May 1st, 1952 was moving day--for the Lubin family including me (in those days in my old neighborhood, they called me 'Peewee' or 'Mendl'  or 'Loogy' or 'knife' or just plain Martin, "Fudge's' kid brother actually),

Onwards and "upwards" from 4457 Esplanade, just across the street from Fletcher's Field, now Parc Jeanne Mance (the "MOUNTAIN") to Outremont, 855 Rockland Ave., between Lajoie and Ducharme.

A little over a year later, the Boulevard St. Joseph Talmud Torah and then for 1 year only 1952-53 rue. Esplanade corner rue Rachel (across from the armory and the "MOUNTAIN") Herzliah.

Boocher, now living in Outremont , decides not to continue with parochial school

and its then circa $10. per month tuition, but to enter what Fletcher's Field/

Baron Byng-bound friends used to call "Snobcona: at the junction of Cote St.

Catherine road and Avenue Pagnuelo, just down the hill from Herbie Feifer’s

magnificent house.

                                              

There he spent 3 wonderful years immersing himself in the physical and often violent exactions of floor hockey as a member of the blue house, the generally losing interscholastic bantam football and soccer teams but ably coached by Messrs. Mckiel and Wensley who volunteered their post - 3:30 P.M. time without $pay.

And then there were the teachers, a panoply of character types (I never was

enrolled in any gender -"mixed" classes)--in the Latin stream, from 'digger'

Udell'="ur, (rich) tur, mur, mini, intur "(passive moods of Latin verbs) to the

sensuous Ms. Cullen (Jerry Engel take note) to the spray-laden sounds of

Kootchy" (pistons, pumps, and "pressure on the EEEEIHNside, greater than

pressure on the ooouwtside", ah (I) wuuuhnt kuzz aaah koount = I wouldn't because I couldn't?, to Ross's harsh-sounding hic, haec, hoc, KAAAAWHWHWHK, to the SO2 chemistry teacher lisping Price "snnning, boys"-- and of course fartn Fred & burpin Bill, the arbitrary at times vindictive Shakespeare 'scholar" Jordan who was shoving The Merchant of Venice as well as As You Like It down our hebraic (most but not all of us) throats, and the perennially ruddy complexioned Geometry teacher Beaton, always calling on Allen Feldman who sat behind me in Grade 9 to solve those deductions at the end of each proposition.

There was also among the pedagogues the competent, inspiring and widely respected History teacher Roland Wensley (where is 'Massatooositz'?), and of course the " you guyszze" Fairburn and the irrepressible Biard: Oui, SCHSHETYWIYHND, up da Board.. If you want to sing, go join the choir = Si tu veux chanter, veuillez rejoindre le choeur. "You'll get the strap "(5 or 10 on each hand, NEVER to my knowledge were "biffs" administered to BAD boys' derriers).

Especially memorable for me were Latin classes with the Digger, and Ross,

"alright class in our Algebra" Mckiel, and Archimedes' Principle Science

classes with McCutcheon (I believe he lived in Park Extension in those days)

By the time Union Nationale Duplessis allowed OHS to open in Fall

1956 (we took our matrics in June '57), Phys Ed teacher Davidson allowed me to

enter the "sucky patrol" -ie. the Leaders' Corps (why ignoble me along with the

great Mannie Young, David Warhaft, Bill Brender, Russell Ayoub et al., who

knows-- only davidson?]

Lots of Rose Brothers Van Horne corner Davaar post - 3:30 P.M.

afternoons of Pepsi + Black Beauty or May West cakes (25 cents + screaming

matches with heavily accented owner Leon and his Montreal-born nephew Murray Spitzer; friday nights at Pratt Park outdoor skating rink; playing against

bone-crushing line-backer Normie Bogo and the closer to Hutchison/Bernard guys re: tackle football at Rockland Park without padding (I must have been daringly nuts to so engage) and baseball on OHS property as well as at Rockland Park on Saturdays.

Two final recollections-Nov. 1954 saturday DeVimy corner Barclay = basement of grade 9 class-mate Mannie Young house watching on TV the Grey Cup and seeing Chuck Hunsinger "fumble "(it really WAS a lateral attempted forward pass) in the waning minutes of the game into the hands of 2-way Edmonton Eskimo great Jackie Parker who then ran for the winning touchdown -- nothing to do with our Latin homework on the following Monday. And class-mate Jerry Cohen imitating one of our teachers, I believe it was Mr. Jordan but it could have been Mr. Ross, with the subject ("victim"?) of the imitation in front of him. And Gary Ulrich and Russell Ayoub hitting softballs onto the roof of Strathcona from the little Courcellette park adjacent... and on and on...

The river of TIME never ceases:

Memories--NOTHING EVER IS; ALL IS BECOMING.

JE me souviens, comprends-tu? Do you understand?

MartinLubin