Grade 11 & 12 & Goodbye High School

Chapter 11: Grade 11

Grade 11 came very quickly.  It was a new school.  It had a pool, a gym, a cafeteria, and lots of fun things. 

They had a group that regularly met called S.T.A.R., an acronym standing for Students Together Against Racism.  We prepared poems, speeches, and songs, and one song was The Young Bloods’ Get Together which came up in Forrest Gump. 

We presented these at different schools all over New Brunswick and a school near Halifax called Cole Harbour High School, where there were lots of racial issues we had to address.  They already had their own S.T.A.R. committee and later they visited us, giving their own speeches and songs, and their finale song was John Lennon’s Imagine. 

Simon, our Golden Retriever was very old and was developing health issues that the Animal Hospital was overlooking, and he passed away.  He had been spending lots of time with Melody, who had a house near the church and near Riverview High School.  Sometimes when Melody would pick me up after school Simon would be at her side and we would walk to her house, get in her Toyota Tercel, and head home.  Sometimes we spent time together. 

I joined the school’s band and we played beautiful songs in practice and at important things like assemblies, games, and the Remembrance Day service in the theatre. 

I also regularly played guitar and sometimes piano at the coffee houses held in the school’s cafeteria. 

I joined the church’s youth choir.  Many members went to school with me.  They hosted parties in the hall with music, food, watching the movies Grease and That Thing You Do, and piano playing. 

Mom and I went to a used bookstore and I got a copy of Eric Knight’s Lassie Come-Home and I read this in school for English, and I was lost in the story.  I had been renting and watching a VHS of the 1994 movie Lassie in which a family moves from the city to the country, picking up the Collie of the title up and she helps turn things around with the family. 

I joined basketball for house league again. 

Later Mom, Dad, and I went to Halifax for the C.A.C.L. conferences at the Sheraton Casino Halifax Hotel.  I swam in the hotel’s pool.  There I went to HMV and used the listening stations there and bought Great Big Sea’s Play CD. 

I helped the school’s basketball team by keeping stats for each game. 

The Christmas that followed I got lots of CDs, one of which played at a Halloween party at the church hall.  I also got a hockey CD ROM game.  We got a video camera so as to film us family members for Gram who was getting very old and missed us.  We filmed Brennan while he was quite young, Erin playing basketball for Moncton High’s basketball team playing in Saint John, me playing basketball in house league in the final, me playing guitar and piano at some of the school’s coffee houses, the church choir singing beautiful anthems from sheet music Melody had ordered for us, and all our pets. 

My Birthday also came up and I got a camera to take pictures of things like basketball played by Erin, pets, and other family and events. 

The musical Annie came up at Moncton High and I saw the musical and during the scene where Annie adopts Sandy before being caught by the cop who takes her back to Miss Hannigan’s Orphanage, there were real live dogs, and one of them I had seen in Superdogs a couple summers ago.  Sandy was also played by a real live dog. 

Melody soon got a Golden Retriever puppy named Ben.  Later she got a piano for her house. 

Dillon soon had another one of his flyball matches, this time at Beausejour Curling Club, and he did very well, and I took some pictures of him and his teammates and his opponents. 

We also went to the Dog Show at an arena, which we saw every year.  I loved the Collies, the Shetland Sheepdogs, and the Retrievers. 

Pete, our Cocker Spaniel, developed health issues, which are popular with most Cockers, and he passed away. 

Summer came up and I got the yearbook, which also sometimes I pull out to remember those old times. 

I got a summer job with Future Shop, where I had gotten the CD player and the CDs the previous summer.  This was my first job, and I was to dust shelves at first, then move on to pricing things like CDs, video games, computer games, and VHS movies.  I also helped customers find a certain title or item.  I also helped customers try a certain CD they wanted before they bought it.  I also bought a few CDs with the money paid. 

Sometimes we took trips to Halifax, staying in the Holiday Inn Select, where we had stayed as kids.  We swam in the pool, went to HMV, went to Mountain Equipment Co-Op, and had great meals. 

Chapter 12:  Grade 12

This was my final grade of school, which was to be as heartfelt as my last year in Junior High. 

This time I got a Co-op Ed job with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, doing computer data for the company. 

Again I joined S.T.A.R. and the school’s band. 

Erin quit basketball and started doing theatre and musicals. 

This year the school had 2 productions, one she sat out, and one in which she was in. 

The first musical was called Forever Plaid, starring 4 men as a harmony group singing well known old songs as well as holiday hits. 

The second musical was Mame, which was well known for its music and its comical lines. 

Erin had the role of Pageen Ryan.  By now Brennan was learning to talk and sing, and Erin got him to sing some of the songs from this musical, which he remembered. 

This Christmas I got the book Floss, about a young Border Collie who loves to play with children and their soccer ball in a town’s park, but moves to the country to work with sheep and has to learn to take the place of an elderly Border Collie by herding sheep. 

I also got a huge dog book. 

Quite sadly, Ben was now 1 year old, but he developed a brain tumor, which caused him to turn on Emma, nearly killing her, and he had to be put down. 

Melody later got another young Retriever, this time a female named Mabel. 

She later met a man whom she saw a lot named Matt Taylor, who was currently in the war in Kosovo as a peacekeeper.  He later came home. 

Again sometimes we traveled to Halifax and stayed at the Holiday Inn Select, swimming in their pool. 

There we went to HMV and Mountain Equipment Co-op. 

Mom and I went to Fredericton to do some rehabilitation at a place called the Stan Cassidy Centre. 

They had a piano which I played, and at the nearby mall I bought the VHS of the 1994 movie Lassie, which I had mentioned earlier. 

Later a sequel to the Babe movie I had mentioned in a previous chapter came to VHS and I bought it, anxious as to what Fly and Rex the sheepdogs do and say. 

I borrowed Jennifer’s copy of Nop’s Trials and read it for English and noticed the language was similar to Lassie Come-Home. 

Both read like the King James Version of the Holy Bible. 

In Nop’s Trials the dogs talk like they are biblical characters in the King James Bible and in Lassie Come-Home most of the words look like those in the King James Version of the Holy Bible. 

Now comes the really heartfelt part.  The prom came up, which was really fun.  Then came the graduation.  It was a heartfelt goodbye to me blessed school years and friends. 

Melody and Matt took me to Greenwood, Nova Scotia, to stay a weekend in her house. 

