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August 19, 2009

Lambton Park Toronto School Photo 1919

The word prompt for the 17th Edition of Smile For The Camera is
School Days. It is September, historically the month when a new school year begins. We all have images of the days spent in school. The barefoot children gathered together with their teacher in front of the rural school your ancestors attended. Children at their desks, children at play in the school yard, and those obligatory school photographs - one for every year. Show us your family memories of school days.

I liked this idea of photographs of school days, because I have 3 family photos of class pictures from before 1920! It's really interesting to study the little faces of the children, check out their clothes and note the historical details.



So, here goes with my first photo, a picture taken in Toronto in 1919 at Lambton Park School (on Bernice Crescent in Toronto) with my mother's cousin Doris Simpson and her schoolmates. Doris is 3rd row from the front and 3rd girl from the left.

They look so cold and the young boys in the front row look so impoverished, their clothing is more ragged and assorted than some in the back rows. But WW1 had just ended and presumably money was tight. Some of the boys are wearing clothes far too small for them.

Don't you just love the little boys with their newspaper boy caps, looking straight out of the movie "Gangs of New York"!

1 comment:

The Grandmother Here said...

What a treasure!