A small spider

This is a very short slideshow I did five years ago and rediscovered a few minutes ago while I was revising my Google profile.

School days, part 3

Finally got back to posting some more of my father's notes from when he went to school in Lower Ship Harbour, Nova Scotia. The schoolhouse he describes is the same one I attended, I think, or possibly one built on the same site. I went to that school from about 1950 to early 1954, and I'm guessing that he went there from around 1916 to the early or mid-1920's.

The schoolhouse was not painted, but was whitewashed every few years.

Our school hours were from nine o’clock in the morning to ten forty-five, with fifteen minutes for a recess, when we would play whatever games we could think up, then from eleven to twelve, then home for dinner and back at one until (I think) two forty five, and then fifteen for recess, then back in school from three until four. Sometimes, according to the time of year, it would be rather dusky at four o’clock.

Pupils who lived near enough, as our family did, could go home for dinner. Some who had something like two miles to come would bring their lunch, mostly in a half-gallon lard pail (as I remember). I don’t know what was in the pails but as I know the financial situation of the time, I suspect it was something like a couple of slices of bread and butter, if the family had a cow, which most every family had, or bread and molasses, an egg and a cookie, perhaps an apple as a special treat.

Oranges or bananas were mostly unheard of at that time as a daily treat, but were a speciality in your stocking at Christmas morning with a candy animal in the toe of your stocking, wrapped in a piece of tissue paper. Of course, all this in your Christmas morning stocking was a present from Santa Claus, who was regarded by most all children as a super being, which of course he was, whichever way you want to look at it. And when you know and can realize what the times were like back then, you can understand.

We played as Indians with our bows and arrows, sometimes shooting our arrows up through the woods around the school and sometimes up in the air to see which boy’s arrow could go the longest way. We also had what was called sling shots, two pieces of long string tied to [a] piece of leather with a small hole in it, to hold a small rock. Swing it a few times, then let go of one string (at the right time) we could often throw the rock about three hundred feet.

At home we seemed always to find lots of ways to play and pass the time, and boy or girl, we all had our chores.

Aldred the elf

Yesterday, I took a class in felting at Moose River Rug Hooking Studio, where we learned to felt an elf. It was really great to be in a class with other felters and see all the variations on a theme. The Studio posted a bunch of photos from the class and I've included some photos of my finished elf, who seems to be named Aldred, below.

Hortense

This was my first post that included photos, which I did on my other blog in August of 2007. Clicking on an image will show a larger picture. The photos I took myself, Hortense was created by a dollmaker from Church Point, Nova Scotia. She is still attempting to fly from a desk in my kitchen.

Hortense (she named herself) captured my attention at the Annapolis Royal Farmer's Market about a month ago. Since she was still there when I came back two weeks ago, I felt I had to take her home.

School days: part 2

The following is some more of my dad's notes about his school days. 

Our school had three blackboards, one on each side and one on the front wall just behind the teacher’s desk.

The teacher’s desk was in front of the room on a platform (raised above the regular floor).  There were two doors in the entry way to the schoolroom, with an outside entryway.  The width of the building was about six or seven feet wide. At one end the firewood was piled to use in the stove. At the other end a few nails were in the wall to hand up coats or caps. The brick chimney was built on top of two thick timbers and up through the roof.

The stove was a cast iron heater about fifteen inches (or sixteen) wide and more  than twenty-four inches long as it would take a twenty-four inch piece of wood.

The wood supplied to the school was forty-eight inches long, and was provided by someone hired by the trustees who were appointed by the community school board.

The wood was sawed into two pieces by anyone who could get and do that job, and also carried into the schoolhouse and piled into one corner. Also softwood was supplied for kindling. This was split by anyone who could do the work. Mostly by a school boy old enough and also he would light the fire each morning. Mr. Raymond O’Brien was the man who most always supplied the wood which he got across the Harbour, where he owned quite a large piece of property.

My take on "Hello World"

I have bought many computer graphics programs over the years. Most times I just play around with them. I'm trying to correct that by actually producing something, even this very elementary animation, made with Anime Studio Debut 6.

The first post

This blog will show the things I've made - things I can hold in my hands and things that I can see on the screen, and all the variations in between.

That said, the first thing I'm going to post is a transcription I'm doing of notes made by my father, Clyde Siteman. Although the first notes are about his school days in Lower Ship Harbour, Nova Scotia, about ninety years ago, I imagine that they would compare to the lives of many people growing up at that time. Since I went to the same school, some of my experiences were nearly the same as his. I've transcribed the notes as they're hand-printed, changing some (not all) of the spelling and punctuation. I'll place them in the blog a paragraph or so at a time.

My Early Days in Lower Ship Harbour

I was born in Lower Ship Harbour on March thirty, 1909, and will start this bit of recollections of past times, and the way things were done in those times.

I started school at the age of seven, which was the age then of starting school.

My first teacher was a Miss Stoddard from Clam Harbour. The second was Miss Bulmer from Schubenacadia or Truro.

Our school house was a one room building, with an attendance (I think) of about twenty-five or thirty (perhaps more), and one teacher, and sometimes her first job. She was the boss over us all and she had the full support of just about all of the parents, and her word was law. There was, as far as I can remember, three rows of seats, each seat held two pupils. The classes were from primer to nine or ten. In those times not every pupil got to grade ten, as some had to leave to try and earn a few dollars to help at home.