APRYLL CAMPBELL
1963 - Lemoyne D'Iberville

I graduated from Lemoyne D'Iberville in 1963. One of my clearest memories of that time is slave day when Beatrice Schmuck walked around all day in Jerry Rodrigues' size 13 shoes. How scary is that - the memory, I mean! How DID we all manage to graduate? I agree with Cheryl - it is a puzzle.

My Dad was transferred that same year to Cooksville (now Mississauga). My parents thought it would be a good idea for me to go back to school. They thought I was too young to be out in the world. It was here I met my husband and through his Mother got my first job. It was supposed to be a summer job (it lasted twelve years). I had always had dreams of going to teachers college, but the closer that got to reality, the more terrified I became at the thought of getting up in front of people and actually talking. It didn't matter that it would be children.

In 1966 Cheryl French and I came up with a plan for "THE TRIP". At that time, we used to go shopping every payday. I mean, that big $45.00 a week was burning a whole in my pocket! Our forays into Toronto were usually fraught with countless mishaps, flat tires mostly. So when we told our parents we were going to Europe, they actually laughed. Well - they weren't laughing when we waved good-bye. We were gone for a good nine months and it was one of the best experiences of my life. I think we learned a lot about ourselves and surviving (and making those toffee tins!)

On the night I arrived home, my former boss called and asked if I would come back to work, with a promotion no less. It was pretty hard to turn down. Cheryl and I had cottoned on to the new fashion sensation - the mini - and I wish I had had a camera for my entrance the next morning. What fun! This was in a time when men still had to wear white shirts and no pants for the ladies. It wasn't long after this that the rules were changed - coloured shirts and pant suits! Horrors!

I was married in 1970 to my High School sweetheart. Cheryl was a bridesmaid in my wedding. Unfortunately, at some point after that, we lost touch. How unfortunate. In 1976, my husband was transferred to Bowmanville (near Oshawa). We bought a little fixer-upper and it turns out it was something we were good at it. For the first six months I spent my days plastering, painting, staining etc., etc. In 1977, I started working for The Bay in Oshawa as a Department Manager. It was not what I would call a positive experience. I didn't mind the job so much, but I have to say that dealing with "Joe Public" every day is not fun. For all the wonderful people I met, there were ten not so nice people. However, it was a girl I had working for me there that actually shaped my destiny. She would drive around to all of the horse farms on her day off to see if someone would hire her. She finally found a guy who was willing to teach her everything he knew. She was so enthralled with the whole thing that she thought I should do the same thing. Well, after four years at The Bay I was definitely ready for a change. I handed in my resignation and went to work for a Standardbred Trainer (pacers and trotters). This was good old fashioned hard physical work, looking after race horses and I loved every minute of it. I had finally found my niche.

During this same period (1980), my husband and I sold the fixer-upper for good money and bought a nice piece of property on the water in a little place called Caesarea, on Lake Scugog. We built ourselves a beautiful home and I mean ourselves. We had the shell put up and moved in with absolutely nothing inside. The walls for the bathroom were cardboard, for a little privacy. It was quite a project. My husband would bring home long wooden crates from work, pull them apart, split the boards in half and give them to me. My job was to sand all the edges and fronts and stain them. We finished the whole inside of the house with these, floors, walls and ceilings. You can imagine it was not an overnight job but the end result was worth it. We ended up selling it for a small fortune (in those days) and taking on a new project. This time it was a log house. The same crates were used for this place too, although, with the exterior walls being log, it was a little easier this time.

By 1990, the marriage was starting to fall apart and in 1991 I moved out. It is the only time I was glad I didn't have any children. Through my job, I had met a fellow who owned horses, in fact, I looked after his first race horse. He was actually a World Renowned Breeder of holstein cattle. Someone had given him a horse and he sent her to my boss, who as it turns out was the father of the top driver at Woodbine at that time - Doug Brown. By July 1992, Peter and I had been dating for a year and he asked me to move to his farm and run his office. At this point, he was well involved with horses and it was a good move on my part. I could still be around the horses but wouldn't have all of the heavy work which was starting to take it's toll. Now, I got to go to the horse sales and was actually expected to evaluate the animals to see what we would bid on to add to our inventory. As it turns out, it was something I am good at. We have travelled a lot within the U.S and England and Europe on horse business. One year we went to the thoroughbred sales in Ireland and bought a hurdler. We are still wishing we hadn't.

It's hard to believe that I have been here for over ten years now. The one farm has grown into two and that one horse has become approximately 150. We have new babies being born almost every day now. You can check out our web site - www.tarahills.com.

I spend all of my winters in Florida. We have our office set up in our home. Unfortunately, I do not see retirement in my near future.  No complaints though - life is good!