Liz Fletcher remembers the Ides of October 1954 for a myriad of reasons, most of them to do with sports and socializing.
Fletcher, then Liz Brown, was in Grade 11 at Leaside High School. “It was a Friday; it rained all afternoon and night. The playing field was a sea of mud, so the big football game was forced to end early, and the dance was cancelled because the gym flooded.” What she – and all Leasiders that 15th of October – thought was just a very rainy autumn day turned out to be Hurricane Hazel, Canada’s worst hurricane and Toronto’s worst natural disaster. The big storm and other memories of her time at LHS more than 70 years ago are still fresh in her mind.
“I remember that Friday there was an early dismissal on account of the football game. It was Leaside versus York Memorial. I was at the sidelines with my friend Barb Blizzard in the pouring rain with the wind roaring at us, cheering on the junior team – I remember we won; funny I don’t remember if I had an umbrella with me.”
According to the ’54 Clan Call (the LHS yearbook), Leaside won 21 to 0 with the York Memorial coach conceding the game with six minutes remaining. The heavy rains flooded the main gym; with a foot of water seeping up the wood paneled walls, the dance had to be cancelled. It was a double blow for the outgoing and sporty 15-year-old Liz, who enjoyed dancing to the sounds of live bands like the Sateen bandbox and who spent hours every week in the gymnasium for basketball and volleyball practice. Despite meteorology office warnings Toronto had little experience with hurricanes so was unprepared. In the end Hazel dumped 300 million tons of water on the city and its environs, lashing Toronto with 110 km/h winds, killing 81 people and causing $1 billion in damages (2024 dollars).
Remembering Atwood
Liz was a sports and math and science enthusiast – she had the rare honour of winning her athletic letter in her Grade 12 year – unlike her peer Peggy (Margaret) Atwood. “Peggy and I were in something called Leaders’ Class together, but otherwise I took math and sciences whereas she studied English and drama. My Clan Call writeup mentioned something about my wanting to be an algebra teacher; Peggy’s predicted her writing THE Canadian novel. They both sort of came true.”
Liz recalls that Atwood would write and announce information over the PA system about upcoming events such as the Christmas dance. “One time she even sang it – very creative, very entertaining.”
Liz keeps in touch with many of her school friends. In 2017, 20 members of the Class of ’57 attended their 60th reunion (Leaside Life, July 2017). She and her good pals Barb Blizzard, Marjorie Brown and Aileen Shugg travelled together to Curacao to celebrate their 80th birthdays together.
Remembering Initiation Day
Another memory that stands out for Liz is Initiation Day.
Initiation Day was a Grade 9 rite of passage. The “initiee” would dress strangely with girls wearing men’s gear (plaid shirts, sports socks and pyjamas) and boys in “baby bonnets, nylon blouses over halter tops and a fancy garter holding up one of his stockings,” according to the ’54 Clan Call. They all passed through an archway made by brooms held by staff and the principal Mr. McLeod just before the morning bell. Liz recalls having a hard time finding appropriate attire. “I had a sister, no brothers, so I had to borrow and beg off friends with older male siblings.”
Fletcher started teaching in 1958 at Rolph Road School. “I wasn’t assigned a specific class so was itinerant, sometimes teaching at Bessborough and Northlea. When at Northlea I would often eat lunch at the Sunnybrook Restaurant with colleagues. One of them was Jack Fletcher, whom I married in the summer of ’60. The Leaside Board of Education promoted him to vice principal at Rolph that September and I had to leave – at the time married couples were not allowed to teach at the same school!” Liz lived in the newly built Thorncliffe Park for the first years of her marriage – “in 36 Thorncliffe Park Drive, the same building as good friends Alan and Louise Redway.”
Liz fondly remembers LHS, and talking about her high school days lights her up: “I look forward to our 70th reunion, which is just around the corner.”
