Went to work ... came home ... went for a joy ride through the old neighbourhood with my daughter.

CANADIAN ISSUE - GROUP OF SEVEN

Here's strip of old stamps with the artwork of The Group of Seven. The last stamp on the strip is the artwork of A.Y. Jackson.

I remember my Grade 7 class going on a class trip to visit the McMichael Gallery which at the time was just a large room in the McMichael house with an exhibit of the McMichael’s Group of Seven Collection. In those days they offered private showings of the collection to small groups and Mrs. Bulger, our Grade 7 teacher, was so kind to arrange one for us.

The school bus drove us north of the City to a secluded location surrounded by acres of trees. The McMichael house was not a mansion but was quite a large home, a ranch style bungalow with a walkout basement, if I remember correctly. It had an indoor pool that could be viewed through a large glass window just next to the room they called “The Gallery” and, yes, we actually had to walk through their house to get to “The Gallery”. After we took a tour of the collection, several of us stood at the window overlooking the pool where an older gentleman was enjoying an afternoon swim. He looked up and waived to us all and of course we waived back. Mrs. McMichael walked up to us and said, “Oh, look! It’s A.Y. Jackson having a swim.” A.Y. Jackson, at the time, was the last surviving and the 8th member of The Group of Seven. She explained that A.Y. Jackson was a houseguest of theirs and had been for several years. We were speechless. We weren’t expecting that. Neither was Mrs. Bulger. When he finished his swim he came up to the room where we were standing overlooking the pool, said a friendly hello to us all and asked if we had any questions. We were totally speechless! I wish I had a camera but none of us had thought to bring one.

I was at The McMichael Gallery about five years ago with my younger daughter and a few friends and joined in on the guided tour of the new Gallery. They have added several additions to the house and it’s quite a large Gallery now. That swimming pool has been drained and made into a theatre. The seats are set in the decline of the pool from the deep end up to the shallow end. I would have never guessed that it was that swimming pool I looked down at from that window next to the Gallery with Mrs. Bulger's Grade 7 class.

The McMichaels have passed away and are buried in a small graveyard on the property and A.Y. Jackson, who died just a few years after that class trip, was also buried there with the McMichaels.