Chapter I - Oh What a Beautiful Campus for Study and Play!
What a shock when I first set my eyes on Dawson College in September 1948.. Before me, as far as the eye could see, was a flat treeless and silent landscape only disturbed by a cluster of barn like two storied buildings covered with drab grey shingles and bordering roads with open ditches leading up to a very large flag pole with Red Ensign fluttering at its top. My view of this bleak landscape was only disturbed by my observing some tumbleweeds passing aimlessly by. Later when winter finally came the tumbleweeds gave way to drifting snow drifts that gathered around the buildings. With the first sign of spring this white mass melted into a grey slush thus harmonizing with the rest of the landscape. The students quickly nicknamed the college Lower Slobbovia after a faraway and desolate country invented by Al Capp for his popular cartoon, Li'l Abner.
to quote from Wikipedia:
As wretched as existence was in Dogpatch (the home of Li'l Abner), there was one place even worse: faraway Lower Slobbovia. The hapless residents of frigid Lower Slobbovia were perpetually covered with several feet of snow. Icicles hung from every nose. Polar bears stalked the homeless. There was no visible civilization, no money, no hope. Conditions couldn't be worse. Astute readers knew that Capp's Slobbovia was a thinly disguised Siberia.
Actually it was a fair description of Dawson College although I have to admit I don't recall encountering any polar bears. I did however observe from time to time vultures hovering about.
A bit of history: Dawson College was opened in 1945 to accommodate the greatly increased enrolment due to the return of students from the armed services and was housed at the R.C.A.F. base at St-Jean, Quebec. All first year science and engineering students were transfered there. The number of students enrolled, both veterans and recent graduates, reached a peak of 1687 in January 1947. The College was closed in 1950
As for the flagpole I should add that some inebriated persons returning from a night of celebration in the nearby town of St John's decided that the flag pole had to be cut down. It's fall made a thunderous sound. The next morning as it lay on the ground with it's sad Red Ensign lying in the slush, several professors called a snap meeting in an auditorium to find out who had done this dreadful deed. We learned later that these same professors were the culprits and they must have been thoroughly hung over as they stood on that stage.The secret was kept so nothing came of it except the pole was gone.
The war was over and the troops had returned home. For thousands of them, ably supported by Government grants, their immediate gaol was to complete their education. The universities could not handle this huge additional influx so temporary emergency facilities had to be found. Now empty military barracks provided an answer: Dawson College for McGill and Ajax for the U of T
As you will read in the chapters that follow I recall that studying and playing in these bleak and spartan surroundings represented some of the happiest and carefree moments in my life.
*Special thanks is due to a friend and fellow student, Don Beauprie, who supplied these photos
What a shock when I first set my eyes on Dawson College in September 1948.. Before me, as far as the eye could see, was a flat treeless and silent landscape only disturbed by a cluster of barn like two storied buildings covered with drab grey shingles and bordering roads with open ditches leading up to a very large flag pole with Red Ensign fluttering at its top. My view of this bleak landscape was only disturbed by my observing some tumbleweeds passing aimlessly by. Later when winter finally came the tumbleweeds gave way to drifting snow drifts that gathered around the buildings. With the first sign of spring this white mass melted into a grey slush thus harmonizing with the rest of the landscape. The students quickly nicknamed the college Lower Slobbovia after a faraway and desolate country invented by Al Capp for his popular cartoon, Li'l Abner.
As wretched as existence was in Dogpatch (the home of Li'l Abner), there was one place even worse: faraway Lower Slobbovia. The hapless residents of frigid Lower Slobbovia were perpetually covered with several feet of snow. Icicles hung from every nose. Polar bears stalked the homeless. There was no visible civilization, no money, no hope. Conditions couldn't be worse. Astute readers knew that Capp's Slobbovia was a thinly disguised Siberia.
Actually it was a fair description of Dawson College although I have to admit I don't recall encountering any polar bears. I did however observe from time to time vultures hovering about.
A bit of history: Dawson College was opened in 1945 to accommodate the greatly increased enrolment due to the return of students from the armed services and was housed at the R.C.A.F. base at St-Jean, Quebec. All first year science and engineering students were transfered there. The number of students enrolled, both veterans and recent graduates, reached a peak of 1687 in January 1947. The College was closed in 1950
The war was over and the troops had returned home. For thousands of them, ably supported by Government grants, their immediate gaol was to complete their education. The universities could not handle this huge additional influx so temporary emergency facilities had to be found. Now empty military barracks provided an answer: Dawson College for McGill and Ajax for the U of T
*Special thanks is due to a friend and fellow student, Don Beauprie, who supplied these photos
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