Garden City High School - Mast Yearbook (Garden City, NY)

Page 11 text:

'ML .1204 af fl. Pali. . . ww! fl. jufure The first crowded days of Iune . . . loafing in the sun on the front steps . . . hurried cramming for exams . . . and finally - graduation. Everything came so quickly that there was little time for reminiscing. But all of us felt, in these last warm days, a nostalgia quite distinct from our habitual spring fever. Perhaps we will forget the sentence structure, the theorems, the speed tests and quizzes. But long after these have faded into the past, we will remember the thrill of the first touchdown on a crisp Saturday in the fall . . . joking with our favorite teachers . . . that sinking feeling before exams . . . the satisfaction of having done all our homework just once . . . and leaving school on the last day, with the green lawn shadowed by the elms, and the white columns shining in the sun. We are more than a little sad as we look over the past four years - and we are proud, too. Sad, because we are leaving behind us old friends and pleasant times - and proud because we feel that we are prepared to serve our home, our community and our country in order to help in the fight for a free, civilized world. The war became an important part of our school and home life this year. Some of our classmates left in Ianuary to join the armed forces or to benefit by an extra year of college. War stamps and bond drives became a daily reminder that we must sacrifice to win. We hopefully started and proudly concluded our bomber drive, and saw several jeeps roll off the assembly line as a result of our efforts. Early spring brought victory gar- dens, a successful Red Cross Drive, air raid alerts: and in the afternoons after school, we could hear the sharp commands of the Student Training Corps. Pre-flight classes and war courses were added to our curriculum. A Student War Board worked to coordinate the war effort of the school. And this small but important war effort has been a foundation for a greater under- standing of our responsibility to our country in this unprece- dented emergency. So it is with pride, with assurance and with faith in what the future will bring that we graduate in this year of 1943. We are proud of our school: and in this crisis, when the future of our country rests in our hands, we will endeavor to make our school equally proud of us. 7

Page 13 text:

TO THE GRADUATING CLASS: lust twelve years ago you entered the first grade of the Public School Sys- tem. Little did you think at that time of the program which you were to follow until your graduation from High School. I too, twelve years ago, entered upon my first year in Garden City: and little did I dream that you and I would be, as it were, graduating this Iune of 1943. Much has happened during this period, and you can now look back over the long stretch and measure your own growth and development. You are now ready to enter college, business, or the services of the United States govern- ment. You take with you the pattern of training which this school and its teachers have so faithfully endeavored to establish for you. Into the weaving of this pattern have gone high ideals, high scholarship, a broad individual program, an appreciation of the better things of life, a thoughtfulness for the other fellow, a desire for service, a recognition of good citizenship, and a desire to achieve. ' Your teachers and I have worked to make these qualities part of you and your every-day living. You go forth into adult life where you will be judged by a very critical world. It will ask you three questions: How well are you prepared? What can you do? And, more particularly: Are you a person of high character? If you endeavor to give to the world the best which your teachers have tried to develop in you, you will have no fears. The world will welcomegyou with open arms. But as you go to meet what lies ahead, you do not go alone. You will carry with you the good wishes and hopes of all your teachers: and I, in a way, will march along with you. You will have my help whenever needed, my advice and best council, my guidance and direction: and we both, you the Class of 1943 and I, its Principal, leave behind us for each succeeding class, a school dedicated to the highest ideals of young manhood and young woman- hood. Let those who follow us continue to build with the plumb of honor, the level of truth, and the square of integrity, courtesy and high scholarship. Io:-IN CoULBoUnN. Mr. Coulbourn, who has been principal of Garden City High School for twelve years, is leaving this year for an executive posi- tion in a business firm in New York. We, the Class ot 1943, thank Mr. Coulbourn for all he has done to make our school an outstanding educational institution: and for all the help and guidance he has given us throughout our high school career. We wish him success and happiness in his new position, and we express the hope that in future years, we will not lose contact with "I . C." who has indeed been our guardian angel. 9