Thank you for those photos Jim.

verne solonas, January 31st, 2011, Administrator, lejac.blogspot.com

Residential school days....

Verne a few more pictures of Lejac days have turned up.Jim Photos courtesy of Jim Callanan, edited by Verne Solonas

The one that got away...

Every year, usually in the spring, we would burn the grass around the buildings next to the school. One year a bunch of us lit fires around the Scout Hall, next to the Old Rink. The boys use the Scout Hall to put on their skates in the winter time or to change into their hockey gear before games. We lit this fire except somehow it got away on us. So, bunch of us boys including our supervisor, and then the Priest were all out and fighting for our lives trying to get out the fire which was getting too close to a great big fuel tank next to the Scout Hall! This was after dark, we finally got the fire under control and I remember the Priest ‘having a word’ with our supervisor. I guess he wasn’t too pleased we near burned the whole place down. Photo courtesy of Jim Callanan, posted by Verne Solonas

Carl Chingee...

Carl Chingee was a boy in our dorm. We were all in Intermediates back then in the mid-1960s. He was also in my class. And everybody around the whole school had a bit of a chuckle because I guess one night when everybody was asleep Carl Chingee ended up in Miss Blair’s bedroom on the girls’ side. Our teacher said Miss Blair woke up when she heard her bedroom door open, and there was Carl standing in the doorway. That was also when he woke up! Turned out he was sleep-walking, ending up all the way down on the girls’ side.

Peewees....

We were all in Peewees....in 1968. Me, Morris, Lester, Kenny, Victor, Barry and George Alexander. One day Mr. Kenny came to us and asked us if we wanted to play for Fraser Lake that coming weekend. Mr. Kenny was our Intermediate dorm Supervisor. He explained that Mr. Simpson, the coach for the Fraser Lake Peewees, asked if we could play for them in an upcoming game. We weren’t exactly sure. Kenny, Barry and us. We never ever played for anybody else before except Lejac. But some of us said we’ll try it....maybe. So that weekend Mr. Simpson came and got us and we played for Fraser Lake against a team called Nadina. Or course we beat the pants off them.

It was an early morning game at their rink at Fraser Lake. After the game, we all went to Mr. Simpson’s house for lunch. And Mrs. Simpson fed us soup and sandwiches for lunch. Mrs. Simpson was really nice.

After that a whole bunch of us from Lejac started joining the Fraser Lake teams just so we could get away from the school. Especially when we had ‘away games’. That’s when we went on road trips, like to Burns Lake, Fort St. James or even Vanderhoof. That way we got to be away from the school the whole day. Even Burns Lake came and got some of us to play for them. But that was a long way away to travel for a game (Burns Lake is 40 miles away from Lejac). That was Immaculatta at Burns Lake.

By 1970-71, most of the older boys from Lejac only played for the Fraser Lake teams. Especially after they built their brand new arena and all their dressing rooms were all inside and nice and warm.

Lejac and Fraser Lake, like most northern communities, only had outdoor rinks in the 1960s which required they make their own ice.

At Lejac, once the snow fell in the late fall or early winter, all the boys and girls would go out to the rink and trample the snow. Everyone would line up side by side across the entire rink from the boards of one side of the rink to the other, and you would have one line of kids work their way down the length of the rink trampling all the snow. Followed by another line of kids until the entire rink area had been trampled. Then that would all be flooded.

Most years none of us could wait for our ice and so the whole school would go up to the pond next to the dump, across the highway from our school. The pond always had excellent ice. Some Saturdays all the boys and girls and their supervisors would be out there the whole day in the late fall.

In 1963 there was only one rink at Lejac. Later, maybe in 1964, they built another rink which we used to call ‘the big rink’. Whenever we had hockey games, we always played at the big rink while the smaller rink was more for public skating and sometimes broomball. We also had a fairly large skate shack at the new rink where we changed into our skates. During the winter months, the rinks were a very active place as many students and staff preferred the outdoors and skating especially in the evenings after supper. There were also families who lived at Lejac or just up the road, like the Leslies who used to come out skating. Or Trevor Bowen, Mrs. Bowen’s son.

