Chilliwack High School Musical Activities
The Senior High Years

The 1920's

FIRST ORCHESTRA

First mention of music in the life of the school is in the 1924 school annual.

At that time, there were two extracurricular orchestras which practised outside school time. These were conducted by Mr. J. P. Humphreys, an English Musician, who gave music lessons in town and later became associated with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. The eight members of the senior Orchestra were Beryl Banford, Ethel Robinson, Ethel Rogers, Marion Banks (Mrs. Sid Rowlands), Edna Day, Elva Denike, Gwennie McCutcheon, and John Hilbert.

There were 24 students in the Junior Orchestra. They apparently didn't appreciate practising in their own time and wrote that they "looked forward to the happy day when music would be a subject on the school curriculum" (that day was still about 15 years away).

Choral Music

There seemed to be no organized choral music in the 1920's, but two girls' quartettes consisting of L. Carmichall, N. Malcolm, B. Martin, I. Woodworth; and H. Burton, M. Muir, B. Martin and I. Woodworth sang (in the name of the school) at a number of local functions. There was no gym so they performed at the IMperial Theatre, They also put on a program to raise money for the starving children of Armenia. There was such a crowd, the performance had to be repeated a second night.

The 1930's

Choral Music Expanded

Choral music received greater emphasis in the 1930's when Mrs. Ethel M. Manford organized a series of Glee Clubs. The Glee Clubs, still the only music classes, met at noon and after school. Glee Club sessions were long and students often walked two or three miles home, barely in time for supper.

The grade 9's of those days had greater problems. They were housed at Chilliwack Central School. Most of the girls (inspired or browbeaten by older sisters) wanted to belong to the Glee Club. (It was a prestigious thing then too). If they survived Mrs. Manford's singing test, they were in. The trouble was that they had to run over to the brick building at noon (eating lunches on the run) to arrive "breathless and burping" for an hour of singing. Then, they had to run frantically back to avoid detentions for being late.

Some of the girls learned that it was possible to walk back leisurely, enjoying lunch, and to put on a spurt of speed just as Central School came in sight — the teacher couldn't see past the corner and he only gave detentions if you weren't running when he looked out the window!

However, all the effort was worth it when the annual spring concert finally arrived.

These concerts were striking performances with about 50 Glee Club members all in white gowns and Mrs. Manford in some exotic colour. (It was always fun to guess what she would wear!) Even so, The Boys' Glee Clubs usually stole the show!

The concerts were frequently combined with dramatic presentations or operettas, folk dances, and gymnastic displays.

One of the spectacular programs was the musical play, "The Prince Who Was A Piper," presented in March, 1933. Lyle Turney was a great success as the flute-playing prince. The audience didn't know that he couldn't really play the flue — and the music came from someone else back stage!

When the junior high school was built in 1939, music finally became part of the school curriculum.

Room 108 was the music room with the latest in music furniture — tablet chairs.

Music teachers at that time included Miss Dorothy Keenlyside, Miss Edith Higginson (for grade 7 students at Central School), and George Glass.

During this time our school choirs won numerous honours at Fraser Valley Music festivals.

We also enjoyed the distinction of having a student conductor, Howard Denike, for our orchestra. Under Howard's leadership, the orchestra received awards on many occasions. There were about 20 orchestra members.

It was hilarious the night Howard was mistaken for the teacher and the teacher was mistaken for a student. After that, we boasted that we had two student conductors (Howard and Mr. R. L. MacDougall).

Howard went on to become a music teacher in Victoria, and his assistant Andy Snider is a C.B.C. producer in Vancouver.

Dance Bands and other informal groups were also popular in the 1940's. Gordon Mitchell, Peggy Mortison (Hannah) and Dorothy Kerr (Prentice) were active in these activities.

Mr. N. H. MacGregor, the man responsible for the Chilliwack Senior Secondary School agrarian revolution, has said his final goodbye to teaching.

The completion of this school year brings 34 dedicated years of teaching at CSSS to an end for Mr. MacGregor, but marks the beginning of a retirement life on his 30 acre farm here in the Fraser Valley.

Born and raised in Manitoba, Mr. MacGregor moved to British Columbia in the late twenties and graduated from high school in Rosedale. He later returned to a Manitoba university and earned a degree in agriculture — never seriously thinking of a teaching career.

With a shovel full of youth and a degree in his satchel, Mr.. MacGregor had the world before him, but in 1935 he accepted a teaching position at the old CSSS school across the road. He was given an outdated agricultural program which he soon brought up to date.

World War II caused him to abandon his plans temporarily, and join up in the Royal Canadian Air Force, He flew supplies 'over the Hump' to Burma, against the invading Japanese. He returned to Chilliwack in 1946 and continued teaching.

Mr. MacGregor spent the next few years studying the agricultural program of the United States, and when the new CSSS school was built in 1950, he created his own version of a practical agricultural program.

Today, Mr. MacGregor has built up the agricultural department with new equipment and techniques to a strong foundation for CSSS students planning to become farmers of the future, or who desire entrance in vocational training.

Mr. MacGregor considers teaching as, a "consumer of nervous energy, which must be given many hours of attention."

Chilliwack's economic staples come from agriculture and agriculture comes from Mr. MacGregor.

- An eductional project which is still in the first stages of experiment is going on quietly at the Junior-Senior High School, where a member of the staff, Neil MacGregor, is developing an agricultural program which has widespread possibilities.

- At the present time, in a class of 17 of grade 10 students, six are going into poultry flocks, three amy grow registered barley, and two are branching out into growing certified seed potatoes. The last member of the class is taking up mink farming.

- The projects are part of a new course in agriculture being taught at the school, and are conducted under Mr. MacGregor's watchful eye. Needless to say the parents are watching, too.

- A careful record of expenses is kept by each student.

- It is hoped, of course, that each project will be a financial success and the ideal situation exists when the boy graduates from the school with a going proposition on his hands, plus two years'experience in the proper conduct of his proposition.

- MacGregor visualizes the time when students, for instance, who are raising hogs, may have enough of them to ship a carlot out of the district at a time. He endeavours to procure the best markets for student-grown products. Naturally, he says, it will be some time before the results of the whole scheme will become evident enough to draw conclusions, but in the meantime he is forging ahead with the plan and is pleased with results to date.

Memories of Chilliwack Junior-Senior High School
September 1942 — June 1943
by Doris Clarke