On a warm spring day in 1944, a large class of female students at Edmonds Street School were out in the large yard, dressed to match in dark skirts, white blouses and white socks with dark shoes.
As they set off to march in two long lines, they were headed by Dolores Jackson, then 14 and one of the oldest students in the group. In an all-white dress and cap, she led the students in a series of formations and exercises for Inspection Day, with local Canadian military personnel on hand to take part.
Jackson got a photo of the event afterwards, but it was tucked away into a box and forgotten about for the last few decades.
Until one day last year when, as she paused at a corner on Kingsway to push the crossing button, she spotted herself - white dress, white cap - and the row of girls behind her, on a hydro box a few feet away.
"I couldn't believe it," she recalls with a laugh. "I pushed the button to cross, and then I just stood there looking at it. It was a total surprise.
"There was Grade 7, 8 and 9 (behind), and who is in the very front row, with the long blond hair - it was me," she said. "I have the original picture, and I'd forgotten all about it."
She was thrilled and decided to call up city hall to find out how it had come about. The front desk put her through to city staffer Kathy Wipf, who had been involved in choosing photos for wraps on utility boxes around the city.
"Well, I heard that name and realized I knew who it was - I worked with the Burnaby RCMP for 31 years, and she used to come over from city hall sometimes, she was a very nice young lady."
When Wipf phoned back, she remembered Jackson - who was affectionately known to staff at the city and the RCMP detachment as "Mrs. J" - but didn't realize she was one of the girls in the old photo.
"It was exciting," says Jackson.
A lifelong Burnaby resident, Jackson says she's enjoyed being part of the city as it has grown, living most of her youth on 16th Avenue, then settling on 12th, where she's been for 60 years.
"I was born in Saint Mary's (in New Westminster) on Jan. 20, 1930. Then I went to Stride Avenue School, then Edmonds, then Burnaby South."
She later had three children - and now has eight grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
She is proud of her years of service to the RCMP and still remembers it fondly. When former superintendent Rick Taylor came to the city, she sent him a note welcoming him "to the best detachment in B.C."
"It really was, it was a wonderful place to work all those years," she said.
