Girls Preparatory School - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Chattanooga, TN)

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one zigs when she should zag and the whole procedure is thrown into chaos. To the juniors May Day is a day of anticipation. Envying the "glamorous" seniors in their long dresses and places of honor, they wait impatiently on the threshold of their day of May. Finally, the Senior, whose own wistful junior dreams have now been realized, approaches May Day exhausted and with a profound feeling of relief that it will soon be over. Work on May Day committees-"Teaches them responsibility!"-, incessant fittings, dance rehearsals, and mounting bills all have had their share in quenching the wild, school-girl exuberance about May Day. There has been the struggle to achieve a discreet-"Heavens, no ostentation!"-superiority over her classmates both in design, color, and material of her dress, and in the choice and arrangement of her flowers. The poor teachers also have their share of disillusionment concerning May Day. Granted that about "show time" there is never a lack of excitement, the romantic aspect of May Day never seems to be included in a teacher's concept of this festival. May Day is a time of bill collecting, of study halls disrupted for practices, of constant ditties drifting into class in a most disconcerting way from the piano accompanying the rehearsals, of the discipline problems of that dreaded, dead- ly "full rehearsal" from which there are "no absences excused", and of incessant phone calls to the weather bureau to attempt to insure clear skies. After the turmoil of practices and after the period of apathetic ''why-do-we-do-this-every year?" feeling has worn off, the point of no return is passed-the tickets have been purchased and the bleachers set up. The performance is under way. Out come the Seniors to the oft-heard chords of Aida C several of them still trying to get the hang of the left-wait-right technique necessary to keep in stepb. After the processional and after the seniors have exhibited their gowns to the audience and taken their seats Cafter perfunctory and rather unsteady curtsies to the Queen of the Mayb, the remainder of the students gambol on the lawn in various stages of undress and equally diverse levels of coordination. When the pageant is mercifully over, the recessional begins, and the audience gets another chance to scrutinize and criticize the seniors' dresses. The student body joins in a couple of choruses of "Happy Springtime" fwhich title a few cynical sophomores-who, by the way, "goofed" the maypole again-alter to "Sappy Springtimenj and the pageant is over-for this year. For May Day is one of those annual, traditional, never-to-be abandoned customs which keeps itself going year after year. Certainly after a girl has danced folk dances in cheese cloth for five years, she wants her chance at glory as a senior in May Day. And so the custom continues. And gym teachers lose sleep thinking up themes and dance steps, and parents lose money paying for costumes and dresses. Students lose time in practices, and teachers lose their minds every year over the advent of the fifth month of the year. Perhaps the air force has the right idea after all. "MAY DAY! " -Ann Corbitt. ESSAY CONTEST WINNERS FIRST PLACE WINNERS MARTHA THOMAS Voice of Democracy Contest GAIL BRYAN Knights of Pytbias Speaking Contest ANN CORBITT Civitan Essay Contest SECOND PLACE WINNER GAIL BRYAN American Legion Oratorical Contest

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riridgri . . . DEMOCRACY A City and Regional Prize Winning Essay by Martha Thomas I met a man once. His name . . . Democracy. He was as old and as grey as time. In his eyes lay the past of many nations and in his heart, the future. His body was built from the molded steel of guns, his hair was matted with the blood of dead men. I was still. I heard him speak. He told me of a nation conceived in liberty and born that men might live and die equal and free. He said that nation was America. He told me of the men who led that nation: of Washington, its father, as honest as the day was long and of Lincoln, torn between his hate of war and his love of freedom, not just for white men but for all men. He spoke of Jefferson and Grant and Lee. His tone was reverent, his hands were clasped. I saw his eyes move. He looked upon the graves of those who died that he might live. He said, 'lThere lie the bodies of men, young men, who once carried in their heart a sacred prayer for freedom. They fought in many battles in diverse lands and fell on foreign soil unafraid to die for freedom." His eyes reached further. He saw the men, the women engaged in the building of a free nation, by the sickbeds in the hospitals, be- hind the school desks, in the church sanctuaries, in the newspaper offices, in the government build- ings, in the giant production factories, I watched him there, tall against the sky and free. I saw his feet implanted in the rich farmland, and looked upon the harvest corn and wheat which sprouted from the marrow of his bones and was watered by his sweat. I saw that from his sinews sprang the giant sky scrapers, and from his hair was woven the network of factories. His bones were the framework of the commercial harbors, and the light of his eyes burned in a million warehouses. It was his strength in the huge crane that lifted the weight. It was his muscle that built the dam and harnessed the power. The wounds of his body were the destruction of men and the breaking of homes was the bursting of his blood vessels. The steam of his breath was the smoke of the engines, and the skin of his hands was the steel of the jet. His great metallic heart beat with the pulse of the people, beat in the slow rhythm of drums chanting the desire of human beings to live, unbound by the strings of fear. I turned, the man was gone, and his footprints went in all directions as if he were not one but a million men who strove under this name, Democracy. MAY DAY There are some events and activities about which it is possible to remain neutral. The first day of May is definitely not included in this category. Everyone seems to have an opinion-of some variety-about May Day. Communists celebrate it as a day of revolution, English country- folk as a day of dancing around the maypole on the village green, and aviators use "May Day" as a distress signal. This last view is shared by the faculties of girls, schools. In a girls' school the entire month of April is spent in hectic preparation for a pageant cele- brating the opening day of May. Among the students the opinions about May Day are apt to vary. To the seventh grader May Day and its festivities are an adventure, new, thrilling, and amazing. To the eighth grader May Day is rather "old hat". fEighth graders are inclined to have this blase opinion about almost everything-after all, they have done it all once before? The freshmen are concerned with learning their dances correctly and about how attractive and well-fitting their cos- tumes are. CSpectators from certain nearby military schools frequent the campus on May Day, you know.D The sophomore's main concern in May Day is the correct execution K and I use the word intentionallyl of the winding of the maypole. Somehow, despite the greatest concentration, some-

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l aglag... Hail to the Queen of the lovely May