HOUSTON BC

We went home to Houston for Christmas. I guess Mom and Dad moved there and Dad worked at the sawmill. It’s about 80 miles west of Lejac toward Prince Rupert....somewhere.

Me and my two brothers and two sisters all took the Greyhound bus to Houston before Xmas. And Barry Duncan who is in Intermediate dorm with us also took the bus except he was travelling to Terrace which is way past Houston....somewhere.

There were ten of us kids in my family. All of us attended residential school at Lejac. All the older ones all graduated by 1968 and either moved on to the College at Prince George or got married. Sharon was the oldest one still at Lejac with us. I think she was 14. Then me, then Richard who would have been about 11, Terrance 9 and Arlene (the baby in our family) was about 8.

Houston is not that big. And the first thing that happened over Christmas is Dad’s sawmill burned down. Mom and Dad lived in a small house next to the sawmill which is over the railroad tracks on the other side of town. And we all woke up one night and Mom and Dad were standing in the kitchen looking out the window. We all got up when we heard all the fuss then all stood at our kitchen window with Mom and Dad watching Dad’s sawmill burn down.

We have a small church here....at Houston. And our Priest his name is Father Hedrick and he has a graspy voice. We also went to the Hotel one day downtown. Loretta, our older sister, visited us from Vancouver and Andy came in from Prince George. We all walked into town, all us kids, and sat in the café one afternoon drinking pop and listening to ‘Crimson and Clover’ by Tommy James and the Shondells. Then one night our oldest sister, Mrytle, stopped by with her husband Ted of Burns Lake and her baby, Gail.

I guess nothing really happen over Xmas at Houston....1968.

1968

Mr. Kenny

Mr. Leonard Kenny arrived at Lejac in about 1967 as the Intermediate Dorm supervisor. He stayed on for two or three years. He was from Newfoundland. He was the one who introduced all the boys to Boy Scouts. Later he began to train with the Vanderhoof police. I guess he wanted to be a cop. His girlfriend was a nurse at Vanderhoof and she used to come to visit him, sometimes sitting in the Rec room with all us boys. I just remember she was very pretty and nice.

Later, in 1968, Charlie Kenny came in as the Intermediate Dorm supervisor and Leonard Kenny got bumped up to Senior Dorm. Charlie Kenny was Mr. Kenny's younger brother. First day in the fall of 1968....this is so funny....first day at residential school that fall we were all in dorm getting ready for bed. And we had just met Charlie Kenny. He was in the little bedroom in the corner of Intermediate Dorm when all of a sudden he poked his head out of his bedroom and shouted ‘Who farred that?’

What? Again he repeated himself. We all looked at each other wondering what the hell he was saying. Turns out someone threw a pop can which bounced off his bedroom wall. Now he wants to know who threw it. He was saying ‘Who fired that?’ except the way he talks everybody thought he wanted to know who farted!

Mr. Leonard Kenny was the one who I remember was just about swearing one morning when we were all getting up in dorm. Brother James, the Senior Dorm supervisor, came in carrying a small radio and told Leonard Kenny someone just got shot. Mr. Kenny kept saying over and over ‘I can’t believe it. I just can't believe it!!' That was the time Robert Kennedy got shot. Robert Kennedy is John F. Kennedy’s younger brother. JFK used to be the U.S president.