Atascadero High School - Santa Lucia Yearbook (Atascadero, CA)

Page 28 text:

MY TRIP TO MARS MAxxNn HAMMOCK, '31 We were motoring blithely along the Pacific Highway when suddenly I no- ticed a queer, singing noise and heard music and bells in the distance. Then I was hurled through space, thirty-three thousand miles of it, in fact, and found myself standing in a world utterly unfamiliar to me, facing a large, handsome man at least eight feet tall, with brilliant eyes and dark hair. He was dressed in beau- tiful brown fur from top to toe, and seemed much surprised to see me. He looked down at me in a way that made me feel like a pigmy, but he smiled and spoke kindly. Child, where did you come from? he asked. fAnd to save my soul I couldn't remember, as it had been so long since I had started.J I believe you belong to the planet Earth. Do you? I suppose so. I was pretty close to it the last I remember, I replied. But where am I, and how dreadfully cold it is here! Why, this is the planet Mars, said the handsome giant, and added, YeS. it is much colder here than on earth. You have more sun, but we have two moons. Think of that, child, TWO moons. How glad I am to see you. We have been watching the people of your planet for many years, four years are much longer than yours, six hundred and eighty-seven days in each.j This planet is at present morning star to the earth. Do you ever notice it ? Of course, I replied, but we have never known for certain that Mars was inhabited. Oh, yes, he said, though not so thickly as the earth. Some of the things your people do are most difficult for us to understand, at such a great distance. Me, too, so don't let that worry you, I answered, but what things, for instance? Well, said the giant, the way they get in those queer little affairs with wings, that look like Mars' magpies, and hop about. VVhy we have noticed that some of them hop right off the land into the sea, and disappear. Why do they do that ? ' Search me, I said, but I think it's unintentional. There is one, he continued, that seems to know where he is going. He hops about from one land to another, hops across the water, but he doesn't dive in. We have wondered about him. Him? Oh, that's Lindy. He's the greatest man we have, especially at hopping, I said. Then he said, We should like to know why you don't arrange apparatus to receive our messages. We have been sending them for centuries. We also have more modern means of transportation than the earth. We have immense tanks, equipped with lylars lllarvelous Motors, that hold one hundred and fifty passen- gers easily. We simply press a button and these tanks raise swiftly into the air, and away to their destination. They do not fly high, for as you can readily see, we have no mountains, only two small hills. On account of our cold climate, our trees do not grow to a great height. We do not clutter our land with poles for electricity. That is taken care of underground. Some of our adventurous young men are planning to attempt a trip to earth soon. l'Wonderful, I replied, I hope they can make it by 1931 when I graduate from lldargarita Black Union High School. But I'd sure like a ride in one of those big busses you spoke of. Can you run one? Surely, child, he answered. Come with me, and I'll take you over to the shore. There are interesting things to be seen there if you wait long enough. Have you ever seen comets lose their tails and grow new ones? No, I never have, I answered, but I'm thrilled to death. Let's go.

Page 27 text:

