CHERYL (FRENCH) SMITH
1963 - Lemoyne D'Iberville

I graduated from Lemoyne D'Iberville in 1963. How I managed to even 'graduate' that year is a mystery not yet solved. That last year of high school is a blur. I blame Miles, Earl, Apryll, Jerry, Marion, Don, and Beatrice for the dismal results of my last year of high school. My first time attending a school in a 'big city'.  I was born and raised as an Air Force brat so all previous schooling was either on Air Force bases or small communities off base. I lived in St. Bruno, so being bused to Longueuil to attend school was the BIG time as far as I was concerned.

But graduate I did. Then a year at Sir George Brown University in Montreal -- Secretarial Science. Don't laugh. It was either that or being a nurse, stewardess or teacher. The 'science' of secretarial work sounded more ... mysterious.

What I really wanted to be was an 'artist', but my father, with the wisdom of fathers from that era, insisted there would be no future in 'art'. I was a girl. So I should learn something that I might actually get paid for doing. Ergo, Secretarial Science. (I bet that's not even on the curriculum any longer). That year my father retired from the Air Force. His second career choice took him to Toronto, Ontario for a couple of years at Teacher's College. I moved with the family and took my first job at an advertising agency, MacManus, John & Adams as ... what else!! ... a secretary. After all, I had learned the 'science' of secretarial work. I could do SHORTHAND!!

When my father got his teaching certificate we were off to St. Catharines, Ontario so he could pursue his new career as a tech teacher in a high school in Niagara Falls. Now that I was an official 'secretary', I was quite confident I could find another job with no problem. I did. At an engineering firm in Niagara Falls called H. G. Acres.

I was still considered a junior (harumphh!!) so had to be satisfied with working in the 'steno' pool. I look back now and think of it as an 'assembly line'. I was determined to be a better 'typist' than any of the other 60 girls in the pool. The competition was fierce. The trick was (I learned) to be the fastest typist with NO typos. That was my goal by crackey!! (Remember!! No computers ... every error had to be either erased or .... hmmmm ... was there even white-out back then ... worse still ... START OVER!) Within the year, I was asked if I'd like to move up the corporate ladder :-) by setting up and running the little trailer office at one of the engineering sites where they were building the new Thorold Tunnel. A PROMOTION!! I spent two successful years at the Thorold Tunnel site in my little one-girl office honing my 'secretarial' skills.

But restlessness set in ....

Upon completion of the tunnel, I was being sent back to the main office. I think not. A plan was hatching. Apryll Campbell and I decided it was time to explore the world. So the both of us quit our jobs, informed our horrified parents we were off on an adventure to parts unknown and we boarded a ship in New York City, each of us with $200.00 in our pockets and no return tickets. We were 21 years old.

What an adventure. We docked in Dover, England, got off the ship, looked tentatively around, put out our thumbs (this was acceptable in those days you know) and off we went. We spent nearly a year stretching our $200 to the max. (We ate a lot of bread and cheese.) England, Scotland, France, Spain, Germany, East Germany, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Austria. No Internet in those days, so the rule was, we had to check into every Canadian Embassy in each city we visited. Our mail from home was waiting for us and if we missed it, it was sent on to the next Embassy in the next city we planned to visit.

When it was time to return to Canada (pressure from home), we discovered we had spent all our money so had to return to England and find some temporary work. We found the niftiest job in Newcastle. Another assembly line only this time, in the true sense of the word. Winthrop Laboratories ... making toffee tins. (I never gave this much thought before, but as I write this, I have to stop and ponder why there was a toffee tin assembly line at a laboratory but maybe my memory is failing me (HA!) and the tins were for pharmaceuticals and not toffee. No matter ... the experience was making tins and lids on an assembly line and that's all that counts in this story.) But I DO have a clear recollection of the two of us dressed in our uniforms, cute little white cotton head scarves and short (short was big in the 60's) white lab coats and our high heels (geez!!!) literally rolling on the floor in hysterics as tins and lids flew by us on conveyor belts (envision the famous Lucy and Ethyl sitcom). We were trying desperately to take this job as seriously as all the others on the line appeared to be doing. But our bursts of cacklings and chortlings only served to get us separated and we had to be content with hand signals from opposite ends of the conveyor belt. Judging from the scathing looks we often received from those more-experienced (I mean, we DID upset the delicate balance and symmetry of assembly line production), we deduced we were not being too successful at convincing anyone that this job was important to us. The pay was minimal (two bucks a day if I recall) and our dads, having the foresight reserved for fathers in 'the olden days', decided it would be another year or two before we could 'save' the monies needed to 'get our butts home'. The money orders arrived in the mail. We quit our jobs at Winthrop (alas .. no fanfare or good bye parties in our honour), bought plane tickets and flew into Montreal, where we were met at the airport by the boyfriends we had so unceremoniously left behind a year prior. We stopped long enough to visit Expo '67, then Apryll went her way and I went mine. It was September of last year (2002) that I managed to find her again with Melody's help. (Apryll, if you're up to it, I'm game to take a trip back down memory lane either over coffee or in reality).

So back to the grind .... finding suitable work .... a job that would allow me to hone my now-rusty secretarial skills.  (But I COULD make a tin can!!! Lids were my speciality!! Cans were Apryll's!) The first interview I had, I got the job. Private secretary (really moving up in the world) for the owner of a Niagara Falls radio station.  This is where I met my husband, Paul. He was a freelance writer at the radio station. I worked three years at the station, then Paul and I decided to start a business together (graphic design) in Niagara-on-the-Lake. And I was his ... guess what!! ... SECRETARY!! It was fate. I'd never get to be an artist.

After a couple of years in the Niagara-on-the-Lake office, we married and moved the business to Toronto. Paul's business continued to grow, as did our family. After the birth of my first daughter, we decided to 'get out of the big city', bought a house in St. Catharines and I became a stay-at-home-mom. Paul continued to run his business from Toronto, commuting back and forth between the two cities. In 1977, four children later and an opportunity for Paul to go to Vancouver to oversee the business of a friend who was taking a two-year sabbatical, we sold our house, bundled up the kids, packed the cat and trekked across the country to set up shop and home.

The two years passed ... but here we remain.  While my four children were growing up, I became involved with the movie industry in Vancouver and spent six years (working from home on a new-fangled thing called a Selectric typewriter) transcribing raw documentary and movie film for local independent film producers in preparation for final editing. (It's that 'secretary' thing again!) One of the documentaries I worked on was called "Life on the Internet". I had never heard of the Internet but the concept of it intrigued me. Out with transcribing, in with the Internet and all the possibilities it presented.

My four children were now old enough to be self-sufficient and didn't need (actually .. they didn't 'want') a 'mother' hovering over them all the time. What to do, what to do! Web design. Adobe Photoshop. Digital photography.

So Dad, if you can hear me from 'up there', I need to tell you ... you were right. Because of my 'secretarial science' skills (I love that term -- secretarial SCIENCE), I met my husband, I was able to legitimately 'help out' at the onset of his business, plus I was able to 'work from home' while my children were growing up.

And me  ... I sit in my home office and do Web site design at my leisure, I'm a photographer, I have illustrated, co-written and had published a series of "Really Easy Computer-related books". The rest of the time I spend with my five grandchildren.

Life is good!