Totem Pole Tales- Onaway Junior High School Submitted by Nute Chapman From Onaway Outlook April 4, 2014

Caption:  1948-1949 Onaway junior high students.  Some of these students still live in the Onaway area.  Do not know all of their
names.  Mrs. Braidwood is standing on the left.



  Starting junior high would be very different for me.  I had already learned all I needed to know over the summer
vacation.  Woops, I was unaware of one Miss Margaret Young and the head custodian, Mr. Badgero.  I don't know why I had
not encountered them in grade school.  Both of these people would have an impact on my life in the next two years.

  In the first part of the seventh-grade I was sure that I did not need any more education.  After the first tuneup from 
Miss Young, I was glad to be good friends with Reg Hitchcock.  His grandmother was Mrs. Hitchcock, the art teacher, and
Reg and I were rescued by her a few times.  I often wondered what Miss Young ate for breakfast that made her like a
robot with eyes in the back of her head.  She would walk up and down the rows of seats checking your papers to see if
you were doing you lessons.  If she stopped by your seat, you knew you were going to get some extra lessons, sometimes not 
so good ones.  Mrs. Young once told me, "You write like your Dad."  To this day I don't know if she meant good or bad, 
but Dad had told me to be on my best behavior or I would be in trouble.

  I have to say a few words about Mr. Badgero.  We became good friends before I graduated and the reason being is that 
I got a chance to work with and for him.  I learned how big and dirty the gym floor was, and how many shovels of coal it
took to fill the hopper that fed the furnace.  I also got to wash a few windows.  Most of my punishment came from bending
the rules on the playground.

  Continued next week.



From the Onaway Outlook, April 4, 2014, page 3. 


Retyped by J. Anderson