Editor's Note: this week, we pick back up on the school years with Grades 9 & 10. Forget what happened in Grade 8? No problem. Read the Grade 8 story.
Chapter 9: This is Me in Grade 9
This was my first grade in High School, in a place called Harrison Trimble High School. I got up, got breakfast, and then headed to Bessborough School, which was our bus stop. My bus was 105. Within minutes of my arrival at Bessborough School, Bus 105 showed up. In the morning it was a standard yellow school bus, and for the way home from school it was a Codiac Transit city bus serving as Bus 105.
We boarded the bus and it stopped in various neighborhoods to pick up students. It passed Centennial Park and Rocky Stone Field where high school and local league football and sometimes soccer were played. Within minutes the bus arrived at Harrison Trimble High School. I reported to my homeroom, and just like in Junior High, each grade I had a series of teachers.
I had a series of TAs. My first T.A. was J.V. cheerleaders’ coach Miss Mullins. My second TA was hockey manager Mr. Bannister. My third TA was Mrs. Robinson, whom I had met at Bessborough School during a Junior High grade. My homeroom teacher was social studies teacher and J.V. boys’ basketball coach Mr. Grimmer. My English grammar teacher’s name was Mrs. Pipes. My French teacher was volleyball coach Mrs. Bourque, who was a counselor at Camp Centennial. My technology teacher was Mr. Kitchen. My music teacher’s name was Mrs. Killam, and her room had keyboards with various voices and a headset for each keyboard. My gym teacher was hockey coach Mr. Belong who looked like the Ducks’ coach in The Mighty Ducks 1 and 2.
This grade and others coming up were lots of fun, as we had not only intramural sports of all kinds, but we had famous sports teams like basketball, football, hockey, curling, soccer, and, of course, cheerleading. They had pep rallies for things like football games, big basketball games, and big hockey games.
The theatre had a grand piano which I played sometimes.
I took guitar lessons from a teacher named Shane and then a teacher named Michel.
I went to the Moncton Coliseum for my first hockey game: an Under 17 tournament game.
I joined house league basketball and we played on weeknights. Erin also played house league and middle school basketball. She also joined a Moncton provincial team called the Hawks, who played all around town and played in a tournament in Bedford, Nova Scotia.
I went to the football games and did the catchy cheers with the cheerleaders.
Mrs. Killam got us to do some of our own jingles for companies or organizations, so I did a jingle for my favorite car at the time: the Mercury Grand Marquis, using the Honky Tonk sound on the keyboard.
One Sunday my church had an apple picking day, which was a lot of fun. We went to Belliveau Orchard in Memramcook. There a horse- or tractor-pulled wagon took us to a series of apple trees and we were to pick apples from trees marked with a certain colored ribbon. This was followed by a picnic at an abandoned aboriginal church yard.
We went on a field trip by school bus to the University of Moncton’s C.E.P.S. for the Hoop Classic, my first Hoop Classic game.
The Christmas that followed I asked for a Timex Ironman digital watch like Dad’s, and I got one.
We went on a bus trip to the Moncton Coliseum for the Hockey Classic in which our hockey team was playing.
The Easter that followed I got the VHS Babe, and when we watched it for the first time I fell in love with Fly the female sheepdog.
We got another dog: a Bearded Collie like Tim Allen constantly turns into in the 2006 remake of The Shaggy Dog, named Emma. She and Dillon played wrestle together a lot. It was the same thing with Emma and Simon sometimes.
Grade 9 soon ended and summer came up. I got my first high school yearbook. I still pull that up and look back on the good times from this grade.
I have some bad news about that summer and some good news.
The bad news is our BMW 325i had had it. The good news is we got a new car: a dark blue Saab 900.
I also got a new electric guitar: A sunburst Squier Stratocaster with a new amp.
Chapter 10: Grade 10
This was my second year in high school. This was known as a Foundation Block year.
I again took guitar lessons.
Gramps passed away of cancer and old age and it was a heartfelt day at the funeral. That is when I started shaving, using Gramps’ razor.
I had the same teachers as last year, except this year my main TA was Mrs. Robinson.
I joined house league basketball again.
This year I was so enthusiastic I was named Honorary Cheerleader.
Not only this, but they got me to play my electric guitar in the theatre, and so I played The Eagles’ Take It Easy.
I again went to the football games, this time joining the Cheerleaders and doing the cheers and moves with them, except the lifts.
Erin played basketball for the Moncton High School J.V. women’s basketball team.
We went to Disney World in Orlando for a week, and also Universal Studios. We got to see how they make certain movies I had seen or was about to see look real. They had real and fake animals like Dalmatian puppies, horses, and all kinds of animals. They had rides and showed us how they make things in movies look real.
This year I went to several Hoop Classic games at C.E.P.S. and the women’s Hoop Classic at Moncton High School.
This Christmas I got a small keyboard.
We also went to the Hockey Classic.
Dillon was at the house almost every day I came home from school, but one day, I came to a surprise: Mom had rescued a lost terrier mix named Harvey in peril, and was waiting for the owner to claim him. He and Dillon played a lot together.
That day our neighbors were in a play in the Drama Festival of a sequel to The Wizard of Oz called Trouble in Oz.
Dillon started playing flyball and I saw a match and got to see and make friends with all kinds of dogs, including lots of friendly, nice-looking Border Collies.
Grade 10 soon ended, and I got the yearbook. I also sometimes pull this out to remember some fun stuff from this grade.
When I came home I was met with a surprise: I was to transfer to Riverview High School with Mrs. McArdle as my TA again as I needed a band and music program for my last 2 grades and Harrison Trimble did not had either of those, except a keyboard class.
Jennifer had a baby: a boy named Brennan. This meant I was an uncle!
Brian joined a musical group called Bishop who played on Breakfast Television and at a Canada Day concert before fireworks came up.
I got my first CD player and with it a couple of CDs: Lionel Richie’s Dancing on the Ceiling and the Spice Girls’ debut album. Later I started regularly buying CDs.
Kiwanis Park and Harold Page Field were hosting world baseball and I saw some games, and that is when I had my first Barq’a Root Beer. Catchy commercials for this were playing for this product.
Later Mrs. McArdle took me for a tour of my new school, followed by a trip to McDonald’s so I could get a Smarties McFlurry.