Arsenal Technical High School - Arsenal Cannon Yearbook (Indianapolis, IN)

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UNTIE A D THE we LETTER by HELEN McFARLAND English V I I l c 'IMS funny the way small things can annoy you. lieally trifling things. I mean. like your father's reading the paper aloud or your brotheris singing OIL Johnnyi' at the top of his voir-c. or the tea kettleis getting noisy. or someoneis rattling paper when you want to hear what is number one on the Hit Parade. Silly things like that were annoying me unreasonably when Aunt Nancy came. Aunt Nancy is that one-in-every- family kind of a person who informs us by a wire on Thurs- day that she will arrive on Friday for a week-end visit and then stays on for a month. She carrie out to our house in a cab. as she always does. and said, Why on earth didnit you tell me that Charles was at the station 'Fi' tCharles is my father. and he always makes the futile trip to the station to meet Aunt Nancy, although he knows if he misses seeing her, she'll hail the first cab she sees.t She carrie in and kissed us all and shrieked at her reflection in the mirror, Good heavens. my uriderskirt shows! tAunt Nancy belongs to that old-fashioned school of women who call their slips by that antique name of under- skirt.l She commanded my brother Bill to carry her things up to her room tshe calls it her room and it really is, for about two months out of every year, but among ourselves we usually call it the guest roomt A she ordered me, Stand off a bit. Sue. and see if my underskirt shows when I pull up my strap. Mother was quite calmly sweeping the living room because she is used to Aunt Nancy's whirlwind personality and can usually proceed naturally even under the most violent demonstrations of Aunt Nancy's vitality. That afternoon I was sitting at my desk in the dining room trying to get a few of my lessons when Aunt Nancy came downstairs. She dashed so hurriedly through the living room that she fell over Fatheris pet hassock and landed not two feet away from iVIother's onrushing vacuum cleaner. How- ever, she picked herself up quite nonchalantly and made a more-or-less beeline toward the dining room. When she saw me she said, t'Oh, you're here, Sue! I didn't look up. I only smiled wanly the way I always do at those unnecessary words, and pretty soon I realized that my vivacious Aunt Nancy hadn't left the room, but was pacing round and round the dining table. I looked up and said, Is anything the matter. Aunt Nancy 'PT And she said, Oh, no! I'm just exercisingfi' That's what I mean when I say that small things annoy me. Aunt Nancy had a perfect right to exercise anywhere she pleased, but just because she paced round the dining table, I lost my ordinarily even disposition and fumed. When I say I fumed I mean that my face was very red from not saying what I thought, in an attempt to be polite. Aunt Nancy noticed it. She came over to me and putting her hands on my shoulders said, s'Sue, what on earth are you blushing for? I got a shade angrier and a shade quieter and a shade redder. and Aunt Nancy thought she was embarrassing me, I guess. and she delights in that. so she said. smiling slyly, Why, I do believe you're in love. Sue. I sputtered at that because I had just had a misunder- standing with Jerry. who used to be my love. and I was momentarily a woman without a man: and more than that, my manners were fast dissolving into temperament. so I used my sputters as an excuse and ran upstairs. mumbling some- thing about my throat being sensitive. I locked the door to my room and stuffed paper in the keyhole and put a pillow over my face and screamed. After the scream I felt so much better that I sat down before my mirror and practiced horrible faces to make at Aunt Nancy's back. I was experimenting with crossing my eyes and tearing my hair when the paper stufhng fell out of the keyhole, and I heard Aunt Nancy's breathless voice whispering. L'l.et me in, Sue. I want to talk to you. She sounded so excited that I unlocked the door and let her in. Wlieli she saw the pillow on the floor and looked at my dishevelefl hair. a strange expression of sympathy and understanding passed over her face, so that I wondered what on earth she was thinking. Well. I found out. Aunt Nancy was waving a piece of my theme paper and making clucking noises as she looked first at it, then at me. In that moment I experienced all the horrible sensations that can come with a great shock. The paper was my French translation-but how could I explain that to my romantic Aunt Nancy? We had been reading the love letters of a famous Frenchman and I had translated as far as the safutatione- My dearest onefiand the first sen- tence- How endless the hours have seemed since our partingfi' Aunt Nancy peered at me with a look of sympathy that filled my soul with despair. She was going to aid and abet me in what she tsentimental soullt thought was my first love affair. I tried to head her off-I looked her straight in the eyes and said. slowly and distinctly. uAunt Nancy, you have ALONE AT SUPPER TIME by JOAN IRENE Rose English Ia I looked in the kettle, the kettle was dry. I looked in the bread box---found only a fiy. I turned on the light. and I looked all around, But nothing to eat in the kitchen was found. I heard funny noises all over the house. I even was sure that I heard a real mouse. The water was dripping, plink plink, in the sink. Although I was hungry, I just took a drink. 'With nothing to do and with nothing to eat. I sat in a chair with the dog at my feet. I looked at the clock, and I gave a big groan. Oh why, and oh why, don't my folks hurry home?

