December 15, 2014

Just in time for making goodies for the holidays we have just added the Royal Oak School Cookbook (1985).
Direct link........  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5BHELvejJ64WG5IQlVDYm03VEk/view?usp=sharing
Blog page link.....

http://royaloakschoolyard.blogspot.ca/p/publications-books-and-links-etc-etc.html

 

and Heather Smith has provided the means for us carry on an old tradition.

 

Thanks Heather

 

New video

The oral history video by our October speaker Grant MacDonald is now on YouTube at  http://youtu.be/gCXgqnHFDlU  or you may watch it here by going to the oral history page. Enjoy.

Another Oral History Video.

Arnold Goyette's oral history video is now available for viewing at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgk2PF8rGSg     and also
from the oral history page.

We have some new and entertaining posts on your blog........

First is Mrs. Reed’s notebook. This little book from 1927 appears to have belonged to Mrs. H. H. Reed and was loaned to us by the WI. It was quite hard to read so Heather has transcribed it. Be sure to read the entry on how to drive the car. You can read it via this link.....

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5BHELvejJ64T2ZBS01EdWJ0Yk0/view?usp=sharing

 

Next is an audio/video conversation with Lorraine (Hilton) McCloy. This chat came about because she was identified as being in a class photo and she kindly came over to have a look. With her permission the camera ran as we chatted so I would not have to take notes. I’m glad we did this as it shows you don’t have to “be on camera”  to do an oral history video. You can see the result at.......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Hp9pnqmJk

 

These news clips and more were also borrowed from the Royal Oak Women’s Institute. Well worth a read if for no other reason than noting all the family names mentioned. You or a family member are probably in there somewhere.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5BHELvejJ64TDZOVWNSS3ZudWM/view?usp=sharing

 

A letter from Tanya Knight. This is great. Like many of the students that we went to school with Tanya moved away from Cordova Bay many years ago so this will bring you up to date on her life.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5BHELvejJ64S2dVdlpKTDloelU/view?usp=sharing

 

Halliburton School has been mentioned by a couple of speakers and now we have some of the unusual facts as presented in their brochure. Could be quite a shock if you signed up in London and woke up in a tent with bees and chickens.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5BHELvejJ64RTNvaG9Yb1RlM3c/view?usp=sharing

 

Enjoy.

 .

What's new

We recently had an invitation to give a presentation to the Saanich Pioneer Society at their log cabin museum. Enid, Heather, Gary and I went and showed the Royal Oak memories video which was really well received.
It would be nice to show this video to other groups that were interested. Please let Enid know if you know interested parties.

During those cold winter nights ahead you could have a look at your old class photos on this blog and see if you can fill in any of the blanks

Cheers,   Daryl.

In Sympathy

I regret that I have just added the name of Bishan Singh Judge to our obituary page. Our sympathy to his family.

That makes 14 obituaries since starting this site which reminds me to try to pay more attention to the important things.

Bruce McMorran an entertaining speaker.

You missed something if you were not at our July meeting to hear Bruce McMorran's talk. Fortunately you can watch his oral history video and be informed and educated about his life, the McMorran family and their enterprises and life at Cordova Bay.

The direct link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPgRQZSB05I or go to the Oral History page for links to all the talk videos.

"Enid's gathering at her home is on Saturday August 23rd from noon to ?  Potluck, bring your own chair.  If you are musical, please bring your guitar or whatever it is you play.  Morgan Ostler will be starting us off, I hope.  Come on people, this will be fun!
 Don’t forget if you have Royal Oak school pictures and they aren’t already on our blog we would love to have them.  Also any stories relating to our school days.
 We're always looking for speakers for our meetings so if you have any ideas, I would appreciate hearing them.
 Looking forward to a great turnout.  I know for sure there will be some that haven’t been before.  You’ll have to come and find out who they are!
Please leave your pets at home.
Enid Bull,
5940 Bear Hill Road, off Oldfield Road
250-652-1031"

Oral History Video

This new video from Grace Nickels was done in her home by two of our directors. Heather Smith did the camera work and Enid Bull used her interviewing skills to keep the story moving along.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTrH4bQsIoM

Donna Cino (Reed) has kindly provided us with 16 new Royal Oak Class photos. 9 from her school years 58-68 (partial) and 7 from her dad's in the 1920's and '30's. We are going to need a lot of help and probably some magic to identify the students in dad's photos. Richard McMorran has given us one photo also.

Hope you enjoy these new contributions and will pass the information on to anyone you think might be interested.

Please let us know if you would like to have your name removed from our ROHA E mailing list.     Thank you.

New video

The audio/video of Ray Travers talk last month about his family is now on YouTube. The link is below and as usual on the Oral History page.

http://youtu.be/kSroavIIvZs

We also have 4 new class photos from the "Old" Royal Oak School and three from Strawberry Vale.

Did you know that some students from Royal Oak and/or Cordova Bay were bussed to Strawberry Vale School? Thanks to Liesel Jakeman, Bob Clarke and Ron Burnham most of the students are identified.

Something different.

We have another video in our library. This short video is a collection of selected clips taken  from all the oral history videos we have done between March 2012 and May 2014. The average clip length is only about 30 seconds so it moves very quickly and covers a wide variety of subjects. Give a big thank you to all of our talented speakers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5ifWU0JMFk

The class photos from all schools have been updated with new student identifications and quite a few new photos added.  I hope you will have a look to see if you can identify any of the unnamed.

May Meeting Talk

The Royal Oak Women's Institute Community Hall was the subject of the talk given at our May meeting by Marguerite Gayfer. The link is now on our Blog on the Oral History page. This is an informative and interesting talk about both the Women's Institute and the Royal Oak Hall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHkFAAwZcaE&feature=youtu.be&noredirect=1

May 9, 2014 The Corporal of the Mounted Rifles.

I have just uploaded to YouTube our 24th Oral History video. In total this adds up to almost 20hrs of viewing.

 

In editing  these videos several things have stood out but I only mention one here.  Like a good book, if you don’t read or watch to the end you may miss the best part.

 This new video is by Richard Pearce and even after editing it for about 40 hours I’m still finding it interesting.

 The direct link to YouTube is   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4WeJs33ACw

 You can also find the link on this web site on the oral history page.

 

.

A tour of Rithet's bog.

This new video is from John Lucas who spoke at our March 2014 meeting. Interesting and informative talk about the flora and fauna and some of the people all relating to the bog. John's essays and Bruce Stewart's photographs make this video come to life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSNJfaAYXJk&feature=youtu.be

We hope that you will share these oral history links with others who you think might be interested.

Links to all the oral histories are on the Oral History page to the right.

There are still many unidentified students in the class photos. Please help us put names to the faces.

Two new videos......

We have two new videos from the meeting held on Feb. 13, 2014. As our planned speaker had to cancel due to illness,  the meeting was an open mic session with all attendees stepping up to speak with an anecdote or memory.

This made for a very different and entertaining video. The link is here and on the Oral history page.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0kKvg5VdMk

Jack Mather also added a bit to his previous oral history video by telling us about working in MacKenzie BC when it was being built as a new town. An interesting comparison can be made to stories from the 1800's about new towns coming into being although it was usually because of gold rather than lumber in those days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM4HHmdDA9A

New video on YouTube.

Vicki Sanders informative video about the evolution of the Saanich Municipal Halls and the Saanich Archives is now on YouTube at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBvVSMeNUT4

You will also find the link on the People, Places and things page.

I hope you will forward this link to anyone you think might be interested.

New oral history video.

One thing accomplished over the holiday season.
My oral history at...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N00K37-S6_8