Berry High School - Torch Yearbook (Mount Berry, GA)

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SILVER AND BLUE VN POEM The fleeting years as back we look Have been but few and brief, But light they've shed on darksome spots To bring us calm relief. That inmost urge that summoned us To treasures then unknown We bid to tarry with us still And steer us on and on. Companionships-most treasured gifts 'These we can ne'er forget, But time has come for us to part With our sincere regret, Though times will change and friends will part ' We'll cherish to the end Fond dreams of our dear Alma Mater And hope to meet again. Our ray of hope will sometimes gleam And sometimes seem to fade, But looking back we'll e're recall The true example laid, And then we'll toil with cheerful heart, Undaunted by a care, To fan this fading flame to life And doubts will disappear. The coming years will, too, be brief Just as the ones now passed But richest memories will blend To calm all stormy blasts. Let us then bear this hopeful thought Forever in our mind- That somehow if we strive with faith We'll reach the heights sublime. Information is the most valuable item in all the world-if you know how to use it. SALUTATORY Miss Berry, Faculty, Students, and Friends: It is my great pleasure and privilege to greet you in the name of the first class that has ever passed from this Senior College. And in the name of all my classmates I pass on to you the glad hail of our enthusiastic welcome. We wonder if you realize just how proud we are of this privilege of welcoming you to the first simple ceremonies as the first class. We are so small in number that we might feel more humble than we do, did we not realize the place we are to hold in the history of this college through the years that are to come. Classes will come and go, boys and girls in large numbers will go forth from this college with all the pride of a finished graduateg men and women in years to come will look back with fond reminis- cences to the days of school life with- in these wallsg but there will never be another class like this in the history of the college. We alone can be the first. Do you blame us, that we value this distinction that sets our small class supreme over all the classes yet to come and go? It is quite possible that never again will so small, and apparently insignificant a class go forth from this college. It may also be quite possible, though we naturally shrink from the thought, that the classes to come after us may be far wiser and more brilliant than we have with all our efforts been able to reach, and so attain greater heights than those which we have so persistently Page Sixteen

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SILVER AND BLUE PROPHECY The present still is echo of the past: Of both, the future will an echo be . There are among us many indi- vidualities, many different futures to be worked out along many different lines, it is impossible that any two among you should have the same destiny, and yet each one desires the same ultimate result-success. Whe- ther you will have it or not, remains with yourselves. For four years you have been earnest, sincere seekers after new truths, gain- ing strength and power, physically and mentally, forming beautiful lasting friendships with the great minds of literature, and above all, a broader, sweeter sympathy towards all of the world. Have you gained anything of value for yourselves? What are you going to do with it? Cherish it? You are going forth to give of your store to those who lack. Those of you who have sincerely adopted the principles taught here, who have truly entered into the spirit of this institution are going forth to work-to sincere, earnest service to all who need you. You will not be discouraged if the world does not rush to you, demanding what you have. Neither will you sit quietly down and let the world wonder and then seek youg but you will be aggressive, you will carry your truths to people and cause them to see them so clearly that they must accept them. As you go out from this college you will not drop those principles and ideals which you have adopted so en- thusiastically here, nor let them slip from you by contact with the world, IN, but you will continue to live them as faithfully as when under the inspira- tion of our college itselfg for the world measures you not by what you say, but by what you are. This is the future that I read from your past. You have learned how to think, to work, and to live, but the end is not yet. You will continue to be students in your study of life's larger book as you go forth as helpers and teachers. Teachers-some in the ordinary sense of the word, others as agri- culturists, others as lawyers, or per- haps doctors, while some will carry the same spirit into the more sacred circle, the home. You will go forth with your best to serve the world, and as the world sees the service, it will acknowledge you and assume your success. Be true to your principles, be true to your- selves: And it must follow as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man . Class of 1932, you will be true, true in the greatest, true in the least, and in the Great Tomorrow which we are to help make-may God bless us, everyone. When a bit of sunshine hits ye, After passing of a cloud, When a fit of laughter gets ye, And ye'r spine is feeling proud, Don't forget to up and fling it, At a soul that's feeling blue, For the minute that you sling it It's a boomerang to you. Page Fifteen

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SILVER AND BLUE on and faithfully endeavored to climb. They may be larger, wiser, better, and more attractive from the worldls point of view, but they can never by any possible chance be the first. That honor will always belong to us. We are pioneers of this Senior Col- lege. We have blazed the trail that others are to follow. The future classes will claim the right to look to us as an example. They will watch our course in life, our failures and suc- cesses, and depend upon us for the in- spiration and encouragement that the younger always demands from the older on the battlefields of life. At last we have reached the goal we have been striving to reach for many years. We have looked forward to the time when we would receive our degrees. Now that time has come and we must cast away our privileges and pleasures of school-only to hold them in our memories as we take up the greater burdens that beset us as we venture into the great unknown. But Browning assures us happily: God's in His heaven, Al1's right with the world. It is with that assurance we go forth to meet the problems which life holds in store for us. There have been times in our school life when everything seemed dark and disheartening. We have learned, the meaning of sorrow and disappoint- ment-to some degree-from the human standpoint. And at times it was hard to agree with Browning when he wrote the cheering words All's right with the worldf' We realize now it was necessary for us to meet disappointments and under- go hardships to be able to reach the perfection of character we all desire to attain, and know that: Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face. We who are about to take our places in the world outside of school are glad to feel the assurance that God holds our destinies in the hollow of His hand, and shapes our paths accord- ing to His all-wise, all-powerful con- ception. You ask us where we are going and what we are going to do. Can we say? We may think we have our lives mapped out in a systematic form, but one breath of wind may change our whole plan, to prove to us once more the reality that there is a: Divinity that shapes our lives, Rough-hew them how we will . We admit we dare, not tell just what our lives may be, or where they may be lived. We can only say: I know not where God's place for me may beg I only know I cannot drift Beyond His love and care. Does it matter where we may drift so long as we are doing our part in the Divine plan? Whatever our part may be we will do our best to live up to the aims and ideals of the school from which we are going. To you, Miss Berry, who by your prayers and persistent labor made this school possible and gave us the privi- lege of graduating-want you to know we not only realize the honor that is ours, but we also comprehend some of the responsibility that belongs to that honor. We have done our best to make the most of every opportunity made possible for us. And we trust Page Seventeen