A boarding school that had its own time zone

Margot Heyerhoff in North Hatley, Que. remembers a time when King's Hall boarding school stayed on daylight time all year round. Thanks to a willful headmistress, the boarding school was one hour out of sync with the surrounding areas for much of the year.

Listen to her describe it to Checkupguest hostSusan McReynolds.

Cross Country Checkup3:17March 13, 2016 - Margot Heyerhoff

Margot Heyerhoff in North Hatley, Que. remembers a time when King's Hall boarding school stayed on daylight time all year round. Thanks to a willful headmistress, the boarding school was one hour out of sync with the surrounding areas for much of the year

Margot Heyerhoff:I wentto an all girls boarding school in the 1960's. Outside of the village of Compton, Que: the birthplace of Louis St-Laurent. And westayed on daylight savingtime all year There was a certain logic in it. I guess the headmistress and others decided that we'd get more time in the afternoon of daylight forsports and if we went to the local ski hill and all of that. We'd have moredaylight before heading in for supper and homework and all that.

Susan McReynolds:So you had your own little time zone.

MH:It was incredible because the school was half a kilometer from the village of Compton and everyone around us was on a different time than us by an hour.

SM:If it's a boarding school, I imagine you depend upon a lot of deliveries and all this kind of thing.

MH:Well, phone calls were the weirdest because even if your parents lived in Montreal you had to remember that they were an hour different from you or if you had a boyfriend at the boys'boarding school in Lennoxville, he had to remember when to call.So it was rather eccentric,but it had a purpose and it was actually quite nice. I mean other than the mornings,which were Hell. You woke up the rising bell and you were in the complete dark and I don't think the Sun came up until after breakfast before you were going to your first class.

SM:But you got the benefit at the end of the day.

MH:You got the benefit at the end of the day and that was appreciated too.

Margot Heyerhoff's and Susan McReynold's comments have been edited and condensed. This online segment was prepared by Ayesha Barmania.