Friday, September 3, 2010

Cloverdale Elementary School

Seeing as how school is starting up after this long weekend, I thought now would be a good time to remember Cloverdale Elementary School. The school is on Highway 10, just a little east of 177B Street.

Today it is known as Cloverdale Traditional School.

Back when I started Grade 1 there were two buildings and the gymnasium separated them. The main building is still standing and in use today. It was a pink building for many years and everyone in the area from grades one to seven attended. No kindergarten back then. Well, there was in private residences/buildings. Today its called daycare but in the sixties this service was called kindergarten. Kindergarten was introduced to the Surrey school system in the early seventies and children came for 2 hours daily either morning or afternoon shift.

Besides the main building we had the annex and students mainly in Grade 4 were placed here. This was an interesting building with a cement basement that was a play area when it rained. There were 2 entrances, one for boys and one for girls, probably because the restrooms were accessed from the basement. Upstairs were two or maybe three classrooms. The annex was taken down many years ago.

Behind the annex was a small covered building with open sides. Kids parked their bicycles here. In a generation ahead of us kids rode their ponies to school and tied them in this barn while they were in school.

There were about 400 kids attending Cloverdale Elementary School. This was back in the day when you knew the name of everyone in your grade and you probably knew the names of all their brothers and sisters too. Each grade had two or three classrooms. Some of the names stick with me: Mrs Bell, Mr Mountain, Mr Bryan, Mrs Klassen, Mrs Carter, but mostly if I remember their names its not a good thing.

It was a pretty typical school, learned all the basics and there was optional music lessons - violin or band. The school had a library, and when the school expanded out the back a bit we got an even larger library. There was a gymnasium and it was big enough to hold entire school assemblies with all of us seated on the floor. There occasionally were movies played in here for all classes to watch or various children's entertainers or high school bands performed here. Had to like those days because it meant getting out of class.

Outside in the playground were baseball diamonds, tetherball, a jungle gym, and a swing set. Recess for fifteen minutes a day was never long enough.

Sports days were held late May or early June, rain or shine. Students were grouped by age, not necessarily by grade, and further grouped based on athletic ability, predetermined by the teachers at a run through prior to sports day. The school sent out notices to the parents looking for sports day volunteers. My mother, a former gym teacher, volunteered for my first sports day thinking she was going to be assisting with one of the events. Instead she got stuck cooking hot dogs. My very Scottish mother did not like hot dogs. She never volunteered again. The one thing I remember about sports day was the pop. I always ordered Tahiti Treat. Yummy!

Try as I might I just don't seem to have a favorite memory of Cloverdale Elementary School. Maybe that memory will come to me another day for another post.

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