Johnny Barnes

 Since I'm diabetic, I have to do bloodwork and have a check-up with my doctor every three months. In my "old neighbourhoods" post, I mention having walked from the medical clinic to the train station, guided by memories from my teenage years. I talked about seeing a few new developments at my old high school, as well as passing "Blossom Junction", a train made of flowers.

Since then I had to do another check-up and had the opportunity to redo the walk. Unfortunately, this time around Blossom Junction had been removed for the season, but I did manage to snap some pics of the developments by my old high school. Classes were in session, so I felt a little creepy as a 33 year old man with my camera out.

Anyway, here they are

I don't know if the arch has more significance than it appears to have, but at first blush it seems pretty self-explanatory. It says "Here lies open the field for the quest of knowledge" which makes sense for a school, and it also says "Since GCVI 1854". The school prides itself on its age, as it is the oldest secondary school in Guelph, and third oldest in Ontario. Back when I was attending, we did a thing where all the students stood in the formation of the number "150" and had a photo taken of us from above, to celebrate its birthday at the time. I myself was 15.

The school has a "new building" and an "old building", and in the old one, you can see dips in the stone staircases made by the footsteps of of students over generations. We have portraits of every principle over the course of the school's history hung up, and the older ones are paintings. It's said that in the painting of the first principle, if you look closely enough you can see the blood flowing through his veins. I remember inspecting it and believing this to be true. There was once a fire that ripped through the school but all the paintings were spookily undamaged. There's a book with the names of every student to ever graduate set in the entranceway of the old building.

As far as the statue goes, there was a bench with a plaque beside it that gave a bit of context

Apparently the person's name was "Johnny Barnes" and it says "Famous resident of Bermuda, exemplifies GCVI's welcoming, inclusive culture" It doesn't say how he managed this, so I Googled him

So first of all, here's a picture of him in the pose of the statue

There was a Guelph Mercury post on the topic as well, here's the link

https://www.guelphmercury.com/news-story/6126507-johnny-barnes-welcomes-guelph-cvi-students-with-open-arms/

I'd like to note that that article opens with a quote from Mr. Tersigni, who was the guidance counselor back when I attended the school. 

Anyway, according to the article, Johnny Barnes was "a 90-something Bermuda man, known for waving, smiling, and greeting commuters daily".

Apparently the statue didn't originate with GCVI, and was actually on a property in Caledon. When the land was being sold, GCVI asked to purchase the statue. Despite the fact that Johnny wasn't a graduate of GCVI, a citizen of Guelph or even Ontario, the staff of GCVI believed that he still represented the "welcoming spirit", the "international-mindedness, global awareness and respect for diversity" that GCVI prides itself in. According to the article, GCVI had North America's first black high school principle, which is a neat bit of trivia I didn't know.

I don't know. I do like the idea of celebrating a regular person with a strong personality. It seems like that might preserve us from the phenomenon of honouring powerful people, leading to disappointment when information surfaces that contradicts their public persona. Choosing someone without too many information walls feels like a wise choice.

However, the fact that Johnny wasn't a student of GCVI, and the school wasn't involved in the creation of the statue kind of invalidates him as a symbol of the place, in my opinion. Johnny sounded like a cool guy, though.