History of the Gnome

Seamus the Gnome first made his appearance at SIM (then SLIS) in the 1997/98 school year.  Seamus and his two unnamed gnome friends ruled the roost for a number of years.

Their origin lies with the release of the movie “The Full Monty” in 1997.  Rosemary Loeffler (class of 1998) explains:

"There was a scene in the film with an older man (very proper English) at a job interview.  A panel of three or four were conducting the interview.  Behind them was a wall with windows that started at the ceiling and were about two feet high.  A group of the man's “friends” had stolen the gnomes out of his garden and were standing on blocks outside the window and holding up the gnomes to dance.  The poor man being interviewed could see this and lost his composure but the interviewers had no idea what was going on."

One of the classrooms in the Killam had curtained windows making it the perfect setting to recreate the scene from The Full Monty.  Rosemary and her classmate, Mary Thornton, found a few garden gnomes and set their plan in motion.  With the help of some others in the school they danced their gnomes outside the windows during one of Bertrum MacDonald’s classes, waiting to see how long it would take him to notice the interlopers.  These early shenanigans endeared the gnomes to the students and they took up permanent residence at SLIS.

Not all was rosy for the gnomes, however.  One of Seamus’s friends disappeared outright (some alumni have suggested that perhaps the gnome took up residence in Bertrum’s garden), and the other met an unfortunate end; Kate Thompson (class of 2005) explains:

"I was usually one of the first ones to arrive to arrive each morning.  One day in the Winter of my first year I walked into the Common Room to discover the poor gnome hanging from a water pipe. The foul deed must have been committed the evening before, but the perp's identity remains a mystery."

Seamus alone made the move from the Killam to the Rowe building and has been hanging out in the SIM Common Room since.  Perhaps a distant relative of the Travelocity Gnome, Seamus has had his share of traveling adventures during those years.

	Playing a central role in the orientation activities of 2005, Seamus was photographed by Katharine McCoubrey (class of 2006) at various landmarks in Halifax to lead the incoming class on a scavenger hunt around the city.
Paige McGeorge and Kandise Brown (class of 2008) included the gnome on their travels to London, and Ashley Machum and Greg Hutton (class of 2009) ensured Seamus had a good view of the Starship Enterprise in Vulcan, Alberta.

Ashley even dressed up as Seamus for Halloween one year.

Classes will come and go at SIM but it seems Seamus is here to stay.  Please continue to send us your gnome stories as the years go by!