Walking to School with Manny and Norman

Manny Young, Norman Kadanoff and I walked to school every day. Norman would come by my house and together we would go to pick up Manny. We would often find him finishing his meal and getting his books to join us for our daily walk. On our way to school we would walk from Barclay and de Vimy through Pratt Park and then Wilder Park. For the first few years our destination was Strathcona at the corner of St. Catherine Road and McEachran and in our last year we drifted down Bernard to Outremont High. We did this in every season and in all kinds of weather.

It come to be deeply etched in my memory as one of the great pleasures of the companionship associated with going to school and contains some small nostalgic memories.

Our journey happened twice a day, from Monday to Friday because we would almost always also walk home during the hour and a half from noon to 1:30 for the required hot lunch prepared by our mothers. We would gobble down the veal chops and roast potatoes, have a plate of canned peaches and wait to be picked up for the walk back to school.

Our route after lunch was slightly different. We would walk up de Vimy and then down Ducharme to Rockland, where we would stop for refreshment at the corner convenience store (which was I believe, called Rockland News and Tobacco).  We would each buy a Pepsi Cola (7 cents) and a package containing two small cakes covered with toasted coconut (10 Cents). We had to eat this snack standing in the store, because we did not pay the deposit on the bottles.

Once refreshed we returned to school in time for a sleepy afternoon of classes.

"Sholo" Glouberman