There I watched Dr. Dolittle and That Thing You Do on their Sanyo TV and shopped at a local CD store, buying Grammy Nominees 1999 and U2’s Greatest Hits 1980-1999. 

Then a camping trip came up in Fundy National Park with Mel, Matt, and my fellow choir members, most of whom were school friends, although this turned out to be so much of a nightmare I could have sung the last part of the last verse of The Beach Boys’ Sloop John B. 

It was rainy and our tent was leaking and I was so wet I could have felt like Cameron felt all the time in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. 

There were hikes with Mabel, music listening, meals, BBQs, and singing together. 

I came home early, clothes very wet.

And as soon as I was dry and clean, I took the leash, put it on Dillon, and took him for a walk. 

Moncton High’s Forever Plaid cast and a few members of the Drama club joined forces to do some Disney songs at Centennial Park for Canada Day celebrations. 

Later the wedding with Melody and Matt came up, which was fun.  Not Fun the music group, but we did Carry On.   

This was followed by something even more wonderful:  Remember in the Grade 9 chapter I mentioned that after watching Babe several times I wished for my own long-coated Border Collie? 

Well, I made a phone call using the number on an ad in the paper for Border Collie puppies, and I was told I was getting a Border Collie puppy! 

I named her Molly, after a Border Collie on an agility tape I had taped earlier before Melody’s wedding. 

She arrived the following autumn just before the tip-off tournament for high school basketball. 

She and I walked together and sometimes Dillon and Molly spent time together. 

He and Molly would take turns to walk with me on leash. 

Chapter 9: This is Me in Grade 9

Editor's Note: this week, we pick back up on the school years with Grades 9 & 10. Forget what happened in Grade 8? No problem. Read the Grade 8 story.

Chapter 9: This is Me in Grade 9

This was my first grade in High School, in a place called Harrison Trimble High School.  I got up, got breakfast, and then headed to Bessborough School, which was our bus stop.  My bus was 105.  Within minutes of my arrival at Bessborough School, Bus 105 showed up.  In the morning it was a standard yellow school bus, and for the way home from school it was a Codiac Transit city bus serving as Bus 105. 

We boarded the bus and it stopped in various neighborhoods to pick up students.  It passed Centennial Park and Rocky Stone Field where high school and local league football and sometimes soccer were played.  Within minutes the bus arrived at Harrison Trimble High School.  I reported to my homeroom, and just like in Junior High, each grade I had a series of teachers. 

I had a series of TAs.  My first T.A. was J.V. cheerleaders’ coach Miss Mullins.  My second TA was hockey manager Mr. Bannister.  My third TA was Mrs. Robinson, whom I had met at Bessborough School during a Junior High grade.  My homeroom teacher was social studies teacher and J.V. boys’ basketball coach Mr. Grimmer.  My English grammar teacher’s name was Mrs. Pipes.  My French teacher was volleyball coach Mrs. Bourque, who was a counselor at Camp Centennial.  My technology teacher was Mr. Kitchen.  My music teacher’s name was Mrs. Killam, and her room had keyboards with various voices and a headset for each keyboard.  My gym teacher was hockey coach Mr. Belong who looked like the Ducks’ coach in The Mighty Ducks 1 and 2. 

This grade and others coming up were lots of fun, as we had not only intramural sports of all kinds, but we had famous sports teams like basketball, football, hockey, curling, soccer, and, of course, cheerleading.  They had pep rallies for things like football games, big basketball games, and big hockey games. 

The theatre had a grand piano which I played sometimes. 

I took guitar lessons from a teacher named Shane and then a teacher named Michel. 

I went to the Moncton Coliseum for my first hockey game: an Under 17 tournament game. 

I joined house league basketball and we played on weeknights.  Erin also played house league and middle school basketball.  She also joined a Moncton provincial team called the Hawks, who played all around town and played in a tournament in Bedford, Nova Scotia. 

I went to the football games and did the catchy cheers with the cheerleaders. 

Mrs. Killam got us to do some of our own jingles for companies or organizations, so I did a jingle for my favorite car at the time: the Mercury Grand Marquis, using the Honky Tonk sound on the keyboard. 

One Sunday my church had an apple picking day, which was a lot of fun.  We went to Belliveau Orchard in Memramcook.  There a horse- or tractor-pulled wagon took us to a series of apple trees and we were to pick apples from trees marked with a certain colored ribbon.  This was followed by a picnic at an abandoned aboriginal church yard. 

We went on a field trip by school bus to the University of Moncton’s C.E.P.S. for the Hoop Classic, my first Hoop Classic game. 

The Christmas that followed I asked for a Timex Ironman digital watch like Dad’s, and I got one. 

We went on a bus trip to the Moncton Coliseum for the Hockey Classic in which our hockey team was playing. 

The Easter that followed I got the VHS Babe, and when we watched it for the first time I fell in love with Fly the female sheepdog. 

We got another dog: a Bearded Collie like Tim Allen constantly turns into in the 2006 remake of The Shaggy Dog, named Emma.  She and Dillon played wrestle together a lot.  It was the same thing with Emma and Simon sometimes. 

Grade 9 soon ended and summer came up.  I got my first high school yearbook.  I still pull that up and look back on the good times from this grade. 

I have some bad news about that summer and some good news. 

The bad news is our BMW 325i had had it.  The good news is we got a new car: a dark blue Saab 900. 

I also got a new electric guitar: A sunburst Squier Stratocaster with a new amp. 

Chapter 10: Grade 10

This was my second year in high school.  This was known as a Foundation Block year. 

I again took guitar lessons. 

Gramps passed away of cancer and old age and it was a heartfelt day at the funeral.  That is when I started shaving, using Gramps’ razor. 

I had the same teachers as last year, except this year my main TA was Mrs. Robinson. 

I joined house league basketball again. 

This year I was so enthusiastic I was named Honorary Cheerleader. 

Not only this, but they got me to play my electric guitar in the theatre, and so I played The Eagles’ Take It Easy.

I again went to the football games, this time joining the Cheerleaders and doing the cheers and moves with them, except the lifts. 

Erin played basketball for the Moncton High School J.V. women’s basketball team. 

We went to Disney World in Orlando for a week, and also Universal Studios.  We got to see how they make certain movies I had seen or was about to see look real.  They had real and fake animals like Dalmatian puppies, horses, and all kinds of animals.  They had rides and showed us how they make things in movies look real. 