SETTING SAIL AT DAWN liorrn Tuomvsox, '28 Tread down, you great ship, Tread down the sea, 'Til the land's last drift Like a mist lies a-lee, Tread down the bright waves That bear me afar To the sea and the sky And the morning star. l.et out your topsails, Your mainsails, and take The strength of the winds For the new day's sake! CROSSES lfktxxces Fox, '28 Two bleached, gray boards. TVhat do they signify? Row upon row of them standing out stark and agonized thru a glare of golden poppies. What is their purpose? To show that what was once a man, eager of lip and eye and ear, filled with the zest of living, lies here. And though the poppies live and bloom, they live on death,-speak of death thru their heavy odor. What do they matter-these bleached gray boards? They are the symbol sacrificial. Thousands of them for weary miles marking and remarking the golden field into death-habited aisles. lllarkers of death. Just two bleached boards that the world may know, may realize, if it is able, the sacrifice of each life. Once, far away, on a windy hill, three crosses reached agonizingly to the sky. And these, the mark VVar leaves behind him, are they the symbol of Jesus still? DESTIN Y llokorm' Foirrxar, '28 Onward, relentlessly it flows-onward! Here and there a stone will futilely try to brook the flood and it may succeed, for a day. Then it sings,--'iBehold, l and l alone, have stopped the water! But the ghastly grey moon sees no stone. The River, the pitiless River, has carried the stone away in its mad, onward rush- ing. The River itself is but one of myriad Rivers and when tomorrow, next day, or an aeon hence dawns, this River will be no more. Once there dwelt on liarth a Klan. A hlan envied of lllen,-for had he not the wealth of a thousand kings? The hlan was proud. Had he not placated the Gods? Had not the priests, for gold, sworn that they would stem the advancing tide? He grew old and his heart grew feeble from the beatings and the churnings of the River. Yet the Klan was proud. Behold, he, and he alone, had stopped the River. Yes. And the ghastly grey moon rose upon a grave. ln the River there was not even a bubble.

Page 29 text:

Well, we stepped into the big tank, which was filled with Mars men, women and children of marvelous size. The giant pressed the button,-the rest was ob- livion. Then--I heard a voice: She'll come out of it in a minute. She's not hurt much, but that truck sure biffed us one! SPORTSMANSHIP Enmr THoMPsoN, '28 We hear and see that word a great deal, but just what does it mean? It seems to apply mainly to various games, but sometimes it is used when we are talking about other things, even about business. lt has grown to stand for a very definite quality that is particularly interesting. In the first place it requires that one obey the rules. If there are certain laws regulating a game or a race, the good sportsman will abide by those rules strictly. A great many times there are chances for a smart fellow to evade a rule and so gain an advantage. A sportsman will not do this. He realizes that rules are made for a purpose, that they are intended to be fair to everybody and to fix things so that everybody will have an equal chance with everybody else. They are for the good of the game, to make it orderly, and to get the best out of it. So the sportsman not only learns the rules of the game he plays, but obeys the letter and the spirit of them. But something else is requiredg it is not easy to describe exactly what it is, because it is made up of so many different things. For instance, there is courtesy. You must play your hardest and do your best to beat your antagonist, but, no mat- ter what happens, you must maintain a decent courtesy toward contestants and officials. It also requires courage. A good sportsman is never a quitter, he must finish his race no matter how far he is behind, and keep trying up to the last second. He never knows When he is beaten, but when he is beaten, he takes his defeat gra- ciously, Without excuses or alibis, and without belittling the achievement of the victor. True sportsmanship does not complain and protest, unless the good of the game demands that a protest be made. It does not take advantage of technical- ities. It is not forever claiming fouls or asking that somebody be disqualified. The true sportsman takes no pleasure in winning an event by the operation of law rather than by his superior ability.. He overlooks faults in his antagonist while taking pains to commit none himself. But these things do not quite give the whole idea of sportsmanship. There is something else,--something hard to put the finger on. The final requisite of sportsmanship is nothing more nor less than that the sportsman carry into his con- test the qualities which make him a gentleman. Thus sportsmanship demands of one: Obedience to rulesg courtesyg exclu- sion of petty fault-finding and protesting. It demands courage and a real contest- ant's heart. Lastly it demands that one shall be a gentleman always. lt takes quite a fellow to be a sportsman, but, on the other hand, a sportsman is quite a fellow. It is well worth the trouble it takes. THE ORCHESTRA ' OWEN ASBERRY, '31 The orchestra leader picked up his baton, looked at the audience, and then brought it down in front of him with a tremendous sweep. The orchestra in- stantly responded. The 'cello sang sonorously and the violin squeeked in a sharp contrast. The big bass drum boomed away steadily and the small drum beat a sharp succession of short staccato notes. The slide trombone slid back and forth ferociously.