The House that Built Me - Part 3 - Tiny Country School

When we moved to the little cottage in the Fall, I once again had to start over at a new school. We moved a lot before we bought the cottage – in fact, I was never in the same school for more than 2 years at a time. It made it hard to make friends so I concentrated on learning – probably a good thing now that I look back on it.

The only school in the town of Bonfield was a french school and even though I am of French Canadian heritage, I wasn’t taught the language growing up while going to school in Southern Ontario. Both Mom and Dad are bilingual but only spoke french when we were visiting their families.  It also came in quite handy for them when they were discussing something they didn’t want me to overhear – I remember trying so hard to understand what they were saying and over the years I did manage to learn enough to understand most sentences – but it took a while.

The nearest school for me to attend was 10 miles away and my Dad had to fight with the school board to get them to send a bus to pick me up. The school was in an even smaller farming town called Rutherglen.  The school had 3 classrooms – Grades 1&2 in one class, 3&4’s in another, and I was in the 5&6 class. Our principal was the teacher for 5’s and 6’s.  I was just starting Grade 5 and so I spent 2 years at that school before going to North Bay for Junior High which was another 2 years in a different school. Luckily, most of the friends I made in that tiny school house in Rutherglen had to go to North Bay too, so I had some friends with me to start the scary life of high school.

This is a photo of it as it stands now. It's no longer used as a school.

This was the Grade 5/6 class. I'm the third from the right in the front row. My Mom made that blue dress for me. It was always one of my favorites!