This year I went to several Hoop Classic games at C.E.P.S. and the women’s Hoop Classic at Moncton High School.   

This Christmas I got a small keyboard. 

We also went to the Hockey Classic. 

Dillon was at the house almost every day I came home from school, but one day, I came to a surprise:  Mom had rescued a lost terrier mix named Harvey in peril, and was waiting for the owner to claim him.  He and Dillon played a lot together. 

That day our neighbors were in a play in the Drama Festival of a sequel to The Wizard of Oz called Trouble in Oz. 

Dillon started playing flyball and I saw a match and got to see and make friends with all kinds of dogs, including lots of friendly, nice-looking Border Collies. 

Grade 10 soon ended, and I got the yearbook.  I also sometimes pull this out to remember some fun stuff from this grade. 

When I came home I was met with a surprise:  I was to transfer to Riverview High School with Mrs. McArdle as my TA again as I needed a band and music program for my last 2 grades and Harrison Trimble did not had either of those, except a keyboard class. 

Jennifer had a baby: a boy named Brennan.  This meant I was an uncle! 

Brian joined a musical group called Bishop who played on Breakfast Television and at a Canada Day concert before fireworks came up. 

I got my first CD player and with it a couple of CDs:  Lionel Richie’s Dancing on the Ceiling and the Spice Girls’ debut album.  Later I started regularly buying CDs. 

Kiwanis Park and Harold Page Field were hosting world baseball and I saw some games, and that is when I had my first Barq’a Root Beer.  Catchy commercials for this were playing for this product. 

Later Mrs. McArdle took me for a tour of my new school, followed by a trip to McDonald’s so I could get a Smarties McFlurry.  

Brothers & Sisters: A Tale of Two Siblings

In this special edition of the blog, one sister and one brother compare childhood memories.

Stephanie

The first memory I can taste the shape of is this: a family friend, a priest, hid a remote control behind his back and turned the channels IN FRONT OF MY EYES. I thought his direct line to God empowered his flicking capability.

Patrick

My first family memories were my adoption day, my first day of school, my first Christmas with the McGrath, my first camping trips with the family and dogs, my first hotel trips with the family [Halifax and Boston], my first trip with the family to pick up a puppy, [Simon, our Golden Retriever] and my first plane trip to Toronto to see Gram. 

One McGrath behaved well in New York, one did not.

Stephanie

My first family memories of you, Pat, my MOST FAVOURITE BROTHER EVER were of a one-piece splash suit  - you holding mom’s hand and waiting for me & your other sisters (which one is your favourite?). On mom’s other hand was Erin, our youngest sister (is she your favourite?) always decked out in sweat pants. And – um- wait a minute, PATRICK.  How is it that we’re writing together and I don’t even get a mention in your memories … not even a spark?

Email From Patrick

Dear Stephanie: 

Here is my brand-new paragraph!  Read it and weep! 

Patrick

Patrick

When I saw Stephanie, I thought, though a teaser at times, she is fun to be with and travel with. When I saw Erin, I was referring to the Hillsborough house as Erin’s House. When Melody first taught me the notes on the piano is when I started learning lots of songs by ear. When I saw Jennifer I loved her stories and her love of things like dogs, cats, and horses. When I first saw Mom when she picked me up in that Volvo 240 Wagon I had no idea that she would be my mother to be and when I moved in, I loved her very much. When I first saw Dad in his Datsun King Cab pickup I noticed how funny he was and when he and I drove to the dump we had fun listening to Swinging on a Star on CBC and singing songs like I Had a Dog, High Hopes, and Swinging on a Star. When I saw the dogs I loved them so much that I walked them a lot, even when we went camping. I loved them so much I visualized my older self having a dog of my own, which actually happened, but was short lived. When I saw the family I was very excited. I thought “What a very nice, interesting family. I loved the family very much. I would describe this family as a really excellent family that helped me out in so many ways.

Stephanie

Pat, thanks for the mention. I’m glad you had a dog of your own and that we’re – with you – an “excellent family”. I think it’s funny how we grew up in the same house, but remember things differently. Remember how you hated it when your toiletries got rearranged in the bathroom – not lined up – and sometimes mom would turn the toothpaste upside down on you as a joke? I can’t BELIEVE you still think I did it. It wasn’t. Me.  Also, who is your favourite sister? Did you know that one of the first things I remember – ever – is that I thought God helped Father Bill change TV channels because I’d never seen a remote control before?

Patrick

I did not know that Father Bill taught you to use a remote control.  About the above paragraph, I know Mom would never rearrange my toiletries or turn my toothpaste or deodorant upside down.  And neither would Jennifer.  I only know one person who would do this and that would be you.  Besides I have 2 witnesses who heard my toiletries rattling and saw you come out.  These witnesses said yes by wagging their tails, which answers “yes” to any question I asked them. 

Text Exchange:

 Steph: PS who is your favourite sister?

Pat: No favourites when it comes to family or sister.

Perfect Pitch: How I Got to Know Music

Music is important to me because it makes me remember old times or new memories, depending the song I play or hear.  

Playing music with Melody in the summer of 2013 in Moncton. 

How the music I listen to makes me feel is as follows. 

When I listen to both Huey Lewis albums we used to listen to it makes me want to go back to the years we were in Hillsborough with the Volvo 240 wagon, the Datsun pickup, and the Ford van. 

When I listen to the big Dirty Dancing CD that combines both tapes I think of myself back on a camping trip with the McGrath family and our dogs playing my guitar. 

When I listen to The Big Chill and Stand By Me soundtracks I picture myself in the Boston and Halifax hotels we stayed in as kids, swimming in the pool, enjoying the hotel and city’s great cuisine and shopping, and just enjoying the drive.  

When I Discovered Music

On my first visit to my Mom’s house before my adoption (see full story in my Adoption Story) I saw the house had a Mason & Risch piano. 

I opened it and played a few notes. Melody taught me which key corresponds to which note. 

When I went to school there were so many pianos.  One, in the adjacent room to my classroom, was a whole note flat, so if you played a C chord you get a B flat chord. 

The music room also had a Yamaha piano. 

There were a few in the hallway, and there were 2 on stage in the gym: one upright and one grand. 

