Grade 8 Elizabeth Ziegler 1951-52

One of the little diversions in the summer before school went out and the late summer after school went in was the
Yo-Yo man from Cherrio, the company who made the Yo-Yo's. He would teach us how to do tricks with the Yo-Yo, and when we perfected them he would give us a badge. I had earned several badges and badges were the only awards given out at that time as far as I know. I had badges from School, badges from Camp, and badges from Cherrio. and was especially proud of them.

Mr MacGregor was especially proud of the choir, which won a few citations during my time in it. One of the songs I never forgot, and the choir sang great was " Do ya ken John Peel" and we sang it in a competition at K.C.I. Kitchener Collegiate Institute, which should have been my next school, but it wasn't to be

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In the Waterloo Chronicle Jan 11/1952

Name new school in honour of CJ MacGregor.

Waterloo's new $450.000.00 school being built to replace the century old school Central School will be known as MacGregor School in honour of CJ MacGregor, veteran Waterloo Principal. Mr.MacGregor has taught school for 41 years, of which 33 years have been in Waterloo. He is the Principal of Elizabeth Ziegler School and supervising Principal of the three Waterloo Public Schools. Prior to becoming Principal at Elizabeth Ziegler in 1931 he was the Principal at Alexander School.
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I did get the strap from Mr MacGregor once, and for something I didn't even do. I was in the basement of the school with a clicker, which I was using to full advantage. Because of the echo in those large rooms I was making a very loud noise with it. Mr MacGregor came down and told me to stop making the noise, and turned and started to leave when it was done again, but not by me but some other kid who had heard him tell me off and had one of the clickers and did it from the safety of the toilet stall. Mr. MacGregor turns and takes me by the arm to the cloak room of his office and administers the strap. He would have no part of me explaining that it wasn't me, but the way he administers the punishment, told me his heart wasn't in it anyway, and beside I owed him a few more for the pranks they never caught me at.

When I got to be 13 years old I did in retrospect what turned out to be a very foolish thing, I offered to help my father in his shoe shine business. It wasn't at all altruistic but to earn a little spending money.

My father ran the Shoe Shine business in the Walper Hotel in Kitchener, which at the time was owned by Mr. Joseph Zuber. I started helping him out on Saturdays from noon to 6PM when he closed. But in a short time I was going after school and helping out each night until 8PM, thereby missing out on a lot of extracurricular school activities, which eventually made me resent having to go and help out, because he really got to depend on me being there.

Seeing as I was missing out on those extracurricular activities, and did have some spending money I would go to the show when I finished work. Because there was a curfew for 11PM, I would have to get some adult to buy my ticket for me which was never a problem, I would give them the money and they would purchase the ticket as if we were together. Because most of the shows had 2 features 3 cartons, and a newsreel, we wouldn't usually get out until midnight, and by then the buss es had stopped running and I would have to walk home from Kitchener. I would walk home the best way of doing so, to avoid the police. The police did actually stop me a few times, but when they asked me what I was doing and where I was going they let me go, and I was 13 at the time. It was actually funny because my buddy Irvin's brother who was 4 years older than me was actuall thrown in jail for the night, but he was a Zoot Suiter and I suppose tried to give the cops a hard time.

When I started coming in late Miss Dankert would actually give me a hard time, and tell me off, and she actually got after my father, but as long as I kept helping him he didn't care. Miss Dankert got exasperated with me and started locking the house right down to teach me a lesson, I would have to knock or stay out all night. It wouldn't work on me there were just to many ways to get in. I started going up the fire escape to my sisters room knock on the window and she would let me in that way, if that didn't work, I would go up the fire escape to my brother's room and he would let me in that way. One day when I got in the back door, because it was left open, I was sneaking up the back stairs which I would have to say were quite creaky, and I was on the second floor apposite Karen Constable's [the cook] room when I heard a door down the hall and quick footsteps heading for the washroom opposite Karen's bedroom, and the steps were so fast I couldn't get out of the way in time, and as the figure came around the corner I shouted, BOO, and Jessie a new, helper at the home, screamed and went running down the hall her kimono flying as she went, like a Banshee was on her tail, after turning in surprise there was Karen looking at me motioning for me to go up the back way as quiet as possible, which I did, and jumped into bed with all my clothes on, blankets pulled up to my chin, the women came around and tried to determined what had happened, I wiped my eyes asking what was going on, as did all the other kids in the room, the women left, and nothing more was said. I wonder some time if Karen ever told them what happened and they had a good laugh. Some time later I was locked out pretty good and the only way I could get in was through a skylight in the roof that, I would have to drop through on to the floor of the attic right next to our bedroom. I got up on the roof and opened the sky light which would be held open by a piece of flat steel with holes in it which was graduated to allow the window to be held open at various levels. I opened the window at the widest and began to lower myself through as far as I could before dropping about 5 ft to the floor when my back hit the rod, allowing the window to come crashing down, on my fingers as I was dropping down. The window crashed down on my finger tips, I let out a loud yell, and fell to the floor, I picked myself up and ran to the bed and cover myself with the blankets, while the women ran around trying to determine what had happened, They must have began to believe the place was haunted.

