Riverside’s a school with a long history
Pending move prompts stories and reminiscences of one former student of what was then Elmira Public School
IT IS THE END of an era at Riverside Public School this year, with the school locking its doors for good when the final bell goes in June.
The students and staff will be starting off September at the school’s new location in the subdivision on Church Street West in Elmira.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of students have passed through the doors at the school’s current location on William Street, including Sarah Brubacher. Now 98 years old, Brubacher left Riverside Public School in 1930, then known as Elmira Public School. The bell that sits on the lawn of the current building used to sit atop the old schoolhouse she attended.
Getting on in her years, Brubacher is suffering from late stage Alzheimer’s Disease, but her children remember her sharing stories of her time at the old Elmira Public School. She now lives at the Heritage House nursing home in St. Jacobs.
Mary Kaiser says her mother’s memories of her school days were happy ones, evidenced by a visit she had with an old friend a few years back.
“I took her to visit a school friend, who lived in town, and they were talking about school and they really like school. I am remembering them, the two of them sitting there about six years ago, and they were laughing a lot. They were reminiscing and talking about other kids they went to school with. They were happy,” she shared from the kitchen of her Elmira home.
One of the stories both Kaiser and her brother, Toronto-based Mark Brubacher, remembered well was a tale she relayed about her journey to school, sneaking IT IS INCREDIBLE HOW the garden grows this time of year – each year it is an unbelievable surprise. Maybe that is why gardening is so much fun: constant amazement!
My herb garden is looking good. It contains more than just herbs because the vegetable garden is out back and it is too far to run for a head of lettuce. There are spinach, radishes, peppers and two kinds of head lettuce in the herb garden. Last year I had lavender for the first time and it came back this year. The hollyhocks along the back look promising for a good show. Also new this year is garlic. I can’t wait to harvest it.
Sitting beside the back door is an old blue chair with a basket of yellow and purple pansies on it. And herbs? Of course! Basil, parsley, oregano, dill, thyme and a big patch of spearmint.
That is what I want to talk about today. Mint, that plant that people want but then it goes wild and takes over the garden. It should really be planted in a container. But I am the type of gardener that likes to poke and putter in the long sum-
through farmers fields to shorten the one-mile journey to her classroom.
“Back in 1982, I went on some road trips with my parents, and on one of them, we were going past the school. I will read the transcript I have of the story. ‘There was a cement bridge, we just called it the cement bridge. We walked past it to go to school. Of course it has been rebuilt, but in those days it was all flat and long across the top. My sister Nancy was always daring: she would walk right across the top, which we thought was very daring. It was too, because it was quite a deep gorge under there. Then we would come across the street where Bonnie’s Chick Hatchery is. There was nothing there at the time, and to get to school we would cross up along the field. We weren’t supposed to that, but it was quite a shortcut. One morning, the caretaker saw us coming and said, ‘did you, up that back road come? You aren’t supposed to come that way,’ so of course, we didn’t go that way anymore. We were quite obedient in those days,’ and she laughed,” Brubacher shared of his mother’s reminiscences.
Kaiser says the principal of the school was a stickler for the rules, according to her mother, and wouldn’t let them take any more shortcuts to the classroom.
“The trip was one mile, and they would take that shortcut across the field. Then when they got to school, they wanted to come into the back entrance, but the principal wouldn’t let them come in the back. She would say that she always had to walk around. She would say how inconvenient it was with a sweeping hand,” said Kaiser with a laugh.
Yet another time, as relayed to her son Mark, Brubacher was in danger of missing an afternoon of school during her escapades on their lunch break.
“‘Every noon hour, we had an hour and half off for lunch, and walk around take a little walk to the store. One day, my two friends and I walked down to the grocery store. He always had a little room where he kept the dishes and toys and things, so we always liked to go and see them. We wouldn’t touch anything, but we would look. We were in the back there, and then it was time for him to go back for lunch. He didn’t know we were in the back. Finally, we thought it was time to go back to school. We came forward, and the door was locked. There we were, inside the store. One of my friends just about got tears in her eyes. The other one did. We didn’t know what to do. We stood at the door, watching our school friends go past, and back to school. All of a sudden, one of our closest friends saw us there, phoned home or somewhere else, and got the store keeper to come back, unlock the door and let us out. Never again did we go back there,’” he relates in her voice.
To commemorate the last day at the current building, Riverside Public School staff and students will be taking a walk together at the end of the month, all the way up the street to the new building in the Church Street subdivision. With their final walk, they will be remembering students like Sarah Brubacher, and the many hundreds that came before them.