When the music teacher played O Canada and got us to sing it I picked it up, and the moment I got home I went to the downstairs piano and played it exactly like I heard it. 

I had a ukulele and was playing this a lot. 

The summer between grades 1 and 2 I noticed mosquitoes would buzz in the same note at night when they attempted to bite my ear, an F#.  

One day I went to school…and came back home to a surprise:  Dad had bought a new piano:  a Tadashi upright that looked identical to the Yamaha in the music room.  Now we had 2 pianos:  The Mason & Risch in the downstairs room…and a Tadashi in the living room where the woodstove, stereo, turtle tank, and Christmas tree were. 

In addition to playing music on these instruments and singing and in school, we listened to tapes with music:  Huey Lewis & The News’ Sports and Fore albums, Mike & Michele, Sharon Lois & Bram, Raffi, both Dirty Dancing soundtracks, the Big Chill soundtrack, the Stand By Me soundtrack, and Lionel Richie Dancing on the Ceiling album. 

From grades 11 and 12 on I was singing in church choirs and still am. 

I can now play popular songs like Frozen songs, stuff from the local radio stations, and the Sister Act up-tempo arrangement of Hail Holy Queen and lots of church anthems and hymns. 

Music is a huge part of my life now. I sang in 4 church choirs in Moncton. In Saint John I am part of 2 choirs: the Key Industries Choir and the Our Lady of the Assumption Church Senior Choir, and I have sung lots of songs away, including 50 Fest in Halifax, retreats both home and Nova Scotia, and the Atlanta 2012 Assembly.  (See this story in a future Blog.)  

The Meeting

I had been living with my foster parents and foster brothers.  A High School Musical 2 blue Volvo 240 wagon pulled into their driveway and there were Marlene and Erin, there to pick me up for my first night with them.  I went into the backseat and enjoyed the nice drive, having a nice conversation with my sister-to-be and mother-to-be. 

At home in Hillsborough

We went through a narrow, but neat bridge called the Gunningsville Bridge.  Then we rounded a corner and passed stores and a gas station.  Then we went down a lovely country road past towers and past a convenience store.  Minutes later, we entered a beautiful town called Hillsborough, New Brunswick with my school-to-be, a gas station, a convenience/drug store, a post office, a train with a lot of cars known as the S&H Dinner Train, and a couple of beautiful white churches.  We rounded another corner and went up a steep street called Taylor’s Lane.  Then we rounded another corner, which was the driveway to the house.  I finally saw the house.  It was odd shaped, like a slide with windows (I’m not putting it down).  When I got out of the car, a Golden Retriever that looked like Shadow in Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey named Katie and a Lassie sable and white mongrel named Nicky greeted me.  Then out of the house came 3 other sisters-to-be: Stephanie, Melody, and Jennifer.  Across from the house was an old barn in which I was told there used to be horses. 

Pat and Erin

I went in the house and it was the nicest thing I had ever seen.  There were also 2 cats: a scratchy black and white cat named Gloria and a scratch-free Calico named Sally.  There was an atrium-like living room, a few couches, a kitchen/dining room, a porch, a bathroom and an apartment for my grandfather-to-be on the middle floor; a bathroom and lots of bedrooms and an attic on the top floor, and on the bottom floor was a room with a piano!  It didn’t take me long to figure out how to open it, and immediately I started to play some notes and Melody taught me the names of those notes, and that in Germany there was a note called F.  Pretty soon my Dad-to-be showed up home from his work in his High School Musical 1/3 red Datsun pickup.  He was very cheerful.  Mom and I went back into Moncton to go grocery shopping at this cool store called the Co-op, which not only sold groceries, but there was a bottom floor linked by escalators that sold toys and electronics.  I spent the night there and enjoyed it there.  There was another night I spent there weeks later. 

 Chapter 2:  The Adoption/Family/Friends/Adventures

 At my foster family’s house I was patiently awaiting the arrival of my parents to take me to my new house, or as I called it, “Erin’s house.”  Shortly, the same Volvo 240 wagon showed up.  We took the same beautiful drive, and we arrived at the house.  Dad was already there.  I soon met friends and relatives in the family:  Our neighbors Sandy, Allen, Ryan, Jeremy, and Jordan McWilliams and their Airedale Terrier Abby; my grandmothers Florence Richard of Toronto AKA Gram (Mom’s mother); Helen McGrath AKA Nana (Dad’s Mother); and my grandfathers Ed Richard AKA Gramps (Mom’s father); and Harold McGrath AKA Granddad; Bill McGrath AKA Uncle Bill, also AKA Ubie; Lynn McGrath AKA Lynnie; other aunts Marion and Betty; uncles Jake and Don; and cousins; our plow operator for snow days Dids Woodworth (if I spelled the first name correctly); school bus driver Mack Woodworth which I will mention later (Dids’ brother); house cleaner Marjorie; school mates which I will mention later;  the Wissinks who also had a piano, daughters and a son all of whom were musical, and a Border Collie named Duff who I thought at the time I met her was just another Nicky, only black and white instead of the sable coloring; the Woods who owned a lobster shop quite close to Fundy Park; our priest and people who went to our church when I was there; our friends Norma and Steven and their son and daughters whom I will mention later; and teachers in the schools I went to, also whom I will mention later.  Friends who lived near the Hopewell Rocks named The Smiths were friends we visited often, and they had 2 pianos in the house:  one like the Wissinks’ upstairs and what looked like a coverless, less than 88-key, and apartment-sized Yamaha downstairs.  I forgot to mention in the last chapter that they had lots of nice music tapes that we listened to:  Huey Lewis Sports; Huey Lewis Fore; Mike and Michelle; Sharon, Lois, and Bram; Don McLean; Anne Murray; and lots of memorable songs that I like to look back on.  Soon I went by school bus for the first time for my first day of school.  The aforementioned Mack Woodworth seemed very friendly and funny and sometimes for a joke I would take off his hat.  There were so many pianos in that school.  I met lots of friendly kids in the school, some of which I had already met before during visits, although some were not as friendly.    

