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OAKVILLE NORTH NEWS Friday, February 19, 1993 â€"6 t C I I t "Klondike black froc and black duced he with a hu "I‘m eithe girl, deper (The repoi whan cha For Heritage Day, the students were released from their regular classes and arranged into special teams. Children of every age from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 8 were represented on each team with a senior student as the captain. It was meant to recapture the dynamic mix of students in the oneâ€"room school houses of old. It was odd to Each of the students had their own small slate to figure on, and there were even a couple of quill pens and ink with which to experiâ€" ment. In the classroom next door, Miss Jane Rickard, also looking rather schoolâ€"marmish, pointed out to her charges that she had arrived early that day to warm up the classroom with the little castâ€"iron stove. (Alas, there was no central heating during the Klondike Days). "Think before you speak," he boomed. "Look before you leap. Always do your best." Repeat after me, he said. "Think before you speak. Look before you... " And remarkably his students did just that. Principal Linda Sweet wore an elegant and sedate, floorâ€"length, regimental ball gown in burgundy. Very proper. Meanwhile, upstairs â€" schoolmaster Brian MacDonald â€" the coâ€"ordinator of this event, cut an imposing authority figure in front of his class in a black gown and cap, holding a cane. The front lobby of the school was decked out in memorabilia, much of it donated by parents â€" a rusty Morse Code key pad, a leather saddle and yoke, a scythe, a couple of sock stretchers and a spinning wheel, a metal snare (for catching rabbits?), some rough old planing tools, and a Toy Catalogue (1860â€" 1930) borrowed from the Oakville Historical Society. Neat stuff. t was Heritage Day at Glenburnie School on Monday. Madame Anne Liberman (the French teacher, of course) set the "Klondike Days" tone in a sizzling black frock, red stockings, and a red and black feather boa. She introâ€" duced herself as "Klondike Kate" with a huge smile, then whispered, "I‘m either a chicken or a dancehall girl, depending on who you talk to." (The reporter knows a dancehall girl when she sees one). Children came to school in period costume for Klondike Days. Shown are Danielle Dutrisac, left, and Yasmin Ali. Activities included panning for gold in a sandy river bed and weighing the nuggets using gram weights and an oldâ€"fashioned weigh scale. The "gold" was then socked away in handâ€"crafted pouches. A grizzled and bearded prospector, teacher Judy Shirdel, kept the young fortune hunters honest. In another classroom, leather was being cut into bookmarks and see the assortment of sizes up and down the rows, and odder still, the floppy floral bonnets of the girls and tweed caps on the boys, the plaid shirts, suspenders, corduroy knickers and knee socks, as most of the children joined in the fun of cosâ€" tumes. The older students were asked to take the younger ones under their wings and guide them through the maze of classrooms and ceneral excitement. Sabrina Holman, left, and Ashley Zafirian make potato stencils, a popular craft of the Klondike Days. "It‘s a lot of work," she admitted, "but it‘s also a lot of fun. A good change of pace. As we plan and preâ€" pare for it and become more and more involved, the fun overtakes everything." ccording to "Klondike Kate", this is the third time in the last five years that Glenburnie â€" a private, coâ€"educational school with a current enrolment of 137 students â€" has chosen to celeâ€" brate Heritage Week in this manner. Farther down the hall were oldâ€" fashioned games â€" games like jacks, marbles, hideâ€"theâ€"thimble, and musical chairs. Following the games, of course, came light refreshmentsâ€" "oatmeal cookies" prepared by parent volunteers from a obtained from the Historical Society. While the recipe was nearly 100 years old, the cookâ€" ies themselves smelled quite fresh. braided into bracelets. There was a quilting bee in another room; potato carving, and printing, in yet another. Robert Ruthard tries his hand at writing using a quill pen at Glenburnie‘s Klondike Day She said, Heritage Day activities, supplement the students‘ historical knowledge, as well as, keep them in touch with the "language" of the past. In this way, words not comâ€" monly used in our time; words like "hatchet, leanâ€"to, and chuckwagon" for example, are not lost but, in fact, form a basis for extending language in particularly colorful and meanâ€" ingful ways. And speaking of chuckwagon... in another classroom there was indeed just such a vehicle â€" or at least a facsimile â€" a table with Principal Sweet explained there were a number of reasons why she encourages these "event" days. (Not the least of which may be that February can be a long and tedious month without some imaginative programming). Both students and teachers, she said, benefit from these creative breaks in routine. PHotos By Peter McCusKer Saloons, dancehalls, and gaming parlors flourished every day but Sunday. The Northâ€"West Mounted Police kept order in the town while the Yukon Field Force â€" a military unit â€" maintained Canadian sovereignty in the face of a mostly American population. The gold rush died out by the turn of the century with the onset of the Spanishâ€" American War and news of another gold discovery at Nome, Alaska. A small but juicy morsel of Canadian history. Encyclopedia. A hunâ€" dred thousand amateur goldseekers started out for the Yukon in the fall and winter of 1897 in response to a gold strike on the Rabbit (later called Bonanza) Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River. The smart, wealthy ones went by water up the inland passage. The others went overland, taking as long as two years to reach their destination. The new town of Dawson at the mouth of the Klondike River had a transient population of 30,000. It was the largest community north of Seattle and west of Winnipeg and boasted modern conveniences like telephones, electricity, and even motion pictures. There were stories told around the campfire that day by such charâ€" acters characters as Billyâ€"Joe, I think, and Jimâ€"Bob, Miss Kitty, and the Reverend and Doc Holiday. Teacher Donna Collins read from an old picture book. The aroma of beans bubbling over the campfire permeated the air. A coffee pot and a tin cup sat by. A leanâ€"to was set up to protect the bedâ€"roll in case of rain, though there was not a cloud in sight. When the lights were dimmed, stars glistened on the ceiling of the clear, northern sky. wheels, no less, disguised as a prairie schooner. (Albert Einstein said: "Imagination is more imporâ€" tant than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world... "). Who said school wasn‘t fun? ierre Burton wrote about the Klondike Gold Rush in the