THANKS for stopping by, I do my best to acknowledge when someone leaves a comment,you do not have to be a member here & everyone is welcome. Ps: This site is monitored but not actively posting on a regular basis. Mostly these are stories & some photos saved from a defunct site known as Verdun Connections which was on MSN Groups initially then on a social network called Multiply.
Verdun Catholic Comprehensive Highway School.
Some footage of the 2011 VCCHS reunion and touring the hallways
Can you believe it is 50 year old. I remember where VCCHS stands it was just a vacant lot. The residents of Verdun grew their flowers and vegetables and nurtured them all summer. Sure enough at harvest time us kids would treat our self to a tomato or two or three :)
32 comments:
Excellent - thanks Pauline. I don't remember the hallways lined with lockers like that - they were all in the basement near the caf - I wish they had gone into some of the classrooms, etc.
They weren't , there was a locker room downstairs mainfloor on each side of the assmembly hall/area.....the school divided equally btwn.Girls & Boys side......with the Auditorium separating us, & of course the main entrance which housed the offices...of which I saw plenty of. Classrooms (not so much).......lol HF&RV - Les
Les you saw a lot of the office also I can't remember the Brother who was the principal's name but we used to call him The rat.I shared a lot of office time with him.I think they took it easy on me because I was going into the seminary. They used to tell me that I should act like a priest Those were the days Brian
Brian, his name was Brother Martin Ross. Ron
I remember that the completion of the building of VCHS in 1962 was delayed for approx 6 weeks, giving us an extended summer holiday. I started Gr 9 there after Gr 8 at St, Will.
Somewhere I have a copy of VCHS 1st yearbook,which would show all the administration,
Brother Augustine was one ,I think he was in real life Brother Mel's real brother,Brother Phillipe was principal at one time,I remember some names like Brother Dominic,Brother Lawrance,Brother Mel, Brother Victor ( who I had two good dustups with....which caused them to review my tenure with the school,the 2nd one seemed to make up their minds for good,which ended with me attending (sort of) LCCHS. ......lol
I did get a few suspensions from VCHS before the door was locked behind me...
I will dig up that old yearbook........ HF&RV - Les
Ron You are right on. That was his name and I should have remembered it. Brother Martin and I spent a lot of time together although it seems as if Les spent a lot more time ther than I did. Oh those memories
Those photos Ron are from a 'yearbook' because for some reason I thought that the 1st yearbook for VCHS was in 1968,Steve Witty was a teacher & he handled the yearbook project,& they I thought told us that this was VCHS first yearbook ? but obviously those photos you have clearly state VCHS,were these indivdual photos of a graduating class?
It funny I never picked up on that,& I have looked at everyone of the posted pictures over the years...
The yearbook of '68 was named 'Accolade'
Brother Augustine principal,Sister Johnson girls VP, Mr. Frank Hyland boys VP ,
These were the admin for 1968.so a hew years btwn us,......Cheers ! HF&RV - Les
http://www.messagerverdun.com/English-section/Top-Stories/2011-01-12/article-2111355/Happy-50th-Anniversary,-6100-Champlain-Blvd/1
Gord Martineau (City TV) receives 2010 Top Choice Awards from verdun and vchs
Not at all, Pauline; I only wish that the students names were more clearly visible on the photo, which is quite large. Rgds Ron
Les, other bros in 62-63 were De Paul, John, Bernard ( he was so old he stayed in the brother house all the time chain smoking), Paul ( he was the hockey coach, had all kinds of NHL connections and walked to the Forum every Saturday night and of course got in for free). I remember bro Augustine, he was the geometry teacher and I am led to believe that he took a shine to a teacher on the Girls' side and left the brotherhood to get married?? I also remember in 62-63 a day where all the students had to line up outside the school to honor the procession of a hearst containing a bro who passed away in the brohouse - nobody knew who he was. I have the 1964 VCHS Commencement leaflet (Oct 4,1964) outlining all of the awards winners and grads. I tried to upload it to my site but was disallowed since it is a .PDF file. I will gladly EMail it to someone who can figure out how to post it for all to see. Ron
Brian, I believe you were in my Gr 9 class and that we also played on the same "Blue Bombers" Pee Wee football team in Crawford Park in 59-60. Wayne Fenelon, Bob Kotar, Richard Reid were team mates. Alf Gill was the coach.
Yes Bro, De Paul ,was at VCHS in '68 too,.......I had no idea he had NHL connections..neat,....Most of them were alright,but Augustine was just a mean guy, I saw him actually put the boots to a student in the cafeteria,quite funny really with him lifting his smock/dress to get more swinging room....(he was a _rick, (P silent like in Psalm ...lol )
I gave Bro Mel a lift one day ,when I saw him walking along Verdun av ,(near the regie des alcool) at the other end of near Regent or Strathmore,.he liked his mickey of booze, he was a good guy,Bro Lawrance liked his beer as it was delivered to the Brohouse (as you call it..lol)
You can email me if you like I will try to see what I can do..??
lesfromverdun@gmail.com
Will do, Les. Bro Paul was the hockey coach with the NHL connections, Bro De Paul was another dude.
