Richard Wietfeldt

I guarantee that most OCHS students have never seen teacher Richard Wiedfeldt in a bathing suit. Richard invited my brother and I to a family cottage north of Uxbridge where we met his wife and son Rudy. Richard taught religion and may have taught languages as well. He was a thoughtful, erudite man and a good conversationalist.

Elizabeth Deveaux

One of the distinct pleasures of Grade 12 biology was having Liz Deveaux sit behind me. She was a quiet but amazing person.

Class Trip To Brewery

When I think back on it, it seems a little incredulous, but we took a high school science trip to the Molson Breweries in west Toronto. We weren't even old enough to drink. I snapped the above pics on that class trip. My interests were not entirely scientific.

However stupid that the trip sounds (taking high school students to a brewery), it served me well later in university. How you ask?

I was taking a course in microbiology in University, and my professor, Dr. Don Kushner was lecturing about yeasts. He casually mentioned that most beers brewed in Canada used one strain or another of Saccharomyces carlsbergensis --THE beer yeast of Canada. He said that the yeast was impossible to get because it was a closely guarded trade secret.

For our end-of-term project, we had to collect air samples and isolate a strain of a yeast by culturing air-borne spores. My lab partner Bruce Baker and I decided to get Dr. Kushner his sample.

We sent a letter to the brewmaster of Molsons, politely asking him for a sample of the yeast. He wrote back saying that he couldn't give a sample. However, when the letter came back, we rushed it to the lab. We didn't open it right away. We opened it under controlled conditions, and cultured the whole letter, hoping that some spores of Saccharomyces carlsbergensis were in the envelope. After all they are tiny spores and they should have been in his office at the brewery. After many many cultures, we finally isolated the yeast. Our class paper was the petri dish of Saccharomyces carlsbergensis along with the test results that we did to prove it was in fact the yeast. We got an A+.

Gloria Chisholm

I joined the photography club every year that there was one at OCHS. Paul Gimpelj was the president the first year that I was a member. Gloria Chisholm also was a member of the club. I made the above print of her using the vignette process in the OCHS darkroom which was a broom closet at the end of the hallway opposite George Callender's classroom.

I have a special link with Gloria. When I was born at the Bowmanville Memorial Hospital, her mother was there at the same time. That is how our respective mothers became friends.

Gloria met Leo Barrett at OCHS, and they moved to Winnipeg together.

What the football team did to Tony White's car

You have to remember that the 1970's were dominated by big cars -- "Detroit Iron" as it was called. A man was judged by the size of his car. That all started to change. Datsun was the first Japanese car that we would see, and none of us realized that it was the thin edge of the wedge as far as car markets went. This would have grave implications for Oshawa -- being General Motors town.

Small cars were regarded with ridicule. I myself had a Chevy Vega, much to the glee of some of my friends. It was called a puddle-jumper or worse.

Tony White, the gym teacher and coach drove a little Austin Mini. After a football victory the team was a little boisterous. They physically picked up Tony's Austin Mini and put it on the high side walk athe entrance to the gym. There was no way that he could have drove it off. You can see how high the curb it. The car sat there all day, until Tony made the team take it down at the end of the day. The joke was hilarious to us.

Pictured below is my Chevy Vega:

Joe Pender and Wife

Joe Pender and his wife pictured at a school dance.

Live Band Dances

We had some incredible bands playing at our high school dances. Pictured above is Downchild Blues Band playing on our auditorium stage at OCHS. An incarnation of them is still playing today. I also saw them in Ottawa at a gig in the 1990's.

Another band that played at one of our dances with "Wednesday" who wrote the 70's hit "Where Oh Where Has My Baby Gone?". One of the neatest things of being a teenager in the 1970's, is being around for some of the greatest music ever that is still being played today.

Danny Clancy

Yesterday I mentioned Danny Clancy. Here is the man ... at a considerably younger age.

Things 1970's

I got into an email discussion with an ardent follower of this blog. We reminisced about high school daze and how everyday things had changed from then till now. Mentioned were pop cans, Hockey Night in Canada, Canada Dry and a bunch of other stuff.

