Biddeford High School - Olympian Yearbook (Biddeford, ME)

Page 34 text:

30 THE. OLYMPIIAN ANKLE SOCKS Thousands Do It Every Day Ankle socks seem to be quite the fashion. Miss Modern, a very sophisti- cated young lady who thinks no one knows any better than she how to dress, is often seen in silks and satins yet she is wearing ankle socks. Again we see her dressed in shorts and ankle socks, looking as if she were all ready for a game of tennis or a bicycle ride, but she is wearing high- heeled shoes. No one is allowed to tell her her mistake for she would take it only as an insult. Very often as Miss Modern dresses for church on a hot Sunday in Summer she is heard to say: It's too hot to wear stockings today, I think I'll wear my socks, and when she appears at church she is wearing the socks which are so ill-suited to the rest of her clothes, and to the place where she is going. Miss Modern very often appears out shopping, or at the movies wearing ankle socks. In the Winter when she is going to school, she dons her heavy woolen socks over her stockings, again marring her appearances, if she knew it, or stopped to think about it. In the Spring when the days first seem a little warmer, Miss Modern im- mediately discards the stockings and wears only the socks. Sometimes her legs may be blue with cold, but that is no matter if she can keep pace with the the style. Certainly if she stopped to think how she appears to those who really know what to wear, and when to wear it, she might reconsider and put on the detested stockings when the occasion demands it. G. Davis, '38. MY CUNNING BRAIN There comes in the life of every per- son a time wlfen he or she is in a most diflicult situation and no means of es- cape are present. That was my situa- tion on the moon-lit night of September l4. I had just a few minutes before escaped from the clutches of a band of four husky brutes, and found refuge in the interior of the high school build- ing. As I had on my new clothes, I wished no other encounter with such fellows described above. Sneaking along very carefully in the dark corridors, I was suddenly sur- prised by two roving boys. They were after me in a Hash, but I was like chain-lightning compared to them. I fled into a room which was nearest to me. Suddenly it seemed that the whole building was in a tumult. They thought they had me cornered, BUT NO. I was too crafty for them. They wouldn't get me. Not tonight anyway. As I ran into another lu-DIT11, I felt the presence of eyes boring through me. Could it be possible that I was trapped? Yes, it was possible. They were after me. I ran, I jumped, I pushed my way to the stairs, slid down the bannisters and ran down the first floor corridor: but, alas, I wasn't fast enough. They had me surrounded. My only hope of escape was through a door which was open. In that room was also an open window. I-Ia .... ha .... ha l Escape. What stupid fools these would-be kid- nappers were. I was too clever for them. I climbed on the window sill and hung down and then fell for a drop of about five feet. Escape at last. But no. I was quickly surrounded by a grim-faced group of young men bent on malicious intents. They had me. I am lost, I said to myself. Je suis perdu, as the French would put it. As I looked into the grim faces above me, fear, a hitherto un- known thing, crept into me. I groaned and it must have sounded funny, be- cause my aggressors laughed: I also laughed and the situation was no longer imminent. fclever, eh?l

Page 33 text:

