When Alan Johnston graduated from Barrie Central Collegiate, Canada was at war and employment choices were limited.
“Back then you had three choices for a job,” he remembers. “They were army, navy or air force.
“I chose army.”
That was 1943 – the middle of the Second World War and the 100th anniversary year of Barrie’s downtown school.
Johnston was 17 when he arrived from Minesing. In those days, there were no buses and so he boarded at the Barrie school.
Now almost 91 years old, Johnston was one of the “most senior” graduates to attend the weekend reunion and walk down memory lane.
“We went to the dance on Saturday and could only find four people who were our age,” he said, flashing a broad smile. “Maybe the pub night would have been better.”
Johnston spent just one year at BCC, but the memories are strong all these years later.
On Sunday afternoon, he was reminiscing along with his wife Donna Priest, a 1953 grad; and pal Pat Wanamaker who attended from 1951 to 1955.
“We’re trying to find this one,” Wanamaker said, pointing at a photo of a young woman in a yearbook. “Nobody knows what happened to her so we're going to find out.”
It was a special weekend for the school, as over 1,500 current and past students and staff participated in activities including an alumni volleyball tournament and a band performance including young and old.
They spent time in the cafeteria, flipping through old photo albums, wandered down the hallways to spot themselves and friends in a long line of graduating class photos and posed in classrooms and in front of lockers for one last keepsake.
There were lots of laughs and many tears, as the 173-year-old school was celebrated, one month before it is scheduled to close its doors for the last time.
Alan Johnston, Pat Wanamaker and Donna (Priest) Johnston.Robin MacLennan/BarrieToday“It’s the people that are important, not the building,” Wanamaker said. “I remember the people – the fun.
“We can tell you lots of stories. I remember that I could get from my house to my locker in 20 seconds if I ran. I actually timed it!” touching off another round of loud laughter for his friends.
For Doug Lougheed, Central Collegiate was truly “all in the family.”
His grandfather attended the old Barrie Collegiate location on Blake Street, prior to a 1917 fire.
“He didn’t graduate, and he only attended for about a year,” Lougheed said. “That wasn’t uncommon for farming families. He attended the school in the mid 1890s.”
Lougheed’s father also attended BCC in the early 1930s and Doug graduated in 1974.” Coincidentally, his wife Bernadette and her siblings are also graduates of the school.
“It’s sad to see the school closing for obvious reasons, but also because I was a member of the Accommodation Review Committee (ARC) in 2010-11 which was able to delay the closing until now, hoping solutions could be found by the Board.
“My own personal feeling is that the willingness was not there to do anything to preserve a school on the site, or even a downtown public high school on an alternative site.”
Over 1,500 people attended the three-day long celebration and organizers credit social media for spreading the word and attracting grads from as far away as Australia, Germany, the US and across Canada.
A highlight was the last concert, conducted by Lisa Perry.
The band - including current and returning students - received a standing ovation and ended the performance with O'Canada.
