Day 2 - Key to A School - 21 Day Family Connections Experiment

It's Day 2 of my 21 Day Family Connections Experiment

I'm going to show and talk about family treasures for 21 days. This will be a random selection, and I expect to put up an organized list later of the things I'm showing here and those I've had on CanadaGenealogy in past articles. 

Terribly dark photo! I'll swap it out for a better one when the sun is shining.



1953 Vancouver Civic Elections ad. George W Rogers, for School Trustee Wed, Dec 9, 1953 – 18 · The Vancouver News-Herald (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) · Newspapers.com

In the 1950s, my father, George William Rogers, was elected as a Vancouver, BC School Trustee. He served for a number of years, and when he retired, was Chairman of the School Board. The gavel he was given is still in the family.

These were years of growth in Vancouver's school system as the first of the Baby Boomers arrived in class and post war immigrant children too. Some schools were overcrowded; periodically some classes had to be on 'swing shifts'. (Sound familiar?)  Dad's last report chastised the provincial government for not contributing enough towards construction of safe, secure school facilities.

As Trustee and later Chair, he took part in many Board activities. The ceremonial key shown below was given to him when he opened the new Sir Wilfred Grenfell School in March, 1956 built on the site of an older school. By September, two portables had to be moved to the school grounds to accommodate more students and prevent 'swing shifts'. And there was another addition in 1958.

"Sir Wilfred Grenfell Elementary School Opened By George W. Rogers M.B.E. March 2nd, 1956."

I was very young at the time, so don't remember too much, but my parents, especially my mum, told me a few things later, for example, that I, as a very young child, went to a few meetings with dad. Sounds quite modern. Although mum said she wasn't sure what he did if I needed the usual attentions. She thought a 'lady' on the Board must have helped him! 

What she didn't say to me, but I did take for granted, was that this was likely at times when my baby brother was really sick and dad wouldn't leave mum to have to look after both of us.

We all went to some of the openings and other functions. Mum was often frustrated as she'd be wanting to get us home afterwards and dad would have run into yet one more person to talk to. As a kid, I used to think he knew everyone in Vancouver! And among the older ones, perhaps he did in some circles, since he was born in South Vancouver in 1917 and it was a much smaller city then. 

One thing I do remember is being a student in classes at the Vancouver Normal School (temporarily) before I had even started school. For some reason, they needed to fill up a classroom and we lived right nearby. I hope I behaved well for that teacher who would have been a 'teacher in training'.

I do have a few photographs and papers from his school board days. They are with the business papers which have been waiting for me to go through the boxes. Soon....

For more about the 21 Day Family Connections Experiment, see my first Experiment article here.