilda Moellenbeck (nee Schneiderling), Sylvia Wirth (nee Lemay), Lee Ross, Barbara Schneiderling and Phyllis La Fleur (nee Plaami). |
The class of seven women were the first to complete the academic program at the federal school, with several moving on to become teachers and nurses.
Having finished Grade 11 at the public school in the "new town" - moved from the original building on School Draw Avenue - they began their final year of high school when the doors to Sir John Franklin opened in 1958.
During that year there were academic pressures, social distractions and the many demands of a graduating student. There was also an assortment of memorable moments.
Moving in
Grade 12 was a stressful time says graduate Phyllis La Fleur, as construction of the new school was delayed and pushed into the school year.
"It was supposed to open the first day of school in September and didn't for at least a month or maybe two," said La Fleur.
"We were panic-stricken of course because in those days, departmental exams were it, it counted for 100 per cent of your grade."
Fellow student Hilda Moellenbeck doesn't distinctly recall starting the year early, only the excitement of moving to a new building for her Grade 12 year. That's not to say there weren't academic stresses - particularly when it came to the heavy weight of departmental exams.
Going into nursing school, Moellenbeck says she was relying on a mark of at least 50 per cent, but came out of her final math class with a 49.
"I had a real trauma because I didn't get my 50 per cent in math," said Moellenbeck.
"I was too much in love with my future husband or something."
Then-math teacher and vice-principal Dave Wattie co-ordinated summer programming for Moellenbeck and a few other students to bring their marks up.
"Mr. Wattie arranged for remedial math class in the summer of '59, so we could rewrite our departmental," said Moellenbeck.
"We sat through classes and he drilled us and we passed."
Leader of the pack
Every student has a memorable teacher - for the first grads of Sir John Franklin, the name Zaida Douglas, or Mrs. Douglas, came up repeatedly.
"Our science teacher - biology, chemistry, physics - Zaida Douglas, she had a whole pack of kids but when they got sufficiently old enough to be looked after by the oldest, she came back to teaching," said La Fleur.
"She was exceedingly knowledgeable in her field and we did really fascinating things like dissecting frogs, and we did pond studies and looked at what we could find."
For Sylvia Wirth (nee Lemay), memories of the school and its teachers were, simply put, wonderful.
"That's what I remember about it, the teachers were really great," said Wirth.
"Somehow or other from my point of view they encouraged us learning, yet it was OK to challenge them. We had some real arguments in social studies and all that but it was OK ... it was part of our learning experience. We weren't disrespectful but we challenged them and they challenged us back."
This back and forth, Moellenbeck says, was one of the positive experiences she attributes to her time in Mrs. Douglas' class.
"I thought she was an excellent teacher," says Moellenbeck.
"She sort of instilled a certain amount of curiosity in all of us in that academic stream."
Friends and free time
A black and white photograph shows the group of girls, dressed in pyjamas, scattered around the living room of Aurel and Annette Lemay's house in downtown Yellowknife.
The Lemays took custody of Wirth when her father was diagnosed and ultimately died of cancer - welcoming her and her friends into their home.
"They were newlyweds at the time," said Wirth.
"I was 11 years old when I went to live with them. They were just wonderful, they were like my parents and I never felt like I was encroaching on them."
Aurel is Wirth's oldest brother, having moved to Yellowknife from Lac La Biche, Alta. to work at the mines, while Annette moved up from Montreal - she was always helpful with French homework, La Fleur remembers.
She also recalls the pictured sleepover at the Lemays' house.
"We started off the pyjama party by tobogganing down the hill near Aurel and Annette's house," said La Fleur.
"By the time we came down the hill I landed on somebody's picket fence and I had a desperate crush on the boy who lived there - he didn't know I existed. I came barrelling down the hill tobogganing over the picket fence. It was humiliating. That was not quite the way to bring one's self to his attention.
"Then we decided that was enough it was cold that night - we repaired to Annette and Aurel's, warmed ourselves up and I tried to recover from my humiliation."
Social events
Events hosted through the school largely made up the students' social lives, and a significant one was the graduation ceremony for the class of '59.
"It was a fancy affair, we had the graduation dinner at the Gold Range cafe in the back," said Moellenbeck.
"After that, we had the grad dance. My future husband took me to that and it was the first time he had to wear a tie in his life."
Although he didn't attend the high school, Moellenbeck said she also invited her now-husband to a few school dances.
"I remember that about school dances - not specifically Sir John Franklin because this went on at Yellowknife Public, too - because it was a small school, there wasn't really that many students. We were always allowed to nominate a couple of fellows to come to school dances that weren't going to the school. We would have to - if we had eyes on certain guys - have to present these names to the principal. He would vet these people and make sure they were of somewhat stable character."
Trail breakers
In a handwritten letter to Yellowknifer La Fleur said she was surprised to hear some years later that the class of seven women remained something of a legend for the students that followed.
"Many years later, long after I had left Yellowknife for good (or bad), my younger sister astonished me to utter, absolute gob-smackedness by informing me that amongst her cohorts, herself included, we, the first class to graduate from SJFS, the Class of '59, were universally and profoundly loathed," wrote La Fleur.
"In a very few years (my sister was not quite five years my junior) after graduating, we had apparently become the stuff of Northern legend, glorious golden girls of a supposed golden age, our academic exploits, my sister said, cast before them like the proverbial pearls.
"As I sat there in 1959, had anyone told me I was some sort of legend in the making, I would have construed it as the cruelest and most wicked of jests."
