My Highschool Years

Long ago and only Half Remembered

When Dad came home from the war he bought the house at 422 2nd Street and he began flying for Trans Canada Airlines (TCA). However, the path for promotion with the airline was through the Toronto base and for the sake of his career we moved to Toronto in 1952 and the folks bought the house at 28 Glenaden Avenue West and here I lived from grade six until I left home for University. I lived here for all of my High School years.

I went to public school across the road from our house at Sunnylea School. I went off to High School in 1955. This was Royal York Collegiate Institute located on Royal York Road about a mile from the house. I walked to and from school regardless of weather. We all did. It was rare for a high school student in those days to have a car.

28 Glenaden Avenue, West, Toronto 18 was my home through my high school years. Dad planted the trees you see and if you look on the roof you can see the mast for the TV antenna: no cablevision.

High School in Ontario was from grade nine through grade thirteen. There was no junior high school as here in BC. When I entered grade nine I was interested in model airplanes. I was building and flying them for my first three or four years there. I financed my hobby with my allowance and by cutting lawns and delivering newspapers.

The house was heated by oil and there was a furnace room in the basement which also served as a workshop where Dad had his workbench and tools. It was here that I worked on my models, and, eventually my photography. I spent hours down there on all kinds of projects from building a reflecting telescope to carving models in wood. But my main hobbies were model planes and then photography.

These picture probably mean very little to anyone else but they bring memories flooding back for me. I am just sorry I did not take more of them.

This picture of mee was taken in our front yard with the family car in the background. This was in my first year or two of high school which I know because this car was before I was sixteen. I never got to drive this car. On the left edge of the picture is the chain link fence around the Sunnylea school grounds.

This is my family about the time I entered High School. The picture was taken on the grass beside the house on Glenaden avenue.

This picture of our house shows the awnings installed for the summer. Dad put these up every spring and took them down every fall. Houses don’t seem to use these any more but they are very effective keeping the sun out of the windows.

I went to Sunnylea Public School which was right across the street, Grenview Blvd. South. This photo shows 180 degrees from North to South and includes the whole school yard. This is the kind of photography that is meaningless to anyone else but brings endless memories back to me of those days.

Royal York Collegiate

Royal York Collegiate Institute was located on Royal York Road

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Friends

Model Planes

In highschool I was into model airplanes. Of course I was as I grew up in ahouse full of aviation. My friend Stuart was into planes as well and we flew our plans together often.

In my last two years of highschool I began taking pictures and by the time I went of to university I had left my models behind me.