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 ~ ~ AL Fortune School
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 ~ ~ talk with Jean MacPherson
 ~ ~ talk with Grace Lundquist
 ~ ~ talk with Sandra Farynuk
 ~ ~ talk with Donald MacPherson
 ~ ~ talk with Mr. Larson
 ~ ~ talk with Mrs. Reay
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Donald's family was one of the original families in Enderby. His grandparents first came to Enderby in 1911. His grandmother and their son and daughter came from Ontario two years later. The MacPherson family had been in Enderby ever since. Donald went to M.V. Beattie School from 1930-1941. He lived with his grandmother from grade one through grade eight, as she lived in town and his parents lived in Hullcar. He rode his bike from their home in Hullcar, five and a half miles in to Enderby each way, to go to school in grades nine and ten. In the winter, he pushed the sleigh to school in the snow.

In his grades throughout schooling there were around 35-40 pupils in each grade. Two or three grades were integrated in each classroom. When Donald was asked what he enjoyed most about school, his reply was simply, "Girls, of course!" But he also enjoyed the sports aspect of school, such as baseball, softball, and lacrosse. While playing softball during lunch hour he always seemed to put the ball through the window, rather than over the fence. For each window he broke there was a fifteen cent replacement cost, and to make matters worse, the principal made him putty the windows back in. A fifteen cent fee for this deed doesn't sound like a lot to us nowadays, but after the dozen or so Donald broke, it all added up. As for school teams, he was unable to play because he had to go home after school to milk cows. Donald doesn't recall the school playing much of a social role, except for the annual sports day held each May.

He doesn't really have many fond memories of his teachers. The only teacher he liked was his first grade teacher, Miss Barker. After that the teacher-student relationship seemed to go down hill. He believes the reason why he liked his first-grade teacher was that he was too young to know any better. The only field trip Donald remembers taking was the hike to Twin Lakes with Miss Barker to see the enormous number of turtles.

Donald feels that he didn't really excel throughout his years of schooling. He feel that his attention span was to minimal for him to have learned a great deal.

The differences that Donald notes between the years he went to school and today's style of schooling are that students had almost a tunnel vision of the future in his time and students have such a vast number of choices of courses today. In his time, once you graduated, you would usually get a job to pay for your room and board and a car if you had one. He feels students today have so many more choices what to do with their lives than they did years ago. Donald MacPherson feels that most changes in the education system over the years have been positive, overall.

Janine Farynuk
ALF School 1989