Then they built a curling rink next to the big rink around 1965 and everyone at the school all took up curling. They even used to have bonspiels with teams from Fraser Lake. I used to hate having to clean off the curling rink because it was such a big long building. But if you did, once we were done us Intermediate boys used to take turns jumping off the roof into the deep snow below. That was our reward for shovelling all that snow off the roof. Photo courtesy of Jim Callanan, edited by Verne Solonas

Sailing....

We all watched Mr. Kenny working on his sailboat. He started with a big block of wood, and used an axe to cut it down some, then a chisel to smooth it off here and there. This was all at the Scout Hall, in the summer time. He spent a lot of time designing the sails. The sail boat he built was about a foot long and with the sails at least a foot high as well. Mr. Kenny is from Newfoundland.

After he finished the sailboat, he brought it down to the dock and we all watched him launch it. It was a windy day with a lot of big waves on the lake. He let it go and it immediately took off heading toward the shore bobbing up and down amidst all the waves. After some time it finally made it to shore then got stuck in amongst the trees there and so one of the boys had to go over there and we all watched from the dock as he used a long stick to poke it loose. It came back outwards and towards where we were standing, then watched as it sailed right by us on the dock. We stood there....on the dock....and watched....until finally after some time it disappeared somewhere on the lake. That was in June. Photo by Jim Callanan, edited by Verne Solonas

Visitors to 'lejac.blogspot'......

Mr Lundy & Miss Ann

Mr. Lundy left. He was our Intermediate dorm supervisor in 1966 and 1967. He left that year and Mr. Kenny came in 1968 as our new supervisor. Also, Miss Ann was our Secretary. I used to see her once in awhile at the office up on the second floor at school. She looked very young. Then one day after Mr. Lundy left back to Toronto, I saw her standing on the front steps outside, with all her bags. I guess she left too that day.

Lejac Pilgrimage....

Please remember the Lejac Pilgrimage. I believe it's every July. Contact Father Vince James at Fraser Lake for date and details or maybe Prince George Diocese. Thank you.

SICK BOYS....

Sister Margaret ran the dispensary at Lejac. I got sent there one day after I took a snowball in the face with ice in it. I had a cut just above the eye and Sister Margaret at the dispensary patched me up. The school had a dispensary on the second floor just past the hallway to the church where they kept their medicines and other equipment to deal with minor scrapes and pains.

In 1968 we all got food poison after a Band road trip. Our whole Intermediate dorm was filled with boys all sick in bed including our supervisor, Mr. Kenny. It was not unusual to see boys in bed sick especially winter time. Other boys would bring them food from our kitchen downstairs.
Photos courtesy of Jim Callanan, edited by Verne Solonas

Painting by Rose Prince...

Hi Verne,
You might like to add this picture of a painting by Rose Prince. It was used each year for
the altar of repose during Holy Week at Lejac. I guess it was lost when the school closed.
I took the picture one year and I'm sure it is the only picture in existence of the painting.
I sent the original 35mm slide to Fr. Vince James in Fraser Lake who oversees the Pilgrimage.
You might also want to mention the Annual Rose Prince Pilgrimage at the Lejac site each July.
Peace my friend. Jim

COUPLE MORE PHOTOS OF THE DOCK...

Photo courtesy of Jim Callanan, edited by Verne Solonas

SWIMMING LESSONS....

Come summer time one year, maybe around 1967, I guess they thought it was a good thing we all took swimming lessons. I was in Intermediates back then, and so there we were, all us boys from our dorm and our supervisor, Jim Lundy, down at the docks after school teaching us all how to swim. Mr. Lundy taught us the different kinds of strokes, backwards and forwards, lying on your back in the water to conserve your strength, and what do you do if you get a cramp.

We each had to know how to dive. He had each of us dive off the side of the dock and into the water. We also practiced holding our breath under water long as we could. We even had a bit of a contest to see who could dive the furthest before coming up for air.

It was a lot of fun, you get to go swimming every day after school, and before supper. Also on weekends. We learned some very valuable water survival lessons. Not everything at residential school was classroom stuff. They taught us a lot of other stuff besides just school.

Then one day, I realized just how important it was to know how to swim. We were all down at the docks and everybody was swimming. I heard a commotion toward the shore. I was on the dock when I heard somebody shouting, and then Mr. Lundy went running by a group of us sitting on the dock with our feet dangling over the side and in the water.

