Ruth MacLeod recalls the day in the 1960s when a memorable Phys Ed teacher arrived at Malcolm Campbell High School in a Type E Jaguar sports car
Updates
You can access a great Oct, 21, 2011 photograph, posted at flickr.com, of Soryl and Gibby Rosenberg, by clicking here.
We owe thanks to Gina Davis Cayer for letting us know about this link. It’s a beautiful photograph.
A Jan. 12, 2015 Guardian/The Observer article is entitled: “The Teenage Brain review – a science-based bid to understand an ‘alien species’: A neuroscientist’s attempt to produce a parental study aid on teenagers is accessible and well-paced.”
By way of an update related to the Brûlé Rooms, where the MCHS 2015 reunion will take place on Oct. 17, 2015, a recent post is entitled:
[End of updates]
As we work on the launch of the separate MCHS ’60s Reunion website, which will be at MCHS2015.com, I’ve been thinking about some of the stories that we’d like to highlight on the static page, at the new website, that will be devoted to “Stories.”
Type E Jaguar sports car. This is a convertible version. It turns out, according to a Comment below, that it was a hard top, not a convertible, that Mrs. Rosenberg drove into the parking lot one day in the 1960s. Source: www.larevueautomobile.com (La Revue Automobile)
Here’s a hard top version of the Type-E Jaguar from the 1960s. Source: wallpeers.com
One of the stories concerns a vivid recollection, by Ruth MacLeod in a comment at a previous post, about the day – with “all of us much agog in the windows overlooking the staff carpark,” in Ruth MacLeod’s words – that a Phys Ed teacher, Miss Soryl Shulman, turned up at the school driving a new Type E Jaguar sports car.
If anybody remembers what colour it was, please let us know.
Details regarding the colour of cars are of interest.
[As noted below, we’ve received the answer: According to reliable sources: It was dark blue, and it was a hard top, not a convertible.]
Update from Graeme Decarie
In a comment at a blog post that shares this story, Graeme Decarie has shared with us a further update:
“It was Miss Soryl Shulman. She married Gibby Rosenberg, a very nice guy. I think she’s back in Montreal now, just back from a month or so in some jungle, building bamboo huts for the homeless. She keeps very busy. Gibby spent a year sailing around the world by himself. He started sailing before they married, working himself up from a Y flyer to a huge yacht, always aiming at the trip around the world.”
Jan. 10, 2015 subcommittee meeting
MCHS Ring. Barbara Sayfy photo
I’m also very pleased to share with you a photo of an MCHS Ring that Barbara Sayfy has shared with us. She’s on a Toronto-based MCHS ’60s Reunion subcommittee that met on Jan. 10, 2015 at the Old Mill Toronto restaurant.
Noreen McMillan, Barbara Sayfy, Heather Anne Liddell, Scott Munro, and Jaan Pill attended the Jan. 10 subcommittee meeting. We’ll have additional Toronto-area MCHS grads attending future meetings. The next meeting is on Feb. 28, 2015 at the Yellow Cup Café in the small plaza across from Cloverdale Mall. All Toronto-area MCHS ’60s grads (and retired ’60s teachers) are welcome to attend our subcommittee meetings. We also welcome MCHS grads from “out of town,” as the expression goes, at our Toronto meetings. Please contact me for details.
The car is one of many cars that MCHS alumnus David Warr (see his Comment below) has owned. The photo is from the website that David mentions in his Comment.
Productive meeting
The January 2015 subcommittee meeting was highly productive.
We covered many points involving details of a kind that people think about when the planning for an event is really well under way.
We also spent quite a bit of time on content for the reunion evening, and on learning about each other’s respective stories as they relate to MCHS.
I’m really pleased that Howard Hight of Boston suggested that we get involvement from volunteers right at the host city. The subcommittee was formed as a follow-up to his great suggestion.
Brûlé Rooms
1960s Austin-Healey Sprite. See Comment at the end of this text. Source: cargurus.com
A number of us visited the Brûlé Rooms–people were very impressed. It’s a great setting for our Oct. 17, 2015 MCHS ’60s Reunion and Celebration of the ’60s. Preparations were under way in Brûlé Room C for what looked like a wedding reception.
In the hallway we came across an old-style coin-operated phone, which I wouldn’t be surprised is still in operation. That’s a nice touch for those of us who remember using such phones.
Our next meeting of the MCHS 2015 organizing committee, which meets in Kitchener, is on Feb. 4, 2015. Any person who attended (or taught at) MCHS at any point in the ’60s is welcome to attend any of our organizing meetings.
