The thing about working in your hometown is that you’re constantly bumping into your past.

Last week, I met up with a group of four fellow Copper Cliff Public School (CCPS) graduates and their children at the school for an interview. (See the story on page 1). Each of them have a child now entering junior kindergarten. In a few cases, their children represent the fourth generation at the school.

These parents told me they’re thrilled their kids will grow up in the same community they did, and will carry on their family tradition of going to the same school.

I’ve noticed that many of my contemporaries are moving back to Copper Cliff to raise their families, and their kids are now enrolled at our old school.

When I interviewed the families on the grounds of CCPS, I felt surrounded by the history that has been witnessed by the school’s playground.

Most of the playground equipment I played on was torn down years ago because of safety concerns. Yet I can still picture an eight-year-old version of myself on the swings, flying high in the sky, pretending I could touch the superstack.
What Copper Cliff kid can forget the feeling of bare legs sliding down the hot, smooth metal of the “superslide” (an extra-tall slide which used to be on the playground)?

We also rolled giant snowballs when the first, sticky snow hit the ground, chased each other around the playground during games of “girls kiss the boys” (I’m sure the teachers were thrilled), and cross-country skied or jogged around the park after school, depending on the season.

When I hear about how kids these days spend much of their time in front of screens of one type or another, it makes me sad to think of the experiences they have missed.

When we weren’t in school, my friends and I roamed the town on our bikes or, in the winter, took our GT Racers (you ‘80s kids know what I’m talking about) out into the tailings for marathon sledding sessions.

With a certain “it takes a village to raise a child” point of view, the parents in our neighbourhood looked out for the kids who happened to land on their doorstep that evening.

I also had the chance to go inside the school the other day. Because my parents live across the street, I’ve been inside the school, off and on, since I graduated in 1994.

The school looks the same, and yet different. The gym floor is polished to the same glossy sheen I remember from the first day of school. The general layout of the building is still the same. And yet the graduation pictures now only go back to 2000, something which makes me feel old.

There is still one picture on the wall I am definitely in, although I can’t find myself. It shows a group of ‘80s schoolchildren releasing helium-filled balloons on the playground.

The idea with the balloon release was to see how far the balloons could go. They had tags attached to the end, so that people who found them could mail them back to the school. As I recall, several were actually returned, although mine wasn’t among them.

In 1991, when I was in Grade 6, the whole school went to the other side of the Copper Cliff park to meet Prince Charles. Several of my classmates shook his hand. My Girl Guide troop was also at Science North earlier that day, and I saw the now late Princess Diana in person. There used to be pictures on the wall of that day, too.

When speaking of the “three Rs,” elementary school was where I discovered I loved to write. I still have a folder of imaginative stories I wrote when I was a kid.

Coincidentally, Northern Life’s managing editor, Wendy Bird, also attended Copper Cliff Public School. I’m sure she has her own memories of her time there.

To know who you are right now, you need to know your past. For me, there are times when I feel like can just reach out and touch it.

Heidi Ulrichsen is Northern Life’s health and education reporter.