Some time if there wasn't a show on that I wanted to see I would get home about 8:30 supper would have been over but there was usually something left that I would prepare for myself. One of the things I really liked was fried hot peppers an appreciation picked up from my father, and because they would never have them at the home I would pick up some from a grocery store on the way home. I would begin to fry them and as anyone knows if you fry hot peppers to fast they make fumes that are not unlike mustard gas, and everyone in the home would be coughing and hacking with their eyes watering while I would be enjoying my sandwich, and more than once did one of the women admonish my sister by saying , your brothers at it again. At some point in time it became Max's job and mine to pare the potatoes for supper. We would peel a 6 quart basket which was about half of what was needed and Miss Dankert would gripe about it all the time. One day the women all went out to the First Baptist Church for a meeting leaving me alone with all the kids, and by this time I was the oldest in the home, at 14 yrs, and I pressed everyone in the place, that could safely handle a paring knife, or potato peeler, and we, they peeled and must have peeled 100 lbs. of them and put them in cold water before the women came back. When they returned, they thought that someone had left a donation and couldn't believe their good fortune. I was told that the boys didn't consider themselves made until they had gotten the strap over their hands without crying out loud, but I don't remember of any real corporal punishment there, although if you upset someone they weren't beyond cuffing you on the side of the head, or as one of the women would do twist your ear. I don't remember getting the strap, but find it hard to believe under the circumstances I didn't so it could not have been to impressive. I do know that anything done there could not approach what my father was capable of to me and my brother and to a lesser extent, my sister.

On Sept 17/49 while helping my father at the Walper Hotel one of his friends come in excitedly telling him of a big fire in Toronto, and that they were all going to Toronto to check it out and wanted to know if my father wanted to go with them, he immediately closed the stand and said he was going, I begged him, to go with them but to no avail, and Off they went to Toronto to see the Noronic that had burned that night killing over 100 people.

In late summer we would visit all the drug stores and insurance companies to collect blotters for when we started school in the fall, and there would be a sort of competition to see who could get the most, and the best. . In the late fall we would do the same and get calenders, and the favourite one to get was from a Drug store on King St near Erb St. that would have the weather forecast for the next year, out of the Farmers Almanac we were told.

In early August of 1952 my father asks me how would I like to go fishing to Honey Harbour, with a friend of his who owned The Queens Hotel in Ayr Ont. John Dimitroff, and I said sure. John tells my father he would have to buy me a fishing pole and reel. My father wasn't to thrilled at this prospect but John said that he would go halves with my father. Part of the Walper Hotel was a magazine and sporting goods store so that is where they got the pole and reel, and it cost $20.00 which was probably the most money my father ever spent on me and his share was $10.00. I had to tell Miss Dankert because I would be gone for a couple days, so my father calls and tells her what is happening, and that weekend off I go. John had a Nash and there were two other cars, so we had a convoy to Honey Harbour, father than I had ever been, or thought I would ever go. We had a great time John Bankhoff another of my fathers friends was there as well. After the weekend we went back and I told everyone of the grand time I had.

I had only been home a few days when my mother called from Toronto asking if I would like to come to Toronto and go the the CNE, Canadian National Exhibition, every school kid in Ontario each year upon completing their school year would be given a free ticket to the CNE, and I had for the previous 6 years, and used to whine why do they give these out when there is no chance we will ever get there, and likely we threw them out as soon as getting them. My mother says she will buy my ticket for the train, I will just have to pick it up at the Kitchener station, jump on the train and her and her new husband George will meet me at Parkdale station in Toronto and we will go to the CNE and I could return the next day. I only had to think about it for a few minutes, wondering how I was going to do it, and then it occurred to me, I told her yes, what day and when I would go, and that she could meet me. It was fortuitous, I told Miss Dankert that I would be going back to Honey Harbour again that weekend, made an excuse why I couldn't help my father that weekend, and the plan was in motion.

I jumped on the train, which in itself was a wonderful experience, and went to Toronto, without knowing that it was the beginning of the end of my life in Kitchener-Waterloo, the twin cities. My mother lived in a 3rd floor walk up at 1401 Queen St West in Parkdale a western section of Toronto, not far from a huge amusement park on Lake Ontario called Sunnyside. She took me to her apartment and said we would go to the CNE the next day. The next day we got up and went to the CNE, my stepfather seemed like a nice guy, and in all I think they spent about $50.00 which was an eye opener to me, I had a hell of a job just getting my father to buy a pair of shoes for me or my siblings. In fact my mother would always remember to send us parcels at Christmas time with lots of candy and a present. We watched planes bomb targets in the lake and machine gun other targets in the lake, it was all very exciting. After all the excitement we went back to the apartment, all the way back to the apartment, and the rest of my time there, my mother and George were trying to convince me to come to Toronto. I returned to Kitchener and thought about it for a while and a couple of days later when my mother called, I said I would come to Toronto. I had been impressed by all the money that was spent on the CNE, and I was at a time in my life that I was thinking about what I would be doing in a couple years, and I knew that I didn't want to be shining shoes for the rest of my life. My mother subsequently called asked me what I was going to do, and when I told her I would be coming down she said she would arrange for the ticket, and had some more information for me, she said I had a new sister and that they had moved to 35 Northcote Ave across from the Parkdale Station. I am 14 yrs old at the time and know almost nothing about pregnancies and such so I just took her word that she had had the baby. The day before going I told Rosemary and Max, what I was going to do and swore them to secrecy until after I had left. I also told them that I would keep in touch, and to think about what I was doing, and consider themselves in the future.
The next day I packed up my meager belongings in a paper shopping bag and off to the Kitchener CNR Train Station, and a whole new adventure.

When I get to Toronto I am greeted by my mother, my new stepfather George and my new half sister Anne, who was only days old. There is something wrong with this scene, but what I don't quite know. It will become clear in a few years though.