National Adult Literacy Database

November 26, 2012

The story below was written by Gordon Hope, from Huntingdon, Quebec. Gordon is enrolled in literacy classes at the Huntingdon Learning Centre. He is a recipient of the Canada Post Literacy Award (2007) for Individual Achievement.

My Journey to the Learning Center - Part 2

by Gordon Hope

There were two events that stand out in my mind. One is when a deer came into our barn and made it his home; he trusted us and would follow us around. One time, he even went into the house when Mother had made fresh buns and had  them on the table to cool. I guess he liked the smell and wanted to check them. The deer attracted a lot of visitors; people came from all over to see it. The second event was at sugaring time. There was a family from Ottawa that came to visit. There was also one person from the government that worked for Northern Affairs and what made him stand out was he lost his fingers on his right hand  when he was a young boy, hut that did not stop him from helping me gather sap and do other chores.

As I grew older I got stronger, so my father bought another farm that provided  hay for the animals which gave me more work. I also started working at other  jobs, picking up garbage once a week and working at a sawmill to make money, because my father didn't give me any. He figured a roof over my head, a bed to sleep in and food to eat was my pay. Later on, because of the stress, I started two bad habits: smoking and drinking. Because of those two bad habits, I had more problems: it was expensive ...

Later my father decided to sell the farms and move to Ormstown, so I had to find another job. I looked around for three weeks. One night when I was helping a neighbour working on his antique car, I mentioned to him that I was looking for work. The next day he called me from Zephyr Textiles and asked me to come down for an interview. I started to work at seven p.m. that night. I had ten drawing machines to run. I didn't have much reading or writing to do at work so if I had some important letters or documents I would bring it to the secretary to  help me. I also did many other jobs in textiles including: oiler, mechanic, welder and run a lathe, worked with a plumber, an electrician and a watchman. I knew the welder and the lathe operator so they taught me how to do their jobs. I had a chance to take a mechanic course at C.V.R. high school but the textile plant didn't allow me to go, I was already a jack of all trades and if I got a diploma they would have to pay me more. The company went bankrupt often; they laid off people and reopened again. I kept going back until my doctor advised me not to; he said I was burnt out so I ended up on social aid ...

I decided that it would help if I knew how to read and write. As I was looking through our newspaper the Gleaner one day, I saw an advertisement about the Huntingdon Learning Centre. I went over and met Carole-Anne Lachaine and she arranged an interview with Roger and I started attending school the next day.

It is called the literacy program. It helps people to learn and improve their reading, writing and maths. Roger helped me with my spelling, looking in the dictionary and working in a book called Challenger. Now I like to read stories and go to the Little Green Library of which I am a member for the last two years.

Before I could read I mostly just looked at pictures, but last year I did a project on the history of Huntingdon the town that I live in. I spent about 120 hours in research and writing.

The Learning Center also provides us with volunteers that give us private tutoring in math or reading.

Part 1 | Part 3