He hollered for us to clear the way, then dove straight in the water soon as he got by us, with all his clothes on! And swimming hard as he could toward the shore! It looks like the Gunanoot boy, he must’ve been walking along the shore and stepped into a big hole just below the water. You can’t see it, but everybody in the whole wide school knows there’s a big hole in the ground just a bit from shore there. I guess he stepped into it, and now there he is, he keeps going under, and coming back to the surface, and there’s Mr. Lundy swimming as hard as he could, fast as he could.

And all us kids, just standing there, holding our breath….on the dock!

It seemed like a lifetime. Finally Mr. Lundy reached him, and jumped into that pit and grabbed the kid soon as he came back up, and pulled him onto the shore. That was so awesome the way he saved that boy from drowning! Good thing Mr. Lundy was there that day.

Photo courtesy of Jim Callanan, edited by Verne Solonas

Sister Ann & the Girls....

Mr. Lundy first came to Lejac around 1965 or ’66. They put him as the Intermediate dorm supervisor. I was in Juniors in 1965, but after Christmas, in the spring of ‘66, they bumped me and couple other boys up to Intermediates. So I went from Ed Fitz’ dorm to Jim Lundy’s dorm.

I totally liked Mr. Lundy’s dorm. Least he was a good supervisor. I guess the girls totally liked him too. In fact, every chance they got, especially the older girls from the Senior Girls dorm, would chase him with snowballs in the winter time.

They started letting us walk to the highway on our school road, all the boys and all the girls together after school and on weekends. There were always Supervisors out with us. It was a chance for us, especially in the winter, to get out of the school and get some exercise. Of course, the girls always waited until Mr. Lundy got out there with us, then they would sneak up on him and start hitting him with snowballs.

That was the funniest thing!!

Then summer came. And their favourite game down at the docks was try and throw Mr. Lundy off the dock into the water. No small feat! Mr. Lundy was a full six feet tall and I bet you close to 200 pounds. Some times there would be about 5 or 6 girls ganging up on him, fighting and wrestling, trying to get him over the side and into the water. Everybody laughing, shouting, and cheering!! Once…once…I saw them get him over the side. Into the water with a great big splash!

Even Sister Ann got into the fray. I saw her and a bunch of the older girls one time gang up on Mr. Lundy trying to throw him into the water. I also heard another time they were doing that and her habit came off. Us boys we were all talking about it, when it happened. I guess she had really short hair was all they said.

SISTER....

We always went for walks every Saturday. Our favourite places to go were Two Mile Encombe, One Mile Encombe, Orange Valley, Table Mountain and sometimes even Mouse Mountain. And of course Ghost Town. One day we were walking across the fields on our way to Ghost Town. I was a bit behind all the other boys when we had just passed a row of trees and I glanced off to my left....and was about to look away when I noticed someone....it was Sister, she was kneeling there facing the row of trees, and praying. All by herself, in this great big field, no one around, just herself praying. It looked like Sister Henrietta, my Grade 6 teacher. I always thought that was so cool how she can go off somewhere by herself like that, and pray by herself. I think you have to be very dedicated to do something like that. I always admired Sister Henrietta after that.

Sister Albertine....

Miss Sandy taught us Grade One. She was Native from the Williams Lake area. Really really nice lady. Mrs. Bowen taught us Gr. 3 and Miss Bowen, her daughter, taught us Gr. 4. Miss Bowen was our best teacher ever. She was so so nice. She was the one that took us up to the apartment at the new school one day to watch ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ with Peter O’toole in 1966.

Lejac Indian Residential School kept an apartment above the ‘new school’ which was sometimes occupied by teachers or other staff. When no one stayed there, some of the staff used it to watch TV or to relax.

I think Sister Henrietta taught us Gr. 6. Sister Susan was our Gr. 7 teacher for part of the year and then Mr. Toniatto. Brother McCormick taught us Grade 8.

By the late 1960s they started bringing in Subs (a substitute teacher) like Mrs. Kuziki from Fraser Lake.

