Perhaps encouraged by audio-visual advice from a Lachine High School A.V. professional, my father ventured into colour slide photography from his traditional black and white prints in 1960. Back then, the Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal facilitated the purchase of some equipment from suppliers at a discount. Around this time we also acquired a very heavy Bell & Howell reel-to-reel tape recorder.
The exposed slide film was processed and mounted in a cardboard frame with 5mm edges to become the slide - there was no negative. I had the impression that colour prints (from colour negatives) were prohibitively expensive (for my family) at this point in history.
In the early 1960s, the principal benefit of slides was that people (family, or extended family, and/or friends) could gather around the gritty, sparkling, retractable slide screen for an evening of entertainment. If we were visiting my relatives' farm at Lachute by day, some farm personnel could work in a little nap in the after-lunch darkness of the show.
... This communal experience was offset by the fact that slides (in my father's case, 6000 of them - taken from the early 1960s to the late 1970s) can be seen by no one when they are filed by number in their boxes.
Roughly 50-60 years later, I am seeing some of these images for the first time.
Setting up a slide show involved getting the off-duty teacher, tired after a week of work, to sit down and to select slides based on a theme. These slides were correctly oriented in front of a light source, then loaded into a carousel or cartridges so they could be fed into the projector. When the show was over, they all had to be filed away. There was perhaps a 4:1 ratio of work:fun involved with showing slides.
Each slide had a call number which was linked to a brief written description. Typically, the data sheet was kept in the latching lid of the slide storage box. Because it might take weeks to expose a whole film, and because of the 1-2 week turnaround period for processing by mail, some details of the event might slip away - or be left off because one couldn't tuck a notebook full of details into the latching lids of the slide boxes.
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| A sample of a slide register. |
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The first two years of my father's slides were taken on Ektachrome. Early 'drugstore processing' techniques resulted in a rapid washout of certain colours, leaving a red-sepia cast across the whole image. Fortunately, modern slide scanning equipment and software can bring back some of the colours. The result of using dirty processing emulsion, or later contamination with dust and lint, are easily seen on virtually all the slides in his collection.
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This first series was taken in January and February 1961,
as my father walked to school.
It didn't take him a month, but I've interlaced two series of photos.
He taught English
... and Latin and history.
Above is the CNR crossing at 48th Avenue, Lachine, looking northwest.
as my father walked to school.
It didn't take him a month, but I've interlaced two series of photos.
He taught English
... and Latin and history.
Above is the CNR crossing at 48th Avenue, Lachine, looking northwest.
After the CNR was relocated, Victoria Street was extended west on, or parallel to, its former route.
Acadia Avenue with Lachine High School in the distance.
The library area is in the foreground.
Before the adoption of the Canadian 'maple leaf', the Union ('Jack') Flag
was still the official flag of Canada.
On 'take your kid to work' day in June - after all classes were out -
we'd go to my father's room and sometimes parade around with the room's Union Jack.
Above, you can see Canada's unofficial 'Red Ensign' flag flying.
Above: Looking west from the main entrance to Lachine High.
Meadowbrook School as seen from my father's room.
Neither I nor my sister attended here at this point.
We lived on the wrong side (south) of the tracks.
You can see a Canadian Car and Foundry MTC bus.
I believe this plaque was transferred over from the previous Lachine High (yes, we'll have photos of it, too!).
My mother was 'Head Girl' in 1949-1950.
Back then, Head Boys and Girls were those having the highest marks in their final year.
They had no legislative or leadership role within any student council which might have existed.
The student group of that period with the most 'power' was probably the Yearbook Committee.
Unless achieving high marks is a tactic to facilitate the next objective in one's life
the generations after my mother's sometimes regret the loss of other things sacrificed to obtain them.
While I have happy memories from my time at Meadowbrook,
Summerlea shows some features which give it more architectural charm.
Perhaps it was built with post-war optimism
but before the costs of educating all the baby boomers were known.
In addition to the glass structural blocks used to make classrooms bright and the large clock,
the Kindergarten had a nice feature - a semi-circular bench with its back forming the western wall.
The corresponding curve in the building is barely visible at the extreme right.
If our half-day Kindergarten class gathered for a lesson
or for individual story recounting, they'd seat us here.
'A drunk man in a bar said to another:
"I'll bet you ten dollars that I can't understand what you're saying" '
... a memorable Kindergarten teacher's joke of the early 1960s while we sat on that bench.
Unlike Meadowbrook, Summerlea had traditional free-standing water radiators.
They were not recessed into the external walls.
Coming from teacher training at McGill's Macdonald College program,
I think both of my parents practice-taught at Summerlea in the early 1950s.
They knew some of my teachers from that experience.
This is Saint André-Hubert Fournet church at the corner of Broadway and 44th Avenue.
Beyond the woman in the fur coat at the mailbox is the crèche shown below.
Post-war church architecture was often quite innovative.
Beyond the crèche is Brewster Park.
Beyond the woman in the fur coat at the mailbox is the crèche shown below.
Post-war church architecture was often quite innovative.
Beyond the crèche is Brewster Park.
Summerlea United Church, May 1961.
Provost at 10th Avenue, looking east, July 1961.
The sign says 'mechanic on duty' but I think they are selling regular gas
for 39 cents per Imperial Gallon (4.54 litres)
long before the days of self-service gasoline pumps.
Below, looking north on 10th Avenue is Central Park School.
My mother attended Central Park as a student, and my paternal grandfather was principal here.
Above: Broadway at 40th Avenue, October 1961.