We talked about how our own Danny Clancy was the voice behind many commercials. (Edit: I was under the impression that he did the Molson Export Ale commercial. The jingle went:

We always go the distance

Right up to the wall

Good friends you can count on

And a cold Ex says it all

There’s nothing halfway about it

It’s always been our call

There’s nothing halfway about it

Ex says it all

Dan actually corrected me and said it wasn't his, but the following were:

*Molson Canadian ("Alright Now", "The Boys Are Back in Town", "What I Lie About You", "Hanky-Panky", to name a few)
*Toyota Canada
*Diet Coke
*Drink Milk; Love Life - singing voice of Carlos Delgatto )

As a result, I was sent the following assemblage of memorable things 1970's.

Damian O'Brien

Damian O'Brien stands way at the back of the school, .... er .... out of people's view .... umm getting fresh air .. yeah, that's the ticket. He was getting some fresh air. Getting fresh air and contemplating advanced calculus. Yep, that's it. Disregard what is in his blurry hand. Nothing really.

Christine Jablonski

I got a fair number of requests for prints of the above pic of Christine Jablonski showing up at a Halloween Dance dressed as a pixie or a fairy.

Bob McDonnell Reprise

The above pic of Bob McDonnell was snapped when a bunch of OCHS students were asked to be camp counsellors for a week. Bob and I were part of the group.

Bring A Kid To School Day -- Part Le Deux

This is the second pic in the series where the students brought a kid to school. For the life of me, I cannot remember why it was done. Here, Rosemary Duignan shepherds her young charge.

Physics Hubbub

This was one of the more interesting scenes in my school career at OCHS. Jiri Jelen the teacher at the right of the photo, taught physics. He was an immigrant from Czechoslovakia. He spoke softly and was heavily accented. He never had a commanding presence at school. He favourite line was "I did not become a teacher to be a policeman".

Unfortunately the class dominated him. There was always a din of voices. It was mob rule in Grade 12 physics. Mr. Jelen had his revenge.

At the end of the school term, one could be exempted from final exams upon the discretion of the teacher. By the time that we reached Grade 12, most of us were good enough students to be exempted and most of us were. After all, OCHS in the early days was a brains factory. In this photo alone, is a future: Mayo Clinic professor of medicine, a chief scientist for the country's nuclear power program, a high school science teacher and a government functionary.

At the end of the year, Mr. Jelen exempted exactly two people. One of them was me, and the other was Doug Zochodne who is not pictured here. Doug is a research physician and a professor of Neurophysiology.

Pictured here from left to right are Liz Fitzpatrick, Mike Ivanco, Shawn O'Driscoll, Bert Hoefs, Kathy Kowalski and John Ten Haaf with Mr. Jelen behind the desk.

York Chen

I am pretty sure that this dude's name is York Chan. He was one of the Chinese students from Hong Kong that Art Chai used to sponsor. In the blurry background of this classroom, I recognize Sue Vitali, and behind her is Marie O'Connor and behind York is George Dragota.

On Hiatus

I will be in Canada for the next ten days, and not have access to my photo archives. There will be no updates to this blog for the duration.

I have not visited home since Christmas 2008, and I am looking forward to it.

Amazing Shot

I was firing off frames at a football game. When I examined the negative, I was amazed at the shot that I got. A player was tackled and the ball popped free above their heads. My accidental timing was perfect.

Psychiatric Help

This is a shot from a Halloween Dance at OCHS. I do not know the name of this student Mary Ellen Barrett, but I do remember that she was Tony Seaver's date at the dance. Tony came dressed as a butler or something similar. The imitation of Lucy Van Pelt in the Peanuts comic strip was perfect.

The Crowning Event

Jim Lamb has just presented Kathy Seaver a gift for winning the Snow Queen crown. Liz Fitzpatrick (right) looks on.

Waiting On The World To Change

I don't remember what everyone was waiting for when I snapped this pic. With heads chopped off are Ed Bodnar and Pete Marenger. Sitting on the floor are Ed Johansen and Doug Hamlyn.

Various Spectator Pics

I thought that I would throw up some spectator pics of a football game. These pictures aren't very good, but I thought that maybe they might have some sentimental value for somebody.

The sepia toning from most of these pics came from the negative scanner itself. These pics were shot in black in white (who could afford colour processing regularly in the 1970's -- especially at the rate that I burned through film? I used to buy black and white film in bulk 250 frame rolls and load the film cannisters in my darkroom). However when I scanned them, I scanned them in colour to get better resolution, and they came out sepia toned.

The dude in the far back in Dave Healey.

Update: What the commenter said .... In front of him is Ed Heyer