Colborne Cadet Corps was compulsory for all boys - unless one was crippled. I do not remember any parents complaining - for religious or other reasons - but there could have been.

Within the first week or two of arriving for Grade 9, we were learning to march about. We each had to go to the uniform store - the small room halfway between ground and second floor, halfway up the stairs on the right.

The Joke was that there were only two sizes of uniform and boots - too big and too small. My memory is that the uniforms were left over from the First World War, and were VERY itchy. Our mothers usually had to take up, or let down the trousers, and could not cut them off since some poor kid would get them next time. Mothers also had to sew small stones, or washers, into the bottom of each trouser leg so they hung straight when marching.

We had to wear the uniform to school several times a year, including for Remembrance Day. Mr. William Baxter, our principal, had served in both wars and was an officer in the second.

The Cadet Corps, however, was led by Mr Norm O'Neill, our Maths Teacher, who had also served in WW2. Grade 13 students were exempt from Cadet service.

Two or three times each year, each cadet would have to go with Mr O'Neill, of an evening, to Brighton High School for target practice. We farm kids had an advantage over the town kids because we had been using rifles for years.