We gathered near the end of the day at our neighboring classroom to sing some songs accompanied by that room’s teacher on the piano, which I noticed was 2 notes off key.  If she played O’Canada in E flat, it sounded like it was in the key of C#, and if she played Happy Birthday to someone in C, it sounded as if it was the key of B Flat, and if she played Silent Night in B Flat it came out A Flat.  There was a music class as well, and the teacher was very nice.  In fact, all the teachers in that school and all the schools I went to were nice and friendly, some funny at times. One day I went to school and came back home to a surprise:  We got a second piano on the middle floor that looked almost like the one in the school’s music room, only this one was mahogany in color and the one in the music room was black, our new one was a Tadashi and the one in the music room was a Yamaha, ours had 3 pedals: right damper, middle to put fabric between the hammers and the keys to quiet playing, and the left to push the hammers closer to the strings to soften playing. And the one in the music room only had two: right the damper and left the one that pushes the hammers closer to the strings to soften the sound.  With the one downstairs, the middle pedal for some reason just raised the bass dampers and left the upper ones down, as did the other ones in the houses and the school that I saw.  The downstairs piano, by the way, was a Mason & Risch, the Wissinks’ was a Sherlock Manning, and I never got to read the names on the ones at the school other than the one in the music room.    

Soon I met a speech pathologist named Dr. Rubell, who also helped me in school.  He was helpful to teach me vocabulary.  He had a moustache and the kind of suit I saw my Dad wear to his office (by the way, Dad is a lawyer).  After we were finished with him, one day Mom and I ran into him at the Co-op and he was in his tank top as if he was in a marathon.  Another time we met him at that grocery store he changed his look.  He still had a mustache, but he looked like Jeffrey Jones in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, only black hair instead of red. 

Pretty soon, because we grew as a family and we were to take some camping and hotel trips and for the camping trips we were taking our dogs, we bought a brown Ford van from a friend of ours which came in really handy.  We went on camping trips, a few times to Fundy Park, and a few times to Cabot Park in PEI.  We also went a few times to Halifax and once to Boston and for both those destinations we stayed in beautiful hotels with pools, and in Boston, when you get in the elevator, it’s a glass elevator, and through the glass you can see this grand piano.  During the trips to all those destinations, since we FINALLY had a tape player in a car (the Volvo and the Datsun had American Graffiti-style radios with no tape or CD player) and we listened to music like Traveling WiIlburys, Dirty Dancing, Lionel Richie, James Taylor, Paul Simon, The Big Chill, Stand By Me, among other memorable ones.  During summers we would have barbecues with our Uncle Bill as the cook, and I also watched him cook pizzas and other fine recipes he did very well at.  I would watch him cut up the vegetables, like the green peppers.  We also had bonfires in which we roasted marshmallows, and it was then I noticed that mosquitoes flying by my ear would almost always buzz in the same note. 

With Nicky.

Some nights Nicky would sleep on a pillow right by my bed and it was his presence there that calmed me and helped me have less nightmares than I did when he was not there.  Soon we took one of our “Sunday Drives” to a place between Moncton and Riverview called Salisbury, New Brunswick, and we came to this farm house and when I got out these Golden Retrievers of all colors and styles and spaniels gazed at us and started wagging their tails at us.  We went into this farm house and down the steps to the basement in which there were cages, and in the cages were these cute-as-a-button Golden Retriever puppies who came to us and whined at us as if to say “Please, take me home!”  We purchased one of the puppies, whom we named Simon.  Shortly after we had gotten Simon, Katie passed away, which saddened all of us.  Thank God we still had Nicky and Simon.  Simon also joined us for camping trips. 

Another thing I noticed was that my oldest sister Jennifer was into stories, literature, fictional figures like you see and read about in the Chronicles Of Narnia books and movies like unicorns, fauns, giants, minotaurs, centaurs, and other fascinating myth figures and things from Greek Mythology, horses, dogs, and livestock.  Before I ever saw the house, she had horses in the stable in the old barn named J.D. and Leah.  Also, in addition to the Volvo 240 wagon, the red Datsun pickup, and the brown Ford van, Gramps had his own car: a Matrix green Grease-style Comet coupe, which he traded later for a Finding Nemo blue Plymouth Reliant coupe.  Granddad had a Pontiac sedan.  Gram had a Volvo 240 sedan, same year as our wagon, only tan in color.  Bill had a matching truck to our red one, only his was re-named Nissan and nickel silver in color, and a newer year, but same shape as our red one.  Sometimes Dad and I would go to the dump in the red truck and during the drive Dad and I would listen to the radio and sing I Had A Dog and Swingin’ On A Star.  CBC radio had this program called Swingin’ On A Star.  Sometimes we would go to Alma and have the Sticky Buns from the bake shop.  Sometimes we would play games like Scrabble, Monopoly, Crazy 8s, Go Fish, and this cute board game with cards, game pieces, and dice, called Benji with the dog of the title from the Joe Camp movies in which if you land on Fierce Dog, you have to go back to Start. 

Love music.

Another thing we did for fun was just outside of Hillsborough there was a road with 2 covered bridges, 2-3 feet apart from each other, and when we went in each covered bridge, provided there wasn’t somebody outside by it, we would stop, honk the horn, and make a wish.  There was a time when we actually took the S&H Dinner Train and it was a lot of fun.  Sometimes we went to the Albert County Exhibition and my favorite thing at the time was the cars ride in which you sit in the drivers’ side of sports car replicas and it takes you around like a carousel and you can pretend you are driving the car.  If I could go back to that time I could fantasize I am listening to Mumford & Sons and Adele as I am driving and I am going to Halifax or Saint John.  There were a couple of times my family and I saw Sharon, Lois, and Bram in concert in a theatre in Sackville.  We even visited Gram in Toronto a couple of times, and I was amazed by the size of the city and the speed of the subways and the size of the buildings in that city.  During that era I also used to watch this Looney Tunes VHS with Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird, Elmer Fudd, Pepe Le Pew, Granny, Sylvester, Daffy Duck, and other funny Looney Tunes, in which Elmer Fudd’s house fills with acorns and he attempts several times to blast Bugs with his rifle..  Sometimes I also watched Disney movies like Lady and the Tramp, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, Bambi, Robin Hood, and lots among classics.  I also watched Sharon, Lois, and Bram’s shows. 

A FROZEN-TONGUE-ON-METAL-FLAGPOLE-FREE CHRISTMAS STORY

Editor's note: 'Tis the season to be joyful. Patrick has revived this 2005 holiday essay for your reading pleasure. Stay tuned for updates on his upcoming NYC trip in the weeks to come.

