Garden City High School - Mast Yearbook (Garden City, NY)

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was started by Mr. E. P. Andrews, under the auspices of the Coast Guard. Mme. Lucienne Olinger, an instructor at New York University, brought one of the theatres of war closer to us in an interesting and highly instructive talk on Algiers at a meeting of the French Club. Iust as we were settling down to a period of real, concentrated work, with much gnashing and chattering of teeth, Mr. Wassung declared a vacation from February ll-23, because of the fuel shortage. After we returned, fully rested C?j, the rest of the Senior pictures were taken and we held our elections for Senior Class offi- cers. Iim Dillingham was chosen president to replace Doofer Dunne, while Dick DeTurk was elected vice-president in place of Iack Cordes. March came in like the proverbial lion, but surprised us with some warm days, while we frantic Seniors waited impatiently for our class pictures. The boys received their awards for winter sports at an assembly. Then the girls gave everyone a turn by appearing in bow ties: after a few feeble protests that they were going to start wearing dresses, the boys reluctantly agreed that the ties were okay . The third quarter ended on April 2, bringing home the realization that only ten weeks of school remained. Senior girls, striving madly to make up those forgotten gym periods, rued those required afternoons that had been spent instead over a frosted float at Klipp's. Will we ever learn? Spring fever began to take ef- fect and the fancies of the few remaining boys lightly turned to what we lonely hearts had been thinking of all year. Colleges and busi- ness schools started their annual deluge of fan mail upon undecided Seniors. Should we post- pone our plans for higher education in favor of aiding the war effort by riveting, fighting po- tato bugs or milking cows? With these ques- tions still unanswered, we turned our atten- tion to the Girls' Indoor Meet. After the usual grilling weeks of rehearsal, the Girls of Gee M it 'xt X xv 3' af xgzui ffl- 'Q . ' Qi' Www itil x K ., ' It e il 3 :ifu in if is - is 47

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cler appeared a few weeks later and put us right into the old Christmas spirit. True, we were unable to trip lightly to classes to the strains of Hark, the Herald Angels Sing, and we missed the Christmas Tree in the hall: but we were consoled by the Masquers Club pres- entation of The Beau of Bath and by the won- derful Christmas Dance of the 23. The day school closed, the orchestra and Glee Club com- bined their talents in a Christmas Concert which put us all in a holiday mood. In the meantime, the basketball quintet - the Blonde Bombers - in their darling red uniforms, were capturing all eyes at Friday night games, and making it difficult for us to de- cide between watching them, doing homework, or skating on Hubbell's Pond. But vacation in- tervened, and a spell of warm weather made us find other forms of amusement besides loaf- ing at the Pond. CAnd don't think we didn't, either!D We trudged wearily back to school, only to be told that the Seniors were to have their Mast pictures taken that week. Following the coy advice proffered by the photographer on those little cards, we all smiled sweetly C?D at the camera. Then mid-years reared their ugly heads, and many of our more ambitious stu- dents, hoping to graduate in lanuary, burned the midnight oil over the physics and English regents. Exams came and were gone, and re- port cards - well, let's forget them. CGood idea.-Edj Ianuary brought a definite deple- tion in our ranks, when many of our most out- standing members left for college and the armed services. We tried to adjust ourselves to this decrease, nobly quoting C'est la guerre : and having received our regents marks, we had an additional incentive to spend more time on our school work. The war brought other changes in our curric- ulum. A pre-flight training class was estab- lished: the Red Cross met once a week with Mrs. Petersen: and later on, a seamanship class I I I 1-fi cfax-- -11 Q yi i 3657? 3 559' l V 2 it W 46

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Cee High exhibited their talents in relays, tumbling, drills, dances, and songs, on the afternoon of April 2. On April 5, the band gave one of its best concerts, with lVlr. George Briegel, eminent conductor and arranger, as guest artist. The following week, the Glee Club presented a Victory Concert, featuring Miss Claire Deene, violinist: the sale of 35,000 worth of war bonds made this a truly memorable affair. Men in uniform in this community are not a novelty, but we did sit up and take notice when our own boys appeared in uniform dur- ing school. The Garden City Training Corps, formerly under the guidance of Paul Brown, its originator, became a part of the physical education program. Throughout the spring weeks, shouts of Hep, two, three, four could be heard, as the boys drilled on the playground adjacent to the Cathedral Ave- nue School. The A-12 and V-12 programs were intro- duced to us at an assembly in March, and on April 2, thirty boys in the Iunior and Sen- ior classes struggled through a three-hour exam given in the library. Throughout the remainder of the school year, those who were accepted were notified to report for their physical. Students who passed were assured of the equivalent of a full college education and a commission in the armed forces. Two very successful war activities this year were the Red Cross War Drive and the Bomber Drive. As a result of lVlr. Bartlett's stirring appeal and our own personal feel- ings, we raised S538.00 for the Red Cross. In April and May, we went over the top in raising the amount necessary to purchase a bomber in the name of Sonny Edmonds, an alumnus who was killed in action this year. At the suggestion of Mr. Wassung, a Student War Board composed of the Student Council. and homeroom representatives working with the faculty, was created to coordinate the war effort in the school. As a social preliminary to our spring vaca- tion which was from April Z1-26, the Sopho- mores gave their first dance on April 16. The Iunior Class dance on May 7 followed short- ly after the Senior dance held on April 30. At all of these functions, the Stardusters, un- der the leadership of our famous drummer, Iohn Downey, furnished the swing and sway for the evening. The Masquer's Club concentrated its dra- matic efforts this year on the presentation in May of Barrie's The Admirable Crich- ton . Under the capable direction of Miss