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FROM THE SCRAPBOOK

A Painful Happy Corners School Incident,
Cecil MacLean, Early 1900's

by Dr. William Randall

Reprinted from The Harvey Lionews February, 1993

 

 

Cecil MacLean has some interesting stories about his earlier days. He tells me that he was born in Happy Corners on June 17, 1899. I had never heard of Happy Corners. Cecil took me out to Lake George and showed me where the old road used to be. It swings northwestward from the main road just a bit west of the Lake George United Church and Cemetery. Cecil says that at that time Happy Corners was quite a settlement. There were Moodys, Calhouns, MacLeans, Sargeants, Millers, and Donnellys. The children from Happy Corners took a short cut to school about a mile over the Donnelly Hill to the location of the school near the present Lake George United Church. Cecil tells of an incident from those school days which I find amusing. I will try to tell it as Cecil told it to me.

 

"One time there was a teacher of a very kind sort. She always cared that the children were well dressed to withstand the cold winds of winter before they left school for home in the afternoon. One day she was very careful that Lloyd (Cecil's brother) had his muffler well wrapped about his face before he left the schoolroom. She was very careful to make sure the safety pin held the muffler secure. Lloyd came home with the other children, but never spoke all the way home (a bit unusual for Lloyd). When he got home his sisters wanted to help undress him. (These sisters could have been Effie, Mabel, Edith or Ida.) They had trouble getting the muffler from around Lloyd's throat.   "What's the matter, what's the matter?" said the girls "We can't get this muffler off." They found that the safety pin, which had been intended to secure the muffler, had actually been attached to Lloyd's ear. They removed the safety pin and the muffler came off with ease." Talk about caring teachers! They had them in those days!

 

 

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