My first Christmas with the McGrath family, 1987, was merrier than the last one I had with my foster mother.  It is more fun spending Christmas with a real family than with a foster family as you will live with them forever.  Every Christmas season we would sing Christmas carols, listen to Christmas carols, decorate the tree, watch movies like A Christmas Story, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, The Santa Clause, Elf, Santa Claus: The Movie, and Muppet favorites like The Muppet Christmas Carol and Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree, get out the Christmas lights, go for nighttime drives to see other houses’ lights, lighted snowmen, lighted Santa Clauses, “Merry Christmas” signs, and lighted reindeer, read stories like The Night Before Christmas and Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas every Christmas Eve, have French toast every Christmas morning, open our stockings, and then open the big presents, and then call everyone we know who sends us the presents from far off places and thanking them for the Christmas gifts.  Every Christmas night we would open crackers, wear the crowns that came in the crackers, read the jokes and trivia questions which also came in the crackers, and then we would have our traditional: Turkey with dressing and cranberry “sarce,” potatoes, turnip, carrots, and for the final touch, we would have our dessert.  Some would have plum pudding while others had Mom’s Special Apple Pie with ice cream.  My top 4 Christmases were 2004, 2003, 2002 and 2001.  2001:  This Christmas saw me get a grand total of 10 CDs from Stephanie, a Border Collie calendar, the movie Cats and Dogs with Jeff Goldblum and the voices of Tobey McGuire and Michael Clarke Duncan, and a couple of gift certificates.  2002:  I was working at Community College that year, plus we had just gotten a new Land Rover Discovery and on Christmas Eve on the way between church and Jennifer’s we listened to Cowboy Christmas on 96.9 and I recognized one of the songs because it had played in my office at Community College. 

Jennifer gave me a present that said “To Patrick from Tessa.”  Tessa was the name of Jennifer’s Collie whom she had gotten two springs ago.  The present was a framed picture of the lovely Collie by our back door with the others looking in.  Stephanie got me a gift certificate.  Christmas of 2003 saw me get a Toshiba 19” TV/VCR Combo as my second TV as I was living both on Alexander Avenue with my family and with a younger couple on Twin Oaks Drive and I didn’t want to take my little one back and forth each weekend and I wanted to watch my own at home while Dad would watch golf or Mom and Dad would watch 24.  We had cinnamon French toast with syrup as a special breakfast.  Jennifer gave me a picture of Dillon, her Border Collie, having fun on the marshlands near her house.  Stephanie gave me the movie Finding Nemo.  Mom and Dad got me a MuchDance CD.  Erin got me a hockey team claw and the people I lived with gave me a shirt with the hockey team logo.  Christmas of 2004 saw me get a karaoke machine and two karaoke CDs from Stephanie, Erin and Kyle, a ghetto blaster from Mom, a hockey team horn to blow whenever the team scored a goal, and a hockey team poster with the game schedule.  Once again, it began with Erin’s cinnamon French Toast.  My best gift in 1995 was my first Timex digital watch.  My best gift in 1996 was my keyboard.  My best gift in 1997 was my NOW! 2 CD.  My best gift in 1998 was a book called Floss, a story about a Border Collie who has to sacrifice play with children to start working on a farm.  My best gifts in 1999 was a Timex Ironman watch and the soundtrack to the musical Mame.  My best gift in 2000 was my first TV.  I did not even try sticking my tongue to a metal flagpole like in A Christmas Story, asking for “a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-Shot Range Model Air Rifle”, or making a lightning-fast slide down the hill like in Christmas Vacation.  I didn’t even try “putting a light of candle in anybody’s hair,” like in Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree.  Like the song says, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!”  

Grade 8

After a bit of an absence, the school year stories are returning. Catch up on all the school years.

This was my last year of Junior High.  My homeroom teacher was my French teacher, newcomer Miss Cote.  My gym teacher’s name was Mr. Adams.  My social studies teacher was Ms. McClafferty.  I had the same shop and home economics teachers. 

Miss Cote introduced us to French music by pop artist Roch Voisine, playing his famous English/French Album Helene, and I liked all the songs, so I bought the tape myself. 

In band I played the tuba, later the clarinet, and then finally, I started playing the trombone. 

Again I played the sports and watched them in intramurals. 

Erin played house league basketball.  She also played for Hillcrest. 

I was reading Listen for the Singing by Jean Little with help from a teacher who was a coach and sports teacher, named Mr. Bowser.  We adopted a cat:  a Japanese Bobtail, and I named her Maggie, getting the name from a character in this book I was reading in school. 

I started going to the YMCA’s teen drop-in every Friday. 

I wanted to learn to play guitar, so I asked for a guitar for Christmas, and this Christmas, I did, indeed, get a guitar, and with it a video on how to play chords and I learned them all in no time.  Later Dan McArdle and I got together at his house to jam together with a blues song. 

I joined the school drama club and I was in a play for the Drama Festival called What Cool Is.  I did not have lines, but I had to change places between scenes. 

I met a friend who also liked to play guitar named Jana.  She and I jammed together with our guitars.  We played in the school talent show, playing The Beatles’ Twist and Shout and Nirvana’s About a Girl. 

In no time, this school year was coming to a close.  The prom came up, and we danced to familiar dance and pop hits from the radio station.  The school year finally ended, but the last day was so heartfelt, that I was up all night, sad about leaving Bessborough School after 5 years. 

But the summer was a lot of fun, as we had the same cottage as last time, only this time lots of relatives joined us as Jennifer was about to be married to Brian, and the celebrations were in our house and our cottage, and some of our relatives had their own cottage near that area, and Aunt Betty and Uncle Don’s cottage was the host venue for a treasure hunt as a wedding celebration, plus Jennifer just got a new puppy: a Border Collie named Dillon, and he was playful and fun to be with.  Plus this was my first summer with a guitar, and whenever I watched the guitar instruction video and played along with the instructor Dillon would come down and spend time with me, watching and listening to me play.  The wedding took place at our church, followed by a reception at the Keddy’s Hotel.  We watched movies a lot, and one of them was Angels in the Outfield. 

I was earlier told about a music camp near Bouctouche called Camp Wildwood.  At this point Dillon was still a playful pup.  I went there for a whole week, and there was singing, lots of good meals, 2 pianos:  one on the top floor of the lodge and one on the bottom floor, a tuck shop with all kinds of great treats, campfires with singing, a pool, several cabins, and a musical in the end about a girl named Grace who teaches children to say grace and I played the piano and I was to touch Grace’s forehead to see if she was feeling well during the numbers as part of the play. 

