Bob Carswell has shared memories of Daphne Caroline Hicks, his grade 3 teacher at Cartierville School
Click here for previous posts about Cartierville School >
Thanks to information from Bob Carswell and many others in recent years I now know much more about the school, Saraguay, Bois Franc Road, and the Marlborough Golf Club than I did when I lived in Cartierville in the 1950s and 1960s.
On April 28, 2024, Bob Carswell wrote:
I am writing this twelve days after my 79th birthday and you may wonder why I am writing it. I was clearing out a box of photos from storage and in it, found a number of my report cards from my childhood. The earliest was grade three and for the first time as an adult, I got to know the name of my grade three teacher. I did not remember who that was.
Her handwriting surprised me and I wanted to find out more about her. Her name was Daphne Caroline Hicks.
Bob checked online and found the following obituaries:
Daphne Caroline (Hicks) Overview, Cartierville Schoolteacher, Grade 3, 1952-53
Daphne Caroline (Hicks) Overview, Cartierville Schoolteacher, Grade 3, 1952-53
Obituary for Mrs. Daphne Caroline Overhill who died May 25, 2016, leaving behind her husband Doug
Daphne Caroline Hicks was a marvelous girl. She had curly brown hair, freckles, and eyes as blue as Bromo Selzer bottles. She skied like a maniac, drove too fast on curvy roads, and smoked cigarettes in the hipster bistros of 1950s Montreal. Her painting teacher urged her to give up piano to concentrate on her art, while her piano teacher tried to make her give up painting. Instead, she took up teaching, and at age 17 was covering seven grades in a one-room schoolhouse in the Laurentian mountains near Shawbridge, Québec. When she was 23, she married the love of her life, Doug Overhill, a tall ski-mad engineer from the interior of British Columbia, and together they ran a consulting company that took them to France, Hawaii, India, Brazil, Japan, and Newfoundland. After retirement, she went back to school, and graduated with an honours BA in music from Carleton University in Ottawa; going on to research and write Sound the Trumpet (2002) a history of Canada’s oldest town band in Perth, Ontario, which won the Ontario Heritage Trust Award in 2006. She died of old age, quietly and under loving care, and is survived by her husband Doug; by her sister Isobel Clowes; and by her children: Heidi Overhill and her husband Alan Rosenthal; Kirstie Overhill and her husband John MacDonald; and by her grandchildren: Nora Rosenthal, Matthew MacDonald, Rhobie MacDonald, and Clara MacDonald. In lieu of donations, the family urges you to go out— support culture in your community, and attend a concert or art exhibition.
Tom Douglas Overhill
Obituary for Doug Overhill
Tom Douglas Overhill was born July 5, 1928 in Nelson, British Columbia and passed away on January 11, 2018, in Etobicoke, Ontario. Named by his Swiss mother in honour of the magnificent Douglas fir tree, Doug became an avid skier, engineer, wood carver and world traveller. He outlived his beloved wife of 60 years, Daphne Caroline (née Hicks) and is survived by sister Patricia Harvey, daughters Heidi and Kirstie Overhill, sons-in-law Alan Rosenthal and John MacDonald and grandchildren Nora Rosenthal, Brian Sokolowski and Matthew, Rhobie and Clara MacDonald. Friends are invited to a private wake to be held on Tuesday, January 16, 2018.
Local history
A previous MCHS picnic took place at Cliff Lumsdon Park on Sept. 24, 2020. Left to right: Bob Carswell and Dan McPhail. Jaan Pill photo
I have learned much about the history of Saraguay from Bob Carswell:
Click here for previous posts about Saraguay >
I have also learned much about the history of Bois Franc Road from Bob Carswell, the late Graeme Decarie, and many other people; a recent post is entitled:
Drone videos of Cartierville School
The school, which had been abandoned for many years burned down on April 5, 2024. It’s my understanding (from a comment at an earlier post about Cartierville School) that the school will be demolished in June 2024.
Below are links to two videos documenting the recent fire at Cartierville School:
Ground-level video of fire at Cartierville School
External monitor
I find it much easier to write this post using an external monitor and keyboard now that I’ve set up a MacBook Pro as a desktop.
I’m reminded that years ago when I was intensively active as a volunteer – as the founder of the Stuttering Association of Toronto (1988); and a co-founder of the Canadian Stuttering Association (1991); the Estonian Stuttering Association (1993); and the International Stuttering Association (1995) – all of my work on a computer was done with a Windows desktop.
I’m pleased I’ve switched to Apple laptops; in my experience they are more reliable than Windows products I began working with in the early 1980s. That said, an Apple desktop arrangement is better suited for productive work than a 13-inch Apple laptop.
My next step has involved getting an Apple keyboard with a Touch ID; the latter enables me to work more quickly than otherwise.
The keyboard I’ve previously been using with my MacBook Pro will now be converted to an Estonian language keyboard which I will use with an older MacBook Pro.
The Kopplen USC-C 7 Ports Multi-function Hub is an essential element in this external monitor/mouse/keyboard arrangement. With the hub you have more ports to work with. That makes a huge difference. I owe thanks to salesperson Sally at the Best Buy store near the Conestoga Mall in Waterloo for suggesting purchase of this hub.
Catching up judiciously on the news
I’ve recently decided to pretty much stop visiting news sites to catch up with the news during the week. I still check on weekends. I was wasting my time and my mind was getting cluttered. Not a good feeling. I now just get email newsletter items from various news sources such as The New York Times, CBC, and Reuters. In most cases, I just I read the headings for the newsletter items. From time to time I also listen to the first several minutes of the 6:00 pm news on CBC Radio using the CBC Listen app. In that way I can follow the news without wasting time. This means I have more bandwidth available for other pursuits.
Saraguay history
The link earlier at this post about Saraguay history includes a reference to Paton Island. I was reminded about Paton Island when Bob Carswell sent me an email message on April 29, 2024:
Here is another interesting story I may have told you at one point. When the estates at Saraguay existed, there was a road running south from the middle of the estates known as the Polo Road. The first mayor of Saraguay was Hugh Paton, who lived on Paton Island on the north side of the Riviere des Prairies but owned most of the land on the south side for about 55 miles towards the city. Hence, he would be the one who built the Polo Road. He sold the land of the estates to the various people living there along Gouin Blvd.
Ville St-Laurent history
A related topic concerns the history of Saint-Laurent. Among posts which have often been viewed by site visitors is one entitled:
As well, the following post about Ville St-Laurent reminds me of many previous posts regarding changes in land use that have occurred across Canada over the years:
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