Is anyone aware that Craig Patrick was a student at VCHS in 62-63? Craig is the son of Muzz Patrick of the "Patrick" family that owned the Boston Bruins. I believe that Craig lived with the Hanrahan family while attending VCHS. He played for the VCHS senior team, the Mtl Jr Cdns in 64-65, played 401 games in the NHL and was an asst coach for US "Miracle on Ice" team that beat the powerful Soviets in the semi final and won the gold medal in Lake Placid in 1980 when they beat the Finns in the final. Later he coached the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins and held sr mangement positions with the Pittsburgh Penguins
Ron you have a great memory' How you remember the coaches name Alf Gill and the players names of the Blue Bombers football team.Grade 9 would have been the first year in VCHS. Gord Martineau was my next door neighbor on Rolland.I first met Craig Patrick in grade 8 at ST. Willibrord High School as he was living with the Hanrahans then. He was a very nice guy. Les you are right that Bro Auggie was a real mean guy especially if you weren't Irish.He dropped a couple of guys in my class.Ron I am pretty sure I have a photo of that Blue Bomber pee wee team If I can locate it I will post it.
Hi Ron my older sister Heather ,spoke of Craig I know she knew him,as for the Hanrahans I know that name well too, I think I posted the Ross Hanrahan obit in our 'In Memoriam' section. I didn't know of the connection to the Bruins ownership,I wondered if there was a connection to the Lester Patrick family,.but I guess not....
Neat info ,thanks.......................HF&RV - Les
Yes here is the obit notice I posted back in 2008
Hanrahan Ross 1945 2008, Feb 09th too bad after the migration from MSN to this Multiply network they didn't bring the whole obit in the form it was as taken from the Gazette.
Les, Lester Patrick was Craig Patrick's grandfather.
Thanks ....oddly enough a friend of mine ,who calls everyone he knows it seems by his own nicknames,.refers to me on group emails as 'Lester Patrick'.........lol -Les
Here is a view of the 3 VCHS gradutating class of 1964 from Ron's site. Don't forget you can use the 'full screen' option, and you can slow the speed down of the changing pictures ,or pause it on each one. Thanks Ron for sharing these.
Ron I left a msg. in your guestbook,mentioning that you can do the same here on this site to post those or any photos and have your own album in the photo section,& add too it, or create new ones whenever you want. Good luck.
Incidentally did you what program did you use to copy from the pdf file ? I did find a few ways to change pdf to jpeg ,but you beat me to it....lol HF&RV - Les
I always liked the look of VCHS it was so modern looking ,almost futuristic,imagine that was 50 years ago. The way it was situated on that property ,you could never get a full view of the whole building in a photo (even with wide angle) an aerial would be the only way to show the buildings shape.
Les, I just re-scanned it as a picture instead of a document in HP Director software I use. That enabled me to make it jpeg. Thx for the info re posting.
Ok thanks I guess I could have looked in some of the software I have ,instead of searching the net ( where I did find some other suggestions )...can't see the forrest for the trees sometimes.(maybe I should have stayed in school longer.lol hf&rv - Les
http://www.stwillibrordparish.org/history6.html
History
Once these streets of Verdun were farm fields with rich earth and yielding crops. In spring of 1913 Father Patrick McDonald, with a mandate from Archbishop Bruchesi to found a Parish for the English speaking Catholics west of the Tailrace which divided Verdun from Pointe St. Charles saw not simply farmland on the outskirts of Verdun, but a place on which to build the first (and, on the same tract ultimately, the present) St. Willibrord's church. From a small flat on Church Avenue near Ross Street, Father McDonald directed the beginnings of parish life. He celebrated Mass in the Brothers’ Hall of Academie Richard on Galt Avenue until the first church was built and so began a ministry to our forebears which would last the rest of his busy life.
The birth of “the Willibrord Spirit” seemed to come about even before the first church building was raised. Most of the first Parishioners were second generation Irish and British Catholics who had migrated to Verdun from Griffintown and Pointe St. Charles. Many were skilled in carpentry and masonry crafts, were good with their hands, and they volunteered their skills and talents in the building of the first Church. Participation and generosity were woven into the St. Willibrord fabric from the earliest days.
While Father McDonald led the way, the people of St. Willibrord’s were vitally involved in the structure and health of their parish from the very outset. The westward population growth saw Verdun expand rapidly through the nineteen twenties and St. Willibrord’s grew right along with it. By 1925 the dramatic increase in parish numbers necessitated plans for a larger church to accommodate the population expansion. These were days when families were large and parish life was central to the English-Catholic community.
In April of 1927 Father McDonald celebrated the first Mass in the new church. The total cost for the building was budgeted at $175,000 but there was a cost overrun and the ultimate bill came to $204,000.
Next
Open link to view pictures of the construction of St Wilibrord's
YIKES ................I did respond to this ,& even made the same remarks of the lockers ,..well at least I didn't post today's video right next to this one......hahahaha Sorry Pauline ,
It's OK Les Information overload or
a 60's thing
* PERFECT* ...... lol - Les
Hey Pauline - just listened to the song - lol - is Les that far gone ? and he's younger than us - yikes. My kids get on my case because I still have an snswering machine but to my credit, I have a cell too :)
I heard that............. -lol - Les
Hi Sandy Yep he's really losing it... Guess I can say anything I want because he doesn't remember anything I post anyhow but as you can see he does agree with the video LOL :) Pauline
I think he's crazy myself.......... lol - Les
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