When I got back after a week at camp we went to our house, and Dillon came around the house from the backyard, now full-grown and a changed bark, but I recognized him because he recognized me. 

Weeks later I went back to Camp Wildwood for another week, this time for Basketball Camp.  This time each day we went into Bouctouche to a school called Mgr. Michaud School with a gym for the basketball.  We had the great meals, the tuck shop, campfires, swims in the pool, and a bonus showing of the movie Angels in the Outfield.  I rented an electric guitar with an amp: a Peavey Preditor. 

Grades 6 & 7

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.  

Grades 4 & 5

Chapter 4: Grade 4 

     Grade 4 was a good grade.  My teacher’s name was Mrs. Jochelman.  We, of course, had music class, and a music teacher named Mr. Livingston taught us music. 

     The Hallowe’en that followed, the teacher got the class to go down the hall to another teacher’s classroom to watch Beetlejuice and I cried at the part when Geena Davis’ character and Alec Baldwin’s character crash the car over the bridge, becoming ghosts, because the car that crashes over the bridge was a Volvo 240 wagon, just like ours that I was picked up in on Adoption Day, except the car in the movie was yellow, and ours was dark blue, but since it was the same model, I cried.  If it was any other model but the 2 we had or Gramps’ Plymouth Reliant K, but maybe the same kind of car Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith drive in Men In Black, I would have, like the song I quoted earlier goes, Let it go, let it go. 

     Sometimes Melody would be in concerts in the NBYO, playing the flute, and sometimes playing in Saint John, and we would go to Saint John to see and hear her play, staying at the Delta Brunswick, with its own mall with toy stores, clothing stores, and food court, on 3 floors linked by escalators and a cool glass elevator, and sometimes then I would buy Lego toys, like their pirate and knight toys, and also, we would swim in that hotel’s pool. 

Later we went to visit the Wissinks, who then lived near Charlottetown, P.E.I. and did fun things.  They videotaped us singing songs, filming a movie with Erin as a vampire and the rest of us as victims, me singing Little Rabbit Foo Foo, and us singing our own jingle for Sandspit P.E.I. 

Again I went to Camp Centennial and did all the fun things.  Later we went to Toronto to visit Gram, which was my first time on a plane.  We watched Disney movies like Dumbo, The Jungle Book, and Alice in Wonderland.  We took the subway lots of times and the names of the stops were easy to remember and the ride was fun. 

Chapter 5: Grade 5 

     Grade 5 was also a wonderful grade.  My teacher’s name was Mrs. Brydges.  My teacher from the previous grade got me to play some music for students.    I started piano lessons with a friend of the family’s named Mrs. Macarthur, who had the same piano as the Wissinks, except new plastic keys instead of the original ivories.  Later, we found another piano teacher, named Mrs. McKenzie, who lived a few blocks from Sunny Brae School.  She had a nice piano which was like the music room’s piano.  There were recitals at St. John’s United Church.  Again, sometimes concerts for Melody came up in Saint John and we stayed at the Delta, swam in its pool, and shopped in its mall. 

I joined Cubs, which started off with a bottle drive from house to house, met in a nearby church to our house, did apple days where we went from house to house selling apples, though I made a slip of the tongue: I said $50 instead of 50 cents by mistake.  We also did a Christmas concert at a very old seniors’ home.  

Grade 2 & Grade 3

Chapter 2:  Grade 2 

Grade 2 was my last school grade in Hillsborough as we were about to move into the city of Moncton. 

Again I waited for the bus, and, sure enough, he came, and we went to the school. 

I had a new room and a new teacher.  The piano from the Grade 1 room was moved into the hall to join the other 2 in the hall.   It then moved into a room near the office.   The classes were similar and we had the same music teacher for music classes, with the same songs and the same record. 

  Hallowe’en came up.  Then the school got decorated for Christmas and our Music Class sang some Christmas carols beautifully, and, of course, Christmas came.  This was wonderful.  Then Easter came. 

 I successfully graded from school, and summer, sure enough, came, and with it, camping trips in Cabot Park and Fundy Park, hotel trips, and beach trips, along with barbecues and bonfires in which we roasted marshmallows. 

We sold our house (and I wish I could go back in time with the DeLorean Time Machine from Back to the Future to the time I lived in that house), and we moved into a new house, but before we moved, we rented a house with a pool, which we enjoyed.  The downstairs piano was moved to the McWilliams’ house.  Our red Datsun truck had had it and one day Jennifer was driving it, and the hood flew up!  (Bummer, right?)  Like Dad says, on Nissans, formerly Datsuns, “Hoods fly up!”  We got rid of that truck and now we had just the Volvo 240 and the Ford van. 

Chapter 3: Grade 3 

 When I moved into Grade 3, we were still in the rented house, and it was a new school to me.  It was called Bessborough School. The Grade 3 teacher’s name was Mrs. McPherson, and my T.A.’s name was Mrs. MacBeath.  The lessons were similar to those of Grades and 2.  The music room had the exact same piano as the music room at Hillsborough School, but the music teacher then was different: a supply music teacher, who was later a choir director at a local church called Holy Family, named Mrs. Doucette.  The Physical Education class was great. 

Later, one frigid, cold, snowy day, we moved into our new, just-built house, which was walking distance from the school. 

 The Christmas that followed we got a keyboard and a Nintendo system, on which we played Super Mario, Donkey Kong, Excite Bike, and other games in a 30-games-in-1 cartridge.  We were playing it and enjoying it so much that the days in school that followed, I, who was autistic, was moving my thumbs and fingers in the motion of using a Nintendo control to pretend play Super Mario and humming the Super Mario themes from the game so much, which was distracting to the teacher and my classmates, that I was cut off from that for some time. 

One of my sisters, Melody, was in Moncton High School and starred in the musical The King and I, as Tuptim.  10 years later the same musical came up at that school and Erin had the same role.  I saw the musical too. 

Other than that, studies went well for the rest of the year.  

During this grade I was baptized into the church and Jennifer was my Godmother.  Later I got my First Communion.  

