Donald Crossland:
CLASS OF 1966
Royal York Collegiate InstituteClass of 1966
Toronto, ON
Lakeshore Teacher's CollegeClass of 1969
Toronto, ON
Our Lady of Sorrows SchoolClass of 1962
Toronto, ON
Donald's Story
Life
I have been playing around with solar and renewable energy systems for years.
During a big power outage I ran the sump pump 1 hr 40 minutes off the battery pack and could have gone at least another hour (backfed from the barn) - I no longer have the hobby farm and moved near Orillia where I have a tiny solar system powering my storage shed/workshop and a home made passive solar heating system for the shed on the south facing entry door. I would like to make a solar cooker next.
As for pets I currently have none now, but have had cats, dogs, horses and pigs over my years on the hobby farm
The boat in the pic is one I was restoring but sold it and currently use a couple of different ones, I am a member of the Maple Leaf Antique Outboard Motor Club (collecting antique and classic outboards) and am an avid sailor who doesn't get out enough. I am still using the old boat my father bought years ago and on the same lake (Bass Lake near Orillia) - I love hiking in the Simcoe County Forest tracts and snowshoeing in the moonlight, nature photography, archery and targetting - I have finished writing a few books, some short novels, one full length novel, and have published a few articles as well as selling a guide to recovery from a prostate operation (with an artificial heart valve I have considered writing tips on recovery from the open heart operation too). I am happy to give anyone advice on recovering from heart or prostate surgery.
Musings or reminiscences:
I don't have any of the old yearbooks and regret that. One subject that helped me was French, which helped us have a great visit to Paris.
One of my best friends was Barry Hodgkins but after I graduated I lost track of him. Another was Paul Agnew with whom I had many interesting conversations. Paul and Barry were both very intelligent people. One day I was out walking and a coloured guy stopped me to ask if I knew a certain street. It happened to be the street Barry lived on but we were about 2 1/2 miles away so I told the guy I'd walk with him there. We chatted as we went and when we got to the address it was Barry's house! Barry had moved and I hadn't even known. The guy asked if he could shake my hand and I said sure. As we were shaking he said not many white guys would do what I had done or even shake his hand. I was surprised because I had never known that people in Toronto would be like that. (some things you never forget)
I used to feel sad for Lori Lutz who a lot of the guys would tease (I think she was a bit shy though at ease with her own group of friends and didn't know how to respond but you could see she was...Expand for more
embarrassed). They teased me too, calling me La Nez or The Nez because of my big nose. One day after my sister started there, she came home and said she'd heard some guy exclaim 'Hey look, The Nez' has a sister.' I wasn't shy about that so none of the teasing bothered me. I did make up a ditty that I would sometimes repeat - 'no body knows what the nose knows because the nose knows all!'
I used to sit near Janet Nash and we'd sometimes help each other with school work. I liked her but she had a boyfriend so I kept that sentiment to myself. As graduation came close her friends would ask her if her boyfriend had asked her to the prom yet. There was a lot of speculation. Finally it got very close and she still wasn't asked, so I asked my father if I could have the money to take her 'just in case' (didn't want her to miss the prom). Dad agreed and the boyfriend asked her soon after, so she never knew I had her back.
The one girl I hurt was Molly Kajiura (not sure of the spelling) but it was a misunderstanding and involved something that I could not in good conscience explain to her, I'd still hate to tell her what the problem was (it wasn't her fault in the least and it also wasn't mine) but I wasn't trying to hurt her as she must have believed. I had a lump in my throat when I walked away. I've always regretted what happened.
I would walk to school while the bus went by because I just liked to walk. I did take the bus once and some kid was trying to sell a 'nickle of mary jane', Well I didn't know what that was, but it turned out that it was $5 worth of Marijuana, and that was back in the 60s Toronto (I didn't have $5 and wouldn't have bought it if I did).
When I wasn't walking I was riding my bike and had gone all over the city and beyond, spending hours on that bike. In the summer I rode the bike all over Simcoe County. Along with the walking and biking I enjoyed track and field (especially running, jumping, shot put and javelin) but never got into it competitively. Now I use an e-bike with 5 levels of assist (you have to be peddling to get the assist) and each level of assist makes me 10 years younger!
I got into one fight at the school, which started in a classroom but we continued in the washroom (a lot of guys followed to watch). We were broken up before anyone was hurt. After that the two of us were friends. I do remember those years fondly, much as I (and others) remember our years at work fondly - it is the people we remember and the connections we made. People are the most important things in life and those kids at Royal York Collegiate were a great bunch! :)
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