Chapleau High School in 1964 had 'wolfish' types, hunters, Razzle Dazzle fan, school sports and Dr Karl Hackstetter as principal

Merrick Goldstein at CHS, 1964 by Lark Ritchie

CHS Field Day 1964 by Lark Ritchie

With plans for the 90th reunion of Chapleau High School in 2012 picking up speed with the launch of a web site, let's turn back the clock for a quick look at some comments about students from the school's yearbook in 1964.

REUNION WEB SITE http://www.chs90threunionfestival.com/

Perhaps the comments were an accurate reflection - and maybe not too. Here is a sampler.

The yearbook asks can you imagine Bette Andrews "failing an exam" or Rheal Bujold as a comedian on television? What about Bob Lewis "not calling" a certain telephone number (through the operator as Chapleau did not have dial phones in 1964), or Penny Park "not lending her notebooks"?

From a poem about Grade 10A, the following appeared:

"Norman Creighton wants to be the wolfish type, so that's why he's learning to smoke a pipe,

"Wally Leigh is an excellent hunter, please don't worry he'll never blunder,

"Alanna Downey talks and talks - no wonder why with a brother like Doc,

"Leslie Zufelt's a real nice gal, that's why she's everybody's pal,

"Carole Futhey wants to shout, that's why she's really crazy about ??"

Apparently Jim St. Amand's main interest was hockey while Ian Clegg enjoyed skiing. George Ritchie had as his major ambition beating Howard Higuchi in Physics while Gary Schafer was an avid Razzle Dazzle fan.

Hugh McKechnie was instrumental in the destruction of many a history class, according to the yearbook, and I assume George Evans who arrived at CHS in 1961 was the teacher. Ironically Hugh returned as a teacher when George was assistant principal.

Ron Doig was a member of the Table Tennis Club, which I seem to recall may have been located above the old Bank of Montreal building at Birch and Young streets by Dr. Karl A Hackstetter, who became principal in 1963 as the school's student population was growing and there was no room in the Pine Street building for physical education classes. Dr. Hackstetter taught at CHS from 1954 to 1957.

Plans were underway for the new school "on the hill" which opened in 1966.

Myrtle Turner enjoyed curling and Charlie Purich was "a credit to the hockey team." In the fifties and sixties, until about the arrival of the Chapleau Junior "B" Huskies in 1966-67, CHS had very good hockey teams. There were hockey teams much earlier in the school's history too.

In 1964, Alex Babin's interests ranged from breaking testtubes to chopping meat. Yes, Alex, who returned to teach at CHS was also an excellent butcher, and of course co-chaired with Margaret Rose (Payette) Fortin, the last two CHS reunions.

Just a quick look back at 1964 to help everyone jog their memories about school life when they were there. In the next year, stories will abound!

CONGRATS CHAPLEAU

Congratulations to Chapleau on winning the WFN Ultimate Fishing Town 2011 Contest. As I looked at the competition, it was an incredible effort by Chapleauites everywhere to overcome the odds of winning against some much larger communities who were participating.

DISNEY CHARACTERS

Thanks to everyone who wrote me after I mentioned that I was on my way to Orlando, FL on vacation. Yes, I said hello to all the Disney characters for you, and no, I did not see any alligators, and did not go shark fishing, even though Danny Vaughan kindly sent me specific fishing instructions. But I did have a super time. My email is mj.morris@live.ca and for those who have asked I am on Facebook at http://facebook.com/michaeljmorris2