Tom Kuchlein has shared a great photo of the Cartierville School 1959-60 hockey team

Tom Kuchlein contacted me recently after coming across a previous post about Cartierville School.

The previous post is entitled: Cartierville School in Montreal.

Cartierville School 1959-60 hockey team. In the front row, Tom Kuchlein is fourth from the right and Martin Kues is on the far right. Photo source: Tom Kuchlein

In a comment on Oct. 7, 2021 at the above-noted post, Tom Kuchlein wrote:

Hi, Just came upon your page while searching for something else. I went to Cartierville school in 1959-1960 and 1960-61. My teachers were Miss McDonald grade 5 and Mr. Hart grade 6. I have a picture of the 1959-60 school hockey team.

I’m pleased to say that I now have the picture (sent to me by email).

For the caption for the photo, Tom has shared names of two players. He comments, “I hope others may recognize themselves or friends in the picture.”

If anyone can add additional names of students for the caption, please let me know (in the Comments section below or by email at jpill@preservedstories.com).

We now have quite a few posts about Cartierville School.

Click here for previous posts about Cartierville School >

Comments from Tom Kuchlein about Cartierville School

Tom Kuchlein, Oct. 8, 2021

Jaan,

Unfortunately I only remember two names associated with all the faces in the picture. Obviously my own, fourth from the right, and Martin Kues far right. He was one of my friends from Cloverdale in Pierrefonds. Sadly he was killed in a car accident shortly after his 21st birthday. I don’t know who took the picture but do remember that the team was made up of kids from grades 5, 6 and 7. I’m not sure who the coach was although the gym teacher of the time was a Mr. Bethel.

Jaan Pill, Oct. 8, 2021

Tom,

I remember Martin Kues. I was saddened when I heard he had died in a car accident. It’s great that you have two names.

I remember a Mr. Bethel who was a gym teacher at Morison School. He had a British accent as I recall. I remember one baseball game when students on opposing teams began to argue with each other, I think about a disagreement about a particular play during the game. Mr. Bethel put up with it for a while, then said, “Game’s over.” That was the end of the baseball game.

Tom Kuchlein

Martin was my best friend from around 1959, we were only 7 days apart in age. We grew apart somewhat after high school as our directions and interests changed. He went to University and I went to Montreal tech. . We were scouts at the Good Shepherd together and did a lot of camping and canoeing. My family was hit rather hard by his death as we were all close to him and his parents. Sadly his father passed away a year later from cancer. After that we lost touch with his mother.

Yah, Mr. Bethel was quite a character. I remember he organized a soccer game between Morison and Cartierville and coached both teams for the game. Worse than that though was that after the game he loaded the entire Cartierville team into his VW beetle and drove us home to Cloverdale. He was still teaching when my nephew was a student at Herbert Purcell in Pierrefonds in the late 70s.

Tom Kuchlein (continued)

I have been reading many of the posts with great interest. I noticed that quite a number of them are from people who immigrated to Canada as my family did or followed a similar path to Cartierville School and beyond as I did.

We came to Canada from the Netherlands in May of 1955. Our first home was a basement apartment on Linton Street in the Snowdon area. My first school was Van Horne School. I did 1 month of grade 1 there and failed miserably. I did pass math and art but failed English of course and penmanship as I had learned cursive and did not do block letters well. I did grade 1 again in 1955-56 at Van Horne with better results.

In 1956 we moved to Cartierville on Michel Sarrazin St. I did grades 2, 3 and part of 4 at Morrison school. In late 1959 we moved to a house on the corner of Gouin and Lalande Boulevards. I was transferred to Roxboro School for the rest of grade 4. Because the City of Pierrefonds could not make up its mind as to which street our house was on and the school districts could not get the boundaries figured out I spent the next 2 years riding the provincial bus to Cartierville School.

My teachers were Miss McDonald grade 5 and Mr. Hart grade 6. They were 2 teachers who had great influence on me and my class mates and we excelled under their care. It was also interesting to note that they married each other the following year. In 1961-62 I completed grade 7 along with many former Cartierville school classmates. After that I did grades 8 and 9 in Sir Winston Churchill High and 10 and 11 at Riverdale and the rest is history.

