Grant Henderson CHS Graduate of 1927: "Were I to pick my bringin' up place, I'd choose the same old town"

The girls of Chapleau High School 1926

Perhaps Grant Henderson, who graduated from Chapleau High School in 1927 sums up so well the reason that those of us who no longer live in Chapleau "must go back" as he wrote in a poem about the time of the school's 60th anniversary reunion in 1982.

Grant wrote in part that he must go back to Chapleau again, and "all I ask is to meet old friends, and raise a glass on high." 

NOTE: CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE!!!!!

On November 14, 1924, 1181 Chapleau High School Cadet Corps was established and remained an important part of high school life for 39 years, being disbanded on January 1, 1963. The annual cadet inspection usually held in late May on the field behind the Pine Street school was also a community event with large crowds attending, while the day ended with the Cadet banquet and dance. 

For most of its history, the Cadet corps and bugle band were the personal domain of John 'Old Mac' McClellan, teacher and later principal, but interestingly, he was not the first one to look after the corps. That would have been a Mr. Ashdown, the school principal.

Interestingly in his poem Grant refers to Mr. McClellan as 'OLD MAC' even though he would not have been that "old" when he first arrived at the school. Having been a school teacher though, being old seems to go with the territory as students perceive us as being old. I admit that I am getting there now!

George Crichton, Hugh McMullen, Grant Henderson

Grant recalled that one day the students released an owl in class which undoubtedly caused quite a commotion , "OLD MAC was called" who stood appalled "before his feathery blast". adding that "Perhaps it's best to leave the rest to history and the past."

Dances were very popular in the 1920s, and held in the Town Hall basement once a week, according to Grant. He also recalled dancing "with one's best girl in a close knit whirl, and dancing cheek to cheek."

My mother Muriel E. (Hunt) Morris would tell me about dances in the 1920s when she was  a teenager in Chapleau. They were also held in Perpete's Hall  which would have been in a building about where the Chapleau Pentecostal Church is now. My mother would sing and her older sister Elsie (Hunt) Zufelt would play the piano. 

Of course hockey was part of community life in the 1920s with games at the "old old rink" with the potbelly stove keeping the lobby warm. Public skating, in the darkened arena, with the silvery moon at one end and quite often the town band in attendance made it the place to be, particularly on a Friday night. It was still the place to be as I was growing up in Chapleau in the late 1940s and 1950s.

Grant also wrote about Ski Club nights beneath the Northern Lights "with the happy crowd and laughter loud, the swish of running skis". If I recall correctly the ski hill was located on the site that later became known as Dr. Young's hill. 

1181 CHS Cadet Corps 1926. A E Evans far left

Jack Whitney, who attended CHS in the late 1920s, in a talk he gave to students many years later recalled his first day there.

"I shall never forget my first day in First Form. I was wearing black boots (not shoes) black wool stockings up to the knee and knicker-bocker pants which strapped around just below the knee and flopped over just an inch or so. Above this I had on a long-sleeved V-neck pullover, and this was topped by a grinning face and a shock of unruly light hair. I looked a good deal like most of the other boys except for size, shape and colouring. 

"The girls, as I remember wore low-waisted long dresses down to two or three inches above the ankle, with lisle hose and sensible shoes. Most of the hairdos were dutch bobs with a few with long curls and most of the hats were the helmet type, usually of felt, and I believe were patterned after the steel helmets of the previous war."

And so, just a glimpse back to the early days at CHS as the 90th anniversary reunion draws ever closer.

Grant, who went on to a very successful career in business, often returned to Chapleau to visit over the years, usually with his great friend George Crichton, another CHS grad. 

He sums it all up at the end of his poem suggesting that "Perhaps those days through memory's haze take on a richer hue" adding that perhaps that's true but "... this I know, And I've wandered up and down. Were I to pick my bringin' up place, I'd choose the same old town."

Grant "Grizz" Henderson died in 1994.

My thanks to David McMillan for providing me with a copy of Grant's poem, and to Dr. Vince Crichton for additional material. My email is mj.morris@live.ca