June 14, 2000
That was the year that was - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- Yesterday, marked the final day of formal classes at my high school (and probably all the others in this town,) and the final day of classes for me and my peers, “The Class of 2000” at Tupper. 5 years and that’s it.
In this space, today, lemme digress on the year that was. Since the dying days of my grade 11 year, I knew my last year at Tupper would be something memorable, or at least useful, perhaps even fun. Predictions have never been my stronghold, I knew it would happen by itself, rather than me prognosticating (or hoping) for it beforehand or creating moments that I would look back at years from now and call ‘memorable’.
Looking back, it’s been a hell of a year. It’s gone by quickly, but a hell of a year, nonetheless. Met some interesting characters like Brian Nguyen who amazed me with his strong political knowledge and his acerbic and subtle wit. It was a pleasure to work with him at the NDP convention.
Speaking of the NDP convention, it was a fun, interesting and experience-filled weekend, last February. For years, I’ve always wanted to do something like that and we actually got to do it. I got interviewed on the news, which made me think that I probably wanted that to happen years ago, rather then now. I handled my interview well and through the miracles of editing, I remained the same restrained, cold and calm, me. We interviewed countless folk, famous or not, and we had a terrific time.
One of the things that was a great experience was when Ujjal Dosanjh, then a Premier-wanna-be and Attorney General came to our History 12 classroom. I’ll concede that it was sort of my idea and my initiative to bring Dosanjh in for the Q&A; it was a great feather in my cap. I asked a couple tough questions and it was one of my first experiences at having a politician evade me. He was very nice, and since that November meeting, we’ve met a couple of times since and he’s remembered me and treated me very warmly, if not with a bit of disdain.
Gordon Hogg was the other fellow David Dougall and I brought to Tupper. I had wanted to get Gordon Campbell and while I played e-mail tag with his assistant for almost 2 months, I had to settle with anyone from his Liberal caucus instead. Although, as ideal Campbell would have been as a guest, personally, it was rather rewarding when my decisiveness with the Liberal girl paid off and she promised me anyone I wanted from that caucus. In retrospect, that’s a good group. You’re looking at the future cabinet and there’s a good group of politicians there. With the help of Dougall and Principal Phillipchuk it was agreed that we bring in the Liberal education critic. He came and it was an interesting chat, and another tough question on my part.
One of the other interesting people I’ve come in contact with this year and who I admire a great deal is, Perry Long. Mr. Long is Tupper’s one-man drama department. He came a year earlier, replacing Tess Elia and proved a fascinatingly talented influence, teacher and person. He’s a short fellow with a beard, sort of portly and elf-like looking. He’s a consummate professional and very talented.
I had signed up for Directing and Scriptwriting 12 and worked with him as he Dougall and Robin Holburn crafted the highly successful Remembrance Day program. Although he had been clinically depressed, he was always there to make a person laugh, get a student focused, and at the same time make us learn something about stagecraft or just something fundamental about ourselves. He left Tupper at the end of November to go on a leave of absence, but he impacted not only me, but everyone that had him as a teacher. We never got to really know him or to get close to him, but we miss him and we all think he was one of the best. When all of us think of someone like that, and I mean all of us, it means that he must have been good.
After he left, Drama got Heidi Rogers. She’s got that dyed red hair, and while supremely funny, she worked very hard to teach us something. Whether she succeeded is for our collective consciousness to decide. She did a lot not only for our DS and the Drama 10 class, but also for Tupper in her highly successful and professionally rewarding production of “The Breakfast Club.” For the first time in 2 years, Tupper had a production on the boards and she deserved a ton more recognition. (Plus, fewer comparisons to Sally Struthers from me.)
There are a ton of other folks to mention: Teachers, friends, colleagues and others, who have impacted my year. There isn’t time to mention them all, I could probably do another column*, which I will, but for now, I just have to say the year went by quickly. I met some interesting characters and for that, I thank my lucky stars. It was a treat and a tribulation, all in one, trust me. As I said somewhere near the top, it was a hell of a year, so here we go - onwards.
Good luck, folks.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .