14
Jun
2012
2012
Bent River School House
I took the long way around Lake Rosseau on Hwy #141 recently and discovered a little village by the name of Bent River. This is their old school house now called the Historical Hall . When researching Bent River I discovered they are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the old school house on June 30th, 2012. Info below.
100th Anniversary Celebration of Bent River School. The event is from 10am to 4pm Saturday June 30th 2012 at 1120 Rosseau Lake Rd 1, off Hwy 141 in Bent River. Bring any copies of family or school photos that you may have to share. Let anyone you know who attended or taught at the school of the festivities. For more information contact June at: 705-769-3515. Map Here
My Dad, Don Jones (1934-2004) taught at this school his first year teaching. He was nineteen and had taken a six week training course in Toronto. It would have been in 1953-54; he earned two thousand dollars that year, and he told me he didn’t deserve it. As a teacher myself for twenty-five years I have to smile at that comment; most of teaching is learned while teaching. He went on to teach in Bethesda and then in Newmarket. He taught for thirty-five years.
I know it well. I grew up on Skeleton Bay, from 1963 to 1978… we had a lakefront cottage further down the road. In winter, the road was only plowed up to the school, so we’d leave our vehicles there and take snowmobiles in the rest of the way to the cottage. At -45F, it wasn’t much fun sometimes, but we became tough, hardy kids. I loved the old schoolhouse… I even wrote a poem about it when I was a teenager. There was an old wooden water tower nearby; we used to climb up that rickety old thing and climb down inside of it, and it swayed back and forth as we were climbing it. It’s a wonder we’re alive today to talk about it. Fond, fond memories of Bent River; it made me the person I am today.