Bedford High School - Peaks Yearbook (Bedford, VA)

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Cla sé A stor y The Class Night program was planned around the idea of a reunion of the class of °40 ten years from the time of graduation. After I had been asked to find out some of the things that members of our class said and did during our school days, I looked through the old annual, copies of the school paper, my scrapbook and diary, and various newspaper clippings. I talked to some of my classmates, too, and you’d be surprised at some of the things that they remembered. Let’s see—James McIver was the president of our class, and wasn’t he a good one? Even now in 1950 we can still remember our Secretary-Treasurer, Bill Catlin—always asking for money. In glancing through some of the old copies of The Otters Lookout, I was reminded of Harry Lockard, the efficient Editor-in-Chief. He certainly did work hard trying to get that paper cut on time. In one of the papers there was an account of the party Dr. Lyle gave for the Seniors. At that party Elmer McKinney, one of the most dignified members of our class, surprised us by proving that he could drink the milk out of a baby’s bottle the fastest. There’s one mystery about Beauregard Parks that has never yet been solved to my satisfaction. Why did Beauregard always have asthma during fishing season, but never have it on the day of a football game? Here’s a mystery, however, that was solved. One day Nancy Teass just had to get a newspaper before school. None of us knew why until we discovered that Phelps Walker’s picture was in it. Bob Lowry certainly used to have a time with his ancient Ford. Even though it was old enough to have come over on the Mayflower, Bob thought so much of it that every time it even looked like rain he got out of class to go cover it up. We remember that Gladys Driscoll, when interested in something, was never dis- turbed even by the bell. One morning she was talking to a friend in front of the school when the bell rang, but she kept right on talking until all the Freshmen in Room 31 yelled in unison. When we were “rats,” we were quite meek, and we fairly worshiped the exalted Seniors. Most of us were models of behavior, but I do have a foggy recollection of Mr. Partlow’s grabbing James Gregg by the seat of his pants and soundly spanking him. I wonder if the pupils of B. H. S. today get their tongues twisted as much as we did. Billy Merriken even tried to improve on Shakespeare when he gave.the quotation: “Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it” as ‘Look like the snake, but be the flower.” In the fourth grade Bill Catlin insisted that General “Cornstalk” surren- dered at Yorktown. Anne Miller, believing that variety is the spice of life, answered to her name in roll call with “Hello”! Virginia McClintock looked at the word speed- ometer twice and then read speed-o-meter. I found a newspaper clipping telling about the Senior Play. Didn’t the girls who ushered look pretty all dressed up in evening dresses? They were Frances and Helen

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S OemMows i) 9 ° HOWARD DAVID TURPIN David” Athletic Association, 4 years; Basketball, °38, 39, °40; Baseball, 39; Etude. ALICE LOUISE UPDIKE “Louise” Etude. JESSE PHELPS WALKER “Phelps” Athletic Association, 40; Beacon Lights; Beta Club, 40. MILDRED FRANCES WILKERSON Mildred” Invincibles. SAMMIE ELIZABETH WILKERSON “Sammie” Junto; Beacon Lights; Library Club, 739; Tattler Club, ’40. MABEL LUCILLE WILLIAMS Athletic Association, °40; Etude; Tattler Club, 40.

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Clas 4 SH isto ry--Co nlinued Heck, Rebecca Saunders, Dorothy Thomas, Christine Key, Frances Scott, Mary Eliza- beth Dooley, Louise Hicks, and Dorothy Hopkins. Miss Bibb certainly did have a time trying to keep Ed Sutherland, who took the part of a dignified millionaire, from snapping his fingers every time he said a word wrong. Eddie Laura Kennedy was supposed to fall flat on her face in one scene, but she just couldn’t do it without hurting her—dignity. So Mary Burks undertook to show her how, but she fell just once too often. We were the first class to have the advantages cf a commercial department, and a number of our class took some of these subjects. Sammie and Mildred Wilkerson ought to really know shorthand if they were studying it all the time they seemed to be. Wasn’t it queer that Betty Thomason always had a sore finger on the day of a typing test? To go back to the graded school—didn’t Hunter Smith use to tease Dan Bower about his affection for Rachel Lockard when we were in the fourth grade? You couldn’t blame Dan, however, when you think how pretty she looked as a fairy in the seventh grade play. There were nine of our class in Miss Tate’s room that year, and some of them really distinguished themselves. It was that year that we disccvered what a good Negro actor John Turner was, and that Louise Hicks showed the skill as “room house- keeper” that later won her the Home Economics Medal. I believe Jean Mayhew was the class artist. We had a fine time and plenty of excitement on our picnic that year in Mrs. Steele’s room. There was an old chimney near the picnic grounds, and Watts Gills and Hugh Mackey risked their necks in knocking it down. When Douglas Lester was in the seventh grade, he had a fondness for knocking on the doors of the lower grade rooms and then disappearing. Miss Bessie Coppedge cured him of that habit, however, when she made him come in the third grade and sit down. We will never think of Basil Padgett without his motorcycle or Gordon Lazenby without his lunch. Gordon used to eat before school, at lunch time, after school, and sometimes in between times. Do you remember what a funny mistake Frank Johnson made down at Randolph- Macon Woman’s College? He’s been down there to Latin Tournaments so many times that it does look as if he would know his way around, but he went up the wrong steps and landed in the girls’ dormitory. Weren’t the debates in English Class fun? What happened to Lois Coffey when she got up to say hers? She couldn’t seem to see anyone but one person back in the corner. Mary Elizabeth Dooley used to have a time trying to make Bill Catlin stop pulling her hair. She always told him that she was going to tell Miss Bibb if he didn’t stop, but she never did. Though we may not have realized it at the time, those schooldays were the happiest days of our lives. We may forget the lessons we learned, but we’ll always remember the teachers we knew and the friends we made. Jean DELANEY, Class Historian.