By Ed Stozek
For the Herald
My sisters and I were first introduced to the three Rs in a Grade 1 to 8 country school setting.
These basic skills also inspired us to explore and appreciate a variety of reading material and art concepts.
A small room at the back part of the school housed a limited collection of library books.
My sister Adell loved to read. She noted that she read all of the books from the school library “several times over.” One year she had to miss an extended period of time from attending school due to illness. Her teacher, Mr. Kiez, stopped by for a visit at our farm house and dropped off homework and some comics. Adell really enjoyed reading the comic books.
Several years later when I attended the same one-room country school the amount of reading material at the library was still very limited.
One of my favourite books included, Scrubs on Skates, written by Scott Young. The adventures of young hockey players on a Winnipeg high school hockey team made for an interesting read. As a note of interest, author Scott Young, a Canadian journalist, sportswriter and novelist, was Neil Young’s father. I also read and reread Lost in The Barrens by another Canadian author, Farley Mowat. Following the adventures of Jamie and Awasin’s survival in the Arctic stirred a young boy’s imagination.
My sister’s collection of comic books also expanded my reading horizons. An occasional investment of a dime or a quarter netted a new comic book with an exciting story line and interesting artwork.
Along with the usual superheroes and westerns I especially enjoyed the Classics Illustrated Comic series with titles such as The War of the Worlds, Treasure Island and The Three Musketeers. Many years later my sons became avid collectors of Spiderman and Alien comics.
My comic book collection increased the day of my tonsillectomy.
On our way back from the Hamiota Hospital, my father and I stopped at the pharmacy at Shoal Lake to pick up a prescription. The pharmacist handed over some comics to help distract my pain.
None of the comics had covers. Back in the day comic books were sold to distributers and retailers on a returnable basis. This meant unsold comics could be returned for credit. To ease the cost of shipping back the whole comic book, retailers were allowed to strip off the covers and receive full credit as if they returned the entire book. Legally, the retailer was obligated to destroy the remaining copies. Some retailers destroyed the comic books while others sold them at a discounted price. In my case the pharmacist gave me some free reading material. Dennis the Menace, Tarzan and The Lone Ranger were thoroughly enjoyed.
Art was another popular activity at the one-room country school.
Typically participating in art projects occurred on a Friday afternoon. A former schoolmate of my older sister recently recalled an interesting story. Cornelia did not like to draw. For one art lesson Mrs. Ewashko handed out a sheet of paper for each student to draw on. Cornelia quickly passed the paper to Janet who was seated in the desk in front of her. Janet quickly drew a picture and passed it back to Cornelia without the teacher catching on to what was happening.
After I started to attend school, I thoroughly enjoyed the Friday afternoon art lessons and our attempt at creating a masterpiece. Drawing was a passion of mine and it was a great deal of fun to sketch some of my comic book heroes. We also did other art projects.
I recall bringing a potato from home, cutting it in half and drawing a shape on the surface of the potato. We cut out around the shape, dabbed the potato in paint and then stamped the potato on paper. We came up with some interesting designs.
Many years later I used that same art concept for one of the first Grade 6 classes that I taught in 1974-75.
Literature and art concepts initiated in the early childhood years sure did help to inspire, enrich, educate and entertain.
It’s still a great deal of fun to “doodle.”