In a number of posts I noticed mention of The Church of the Good Shepherd that was across the Somerset Street from the school. I don’t know if anyone remembers that that church hosted a Cub Scout Pack, Boy Scout troop and Rover Crew during the 50s and early 60s. In early 60s I was a scout there and later the Scout troop became a Sea Scout Ship with 2 sail boats at the Venture in Point-Claire. Frank Budden was the leader during that time. I’m wondering if any of your followers might remember.

Lastly I saw some posts by a Bob Carswell. He is of the same age as my brother Hendrik (Hank) who had a friend named Bob Carswell. I was wondering if he was that Bob. Bob went to the same high schools as my brother so they must have crossed paths.

Well that’s about all I can remember.

Jaan Pill

Most interesting to know you lived in the Snowdon area and went to Van Horne School. We lived in the Snowdon area before we moved to a new house on Lavigne Street in Cartierville in the early 1950s. We had arrived in Canada in 1951 on a ship from Sweden (my parents were refugees from Estonia) called the Gripsholm.

My first experience of school was Van Horne School. That’s where I started my formal schooling. I don’t know how many years I was at the school before we moved to Cartierville. I remember that I really enjoyed playing games with classmates at recess. It’s interesting to look back, to summon up memories from those years.

I remember Snowdon quite well. I’ve been reading about the history of the neighbourhood recently.

Mr. Bethel is a teacher who had a personality that a person could remember, even these many years later. I remember him quite well. Some other teachers, I don’t remember much about them but I remember Mr. Bethel. Another gym teacher I remember is Mrs. Jelinek from Laurentide School. It’s interesting to know Mr. Bethel had a long teaching career. Mrs. Jelinek went on to teach high school. She too had a long teaching career.

I’ve asked Bob Carswell if he might be the Bob Carswell that you refer to. I look forward to his comments.

23 replies
  1. Klaas Vander Baaren
    Klaas Vander Baaren says:

    I found it interesting to read Tom’s early history and how it closely it parallels mine. We emigrated from The Netherlands in 1951. Initially we lived in Ahuntsic so I started school there. We then moved to 8th Ave in Roxboro which meant I was bused to Cartierville School for grades 2 though 5. We then moved to General Giraud, a block from Morison school where i attended grades 6 and 7. In 1960 I started my 4 years at Malcolm Campbell. We had just moved to Barnes St., just off Somerset.

    Mrs. Jelinek started at Malcolm Campbell H.S. when it opened in 1960.

    Reply
    • CHARLES R TSIANG
      CHARLES R TSIANG says:

      Klaas, Did you know Peter van Toorn at Cartierville? We were together in grade 6 and 7 … I think with Mrs Staniforth and Mrs Jackson.

      Reply
  2. Jaan Pill
    Jaan Pill says:

    The parallels in early history are of interest for certain, Klaas.

    In recent years I’ve been reading a lot about the history of The Netherlands. I became interested in this topic after I visited Amsterdam with my family in August 2018. I was super impressed with the bicycle culture in that city.

    I’ve been interested to learn that the switch from a car-centred way of life to a bike-centred way of life in Amsterdam began in the 1970s when a lot of people got together in a focused, determined way to start building a bicycle infrastructure – a transportation system that made cycling safe and enjoyable for everybody. That’s a huge source of inspiration for me: what people can accomplish at a city level.

    Reply
  3. Bert Eccles
    Bert Eccles says:

    I believe Mr. Bethel’s first name was Randy. If I recall correctly, he was the gym teacher at Morison during my years in Grades One through Five (September 57 to June 62) and possibly also the following year (September 62 through June 63). He was replaced by Miss Stein, who advised us at the end of our gym class one fateful day in November 63 that JFK had just been assassinated.

    Randy (?) was definitely a memorable character and – I regret to say – could sometimes have an abrasive personality. I encountered him by chance many years later, in the summer of 1992. I believe he was living in Roxboro by then. He had visibly aged considerably and his demeanour seemed to have mellowed equally considerably.

