SLPS_75th

Jeff Green | Jun 23, 2005

Feature article June 16, 2005

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by Jeff Green

For 75 years students have made their way each morning from September to June to the Sharbot Lake Public School building on Garrett Street in the Village of Sharbot Lake. To celebrate, the current students had their picture taken in the shape of a giant 75, and then paraded through the village. The next day was the turn of the past students, who came out in large numbers to an afternoon tea. They looked at class pictures and other memorabilia, and met with old classmates to reminisce about the past. Among the visitors were some of the students who attended the school when it opened back in 1930. Rose (Shanks) Switzer started school the same year the new school as built, while her older sister Lois (Shanks) Boles remembers attending the old school on the site, which was torn down so the new one could be built.

We attended school at the township hall while the new school was being built, she recalls, and when they held court dates in the hall we stayed and watched the court proceedings. They were very interesting.

Dorothy (Drew) Eccles, who drove herself to the reunion from Napanee, attended school at the previous schoolhouse on the same site before moving to Parham. At 89, Dorothy had long graduated when the new school as opened in 1930. She does remember attending grade 3 in Sharbot Lake, in 1922 or 1923. That year we had our first male teacher, and we were quite frightened at first. His name was Ross MacDougall, and he used to wear kilts on occasion.

Ross MacDougalls son John, a retired music teacher and administrator with the Limestone Board, was present at the Anniversary tea.

In spite of sweltering heat in the Public School Gym, the 75th Anniversary celebrations were a great success.