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More winners!
Music/Rap
The winner of the Music/Rap segment of our Local Option Art Awards/Legends of the Junction contest is Ms. Rose Fine Meyer's Humberside Archives and Local history class which links students with their local community. Ms. Fine Meyer writes "I think we need more of this. I think if students feel more connected to their local community, then there might be less crime and problems . . . I am presenting my course at conferences across the country." Ms. Fine Meyer's students rewrote their school song Hail Humberside and performed it at our Legends of the Junction Show. The rap was performed by Eric Andrew-Gee (T-Flex) and was written with the help of "Junction City" Researcher David Wencer. T-Flex performed the rap on CBC's Metro Morning and arrangements are being made for the song and rap to be recorded at Traxx Records.
HAIL HUMBERSIDE
The core of dear old Humberside was built upon a stream
Bricks were the mighty structure; happiness was the dream
While students learned in the classrooms; horses ran nearby
They left the greatest legacy, may their memory never die
Hail! Garnet, grey and white, Archives Class lead on
Always with our heads held high, our heritage is strong
Rah rah rah
Archivists of Humberside don't use any pens.
We toil in dust and mould
Just to make our past make sense!
Al hail to dear old Humberside where students come to learn
It's filled with academia and stories of the past
We'll cheer to former teachers Cherry Irwin and Reid
For that's the spirit of Humberside, it's a very old building indeed.
T-FLEX: You might think Humberside makes for a lame rap topic
But compared to me your knowledge is microscopic
I can put you away with my personal bio-pic
I go to Doc Feldman 'cause I'm a little myopic
Born in the Junction on the right side of the tracks
Straight dope rhymes are what this neighbourhood lacks
If you think you can beat me your chances are slim
I can drop rhymes like a nerd drops gym
I'm the Husky of rhyme, I know ev'ry parameter
If you want I can do them in iambic pentameter
Yeah I know what that means, I know English good
And I'm proud to represent, Humberside is my hood
(Choik-a-tee-hoik) Yeah I go to HCI
(Choik-a-tee-hoik) And my prospects are high
Keepin' it fresh like you knew I would
I'm proud to represent, Humberside is my hood
With a Husky on my shirt and my Jostens class rings
I'm just happy to know the reason for things
And we bring the curling titles back home every night
Now we've all started bleeding - garnet, grey and white
But there's no need to call for the local paramedics
It's just what happens beyond academics
'Cause I've got school spirit like a hoodlum should
Yeah I just said "hoodlum," Humberside is my hood
(Choik-a-tee-hoik) Yeah I go to HCI
(Choik-a-tee-hoik) And my prospects are high
Keepin' it fresh like you knew I would
I'm proud to represent, Humberside is my hood
ALL CHANT: Choik-a-tee Hoik! Choik-a-tee Hoik! Chalama Chalama Chi!
Rickerty-rackerty, rickerty-rackerty H-C-I!
Cha-hee, cha-ho, cha-ha-ha-ha Humberside,
Humberside, rah-rah-rah Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Humberside
Fight! Fight! Fight!
Drama
The winner of the Drama segment of our Local Option Art Awards/Legends of the Junction contest is Khadija Richards. Khadija is a very brave young actress who performed this monologue for the Reel to Real cameras after our Legends of the Junction show. Just ten years old, Khadija is new to the area and hopes to attend High Park Alternative school next year. She will receive a DVD of her Legends performance and will be asked to appear again as Mrs. Brown at later events in the Centennial year. The monologue was written by WTJHS Centennial Committee Chair Neil Ross.
MRS. BROWN: My name is Mrs. Brown. I was born in Jamaica and I lived in the
Junction. They tell me there were free people working here in the vineyards
just over there who came up on the Underground railway. That was before my
time but I believe it. We've got so many railways around here, we've got to
have an underground to keep us honest . . . Well, I had to be honest. I was
a storekeeper. You've got some storekeepers here, don't you? You've got to
be honest. I had a grocery store over by the old Weston Road. I sold everything
from ice-cream to coal oil, and I never mixed them up. I think my customers
appreciated that. It was a very good store in a very good building: all frame
construction and very old. It was completely lit by coal oil and heated by
coal oil stoves. But that wasn't the attraction; most stores in the Junction
had coal oil. But I installed a telephone. It was one of the few telephones
in the district. People would give me a nickel or a dime to use it. People
sure do like to talk. I tell you nobody ever went broke investing in people
talking. My husband and I, he's passed away now, owned some land on Old Weston
Road too. There were fruit trees on the property, two apple trees and a pear
tree. One year I sold all the apples in my store and set aside the proceeds
to purchase a pair of fur trimmed galoshes for one of the neighbour children,
about two years old. That's the way it's always been in the Junction we helped
each other out . . . Thank you and I hope you enjoy the Centennial.
The first prize winner of the Local Option Art Awards/Legends of the Junction comic book contest is Agata Plocinski, a Grade 11 student at Humberside Collegiate Institute. Agata won for her life of Dr. Minerva Reid, the Junction’s first lady of medicine. She will receive a gift certificate from Hairy Tarantula on Dundas. WTJHS is proud to post her work on our site.