    Reply
  4. Bruce Goodman
    Bruce Goodman says:

    Great memories! I was a member of the Sea Scouts there in the ‘60s. I believe “Frank” Budden was actually Fred Budden. And, I was part of a two week ‘cruise’ one summer from Pointe Claire to Ottawa, then down the Rideau Canal system to Rideau River Provincial Park near Kemptville, Ont. Little did I know that years later, as a Bank of Nova Scotia employee – I would be transferred in 1972 from Montreal to Kemptville. A real culture shock…from a city of 2 million to a town of 2 thousand! I attended Morison School prior to MCHS.

    Reply
    • Jaan Pill
      Jaan Pill says:

      I remember Stuart Budden and yes, it was Fred (not Frank) Budden. Other people knew Stuart Budden better than I did. What I remember about him from those days was that he was very actively and resourcefully engaged in his community. I find that kind of enthusiasm inspiring.

      Reply
    • Tom Kuchlein
      Tom Kuchlein says:

      Hey Bruce,
      You are absolutely correct. It was Fred Budden. I had a classmate called Frank Button and often got the names confused. I don’t remember a Bruce Goodman. Martin Kues and I were in the same watch/patrol. And eventually moved on to the Sea Wolf Rover Crew. Mike Parkinson was also with us. He eventually led the Troop for a year or two.
      About your cruise to Ottawa and beyond. Do you remember any of the names of the boat crew? Was it done in the whaler? I ask because my brother Hank skippered a similar cruise. They had a problem at the Carrion Dam because the locks were not yet ready. The boat was hoisted up on a sling and they actually cracked several boards near the keel so time had to be spent to caulk and repair the boat.

      Reply
  5. Jaan Pill
    Jaan Pill says:

    It’s good to have an update on Mr. Bethel. I still remember the time at Morison he said the baseball game was over, when the opposing sides were getting quite heated in their disagreement over what had occurred (whatever it was) in the game up to that point. That cleared the air, for sure.

    Reply
  6. Jaan Pill
    Jaan Pill says:

    I was saddened to learn that Peter Van Toorn passed away on Oct. 6, 2021.

    The following message is from a Facebook page:

    Véhicule Press

    October 7 at 9:35 PM

    We are immensely sad to announce the death of Montreal poet Peter Van Toorn at the age of 77. He was nominated for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry in 1984 for his landmark book MOUNTAIN TEA, which Véhicule Press reissued in 2003. Our condolences to his family and friends.

    Reply
  7. Jaan Pill
    Jaan Pill says:

    Scott Munro (MCHS 1963) has shared some details from those years which I can summarize:

    Martin Kues was a member of the Cartierville Scout Troop, which Scott joined as a Scout and continued with as a member of the Sea Wolf Rover Crew. Martin and Scott were active in swimming, so Martin’s dad would sometimes drive them to practices and meets in their Volkswagen bug – always an enthusiastic dad.

    Scott was saddened by Martin’s death, but hadn’t heard about his dad passing away so soon after. The Scoutmaster’s name was Fred (not Frank) Budden, who had sons Stuart and Skipper and a daughter whose name may have been Desdin.

    Stuart worked briefly as an announcer at CFOX radio and moved to Toronto where he ended up working in the Human Resources Department at the University of Toronto. “A few years older than me,’ notes Scott, “Stuart was one of my guiding lights, helping his father our with the Troop.”

    Scott also looks back on his Scouting days, such as two summers camping with American Scouts at Edin Mills, VT, Stuart Budden along each time as a Senior Scout. Scott also recalls two ascents of Mt. Marcy, NY with a couple of fellow Rovers as well as a Rover from a different Troop who had inspired the Rovers to embark on the ascent.

    From my vantage point as an observer, I’v e thought about how people such as Scott and Stuart were (and remain) so actively involved in all kinds of things in various communities.

