Darrell Latimer: Attended 9/62-6/65 & Victor Erb: Grad of 1965

The School

Darrell: “There was never much school spirit at the time. The school had a decent boys’ rugby team in 1961 and 62. When my sister went to Mount Doug, they had a good girls’ basketball team. The school band was pretty good and we usually had some good students win in the “Reach For the Top” contest. That was the only way the school ever got any new encyclopedias for the library. The School Board never spent a cent on the building or it furnishings. Victoria High and Oak Bay got all the money with some going to Esquimalt. Mt. Doug and Mt. View were considered temporary structures and there wasn’t enough people living in the area to prevent the school trustees from not getting re-elected so they didn’t spend any money on the building.”

Vic: “Once during lunch hour for about a week, a game evolved when several bats and balls were checked out of the gym. Ostensibly the game, which involved quite a large turn out, was played with 4 or 5 batters. With their backs to the school, they would hit fly balls to the 40 or so people in the school field. The people, in turn, were lined up loosley with their backs to the long road that parallels the front of the school. That was a seemingly quite unobtrusive game until it was discovered that most of the fun was trying to hit cars and the odd bus passing by on the road. There was a suitable cease and desist announcement made on the PA after that.”

The Teachers

Darrell: “One of the more interesting teachers, although he wasn’t there for long, was my Grade 11 social studies teacher, Mr. C.J. Wilson. His home room was on the main floor on the front of the old part of the school. The office was in the other front corner while Mrs. Sampson’s class was across the hall from the office and the library made up the rest of the main floor. The area between CJ’s class and the office was taken up by the furnace room. CJ had been a teacher at a high school in West Van for several years before trying out life in Victoria. He had basically decided to try it out for 2 years. However, after arriving and finding Mt. Doug to be lacking many of the modern features that he was used to at West Vancouver, he arranged to get his old job back and gave his notice that his second year would be his last. For most of that year, he proceeded to run down Mount Doug (the building, not the students). The walls were paper thin and not very sound proof so when he was particularly upset, he would shut the door nearest to the office so the principal would hear his rantings and ravings. He claimed that the building was built out of third rate tea cabinets and when he wrote on the black boards, the walls would move in and out. One of the last things he told our class was that he felt sorry for us because we had to return the following year but he would be back at West Van. Needless to say, it didn’t do a lot for school pride.”

Vic: “The Principal at that time was Eric Forster, the Vice-Principal James Muir or as we nicknamed them at the time, “Blinky and Skin Head”. Mr. Forster was a small energetic individual who often blinked when speaking. Mr. Muir wasa small, quiet and understanding person who was a little polished on top, hence the nick name. I recall him coming into our lunch room to tell us to keep it down or something. After he left, someone yelled, “Want us to buy you a Beatle wig?” He only put his head through the doorway and laughed. They both had the dubious honour of dealing with my locker partner and myself after lowering the flag and tying an American one underneath. There was an expression of an anachronism as the flag had been changed from the Red Ensign to the now well known maple leaf but the School Board had no flags left so we still flew the Red Ensign.”

Good Memories

Darrell: “Forester used to drive a small English car. I believe that it was an Anglia or a Hillman. One of the traditions for a few years was that on Halloween the grade 12 boys would carry it out onto the field, stand it on its rear bumper and lean it against the goal post.”

Vic: “My neighbour across the road, David Fisher, went there as well and sometimes we would walk together – but more often not. Another neighbour, Barbara Melvin, went to Mt. Doug as well and she would walk together with two other girls, Linda Jupp and Linda Gwilliam, who lived on Aldridge.