Art was totally my favourite subject. A lot of us boys had our own drawing books which we drew in when in Rec Room. Especially in winter when it was too cold outside, they would let us stay inside and many of us younger boys used that spare time to draw in our drawing books. Ronnie Duncan of Tachie was a pretty good drawer. But the one to beat was Ron Solonas of McLeod Lake who really knew how to draw. I had my own drawing book and my favourite thing was drawing ‘cowboys and Indians’.....or tanks and stuff. I also made sure to keep checking other people’s stuff, to see what they were drawing, and that’s how I learned to draw, by watching others. Of course, all we used were pencils.

Then Dear John and Jimmie and them said if you think you can draw you haven’t seen Sister Albertine’s stuff. I asked them all about Sister Albertine. They explained that Sister Albertine is the Grade 7 teacher (this was in about 1967) and I was still in Intermediates back then. Ever since they told me that I always wanted to see her stuff. They said she even paints. Holy smokers anyway!!

Then one day, I think I was in Grade 5, and they sent us up to the Grade 8 class one day, along with all the other Senior classes (Grades 5, 6, 7 and 8) to study Art with Sister Albertine! I could not believe it!!! That was my dream....all my life, just to see her stuff!

She started by teaching all about how to do a ‘profile’ of a person’s face. And she explained the profile of a person’s face is when you look at a person’s face from the side, she was trying to explain it all for us....and maybe it was the look on our faces....finally she just turned around and went to the black board....and in one single motion drew the profile of a person’s face....on the board!! Holy smokers!! How did she do that? I couldn’t believe what I just saw! How she drew a person’s profile in one single motion without even lifting up her chalk or nothing! I never seen anyone do that before!

Later she explained to us perspective. And then she taught us all how to paint using water colors. I totally loved Sister Albertine. She was totally the best artist ever! Best I ever seen!

(To add to this story, I met Miss Sandy many years later while attending a gathering at the old St. Mary’s Mission school at Williams Lake in 1978. She came up to me and introduced herself and explained to me she was the one who taught me Grade One in 1963-64. I totally remembered her.)

AND BOY DID WE EVER GET SICK!....

Sick Bay

Here are two photos of Intermediate Dorm which is being used for all the sick boys during this 1963 measles epidemic. Some of the boys are really sick...others maybe not so much as demonstrated in the top photo. Two of the boys (Ivan & Dear John [Wilfred Solonas]) are so sick they are on intravenous while another boy reads a comic.

I think I've seen these photos a million times already, over and over, but one thing I never noticed before is the boys ' hockey sticks are being used to hold up the intravenous bottles. (these photos courtesy of Jim Callanan, edited by Verne Solonas)

Coal...

Our big school used to be heated by burning coal in the early 1960s. Coal was shipped to Lejac by railway and the trains used to drop off a coal car down at the train station below the school. Then some of the older boys would have to shovel the coal into one of our work trucks and bring it up to the school. There the coal was dropped off and left on the ground below the church where they had the furnaces. Boys would then have to shovel coal sometimes in the morning before school started. They stopped using coal by the late 1960s after they built brand new furnaces and a boiler room next to the root cellar.

I went to residential school for 8 years. One thing I could never get used to while there was the clanging radiators at night.

There were steel radiators in every room throughout the whole school. And these radiators would all begin making a loud clanging noise as they began to heat up from the steam coming from the boiler room. And they were loud! It took me years to get used to the noise especially at night.

But the thing that scared me the most were the trains coming though at night. First time I ever heard a train was in 1963 while in Junior dorm. It was at night and we were all asleep. All of a sudden I woke up and all I could hear was this great big noise and the whole dorm seemed to be shaking. I didn’t know what it was at first, I was so scared! I learned later that it was the night train coming through. I can’t believe how much noise it made.

The rail line ran from Prince George to Prince Rupert on the way delivering coal to Lejac. Occasionally people used the train to travel to Lejac either from Vanderhoof or Prince George as well.

Later, as we got older, we used to go for walks often using the railroad tracks to get to Two Mile Encombe or One Mile Encombe. Quite a few times, we would be walking the tracks and a train would come along. Of course we all cleared the tracks, standing off to the side with our Supervisor, and watching the train go by, from just a few feet away! (photo courtesy of Jim Callanan, edited by Verne Solonas)

Residential School...

