Columbia High School - Mirror Yearbook (Maplewood, NJ)

Page 12 text:

Wlirror — Editors — -Adi uiAerA I960 EILEEN BRENNER Business Manager THEODORE P. GNAGEY Business Adviser RUTH KOSH Editor FRANCESCA A. PALMINTERI Editorial Adviser DAVID REISEN Associate Editor

Page 14 text:

K lCldS 1957- 1958 Teachers looked with some misgiving out of their third-story windows while upperclassmen help- fully sold us elevator passes. Soon the doors were flung open; and we, the incoming sophomores, entered the auditorium. There we learned little gems of wisdom; for example, one never talks (nor for that matter does he shoot paper airplanes) during study. After a factual session of wisdom-orientation we were bodily removed from our friends and thrust into one of twenty homerooms, where we were overwhelmed with the first of hundreds of schedule cards which had to be filled out. This task generated our first qualms— maybe we shouldn’t have taken all those subjects. Then, we learned that there were two lunch periods. When we pathetically queried how would we know which lunch to go to, we received the unenlightening answer that there is no way of knowing,” Just listen to the bells.” That first day, there seemed to be thousands of bells. Soon we became adjusted; we could talk knowingly about assembly day schedules, cafeteria food, and the book pound. Tragedy struck; the Asian Flu arrived, and classes shrank to six or seven. Another visitor came to us from the Orient—the Princess of Siam who spoke at our assembly. At the same time a blizzard struck, and the only ones who were brave enough to plow their way to school were dismissed at 12:30 by a solicitous Superintendent of Schools. So ended our first year at Columbia. 1958- 1959 As another September rolled around, we were veterans with the patina of a year of experience. With horror we learned of the addition of a third lunch period. This lunch was called lost lunch” or sometimes, A third lunch.” Football games were marked by two new additions, male cheerleaders . . . and a plucked chicken; the latter was introduced at the Thanksgiving Game. Soon The Tests came; the S.A.T.’s; the Achievements; and for some adventurous souls, the Merits. To keep us from studying too hard for those tests, and to prevent dry-rot of the corticle area, our Junior Night show, Finian’s Rainbow went into rehearsal. For weeks little leprechauns and elves danced through the halls. At last THE DAY arrived ... at six o’clock in the morning myriads of green-clad creatures were swarming around Grunings. While sleepy Villagers poked their heads out of windows to gaze un- believingly at the crawling things on South Orange Avenue, we gathered six hundred strong, and at eight o’clock made our triumphal” entry into Columbia. Naturally, our Junior Night was the best there ever was or will be. And so, in a flurry of exams, we ended our Junior Year. 1959- 1960 We were Seniors, mature Seniors, finally. Then we went to our homerooms we found that they weren’t where we had left them in June; the new addition had been completed and all the rooms were renumbered. For a humiliating few weeks we were indistinguishable from the Sophomores. We attended the annual football assembly, the last we would see as C.H.S. students. Our Senior Play, Time Out for Ginger, was a smash hit. Our Senior Play? . . . why it seemed just yesterday that we entered Columbia for the first time! College acceptances began to trickle in for a lucky few. For rhe rest, there were more tests, hurried conferences with harried guides, trips to colleges which were given hasty once-overs. Christmas vacation came and went. Hundreds of C.H.S. graduates wandered in with some nostalgia to review memories and tell of their dreams that had come true. As we gazed with admiration and envy, we realized that our hopes and ambitions, too, would soon be realized. For we also, can look ahead to the future with hope and confidence, knowing that whatever may happen and wherever we may go, we will have the poignant memories of our treasure-crammed days at Columbia High. 10