THE OL very real and happening to us. Our hearts beat at a fever pitch. We can hardly resist the temptation of rush- ing to the window and-closing it. James Bean, '38. THE WAY OF THE UNGODLY3' Life is like a boomerang, No matter what you do, Be it deeds of good or wickedness It always comes back to you. Once I was a genius: but that seems a thousand long and dreary years ago. What has happened since seems a nightmare without a chance of my ever awakening, and ending those million and one devils dancing in my brain. A genius, they called me, the greatest scientihc brain in the world, a man who can perform miracles with the science of chemistry. During those years, that time can never erase from my memory, I was perfectly happy. Why shouIdn't I be? I had my beautiful wife and the prettiest little son that ever lived: I had my friends and my enemies. Heaven forgive me, but how I hated those enemies. One whose name was Black was lower than his name. I-Ie, too, was a chemist, a great chemist: but, for some reason or other, he had been forced to leave his position in a great laboratory, and I had taken his place. I-Ie was a scoundrel and contrived in every way to blacken my reputation .I-Ie detested me and, with diabolical cleverness, employed the only dark incident in my youthful past to ruin me. It was a happening which I had en- deavored to obliterate from my mind and had tried to live dovm. Long ago as a young man of eighteen, I had been seriously injured in an automo- bile accident. There were six of us re- turning from a celebration, and, as we had had an extra glass or so, we were not very careful in driving. I was at the wheel, an incident which I have regretted since I have been on this miserable world. I crashed into a truck, and a young woman was killed. YMPIAN 29 My father's reputation and financial ability kept this horrible affair from the eyes and ears of the public. Some- way Black had heard of this story and with this, he was going to break up my home and take away the position I had worked for all my life. Idecided to do the only thing I thought anyone else would do. I de- cided to get rid of Black with the aid of my chemical knowledge. I clev- erly worked on a formula which was to produce a deadly poison. With this I intended to do away with my hat- ed enemy. I worked for weeks secretly in my laboratory at home. Then, finally, I was successful! My poison was completed. Black would be dead that night with my poison which would bring in a verdict of heart attack from the medical examiner. On that morning, I left for my official labora- tory with a song in my heart. Suddenly I was called home by an urgent message. My wife was hyster- ical with grief, for my son, my only son, was dead! Dead!! I-Ie had enter- ed my laboratory and had, I shall never know how, found the poison. Now, he was dead! I was mad with griefg I didn't know what to dog I hated myself so much that I termed myself lower than the vilest creatures of the earth. A few days later, we buried him: and then my wife lost her mind. She died a short while later. Those last few days were centuries of horror to me. I had killed my son and my wife, because I had plotted against a human life. I killed the only' things dear to me, because I was a chemical, a scientific genius. Now I, from my hospital bed, shall crush out this worthless life by ad- ministering to myself the poison which my brain formulated. I have nothing to live for, since Life's dearest treas- ures have been taken away from me because of my murderous plans. The Almighty has passed judgment upon another ungodly soul. Mary Derderian, ' 39.

Page 35 text:

THE OLYMPIAN 31 Isn't it strange what innumerable places a Freshman can get into to es- cape being caught by the juniors at the Freshmen Reception? I think it isn't. Many people think it is. Setrak Derderian, '39. JOHN SMITH, BUSINESS MAN John, dear, started Mrs. Smith one morning after breakfast. I want you to do an errand for me while you're at the city today. See if you can't find cloth material to match either one of these two samples, and so saying, she gave her husband two small pieces of cloth of different colors and designs. Very well, my dear, said John Smith, business manager of the largest corporation in the state, I'll do that during my lunch hour. It should be easy enough. Oh, no, it won't be so easy, replied Mrs. Smith with a hint of warning, be- cause I don't want you to give up too easily even if you Hnd one and cannot find the other. I want you to make sure that you can't possibly get it anywhere. I already have three yards of each kind but I want to see if I could possibly find any more of one kind at the city before I start making myself a new dress out of it. Don't worry, my dear: I won't come back without finding both! , Upon hearing this his wife let him take leave for his office, confident that he would do an errand right-for once. John Smith, with confidence in him- self and his ability, and peace of mind besides, rode on his morning train to the city with the all-important samples in his pocket. During that morning everything turned out unusually well. Even at lunch time he did not have to wait a long time for lunch. But after his lunch Mr. Smith had some difficult work to do! Pooh-pooh, thought Mr. Smith. I'Ie'd do the errand for his darling wife in a jiffy, go back to the office, finish his work for the day, and then to the club for a round of golf. Having finished his lunch, Mr. Smith went to a store in which they sold goods by the yard and, after inquiring, found that they had some cloth that matched with one of the samples but not an inch that would match with the other sam- ple. Very well, thought Mr. Smith, he was half successful, anyway. He would go somewhere else for the other. Give me some of the kind that you do have, he said to the clerk. And how much of it do you want? asked the clerk. Great Scott! exclaimed Mr. Smith to himself, but more audible than neces- sary. I-lis wife had not told him how much to get and he had never thought of asking! Now he was in a jam and he would have to think fast! His wife had three yards, but how many yards are needed for a dress? Six more, maybe? I-Ie might ask the clerk. No, on second thought, he had embarrassed himself enough already. I-er-had better return later, he said nervously, but still trymg to say it in a business-like tone. l'll-er-find out how much, then I'l1 come back. Mr. Smith left the scene of his first failure apparently a little ashamed of himself, not because he knew that the clerk may have laughed at him, but rather because he had let himself be stumped by the seemingly little and un- important matter of how much. Perhaps he should let his wife do her own shopping, he thought for a mo- ment, but then no, he would not go go home entirely defeated. I-Ie would at least be able to tell her where to find her goods. I-Ie'd find out, that's what he'd do! With this satisfying thought in mind, he set out to Hnd out where the other kind of cloth could be bought. How- ever, he did not meet with such luck, not even finding a store that had that