Drifting around corners in a racing car
By way of an update, an Aug. 24, 2016 CBC article is entitled: “Golden retriever, Jett the drift dog, hits the racetrack in viral video: 5-year-old pooch grins from passenger seat of drifting race car.”
A further update on the “engagement ring” car. I’m not sure of this. But I don’t think the car was a Jag. I remember it as another hot sports car of the time – Austin-Healey.
Mrs. Rosenberg did indeed have an E-type Jag, but the E-type was a hard top, not a convertible as in the picture.
I have added a picture of a hard top E-type Jag. I much appreciate the detail. I look forward to any additional recollections regarding such details.
Well, the Comments about sports cars – including the Austin-Healey – have prompted me to post a Comment that I had written out in longhand but had decided not to post as I imagined it would not be of much interest to site visitors. My own Comment reads:
One of the enjoyable features of sports cars, which I wasn’t aware of until I bought a used, red Austin-Healey Sprite convertible in Vancouver in the early 1970s was the way that they handled when you went around corners quickly. As I recall, it may have been a ’62 model, one that came out just after the end of the version that had the bug-eyed headlights. Unlike the Sprite pictured on this page (above), the version I had included a roll bar for safety.
Driving with the top down was similar to riding a motorcycle: You’re very close to nature, in touch with the elements. When it rains you can keep the top down and wear a poncho-type raincoat. You notice temperature changes when you go from sunlit roads to roads shaded by forests. Sometimes you can smell the scents from the vegetation when the winding mountain road takes you through a British Columbia forest.
In those days, when you drove this version of the Sprite, every time you saw another person driving the same car on the road, anywhere, you would both flash the hippie “peace” sign, as a means of mutual acknowledgement of good taste in choice of cars. I would sometimes drive the car without wearing any shoes as the (at that time, contemporary) 1960s, 1970s music played on the car radio. Another feature of the car was that its rate of travel along the highway was a topic of interest for traffic officers.
Because of its low centre of gravity, when you’re driving quickly around a corner a sports car will readily launch itself into a controlled skid. You maintain control of the car and can still steer it but you’re skidding and sliding as you go. It’s an uncanny sensation especially the first time a driver experiences it.
I used to drive a 1963 E-type Jag….every weekend in 1966 when I first got to Calgary. It belongs to the Managing Director of Birks Alberta. I drove from Calgary to his cottage for the weekend and then back again, always on my own. I loved the car. It was a great summer.
It was dark blue
I can picture it. What a delight that Malcolm Campbell High School was built during an era when schools had nice big windows. I’m so pleased that Ruth MacLeod and her classmates were looking out the window that day, in the 1960s, when a dark blue Type E Jaguar wheeled its way onto the staff parking lot. What a delight, as well, that Ruth has written about the experience, and that Mike has shared with us his recollection of the colour, so that we can all share in that experience these 50 years later.
Well, next I wonder if Mrs. Rosenberg still has a photo or two of the car.
Hi all!
Well this is all very interesting. I remember Mrs. Rosenberg. One day she brought in a boa constrictor that was soon going to feed. The snake was fed a live rat. I could not believe how fast the snake attacked the rat and how long it took for the snake to swallow it. I don’t remember seeing the E-Type Jag. I never would have forgotten that since I am a car crazy guy, was since I was twelve. I do remember Mr. Doig had a Sprite or a Midget. He was a bit of a car buff.
Funny thing, I have an E-Type now. You can see my cars if you go to http://www.bcccb.ca pictures page or look up the Newfoundland British Automobile Association. Cars and racing have always been my passion.
David
From the sounds of it, David, Mrs. Rosenberg was very diligent about ensuring that her lesson plans went straight to the meat of the topic at hand!
Wonderful to see the photos at http://www.bcccb.ca. I’ve added one of them to the blog post at the top of the page.
I also remember the gym teacher getting an XKE instead of an engagement ring. At that time all the girls thought that she had made an amazing choice. What a smart women. We all decided when we got engaged we would take a car instead. 🙂 I can still picture her in the gym….. Short navy blue v-neck tunic and white blouse with a whistle on a lanyard around her neck. The girls wore white TEDDY blouses that buttoned and funny navy bloomers which never looked good. Later we wore reddish gym outfits which buttoned down the front and still we complained about the look. Anyways, we all survived and most of us probably took the traditional diamond instead. I still love my ring…… Beverley
Thank you for sharing the great story about the XKE Jaguar, Beverley. I’m delighted to know that you still have your ring!