1992 Kindergarten graduation
Kindergarten continued to be great fun. Kate learned about a new and exciting thing in Kindergarten: the field trip!
Kate loved field trips, she got to go new places and do new things. She went apple picking, pumpkin picking, sugaring off, to the farm, on a hay ride, snowshoeing, to forts, to the fur trade museum, to the labyrinth—Kate loved everything about field trips. She loved the kindergarten classroom as well. They planted plants, made crafts, watched baby chicks hatch. They were still allowed to finger-paint, but now there were new things like “science” where Kate could find out if things would float or sink. There were letter books and number books and cue cards. Kate learned how to speak French, one word at a time! Kindergarten was another wonderful time, ending with a graduation where Kate got to sing songs and wear a funny hat.
That spring, during kindergarten, the Poirier’s painted the playroom walls. Kate loved that she was actually allowed to paint on the walls! With real paint! Without being yelled at! Those paintings really made the playroom hers, and she loved to spend time in there.
1993 Wall parrot
*****
Kate continued to love playing dress-up, especially when it could be with her own clothes! She loved her dresses, and she wore them as often as she could. Dress up made her feel like someone special, a new person every day! Kate loved parties, and she loved to wear her pretty dresses at parties and any other event.
1993 Party
1992 Party
One such event was Christmas dinner. The one and only time that Auntie Heather had people over for Christmas dinner was a momentous event. As a vegetarian who doesn’t much like to cook, it was a big deal for her. She was only doing it to prove that she could. And she did! Dinner went smoothly and the food was delicious. But Auntie Heather and Uncle Glen did not have children either. The kids had no toys to play with, and nothing to do after supper. So, of course, they started to make noise. Kate’s cousin, Lauren, Kate and Sarah were running around and yelling at the top of their lungs. For two people who do not have kids, this was unbearable! Uncle Glen knew just what to do to get the kids to be quiet—he gave them a pile of candy. The parents warned Glen that this was not a good idea, but he knew what he was doing.
1993 Christmas
The candy was colourful and hard, with beautiful patterns in the center. Kate looked at one, examined the bright red and yellow hues of the interwoven strings of sugar. She felt the smooth, hard texture of the candy, and looked at all of the little bubble holes that were apparent on the outer layer. She then popped this candy into her mouth. Too hard to chew, Kate sat in silence for two or three minutes while she ate the candy. The she had another. And another. Glen looked at the parents with a smug look of satisfaction, having successfully quieted the kids. His look would soon fade to one of horror.
When the bowl of candy dwindled, the mountain that had been there now dissolved in the stomachs of three young girls, the silence abruptly came to an end. Now full of sugar, the girls bounced and jumped, sang and giggled with renewed vigour and volume. They sat on a window seat for the better part of an hour making more noise than a heard of wildebeest during mating season.
Meanwhile, the parents, having predicted this sugar high, laughed hysterically at the dejected and defeated face of Glen, while his dreams of a relaxing post-Christmas snooze were eradicated because of a bowl full of sugary treats.
Christmas dinner was never at their house again.
*****
Days in school came and went. After the thrill of preschool and the amazing science of Kindergarten, school days became a blur of sitting at a desk during mindless classes. Of course there were always fun classes and there were fun projects, but one day melted into the next. There were definitely some memorable elementary projects.
Third grade offered something new when Kate was finally allowed to spend half of her days in an English class! This was her first time being allowed to speak in English at school, and it was fun! Kate loved to tell stories and to hear stories. Her least favourite class was religion—how many pictures of sheep could you colour in anyway? Besides, sheep are white. The outlined shape did not offer much!
That same year, in grade three, Kate spent weeks working on a puppet for Mme. Ruest’s puppet show. It had a papier maché head and a felt body that was worn as a glove. The puppet was a raccoon. Kate LOVED raccoons. Everything was raccoon at that time, and Kate worked very hard to get the puppet to look as much like a real raccoon as she could. She loved her puppet very much. On the day of the show she proudly said her lines—in French!—as her raccoon danced away. It was really a spectacle de marionettes!
1997 St John Fisher Singing Tour
In fourth grade, Kate had her favourite teacher—Mr. Beauchamp. The days were spent playing games and working on projects—the classes were never boring and the kids were alwaysbusy. One day they played VOCABO. It was a verb and vocabulary game that pitted two teams against each other. Kate got the winning answer for her team, by correctly conjugating a verb that everyone else missed!
In fifth grade, Kate went on a singing tour. The class spent months practicing songs, rehearsing choreography, designing props. And finally, the tour brought them to two different senior citizen homes, where they brightened the day of some elderly folk by singing them songs and wearing costumes.
And then there was sixth grade, which was marked by a great many government tests.
*****
1995 Card House
Those years were not only spent in class! At home, Kate perfected her card house construction skills. In 1995, she reached five stories and by 1997 she made it all the way to 10 stories!
In 1995, at 9 years old, Kate learned a lot about government, and she learned that her parents could not make everything right. There was a referendum. Quebec wanted to leave Canada. Kate was horribly upset about this. She was a Canadian. She was also from Quebec, but she was a Canadian and she wanted to remain so. Kate didn’t know much about referendums or about the government, but she knew that it wasn’t fair that they were going to make her leave her country. Her parents didn’t disagree, but they also couldn’t fix it. Did separation actually mean that they were going to dig a moat in between Canada and Quebec, that Quebec would split off and float further out into the Atlantic? How were they going to do that—Quebec was pretty big. Issues became muddled in Kate’s head, although she had likely thought more about all of the repercussions that the people in charge.
Separatists paraded through the streets, wearing blue with white fleur-de-lis’ and waving miniature flags. They were always shouting, and they never sounded happy. Kate did not want these angry people to be in charge of her country. If she wasn’t Canadian anymore, what would happen to all of the Canadian money she had saved up in her piggy bank? What would become of her Canadian flag? Would they cut down all of the maple trees? Would she still be allowed to speak English? Kate couldn’t answer any of these questions, and her parents couldn’t answer many of them either.
The night of the election, the channel stayed on the news all night. Kate was allowed to stay up late to watch. Her parents paced and argued, sat and frowned as the results bounced back
1995: Non a la Separation Sticker
and forth, nearly evenly split to whole night. Kate fell asleep on the floor, not knowing if she was still Canadian or not. Kate awoke the next morning and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. She still felt like a Canadian. She looked out the window—everything looked the same…She left her room and looked at the newspaper. The answer was no! It may have been close, but at least Kate didn’t have to take a boat to get to Upper Canada Village next year! She was happy to be a Canadian.
*****