Abington High School - Oracle Yearbook (Abington, PA)

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THE ORACLE Walter Sassaman was elected treasurer and enjoyed himself immensely. The first of every month he might have been seen moving rapidly from room to room, accompanied by a small green book and a fountain-pen and with an expression on his face which could have been caused only by his efforts to collect money and to make both ends of the class treasury meet. Louchheim was also elected secretary. In athletics, the girls’ basketball team defeated the Freshman but lost to the Juniors, while the boys team defeated both the Freshmen and Junior fives. Inasmuch as we were Sophomores, we were allowed to have the annual class dance which means so much to the treasury. A committee was therefore appointed to arrange matters. The committee had rough water through which to sail, and many and stormy were the scenes in class meetings. When the dance was held, however, in the gym, on St. Patrick’s Day, it proved to be the best attended dance ever held in Abington. Once again June rolled around and once again the finals were left behind. The casualty list, as before, was small, although a few were killed and two or three seriously wounded. The following September found us on the third rung in the ladder. Noisy and boisterous Sophomores put on a new dignity and became Juniors. Once more we organized and Vic. Scott was elected to his second term as president; Walter Sassaman became vice president, at the same time turning over to Kennard Gregory his small green book thankfully; and Martha Stinson, for the second time, was secretary. The class, almost at once, began to hit its stride in scholarship, with Anna Sjostrom and Eleanor Biecker leading. We outdid ourselves in sports, though. We supplied five men for football, three for basketball, three for baseball, three found places on the tennis team, not to mention a full quota of track men. The girls’ basketball team won the Interclass League cup, while the boys’ team finished—oh, we said we would not mention mistakes. Copeland placed on three of the teams, while Noble, Phipps, Scott and Sassaman each placed on two. And so we went along, backing the “Oracle,” Orchestra and Glee Clubs, and everything else to the limit, when, in June, the unexpected happened. We became Seniors. Coincident with our return in September, we had sent to the tailors, if such a thing were posible, the mantle of dignity we had donned the year before. Late in September we held the usual elections. Bill, or, as he is called by the members of the gentler sex, Billy Louchheim, w s elected president. George Noble found himself vice president, Anna Sjostrom was chosen to write the minutes for us, while Kennard Gregory was re-elected treasurer. In scholarship, the class, this year, has members on the honor roll. As editor of the “Oracle,” Walter Sassaman has brought that paper up to a higher plane than any it has seen in its previous nine years of existence. We supplied Page Twenty

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JUNE ISSUE Site i tHtnry nf tlj? (EI00H of 1921 Robert Scattergood Fox, Historian this latter class come the mistakes we have made, which I shall pass over because of the lack of time. We entered Abington, this class of nineteen twenty-one, forty-five strong, from all the schools in the district, and our hue was such that it did not need spectrum analysis to discern us. This hue soon wore off, however, as we became better acquainted with ourselves, the faculty, and our studies, and as the Sophomores became better acquainted with us. Our Freshman year saw the death of hazing, but the Sophomores were determined that it should have a great funeral, and bent their energies, for the first few months, in that direction. There was the old, time-honored initiation of the “paddles,” several fellows were doused in the locker room, and it is a matter of record that one of our worthy members, Kennard Gregory, could not enter school for the afternoon session, one day, because the Sophs had in their possession, K’s number twelves, afterwards discovered in the rain spout. During this time we found that Abington was a place for work rather than a good time. As a result of this, students began to show themselves. Eleanor Biecker, Walter Sassaman, Francis Tull, Eleanor Conway, and Kennard Gregory, all made enviable records in their Freshman year, and what is more, have held them all the way through. Perhaps the biggest event of the year was the first class meeting at which we elected officers. It was in this meeting that Bill, or perhaps I should say, ‘Shorty’ Louchheim first shone as a politician with Vic. Scott co-starring as the favorite son. The meeting took place early in February. When the smoke of battle had cleared away, and reconstruction work had been started, we found that Vic was the chief executive, with Fred Phipps as his assistant, while Martha Stinson had been chosen Secretary, and Oliver Brock, treasurer. Sports also received their share of attention with Walter Sassaman, Russell Erb, Curtis H. Iloose, and George Noble showing the athletic ability. With all these things, the first year passed so rapidly that before we realized it, June, and the bane of all students, the finals, had arrived. One was welcomed with open arms, but the other was left behind with a very low mortality, and then—and then we were Sophomores. The first thing to do, of course, after becoming Sophomores, was to organize. This time Russell Erb was elected president, and Dorothy Douglas, vice president. Erb, however, left Abington in his Sophomore year, so Dorothy was moved up a step to the presidency, and Victor Scott was elected to fill her place. Page Nineteen S HISTORIAN, I shall try, tonight, to take you back into the oblivion of the years, detailing to you events forgotten and unforgotten, and some, perhaps, which certain members of the class wish to be forgotten. In

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JUNE ISSUE men for every team which represented the school. George Herrmann, in the meet at Norristown, ran the mile in 4.547.% establishing a record in his class. Walter Sassaman, in the football game at Cheltenham, last Thanksgiving, scored the first touchdown which Abington had scored against Cheltenham in years. The debating team which was first picked, was composed entirely of Seniors. This lineup was afterward changed so that the team consisted of three Seniors and— the class of '22 still points to it with pride,—a Junior as alternate. In the Interclass Track Meet, held in the early part of June we gathered in a total of 44 points, beating out by a three point margin, the Juniors, who had amassed a big lead in the early part of the meet. Our class dance, this year, was a big success and the Senior play, “The Comedy of Errors,” under the very able direction of Mrs. Wyatt, enjoyed a run unprecedented by any previous production. And so we have come down to the present. Shortly the Senior Class will be the class of '21. You see before you that class. Some will go on to college, some to the University of the World, all will take courses in experience, but wherever we go, A. H. S., and whatever happens, “Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, Our faith triumphant o’er our fears, Are all with thee; are all with thee. ’ ’ 1---------9--------2--------1 An Extract from the Prm rnt’a Ahrens at the (Claus £)ai| Exrrrisrs nf tlir (Class of 1U21 OUR score and four years ago, minus the four score years, we came into Abington High School and formed a new class, conceived in September and dedicated to the proposition that all men should graduate in four years. When, in the course of human events it becomes necessary to dissolve the scholastic bands which have connected us with the high school, a decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires that we should declare the cause which impels us to this separation. We hold this truth to be self-evident: that all of us are about to graduate. Here perhaps I ought to stop. But on second thought I will continue. To continue: we the members of the class of 1921, in order to form a more perfect union, establish friendships, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common mirth, promote the general satisfaction, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves but not to our posterity, do enact and establish this Class Day for the Class of 1921 of Abington High School. Page Twenty-one