Hemlock High School - Huskie Yearbook (Hemlock, MI)

Page 11 text:

For all the opportunities offered to us and the assistance given to us, I, in behalf of the class of ’17, wish to extend our sincere thanks to each and every one of you. Especially to the school board, who have shown themselves worthy of the great trust placed in them. Friends, relatives, and parents, we wish to thank you for the interest you have shown in our welfare and we will try to re- ward to some small degree the sacrifices you have made for us. We also desire to express our thanks to our teachers, but we feel that no words can repay the debts of gratitude we owe to them. They have devoted themselves to the careful training of each of the students in order that they may again instruct those who are placed in their care. Let us try to prove ourselves worthy of their efforts by our devotion to our future work and by our zeal in the cause of an education. Classmates, this evening has not been appointed as a mere social gathering, but for our final depai'ture. Altho we have looked forward to this time with great pleasure, yet our hearts are now filled with sorrow by the parting from our old school which seemed like a home to us for the past four years. This night may not only separate us from each other, but may also mean the end of many friendships formed in the past years. All the pleasure, toils, joys and sorrows which we have experienced together in our short jour- ney are even now but memories. We have now reached the point when we must step out into the new and much wider world that lies before us. And to those who have not completed their high school course we will say, do your task well and you will surely reach the standard for which you are aiming. Hoping that nothing will ever stain the honors that we have gained in our high school course, I again say farewell. ERNA WARDIN.

Page 10 text:

VALEDICTORY Friends, fellow students, teachers, and class of ’17, when I was asked to deliver the valedictory I thot of the verb “valeo,” in Latin, which means “farewell,” and “dictus” means “to speak,” therefore I reasoned it out that I must stand before you tonight in order to say farewell. Now the word farewell has a much deeper meaning than people usually think it has, when they say it. It not only means for us to say good-bye to our classmates, to our fellow stu- dents, and our teachers, but also to the many habits we have formed in past years. We are now standing at the entrance of a new world. For years we have been fitting ourselves to enter upon this new exist- ence. The lessons which our High School has taught to us are but solutions of problems which our future will present. We have studied life in all its various forms, yet our knowledge is but passive. We are about to enter into a great hurrying world and study life in action. The swift currents of affairs will sweep us onward into new scenes and new associations. We will now act quite independent of one another, and it is this independent action that gives force its worth. This is but a glimpse of the great universe before us. It is really life in action. It is man striving to assert his needs. Every individual who has lived or died has given some new impulses to humanity, and it is by these impulses that we are drawn into active life. As we bid farewell to the old familiar scenes which are en- closed by our narrow horizon and enter upon a broadened field of action, we are attended by a multitude of lofty spirits, these are memories of our school days. Pictures are vividly brought before us that have grown dear to us thro associations. They show us the long and hard struggles of our short journey. Often our way seemed darkened and our steps faltered, but we were cheered and upheld and directed upward and onward by those who have so kindly taken the responsibilities upon themselves of guiding and instructing us. At last our journey draws to a close, the summits of our early endeavors are reached but are still afar off, calling us into new and large fields of action. But before we leave the old life, with all its dear scenes and associations, we pause a few moments to express our thanks and to say farewell.

Page 12 text:

PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS The exercises of tonight close the second period in the history of our school. They mark the passing of the class of ’17, the largest of the Hemlock High School. We are all proud of the fact that we are members of this class; but we have a very peculiar feeling which is mixed of joy and of sadness. Of joy, because we have reached the point for which we have been striving for twelve years; and of sadness, because we are leaving forever the members of the class of ’17, the teachers, the undergraduates and the school. Day after day we have assembled here, mingled with all people in high school, and attended all the school associations. They are very vivid in our mind now—they can never be forgotten. The events of the last four years will be remembered and recalled with pleasure. We shall remember many small incidents that have happened in high school, which seem hardly worth telling now, but which will linger long and fondly in our memory. This is the time we must say “good-bye.” We cannot take leave of these familiar walls and sunder the pleasant associations which have bound us together here, without acknowledging the debt of gratitude we owe to our school and to the members of the faculty for the training we have received under their di- rections. We appreciate the value of that which we have received here, it has depended upon their care and faithfulness. We know that without it we could achieve neither a moral nor a business success. Gentlemen of the School Board, we realize that it is your silent influence at work through the under-current of our school activities that has laid the foundation for this hour and has made it possible for us to stand before you tonight. You have provided for us the school building, to be forever set aside as an institution of learning—a place where all young men and women in search of educational advantages may meet together for the purpose of being instructed in such branches of knowledge as they may seem to need. To many of us the education which we have accomplished here will be our capital and equipment in beginning life and whatever wealth and honor we may win hereafter in the world, we shall be largely indebted to our school as the means of success. Let us then always remember the Hemlock High School with affection and let us express our sincere thanks to the members of the faculty and school board. Classmates of ’17, we shall soon separate never again to be assembled in classes in this school. From this day on we shall occupy a different position and shall live a different life. The issue of the future, for honor or for shame, rests in no accident of position or circumstances, but in our own hands. Let us then in the future have many pleasant memories of our fellowship and the never failing affectionate remembrance of our high school days. It is my sincere wish that honor and happiness accompany you. Let us do as Long- fellow says, “Let us then be up and doing; With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.” EMMA DAY.