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made a terrible mistake. That is not a love letter. It is my French translation. But Aunt Nancy had her romantic instincts aroused. and no power on earth could stop her. She went about the house singing. Love is just a game that two are playing: love is just a silly game of chance. She played Sweethearts on the piano until I almost lost my mind: she made tarts for dinner and recited the nursery rhyme about the queen of hearts who made some tarts until I felt like throwing my tart in her face. She smiled slyly at me and squeezed my hand under- standingly: she sang I'll Follow Nly Secret Heart at all hours of the day and night. The family. being hardened to Aunt Nancy! antics, took no more than a casual interest in the proceedings until the night that she went to the phone in the hall and called Ierry's number. tlerry. you remember. used to be my best beau before we had our misunderstanding.D She asked for ,Ierry and pitched her voice very low so that it sounded a lot THE BALA CE by DONALD PITTS English VIIC NE of the smallest, most expensively equipped rooms in the school is the balance room. Probably there is no other classroom that has two thousand dollars, worth of equipment accessible to the student. This room is only a hole in the wall about ten by twenty-five feet. It has one window at the far end whose blind is usually kept low. Lining the side walls are narrow tables on which are glass-encased balances. In the center of the room is a wider table with balances on each side of it. The instructoris desk is under the window at the far end. Scattered about the room are a handful of students. ILL LE E by HELEN MQFARLAND English VIIIC WILL leave you in the spring, Tech: I will leave you. walking swiftly and without tears. I will not be senti- mental. Tech: the world has no place for sentimentalists: but I cannot go without saying goodbye. I will remember you as you are now, Tech, big and beautiful and growing. I will remember your outlines against the sky: your towers, so proud and brave above the buildings. I will remember the sound of you, Tech, loud and gay and young: the sight of you-your tall trees, your green grass, your flowers growing. like mine. which is a deep contralto. She said. Ierry. this is Sue. I want to tell you that lim sorry. I want to apologize. Will you forgive me 'Ki' She hung up right away' and walked to the living room door and smiled at us in that bland way of hers. I was furious. I could if-ll that because my heart was pounding so fastfemy' breath was coming so swiftly. I walked over to Aunt Nancy and opened my mouth. I must haye been very angry. because words wouldnit come at first. when they did come. they were heavy with feeling and my voice shook as I spoke. Aunt Nancy. youire a pt-achli' I put my arms around her and hugged her as hard as I could. She smiled at me in that sympathetic way which had annoyed me all week. and for the hrst time I saw the mischief in her eyes. From the living room window my brother Bill shouted. He's coming up the walk! and Ifather said. Now at last there will be peacef' Nlother crinkled her eyes at me above her paper. and Aunt Nancy' said. I or heaven's sake. Sue. go answer the door! and so I did. own AT TECH each seated squarely in front of his balance. Each face is frozen. as the young chemist ever so carefully manipulates his delicate piece of machinery. He knows his balance as well as he knows himself. Once in a while some one will give a sigh of relief: you know he is satisfied with his result. Sometimes there comes a discouraged look. then a more determined expression than ever. Sitting at the instructor's desk is a gray-haired man poring over the paper which he has in front of him. There are very few questions asked: very few instructions given: each has a job to do and he does it. No hurry: hair-line pre- cision work is the only essential factor. In this little room is the very heart of every advanced chemistry student. tm THE PRI G I will remember you as you are in October. bright in the autumn sun: as you are in December, white in the falling snow: and as you are in April. misty with rain and lilac blooms. I will remember your green-bordered paths. Tech. the sun on them. the people on them. I will remember your great days-Supreme Day and Honor Day and Commence- ment: and the hushed reverence of your assemblies. I will leave you in the spring. Tech. I will go away. not with tears. but walking slowly. memorizing the silhouettes of your trees. of your buildings: remembering you because I love you. because I will always love you. I will leave you in the spring, but I cannot go entirely away. I will leave a part of me here with you-a part of my youth and my heart.