Pentz is the name of the small road on the LaHave River, where we lived in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia when we came back to Canada after our year in England.
I traded Latin and tennis classes at a British private boarding school, for a 2-room school house with a wood burning stove and outhouses in the woods instead of plumbed toilets. LaHave Elementary School was perched atop a hill in the small Canadian fishing village, LaHave. What a difference!
My first year there, I insisted on wearing my St. Michael’s school uniform, complete with blazer emblazoned with school crest, and looked rather stuffy along side the Nova Scotians who wore more individualistic clothes.
There were no after school programs – well 4-H club. No school runs for my mother – we went to school on a yellow bus, and in the winter when the road was too icy, we’d have to walk up the hill – trudging through knee deep snow to get some traction.
At age 7 my favorite games were making mud pies in the garden at home, and playing house in the woods at school. At age 8, it was dress-up and ‘let me entertain you’ cabaret-style in the boat houses along the river. It was totally self-directed! We learned lots about using creativity, imagination, and inventiveness, and how to work with others in a collaborative way to get things done rather than following the instructions of someone who was bossy; in a nutshell: how to “just do it” rather than wait around for someone to show us how!
I loved life on Pentz Road, and wrote my first poem when we moved away. It was called “C” and started: “Down by the sea, that’s where I long to be…”
Related articles
- Maritime places nominated as ‘great public spaces’ (cbc.ca)
- Farewell to Nova Scotia’s bucolic community schools (theglobeandmail.com)
- Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Rtvr. Dogs (dogster.com)
- As money moves west, empty schools on the rise in Atlantic Canada – Globe and Mail (theglobeandmail.com)
- Nova Scotia and New Brunswick: The Acadian Forest (alisonamazed.wordpress.com)
- The view from Nova Scotia 100 years on (itv.com)
- Nova Scotia libraries boycott Random House over e-book price hike (teleread.com)
- 2 more reasons to heart Nova Scotia (justfortherecords.wordpress.com)
Sounds like a place to get back to the basics. When I think of Nova Scotia the first thing I think of is lox. Then I start thinking about bagels and cream cheese. It seems like a lot of things make me think of food. Maybe I need to eat.
Lee
Places I Remember
Wrote By Rote
An A to Z Co-host blog
I realized after I started writing these posts that I could have written about the food of the different places I’ve lived – and may do an A-Z on that as a follow-up. I fly back to Canada in the morning…
These are great pictures! would love to visit someday:)
Nutschell
http://www.thewritingnut.com
Happy A-Zing!
The pictures came through Zemanta. Do you know Zemanta?
Hi Alison. Loved reading about your experience at the Pentz School House. We bought the school (now a house) about 5 years ago. Would you happen to have any old photos of the house? Thanks so much.
Leslie Henry
Hi Leslie, Long time to reply as I haven’t been act8ve on the blog…I don’t think I have any photos, tho I can ask Mom and my brothers…Did you grow up in that area?