A Confession...

Yes you read it correctly... I have to confess something! I am NOT really from Lethbridge! My first boyfriend was from Lethbridge but as we went through university, it was never our intention to live in Lethbridge. There was a whole big world out there and we were going to see it all! Sadly that wasn't to be. My first job, however WAS in Lethbridge at  L.R.Ash Elementary in 1978. A few years later when I met the father of my children and my first husband, he was living in Lethbridge and when we got married I moved here. We decided to find a place of our own ( the purple, green and blue bathroom of the church provided house just wasn't doing it for me!) and we were soon viewing and making offers on the real estate of Lethbridge. 29 years later I am still living in the house that we bought that year. When Paul and I met, I figured our relationship was doomed. I thought he'd never want to leave Clarenville and I knew I wasn't leaving this house, but he fell under the spell that is Lethbridge's charm and he's been happily ensconced here for almost seven years!

But if you were to ask anyone in Lethbridge (over the age of 50) who I am, I pretty sure they'd first tell you that I am NOT from Lethbridge and then tell you that I live  "in on the highway in Gerald's house". In Gerald's house. Not in the house that Gerald built. Not the house that Gerald used to own. Nope I live in Gerald's house. Kind of ya there, Buddy! Letting me live here all those years and never collecting a penny in rent!
But I guess small towns are like that!

I am also pretty sure that they'd also tell you that I am a teacher. AM not WAS. Most people are still surprised to hear that at the tender age of 52, I will soon be retired for 3 years. And that's really what this blog entry is about... the love that so many people have had for a wooden two-storey school on the hill that so many people equated with Lethbridge... L.R.Ash Elementary.

The school got its name from one of the carpenters who was working on its construction when he was killed in a traffic accident on the TCH bringing back a load of supplies from St, John's. I think the school board at the time showed a whole lot of caring when it decided that the school would carry his name. Thirty-three years later L.R.Ash Elementary closed its doors and was torn down. The new area high school was built behind "Ash" and the elementary children transferred to the school "around the bay" in Musgravetown.  All decisions that were made on a fiscal and statistical analysis of what was best for the area. But no one asked our hearts how we felt about losing that building. And let's just say it was a sad and heart wrenching process from the culling of the library books (thanks Karen for doing that!) to the stripping of the curtains from the windows to locking the door for the very last time.

Undoubtedly the entire area and all our children have  benefited  or will benefit from the modern, well-equipped school built near that site. The process of amalgamating the younger children into the other school was smoother, easier and far more enjoyable than any of us dared imagine! The children showed us the way. By the end of the first recess break there were new friendships made and we were on our way to forming our new family on a new hill in a new community.

But everything has a footprint. Whether it be on the earth or on our hearts, nothing exists and then ceases to exist without leaving behind something... a legacy, a heritage... vestiges of what used to be. So what did L.R.Ash Elementary leave behind? Everyone who had anything to with that school will have a different answer. You undoubtedly will find students that through its 33 years of operations who have terrible memories.There will be teachers who will be spoken of with anger and distrust. There will be people who have never given it a second thought since leaving school. But by and large the memories are good ones. I recently spoke to a woman whose children had attended L.R.Ash before I started working there. I said, "So your kids went to Ash?" And her reply was a wistful smile, a tilt of her head and a faraway look in her eyes, "Yes they did." She didn't have to say anything else.

I learned a lot at Ash through my years there. And I could fill many pages of pixels telling tales out of school!! But when I think of Ash in the bigger picture, I think of caring. I think of the unwritten but always followed rule for teachers following Parent-Teacher Interviews. "No one goes home until we can all go home."  I think of how at every concert, graduation ceremony or after-hours event, all the teachers showed up to help. I think of the students that each year brightened our lives and especially the ones that CRIED on the last day of the school year, every year. I think of the Parent Support Group that on that last day we were open, came to the assembly with plants for every teacher. "Bleeding Heart". I think they knew how we felt.

A legacy of love... that's what L.R.Ash Elementary left behind. And I think that Lawrence Robert Ash would be proud to know that his name was on a building that was so much more than just another school.










This weekend's High School graduation at Heritage brought us another year closer to the end of student memories of L.R.Ash Elementary. This year's graduates were Grade 2 students the year Ash closed.  Congrats Damon, Danielle, Jessica, Nicole and Sabrina, (and the other 7 children who are scattered across the province and the rest of the country!).
I  hope you have some cherished memories of your time at L.R.Ash Elementary.  I know I do!