Helen Mundy was born in Sombra and has reached this milestone year without ever having a birth certificate! At a tender age she moved to Goderich with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Baechler, and her older sister. Helen’s mother was an O’Brien and a descendent of the O'Briens who settled in the Camlachie area during the Irish potato blight. O’Brien Sideroad originated from this family name. Helen attended high school in Goderich and then went to Stratford Normal School. This was housed in the red brick building across the street from the current location of the Festival Theatre. Upon graduation Helen was offered teaching positions in Kitchener and Sarnia. Both offers arrived on the same day but since the Kitchener one arrived first she committed to it. Later she did teach in Sarnia at St. Patrick's High School, Our Lady of Mercy and St. Peter's Schools. She served as vice principal at St. Peter's School for seven years.
 
In 1940, when Helen got married, it was necessary to receive annual approval to continue teaching as a married female. Helen stayed at home for several years while raising her family. When her youngest child started school, Helen returned to teaching. Unlike today, there was a teacher shortage. Also, during her career a university degree was not required but she did take ministry night classes and summer courses for qualification upgrading. Most of Helen Mundy’s teaching days were spent in the junior grades, mostly grade four. In her early years in high school she actually taught physical education with some other subjects. One change through the years that Helen noticed was smaller class sizes. She began her career with fifty two students in her classroom which was later reduced to forty two.
 
A special teaching memory of Helen’s career happened in the Centennial Year, 1967. Her class won a history of Canada contest. With the winnings Helen and some of her students’ mothers prepared a turkey dinner for the whole class which Helen hosted as a picnic at her home. Helen’s story appears in the Retired Women Teachers’ book, Chalk, Challenge and Change. She was interviewed for the book project by Wanda Long.
 
Helen now lives at Twin Lakes and describes it as "quite nice". She finds the staff to be "very considerate ". Helen’s four children are Joe, Mike, Charlie and Mary Helen. Highlights are the Mondays when Joe comes from Toronto to visit. Mary Helen, Mike and Mike’s wife, Pam, have all followed Helen’s example. They are all retired Lambton teachers! Charlie also lives close by. Helen’s family includes seven grandchildren and ten great grandchildren.
 
Helen enjoyed teaching for fourteen years at St. Peter's School in particular as well as a few years of supply work in Sarnia. She liked to be involved in many school activities. She also enjoyed working with all her associates in the profession. She has enjoyed seeing her former students become active adults with families and interesting careers.
 
In her one hundredth year Helen’s advice is "take it easy"!

 

 

  

Reta Blanche Neal began her teaching career in 1929 at S. S. #3 on the on the Eighth Line of Moore and boarded with Maurice and Annie Neal who lived across from the school. That is also where she met her future husband, Walter. Married women were not allowed to teach so Reta waited awhile to marry because she wanted to help her younger sister through Normal School.  Higher education for girls was not common in all families at this time. But in spite of the Depression their father supported Reta, the middle one of his five daughters, when she took teacher training. Then she assisted with her sister’s education.

In later years Reta taught at Mandaumin, Bunyan, Blackwell, and Beehive schools. Both Blackwell and Beehive had more than one classroom each, but SS #3 Moore, Mandaumin and Bunyan were one room schools with all eight grades. There was much preparation work. Reta would finish her teaching day, wipe off the blackboards and write the lessons for the next day on the board. When she arrived home her husband or one of the older children would have started dinner. Then there was cleaning up, supervising homework and reading the newspaper (better described as a half hour nap!), before bedtime routines. This was followed by several hours of preparation for school the next day – six lessons a day for each of the eight grades, composing tests and exams, marking them, preparing report cards and preparation for parent-teacher meetings added to her work load.

Reta’s children do not have to wonder why at Christmas they received a big story book with 365 one page stories. Probably one page took all the time and energy that she had for bedtime reading!

If one of her students was sick and expected to be away from school for an extended period of time, perhaps with mumps or measles, she would sometimes take them lessons so they could keep up with their class. She would drop these lessons off on her way home at the end of her teaching day.

Reta’s husband had a cream route so they were up very early, often at 4:30. Some days Reta was doing school work at hour. Every morning she prepared a full breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, cereal and tea or milk. Every morning lunches had to be made for Walter, herself and their four children, usually to the tune of someone rapping on the door of the one bathroom and singing out “my turn now”. Then she was off to school for another day. On weekends there was always the making of cookies, pies and cakes to prepare enough desserts to last for the next week.  This busy schedule is familiar to many good teachers who are also parents.

 Eventually she retired from teaching but soon grew bored with housework and took a part-time job at Sears at the Northgate Shopping Centre. She enjoyed her work there and often saw her students or parents shopping. She also enjoyed having her own car and her own money. She and her sister would occasionally get in the car and go for a “lost weekend” to visit one of their other sisters who lived out of town. She always set a fine example for her own daughters of being a strong, independent woman way before the word “feminist” became popular.
When Walter retired Reta encouraged him to get more active. They landscaped their entire backyard together and took up square dancing. Soon they were able to dance not just one dance in an evening but most of the night. In retirement they enjoyed travelling and playing euchre as well. In their motor home they would visit fiddling and clogging competitions in the summer and would travel to Florida in the winter. Eventually they purchased a park model home in Florida and made many new friends there.                 

Reta Blanche Neal is Blanche to many former colleagues and students. She is Tammy to her eight grandchildren. At Afton Park Place where she now resides, she is called by her first name, Reta. She calls Afton “my home” and regards it as a “nice place”. Reta’s sense of humour shines when she demonstrates the talking bear which she received as a gift recently and her comfy Broda Chair which she calls her “push mobile”. She always enjoys visitors, especially from St. Luke’s United Church and she loves visits from her three daughters, Shirley, Sharon and Lois.