Last November Carl and Joyce Robinson received a memorable visit from Mavis and Wendell Johnston. The Johnstons had brought with them a special plate – one that had been presented to Mavis by Carl (who was eight years old at the time) and his schoolmates of Norland School (located approx. 13 miles northeast of Erickson, Man.) in 1943 at the school picnic. Mavis had decided after keeping the plate for 68 years, that it was time for it to return to the area and to the Robinsons for safekeeping.
In 1942, Mavis Johnston (nee Holmlund), was hired by the Norland School District to teach Grades 1 through 8 in the one-room schoolhouse. Because the Second World War was on, and there was a shortage of teachers, 16-year-old Mavis was able to teach on a Grade 12 permit. Some of her students were only about a year younger than she was but Carl said, “Even though Mavis was small and young, she was strict and a good teacher, whom all the pupils respected.”
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Mavis received $750 that year for her work. There was $200 taken off the top to go toward her tuition for Normal School the following year where she obtained her teacher’s certificate, and another $15 per month for room and board with a local family.
Mavis’s own family lived 16 miles away south of Erickson, so on Sundays she rode her bike to the Norland district where she taught for the week, and on Friday after school was out, she biked back home. In the winter she would walk six miles to Scandinavia and meet her dad, who had come from the farm with the horse team. The year that Mavis spent teaching at Norland School reinforced her dream of wanting to be a teacher, so with plate in hand, she achieved her goal.
The plate was made by A.J. Wilkinson Ltd. of Burslem, England and features a painting of Westminster Abby in London. It now has come full circle into the hands of Carl and Joyce who are honoured to have it.
– Cindy Murray writes from Erickson, Manitoba