    It also occurs to me that Adirondacks history is of interest (always new things to learn); I recently came across an online resource, a PhD dissertation by Maria F. Reynolds at Loyola University Chicago, that I’ve found of interest:

    Doing History in the Adirondacks: Interpreting the Park, the People, and the Landscape

    https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/48608705.pdf

    Reply
    • Tom Kuchlein
      Tom Kuchlein says:

      Jaan,
      Say hi to Scott for me. His comments have brought back a lot of memories for me. I remember the drives on Saturday mornings to the N.D.G. Community Centre pool to swim and practice for competitions. Driving with 2 wheels on the curb of the old Decarie Blvd. to pass some guy hogging 2 lanes. Mr. Kues taught me how to drive. Fortunately he only taught me the safe things :o).
      I also remember Stuart and Skipper Budden. Stuart was the guy who came to the rescue of his father. While on a senior sailing/camping trip to Point-Calumet on Lake of Two Mountains with Martin and me, which Fred oversaw, Fred became quite ill. Martin and I had to physically put Fred in the Navy Dinghy the troop owned and sail back to Point-Claire. We stopped at the locks in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue and called Stuart who came and picked up his dad while Martin and I sailed the boat back to the Venture. So many memories come flooding back.

      Reply
      • Jaan Pill
        Jaan Pill says:

        Tom,
        I’ve passed along your greetings to Scott.
        Pleased to know the rescue proceeded smoothly! It’s wonderful to know of your sailing trips on the Lake of Two Mountains. A beautiful part of the world.

        Reply
    • Maria Reynolds
      Maria Reynolds says:

      For some reason I googled myself today and was thrilled to find that someone looked at my dissertation. Thank you, thank you!

      Reply
      • Jaan Pill
        Jaan Pill says:

        I’m pleased I came across the dissertation; for the benefit of site visitors, here’s the abstract:

        Occupying a large portion of Northern New York State, the Adirondack Park includes six million acres of public and private land that compromise over 85% of all wilderness lands east of the Mississippi. Unique in many ways, the Adirondack Park remains a model for sustainable living and wilderness land management. This dissertation explores the way history is used to both complicate and enrich the relationship between humans and nature in the Adirondack Park. By analyzing historic preservation, cultural landscape management, material culture, and museums this project examines the way that Park history has been told through exhibits, public programs, tours, and commemorations. Chapters explore great camp preservation, the retention of cultural artifacts on state owned wilderness lands, the connection of the Adirondack rustic style to the land, and the increasing environmental focus of regional museums. Together these chapters provide an assessment of public history sites and exhibits in the park that reveals the close yet tenuous relationship between the people and the land. By looking at the presentation and history of interpretation of history in the Adirondack Park, I argue for the importance of an interpretation that incorporates natural and cultural elements. The future of the wilderness character of the park depends on the support of residents and tourists and, therefore, it is especially important for more individuals to understand the Park’s history through both a natural and a human lens.

        Reply
  8. Bob Carswell
    Bob Carswell says:

    Life is an interesting journey now that look back and read all of these comments. I am now almost 79 years old and still around although totally to my own surprise considering that my life has consisted of learning disabilities, a broken neck, two hip replacements, and one leg shortened in the process. I also today weigh too much and need to concentrate on losing some of it. Reading all these entries, I got here by looking up Hendrik Kuchlein and finding his obituary. As a teenager, I was the first Gazette newspaper boy on the north shore. My paper route ran from the Roxboro border to the village of Saraguay. I was up at 5 a.m. and on my bicycle 6 days per week, winter and summer. My mother would occasionally drive me if the snow was blowing too strongly. Excluding the hospital I was born in, in Harrogate, England in 1944 during WWII, I have medical records in 26 hospitals between Montreal and Toronto. It kind of tells you what my life has been like. But, nevertheless, it has kept me alive until today. I am now into hearing aids, lived on a single kidney since 1960 which now runs at 21% but I am still alive. (These problems as with my others come down from my McKinley roots), John Kerr McKinley was born 7 months after his fatherès death in Monreal in 1854.

    Reply
  9. Bob Carswell
    Bob Carswell says:

    Pressed the wrong button…I was heading to correct the typo in the word “father’s” Nevertheless, I will continue.

    My McKinley roots did not do well or at least something up that line caused a lot of problems for me. All but one of my grandmother’s generation were dead by 1946 between the ages of 33 and 56. Only the youngest sister lived to be more than 70 years of age. She and her Irish-born husband, a tank driver during WWI who refused a commission became our surrogate grandparents as they lived on Bruton Road in Cartierville, around the corner from my Uncle Jim Carswell and my cousins who lived on Somerset Road where my church and Cartierville School were located.

