Submitted by: Wally Snow

My name is Wallace Snow, oldest son of John and Myrtle Snow. In 1937 my parents purchased a lot of land on Frederick Avenue in Fairview.

Dad immediately commenced building a house. We moved to Halifax in early 1938. I don’t remember much of the first four years of my life but I do remember September 1939 that was the day my father left home to sail with the first Canadian Division to England. The house was only half finished; there was no indoor toilet and no running water. Water was obtained from a brook about 500 ft. from our property. Dad had made arrangements for a neighbour’s son to get two buckets of water for my mother every day. I was too small to carry the buckets and my mother was pregnant. 

I started school in Sept. 1941 at Fairview School on Main Avenue and I can remember walking to school with friends from Frederick Avenue everyday. We also had great fun in winter coasting down the street in front of our house. If the road was well packed some time we could get as far as Dutch Village Road.

We had great fun on that hill but some neighbours would put their ashes on the street for cars to get traction, it kind of ruined our fun. We were the third house from the end of the street. The nearest store was at the corner of Frederick Avenue and Dutch Village Road. This store burned down in the late 1940s. All the kids that went to Fairview School had to walk as there was no such thing as a school bus. We had to go home for lunch, there was no lunch room in the old school. The old school house burnt down in the late 1940s, so for a year some of the classes went to the United Church Hall on Ashdale Avenue. The older grades went to the two room school house on School Avenue (beside Ashburn Golf Course. 

The new school was built on the land where the old one burnt down. It was a brick building with three floors, it had a gymnasium and a library. The classes went from kinder-garden to grade nine. When I was in Junior High they held dances Friday night in the gym, the students had to organize the music and run a little canteen that sold pop and chocolate bars. The dances went from 7 to 10 P.M. and there was a parent and a teacher as chaperones. I don’t remember the year but I think I was in grade seven when the principal had a heart attack one night, when he was dancing.

I also remember when the student went on strike because of the water in the school. We actually got our pictures in the Halifax newspaper, holding up our protest signs. We also had to walk to Armdale Jr. High School for shop classes, girls had Home Economics and the boys had wood working. 

I started grade nine in 1951 and received a provisional pass in 1952 (provision was that I never come back). I started Halifax County Vocational School in September 1952 and registered in the automotive class. I completed my first year but quit half-way through the second year to work as an apprentice. 

I worked one year for a company in Halifax and then quit that job in 1955 to join the Canadian Army. 

That was the end of my education while living in Fairview. I retired from the military late 1972 with a high school equivalent and a Heavy Duty Mechanic License. 

That sums up my education story. 

I have many great memories of living in Fairview. It was a great time in my life. We were a great bunch of kids and some of us actually went on to have great careers. 

So to all my old friends it was great knowing you and I hope everyone is doing great.