A few days ago I mentioned that even though I was already being overwhelmed with work, just trying to stay on top of my workload in teaching in the one-room school at the Silvacan Resources Mill, I was told by Frank the mill camp boss, that I should also start being the “school bus” driver for the school, ie, picking up and returning my students from the First Nations Jack family, that lived two miles down a road (photo) from the camp.
When Tracy Jack started kindergarten, I picked her up along with Madelaine and Hannah in the morning, but since she only attended kindergarten in the morning, I had to use part of my lunch break to drive Tracy back home at noon. On one of those noon trips, when I got down to the Jack house, I was met by her older sister, Bernice, who walked up to the truck with a basket of laundry and asked me if she could ride with me back up to the camp.
"Sure, just put the laundry in the back." I told her.
This she did, but instead of letting Tracy out to go to the house, she told her to scoot over and I ended up driving both her and Tracy back to camp.
After they both got out, I scratched my head thinking, since Tracy is still here in camp, I spent my lunch hour not taking Tracy home, but picking up Bernice, so she could do her laundry.
I often felt very taken advantage of by Ralph Jack too. Ralph was a few years older than his sisters Madelaine and Hannah. Ralph started out being very enthusiastic about school, since he was very good at adding and subtracting, but he became jaded, as math became more complicated, and subjects required more reading.
After about a year and a half, his attendance at school began to drop off (I ended up having to fail his older brother John, because he had missed so many days). Several times I picked up Ralph and his sisters in the morning and they attended class, but then after the lunch break, Ralph disappeared, failing to return to school.
After school, I drove Madelaine and Hannah home, but then later that night, I heard a knock on the door, and there stood Ralph, asking for a ride home. It was always a moral dilemma for me, I knew it would be a long walk home in the dark for him and I was sympathetic, but at the same time, I really believed that it was important for him to learn to live with the results of his decisions.
My driving them back and forth was for school and if skipped school, he lost out on the ride home. I also reminded Ralph that the camp truck did not belong to me, and that he should ask Frank, the camp boss for a ride home.
You can see my paintings at: davidmarchant2.ca
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