    We lived in Saraguay and my aunt and uncle lived with their three daughters in Roxboro, the eldest of which shared a November 18th birthday with me. Moving to the United States she would have two daughters of her own, one eventually marrying and having a family of her own. The other two daughters married and moved out to British Columbia where they lived close to their parents. They both remain married to the same husbands to this day and the older of the two and her husband now both retired, live in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. My daughter and her family often visit them.

    Today, looking back at my generation we are all far removed from each other. My sister Lesley became a world traveller, married a Dutchman she met in Leysin, Switzerland while skiing, and after a few years in Canada where they married, and lived on the south shore, a few more with CUSO in Zambia and a drive across India to the Netherlands, settled eventually in Apeldoorn where they live to this day some 50+ years later. She is now trilingual with English, French, and Dutch languages behind her. I only once made a visit to her in Apeldoorn on a business trip to Europe.

    They regularly spent the summers in Canada at our parents’ retirement home off Burnt Hills Road on Dog Lake near Seeley’s Bay, Ontario. while their children were growing up. Today she is the grandmother to a family of a son and daughter, and four offspring now living in Eindhoven and Amsterdam, respectively. While I know her children well, I have never met the son’s wife who is a doctor in Amsterdam nor their two children.

    I know the daughter’s family very well as they regularly turned up in Canada over the years. They will be here again this summer. Lesley and her husband now spend their summers on his father’s old boat travelling the waterways of the Netherlands. It means an annual session out of the water to work on the bottom of the boat but they love the easy life in retirement. I suspect that the boat is more than 60 years old today. Lesley volunteers in a community gift shop as a buyer each year and spends days leading up to Christmas helping out by making gift baskets.

    I am having problems with my eyes these days so if anyone here has questions, I can answer most of them due to my photographic memory that goes back to age 1-1/2. contact me if you have a question.

    Reply
  10. Jaan Pill
    Jaan Pill says:

    Bob, really good to read about your sister Lesley. In a few paragraphs you have brought me up to date – until I read your account of Lesley’s life in the Netherlands I would only have the image in my mind of knowing Lesley in our high school years.
    Best,
    Jaan

    Reply
  11. Bob Carswell
    Bob Carswell says:

    Jaan, you asked people to identify people in the Cartierville School hockey photo. While I recognise a number of faces, I can only identify three with names:

    Front Row ~ fourth from the left ~ Dougie McGurk
    Front Row ~ seventh from the left ~ Bob Whyte
    Back Row ~ 4th from the left ~ Ricky Cake
    The latter two ~ I can contact them ~ if necessary.

    Reply
    • Jaan Pill
      Jaan Pill says:

      Bob, it may be an idea to contact them to see if they know names of other players. It’s good to know you are making progress identifying people. In my experience it sometimes takes years for such information to find its way to this website. It’s a great process.

      Reply
  12. Bob Carswell
    Bob Carswell says:

    Re: Tom Kuchlein,
    I was friends with his brother during the years proceeding high school but that ended when he turned up in Calgary and asked me to co-sign a loan so his wife could get out of a local hotel. I did so and ended up being stuck with the loan which in today’s money would be equivalent to $10,000. He then ended up in jail in British Columbia for whatever reason and it was only when I returned to Montreal in 1969 that I met his wife on the train into the city. She agreed to pay back the loan but could only afford $5 per month. I think he was still in jail out in B.C. Nevertheless, even that ended in due course when I moved to Toronto in 1972. Hendrick never honoured his debt to me and went on to do well in the cooking industry, even ending up teaching in it eventually as his obituary will tell you. He died in 2017 so I guess I will never get paid. Sucks is life sometimes.

    Reply
  13. Jaan Pill
    Jaan Pill says:

    Such experiences can perhaps serve as a reminder for younger site visitors. The banking industry and the commercial credit system, unlike the informal loan system, has formal arrangements in place to secure loans; sometimes governments step in to ensure lending systems remain intact given that the entire financial system is built upon trust. With informal arrangements, if someone does not fulfill their commitments, it can be a different ballgame entirely.

    Reply

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