Upper Kingburg School Reunion 2008

Submitted by Carole-Anne Mosher - History Committee Chair, 2021

In September 2008, former teachers and students gathered on the 50th anniversary of the closure of the Upper Kingsburg School. This celebration included a motorcade that traveled from the school house to the Riverport Community Centre.
These are some of the photos and stories which were collected as part of this event.

Two class photos were taken. The one above on the right recreates as much as possible its counterpart on the left taken circa 1952. From left to right are present Irene Falvey (Oxner), Judy Mitchell (Mosher), Dianne McFarlane (Mossman), George Fraser, Mildred Mosher, Charles Fraser, Billy Mossman, and Carolyn Freener is standing with her mother Hazel Joudrey; in front standing is Donna Mossman, and keeling are Gerald Mossman, Norman Mossman and Joan Mosher.

This second contemporary photo includes all those present that day who went to or taught at the school house. In addition to those, in the first photo, are Lynn Mossman, kneeling on the left side beside Catherine (Falvey), Richard Falvey in the back between Charles Fraser and Billy Mossman, Janet Kinck seated in front, Gwen Corkum behind Carlyn Feener, Marion Corkum (Mosher) kneeling on the right, Margarent Creaser (Mosher) standing in back on the right and Denis Falvey on the right.

Two former teachers also answered the roll-call on the day of celebration, and received flowers to commemorate the occasion. The first two photos are of Hazel Joudrey who taught at the school in 1953-54, and the other two are of Gwen Corkum who taught there in 1947-48.

***A One Room Schoolhouse Memories***

*Just a stone’s throw from home*
*One Teacher on her own*
*Teaching eight grades one at a time*
*Back in those days it was perfectly fine*
*One brother two grades ahead*
*One home sick in bed*
*Dreaded smallpox vaccine laid him low*
*Started school a month late, our little ‘bro’*
*Two kids in grade three, Pearly & me*
*Two people named Catherine, teacher & me*
*Wet woolen mittens on a pot belly stove*
*Baseball at recess in the middle of the road*
*Wild tea berries growing on Maple Leaf Hill*
*Out house with two ‘heads’ - I can see it still*
*Learning to read, learning to write*
*Learning to ride on a two wheel bike*
*One room, one teacher - a memorable time*
*All things considered we turned out just fine*
***Catherine Falvey Herzig***

Stories

All my memories are of a mischievous nature and one that sticks out in my mind is while Beatrice Conrad was the teacher, although I’m not sure what year that was.

I think Bobby and George helped me get into the school through the window on Halloween night. I was trapping and I had three muskrat carcasses with me that night. I decided it would be a wonderful joke to put them into a seldom used used drawer in the teacher’s desk.

After a couple of days she still couldn’t tell where the smell was coming from, but it was terrible. On the third day, like Lazarus rising from the dead, she pulled out the carcasses, and knew right away who had done it.

On hindsight it was a stupid prank because I was the only one trapping. I spent three days in the corner for that one.

Billy Mossman

I remember when I was Lynn, Lynn the Stick Pin. The little school left me with two stories.

One was the Christmas concerts and going out for the brush and holly branches to decorate the school.

The number two was a little trail across the road from the school. It took us up to a place in the woods I remember we called Maple Leaf Hill. Somewhere up there I remember a snake bit me on the leg. As a kid it was quite a thing.

Lynn Mossman

I attended Upper Kingsburg School from 1950-58. My teacher in Grade 1 was Irene G. Mossman, Grade 2 Beatrice E. Conrad, Grade 3 E. Jean Sider, Grade 4 ?, Grade 5 Catherine Beck, Grade 6 V. Corkum, Grade 7 H.E. (Hazel) Herman, Grade 8 Florence E Crouse; Grade primary ? maybe Mrs. Joudrey.

My fondest memories are having a small school wood stove to keep warm and dry our mittens when wet. We sang all the old songs, Kitty Wells, etc., Mildred, Diane, Joan and myself.

Every spring we had a Flower Contest gathering different flowers. Gerald and I were rivals; Peter Mossman helped me, I can’t remember who helped Gerald. There was a little prize for the most flowers.

Our school house being very small we were very close to everyone. I guess I talked too much and the teacher made me write 100 times “I must not talk in school”, but I think the one behind me always got into trouble.

We had pie sales in school to raise money; Santa Claus came at Christmas and we were very excited; another fun day was Arbour Day when we went outside and cleaned up the yard. I also remember going swimming in May after school - the days were much warmer then!

Judy Mitchell

Gwen Corkum related the information during the reunion that her mom, Dorothy Parks, taught at Upper Kingsburg School during the ‘20s.

Gwen also said that when she herself taught there she boarded with the Frasers for $4 a week.

Arthur Mosher related the story of how his mother, Kay Pentz, taught at the school in the early ‘40s. His father, Walter, by that time had travelled all over the world as a radio operator, only to fall in love with the school marm in Upper Kingsburg, who lived a handful of miles away in Beach Meadows.

Mildred told the story of Billy and the sleigh. Evidently she and Billy were sliding down Vinegar Hill in a sleigh and there was an accident that resulted in a bit of damage to Billy, for which Mildred was blamed. This resulted in her being stood in the corner all day at the school, she believed unfairly. When she went home and told her mom about it all she ended up spending the rest of the day standing in a corner there!

Irene told a story of Elsie coming into the school one day to speak to the teacher, after which the teacher announced that Elsie’s pig had escaped and they were all being let out of school to go chase the pig. The brave soul who finally crawled under the pig stable to collar the errant pig was Mildred.

She also recalled an episode involving holly being thrown into some teacher’s hair at Christmas because she was annoyed at Irene!