 The summer that followed I went to summer camp at Camp Centennial, just down the hill from my house.  Moncton was celebrating 100 years.  There we sang songs, did campfires, swam in Centennial Beach, roasted marshmallows and hot dogs, had juice time, and sang Johnny Appleseed for grace every lunchtime where we yelled at the top of our lungs “JOHNNY APPLESEED!!!” in the end.  The lodge had a piano that was very out of tune, I mean it was in tune, but it was twangy.  

Remembering My School Years

Chapter 1:  Grade 1

   I had just been adopted by the McGrath family, my first family and my first time living in a house with dogs, cats, and a piano, and a family that traveled frequently. 

Pat and Ella

    We went to the bus stop, which was around the corner from the house, and halfway between the house and Sandy McWilliams’ house.  We walked together, Nicky right behind me, and my lunchbox in hand.  Later a school bus pulled up, and Mack, my bus driver, was friendly and funny.  I boarded the bus, which made a few stops and minutes later finally reached Hillsborough School.  When I got into the school, I had never seen so many pianos in a building.  I met a teacher’s assistant who would help me named Mr. Flynn.  I then met my Grade 1 teacher and the students, some of which, I must admit, were not so friendly, but some were.  My grade 1 room and another room, also a grade 1, were connected to each other, and the adjacent room had a piano, which was a whole step flat and twangy.  We started lessons in math, science, social studies, and Phys. Ed.  At the end of the day, we gathered in the adjacent room and the room’s Grade 1 teacher, Mrs. Weldon, got us to sing songs like a choir, the teacher accompanying on us on piano.  We started with O Canada, and moved on to other kids’ nursery rhyme songs. 

     The days that followed were alike.  When we finally had music class, I met the music teacher, Mrs. Schiller, the Mrs. Schiller who was known for directing the famous Hillsborough Choir, which Jennifer and Melody were singing in, which had a record of famous songs.  The music room had a piano, and we sang some songs together, and one of them we sang frequently: the nursery rhyme Fish And Chips And Vinegar.  She had a record we listened to called The Beady Glass Eye.    My speech pathologist Dr. Rubell helped me not only at his office, but also in the school. 

     There was a nerve-racking time when the fire alarm went off after my gym class, and they said I pulled the alarm, when I didn’t.  They must have thought my hands hit the wall running from one side of the gym to the other, and when I turned around, my index finger accidentally pulled the red pull station! 

     One day I went to school…and came home to a surprise:  We had just gotten a brand new piano on the middle floor: a brand new Tadashi with 3 pedals, that looked like the piano in the school music room, except ours was mahogany and the music room piano was black, and a Yamaha with 2 pedals.   We now had 2 pianos: the brand new Tadashi on the middle floor, and the Mason & Risch on the bottom floor. 

     Celebrations, of course, came, and one of them was Thanksgiving, another was Hallowe’en, and another was Christmas, my first Christmas with the McGrath family, and the Grade 1 teacher and our Music teacher all got us to sing some beautiful Christmas carols.  Christmas, of course, came, and we all got some cool gifts, and one of my gifts I got for several Christmases: a small jigsaw puzzle with a picture of a car.   Then came Easter. 

     I should mention this detail that I did not mention in the Adoption Story, which I realize now I should have.  In the Adoption Story, like the Frozen song lyrics go, I Let it go, Let it go.  From my adoption day to half of Grade 1, I used to say silly things that I wonder now if come with autism.  I used to say things like “It’s a Kraft Dinner”,  “It’s a Garbage Bag”, “It’s a Funny/Happy Face”, and other silly things that drove the others crazy at the time, but are fun to look back on and I think about whenever I pull up pictures of the Blessed Hillsborough Years, like me and Mom learning shapes, me sitting next to Nicky, us camping, us traveling, me playing the ukulele, me waiting for Mack, me with the dogs, the Volvo 240 Wagon that picked me up on my adoption day, and me going to my mini toy kitchen in the attic.   Some of the schoolmates were friends and neighbors from our neighbor.  I must mention that sometimes Dad and I would take our red Datsun King Cab truck to the dump and on the way we would sing High Hopes, I Had a Dog, and Swingin’ on a Star.  On the truck’s American Graffiti-style radio with no tape player we would listen to CBC and one of its programs back then was called Swingin’ on a Star.  A famous Dad phrase was: “Thank you, thank you, thank you…so much!”  The Volvo 240 wagon also had an American Graffiti-style radio with no tape player.  I also had fears:  Sometimes Mom would make frozen orange juice, using the blender to mix the water with the orange juice, and it made a loud noise which frightened me.  Whenever we were in a hotel and in a pool, there were water jets underwater, which made a tickling feel when it hit the skin, and I was scared of that.  The vacuum cleaner’s carpet attachment made a loud squealing sound and I was scared of that.  My Dad’s office had photocopiers and the moving light reminded me of space shows my foster brothers used to watch that were scary, and that frightened me, but I overcame this and all the above fears soon. 

     The spring that followed I had an ordeal:  I got a new bike and had I had training wheels, this would have not happened.  I was driving my bike around the house, pretending my bike was the Volvo, which for a time I saw myself driving myself, and the barn was the Co-Op where we went grocery shopping, and apparently I was driving and I suddenly fell over, breaking my collar bone, which was nerve-racking, because I went to the hospital, and I was to get x-rays, and little did I know that x-ray moved and made noises, and I was afraid. 

     The summer that followed was wonderful.  We took our van, which we got before Grade 1: a brown Ford Econoline van, on trips to cities and campsites.  First we went to Halifax and stayed at the Holiday Inn Select hotel, and I enjoyed the pool.  During the drive for this trip we listened to James Taylor, Paul Simon, and the soundtrack to The Big Chill.  For camping trips we went to Fundy Park and Cabot Park in P.E.I.  in our van all of us, and all 3 of our dogs (When I started Grade 2, we had 2 dogs:  a Lassie sable mongrel named Nicky and a dark red Golden Retriever named Katie.  Later that year we got a Golden Retriever puppy named Simon on one of our Sunday road trips.)   During the camping trips we listened to Dirty Dancing, Lionel Richie and The Chieftains.  There was a time we drove to Boston to stay at a hotel with a pool and glass elevator through which you can see a piano, to enjoy things like subways, shopping, and lots of fun things.  We also had Barbecues and roasted marshmallows in the backyard. 

....  Coming soon: Grade 2!