Chapter 6: Grade 6
Grade 6 was not only my last grade in Elementary, but it was my first grade with a male teacher, Mr. Muir. I got a couple of field trips with my new T.A., Mrs. McArdle: First, to the Moncton Museum with a trip to McDonalds in the end for the Grimace Burger and Fries, and to City Hall to meet with our present mayor, Leopold Belleveau, which also ended with a trip to McDonald’s for the Grimace Burger and Fries.
I joined the school band, playing the xylophone.
Erin was playing basketball for house league and also her elementary team for her school, Hillcrest School, so I decided I would be like her and get into sports, so I started playing in the noontime intramurals for floor hockey, soccer, basketball, badminton, and volleyball. Sometimes I watched the sports, and sometimes my best friend in my class, Warren Pollard, and I would work the scoreboard in the gym.
Once again I went to Cubs and did the same things as last year.
Our Volvo 240 wagon was starting to go and we were borrowing Gramps’ Plymouth Reliant K car for things like grocery shopping and my piano lessons. We bought a new Jeep Cherokee, our first brand new car! Before this the cars we got were used and did not have the new car smell. This had 4-wheel drive and a radio just like Gramps’ car.
Mom started a job with a local cable channel narrating and interviewing people on a TV show called Medium Express on subjects like housing, the Hillsborough Choir, the Terry Fox Run, and lots of interesting subjects. I got credited as Production Assistant once.
Mrs. McArdle and I went to the movie theatre to see Homeward Bound and it was not only funny, but it was cute and I fell in love with Shadow, the optimistic wise old Golden Retriever, because he looked AND barked like our neighbor’s Retriever Toby, who was Simon’s sister from the litter.
Nicky, our mixed-breed dog was getting older, and he later passed away of old age. Later we got a Cocker Spaniel named Pete. Unfortunately, he could not be trusted near children, so he had to stay in the porch when children visited.
I had to leave school early before it ended for the summer so Mom and I could go by train to Montreal for auditory training with a doctor. Mom and I took the Metro and it was not only fun, but the names of the stops were again easy to remember. We stayed at a apartment belonging to a friend of Melody’s from her time at McGill University who had a Roland electric piano. Gram joined us for the time we were there. Later we started staying at a nearby Delta, swimming in their pool. At the auditory training doctor’s office they put a headset on my head and I listened for an hour to music, sounds heard on a Hallowe’en tape or CD, sounds from movies, and other kinds of sounds. We not only did that, but we shopped at toy stores, and a CD/Tape store with an instrument store with guitars, pianos, ukuleles, violins, and all kinds of instruments called Archambault and I bought the tape of the soundtracks to The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast.
Then we went by train further... to Toronto to have even MORE fun! We took the subways, at which the stops, again, were easy to remember. We also shopped and I bought a Lego set at the big Lego store. We went home after some time, and later Dad and Mom took the Jeep to drive us back to Montreal and we stayed at the Delta again, swimming in their pool again. And we shopped again. I joined a day camp at the Moncton Y.M.C.A. and there we swam in the pool, played gym sports like basketball and soccer, walked around the neighborhood, took the bus for field trips, and lots of other fun stuff, and I made friends, some of which I saw in the next grade of school.
Chapter 7: Grade 7
This was my first year of Junior High, which was very different from elementary, as I had a series of teachers for each subject.
My homeroom teacher’s name was Mrs. Parlee. She also taught art. I forget the name of my French teacher there. My shop teacher’s name was Mr. Landry. My Home Economics teacher’s name was Mrs. Marcel. My gym teacher’s name was Mr. Harwood. My science teacher was Mr. Brewer. I forget my social studies teacher’s name then.
The movie The Mighty Ducks came out and we watched the movie on VHS and one of the songs in the movie, Queen’s We Will Rock You got stuck in my head. It was playing on the radio at the Y.M.C.A. Day Camp. The movie was about hockey. And I was in my first year of Junior High when we first watched it. For that reason, now when I watch it I think of my Bessborough years and pull up the photos I have of that time.
I joined the school band again.
Once again I played and watched intramurals, and sometimes Warren and I would work the scoreboard.
The following Christmas I got the VHS Homeward Bound and again I loved the Retriever in the movie so much I would watch it with Simon next to me.
Erin again played house league basketball and also basketball for the Hillcrest basketball team.
Sometimes I went to Mrs. McArdle’s house a lot, and sometimes she and I would go to the Co-op and she would use her member number. Just to be clear, back then families who shopped at the Co-op were members, and they had their own member number, a 4-digit number. Mom and Dad’s number was 3942. Mrs. McArdle and I would go to her son’s basketball game for house league, and one time she and I went to one of her daughters’ basketball game, my first time at a high school basketball game, and that is when I learned what the referees’ signals meant for each call. She had 3 children. She also had a husband named Dan who played guitar. This house had a small keyboard, a Super Nintendo system, 2 TVs with VCRs, 2 acoustic guitars, and one Fender Mustang electric guitar with an amp. She also had 2 cars: A green 1980s Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme and a black 1992 Chevrolet Lumina.
The summer that followed, we were met with a surprise: Our MLA at the time had sold us a 1987 BMW 325i sedan, which we used to drive to a wedding and its reception. We also used this car to drive back and forth to a cottage we rented in a place near Shediac called Caissie Cape. We also drove this during this to Shediac to shop at the Co-op there and Shoppers, listening to the soundtrack to Grease on the BMW’s tape player. We also listened to Sleepless in Seattle and The Commitments in the car during drives.
Later we had our old friend Kelly join us for a trip to Charlottetown, P.E.I., and we went to Cow’s Ice Cream and went to Anne of Green Gables The Musical, and one of the songs from there, titled Ice Cream, got stuck in my head and got stuck in Kelly’s head. From that moment on, I would sing that number to get it in Kelly’s head as a joke.
Some family members later went whale watching, and for some reason I did not go, but on the bright side, Kelly stayed with me, and we drove to stores, her place, and her parents’ place in her Ford Tempo. At her parents’ place I fell in love with their Duck Tolling Retriever, Prince and played their keyboard. Then we went to the nearby Midnight Video, and since my family was whale watching, I thought it would be fitting to rent Free Willy, and the end song there, Michael Jackson’s Will You Be There got stuck in my head.