Boys Dining Room

Here are two more photos we found from November 1962 of the boys in the dining room. I'm certain the booths were installed later, possibly in 1963. Looks like these boys were well fed. I remember the food was not that bad. (These photos courtesy of Jim Callanan, edited by Verne Solonas)

Movies, Skating Parties, Holding Hands & Prince George Mayday Parade
Lejac Indian Residential School was run by the Oblates and the Roman Catholic Church, a very strict religious Order. In the early 1960s students were under very strict rules which included absolutely no swearing, no fighting, boys were forbade from ever talking to girls, and we were never to be seen in the company of a girl unless a supervisor was present. We did not speak our own language but were taught English. We prayed constantly. Boys were only allowed to be on the ‘boys’ side’ which was on the west side of the great big school. Girls were only allowed on the ‘girls’ side’ and never to be caught anywhere on the ‘boys’ side’.

We were never allowed to talk to the girls at Mass on Sundays or even at the movies Friday nites. At church they sat one side of the aisle we sat the other. At the movies, they sat one side of the movie hall we sat the other. But then they started changing everything around in the late 1960s, maybe around 1967. First thing was they built us that great big dining room that year and you could now sit anywhere. You could even sit with your own girlfriend if you had one and nobody would even say anything.

Another thing they did was they also began to relax the rules when it came to being with the girls. Before, it was girls one side, boys other. In about 1967, they allowed all the girls and all the boys to walk together up to gate on the highway. Just for exercise. There was almost always at least one supervisor with us at all times. But sometimes there weren’t.

Then they allowed us to walk together, boys and girls, around the whole school. There was a road which went right around the school and when we weren’t busy in dorm, doing chores, or watching Hockey Night in Canada, many of the kids liked to get outside and go for a walk around the school. Then they started letting us sit together in Mass on Sundays and even at the movies. All the boys and all the girls together, all mixed up.

We also had Skating Parties on some of the Friday or Saturday nites during the winter. That’s where all the boys and all the girls in the Intermediate and Senior dorms would all get together at the ‘big rink’ and they would play music over the loudspeakers at the rink under these great big lights and served us snacks and hot chocolate while us students would all skate together in groups sometimes even holding hands.

The older students hung out in groups. The younger boys loved these skating parties. Or when they had public skating with everybody from the whole school on the ice because they would play tag and hiding behind people dodging in and out of everybody on the ice. That’s how they learned to skate.

When I first attended residential school in 1963 we were forbade from ever ‘holding hands’. ‘Holding hands’ means a girl holding the hand of a boy, or a boy holding the hand of a girl. By 1967 or 1968, it was not unusual to see boys and girls holding hands as they walked around the school together evenings. At least in the dark anyway.

Another thing they introduced by 1968 was allowing the older boys to become ‘nightwatchers’. We have a night watchman at school. His job is to watch the whole school at night while everybody slept. By the late 60s they would give the night watchman weekends off and hire two of the older boys to be night watchmen on Friday and Saturday nites. I got hired once, me and Arthur Joseph of Fort. One Friday night. As a night watchman we had to walk around the school and check all the doors to make sure everything is all locked up and there were no burglars breaking in and stealing stuff. Then we had to punch in the clock every hour so they know we were still awake and not just sleeping. It was pretty exciting at first but you sure got tired and sleepy by 3 o’clock in the morning and by 6 am you could hardly even stay awake. At least you got to sleep in that whole next day while all the other boys had to get up.

Another thing they did is in the early 1960s the Lejac School Band was strictly an all-boys band. By 1969-70, the girls started joining the Band, sometimes even coming on road trips with us. One year, in 1970, I remember them travelling with us to the Prince George Mayday Parade and going on parade with us. Lejac School Band was famous in the north and a favourite at the Mayday Parade.

Probably the coolest thing ever happened was when they allowed us to wear our own clothes. When I first got to Lejac, we had to only wear the clothes they issued us when we first arrived in September. That means only blue jeans. Bill Robertson came in as the Intermediate dorm Supervisor in 1969. Bill had the coolest duds ever! He wore bell bottoms (today they’re called ‘flares’) and a medallion around his neck. And platform shoes! He was from Vancouver and we used to ask him everything about what it was like there. Many of us never ever been to such a big city before and we all thought he was the coolest guy in the whole wide world because he near done everything and near seen everything!