East Rockaway High School - Rock Yearbook (East Rockaway, NY)

Page 24 text:

Intcr-school track meets, spelling bees and the sharing of the BUZZER, month to month, were the only relations between us future freshmen at high school (it was only a blue print then). These connections were competitive, to say the least. Also, since not all our fun was innocent, teachers held us up to each other and made dire predictions of the day when Rhamc and Centre should meet their superiors in high school. 1936 came and the only conflicts were jealousies that followed some new romances. As a class we have made some records of significance: a Monte Carlo, financially successful; a Junior Play Nile, that may yet become tradition; a balance of $200 in September ’39 to begin the year book. It took us to give a Prom, the first socially successful hop in ERHS history. Free cats were part of the success although Beverly Lillis and Margaret Wilson had tremors at the appalling rate the punch bowl emptied Our resourceful janitors brought a bucket of water and the evening was saved. Our spirits really flared at the first senior Rock Rivalry meeting, a tempestuous two-hour siege. Richie Pastor was one tempest, supporting Devil’s Island as a theme; Vernon Casper spoke for LiE Abner and Daisy Mae, Look, we got a feud right here.” Red Farrell got his [16] Irish up defending Joe College (by collaboration with Jerry Kizelstein this budded into Swing College for the crazy). William Campbell stood on a chair and denounced the cliques. It was mighty. Outside of class doings, there’s been fun too. On a bent oak limb on the Centre Avenue playground, little boys used to kiss the little girls. At Rhame, there were elaborate chases through the lots near school. At sunny ball games and on drippy days, the parking lot was popular, full of car owners’ friends and friends’ friends begging rides home. Vernon Casper, Hid red Hitchcock, Clem Pritchard, Walter Geery and Margie Licari packed them in as long as the doors would close behind them. Only a very few black spots marred our sunny careers. We remember the Lennes’ arithmetic pads that Roy McClure alone could master. For excursions to the museum or the zoo we didn’t always get a seat in the car our hearts desired. The capable class below us frequently beat our teams. But now we laugh recalling. We remember school as brimming with fun and happiness and certain satisfactions. We’ll think back to them whenever we hear a fire whistle blow at eight o’clock the morning after blizzards, whenever we smell floor wax down a clean corridor after a holiday, whenever we see crumpled loose leaf papers escaping down a windy avenue.

Page 23 text:

CLASS DF 1940 There's been a big delusion going on around here. From Monday till Friday, forty-two weeks of each year for twelve years, the class of ’40 has been right on hand, getting an education. Sly teachers know why we stuck to this terrific grind; they had us thinking school was fun! Present day bustlers in the McGovern and Betty Decker manner got their training early. At the very beginning, teachers put us to play with crayons and blunt scissors. There hasn't been a dull moment since. In fact, we've been so anaesthetized by activity that we hardly felt the pain of learning algebra, biology, grammar or typing. We made castles from oatmeal boxes on portable sand tables. We made maps from a sluppy slup” of soaked newspapers and peopled them with native villages of decorated clothes pins. In the upstairs hall of Centre Avenue School, railroad man Dick Blcsscr managed an elaborate system of tracks and switches, while-air man Harper West built balsa models after school till six o’clock. We all had a grand time. School routine was broken by games, stretching exer- SENIOR Prendent. Robert McGovc Secretary. Virginia Krull cises as we faced the open windows, and hilarious races around the rows of desks. Oakley Johnson always won the eraser race because the top of his head was conveniently flat. On Thursdays at Centre and Tuesdays at Rhame, our teachers directed a mass evacuation to assembly, where we were entertained by movies, policemen, glass blowers, and plays from upper classes. F.xtra subjects were a joy to those who like them and a joke to all the rest. For music sessions we sometime traveled to the auditorium piano, horsing along the way. Drawing had a special room and woe betide if Miss Emmick heard a racket from her pupils cn route. That meant we had to form a line and come down the stairs all over again and again. In the proper proportion, they gave us outdoor activity, beginning with lower grade gardens and culminating in the Rhamc-Centre track meet. There Bertha Vobornik won blue ribbons annually, to Centre Avenue’s despair. On track meet days there was no school in the afternoon. Mr. Bormann, in white ducks, mopped his head and recorded the points while teachers in ankle socks and sun-back frocks watched over the separate events. Miss Rudiger with a megaphone reigned supreme. [it] CLASS OFFICERS rn. Vice President. Ruth O'Bncn. Treasurer. William Mcldcnhurg

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RICHARD ABRAMS Vc call him Rhythmic Richard When we sec him skate. And name him Dashing Dick, Among the sprinting great. JAMES A LEA NO He yearns to he an architect And loves to roller skate. Spends his time on model trains And photographic plate.