Lehighton High School - Gachtin Bambil Yearbook (Lehighton, PA)

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we Qtr muh .... 5H1Itr bin btbtultgf' HIS is the thirty-second volume of the HGACHTIN BAMBIIX' and we are PROUD to present it for your approval. As most readers probably know, it is the usual custom for a year book to be linked together by a theme and, sometimes it becomes very difficult to decide on one which will be appropriate and interesting. We are PROUD to acknowledge thanks to Mrs. Charles Hoppes, the wife of a faculty member and a teacher herself, for suggesting an excellent theme to us. We are PROUD to know Miss Betty Seidel of Cherryville, Pa., because it was she who pre- pared all the division page drawings from authentic Pennsylvania German barn signs and also did the small drawings, which are representative of various phases of Pennsylvania German culture. We are PROUD to know Dr. Preston A. Barba of the German Department at Muhlenberg College and Mr. Paul Wieand of Allentown High School so that we could call upon them for assist- ance in gathering some of the subject matter. We are PROUD to have a cooperative administration and faculty, some of whom were in- convenienced at different times because of picture taking, etc., but all of whom were of assistance in their own ways to make the book a success. We especially thank Mr. Dallas Heffner for looking after the Junior write-ups, Mr. Charles Gernerd for gathering the Senior statistics and Mrs. Eleanor Llewellyn for letting the Senior commercial classes assist in the typing of material. And, finally .... We are proud that we live in that section of Pennsylvania which was settled in great part during the years between 1683 and 1830 by a curious mixture of peoples from western Europe. Although most of them came from the middle sector of the Rhine Valley, whose chief province is called the Palatinate, there were also South Germans, I-Iuguenots, Swiss, Danes, Swedes, and Hollanders among them. With the passing of years these conservative, frugal, and sometimes stubborn groups merged into a new people, with a quaint common speech and a distinct culture of their own. Because the word for German is Deutsch and because this latter word resembles the word Dutch in appearance and pronunciation, these people have been called Pennsylvania Dutch and Pennsylvania Germans, with no writers or historians being agreed on which term to use. For our purposes in this volume we shall probably interchange them and know that, at the present writing, both forms are correct. We of this section can trace our own characteristics and capabilities and we know our ancestries rather well, so it won't be necessary to say much about those fields. We do wish to point out, however, that, whereas commercialization has done much to publicize the Amish, or Plain People, of the Lancaster County sections, we of Carbon, Berks, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Bucks counties are of somewhat different religious leanings, and our habits and dress in general are different. Basically, however, practically all settlers of eastern Pennsylvania, Whether of the group being honored or not, were here to escape the unbearable situations in the Old World, and we of Penn- sylvania German stock are PROUD that our ancestors were able to do their part in building up one of the greatest of the forty-eight states. MIR SIN SCI-ITOLZ! THE CLASS OF 1952 EDWARD G. DIEHL, Adzvirer 6?fQfQDs Cf W Ev' fl' 1 Q JD 0 in -1432-1- ,

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we ehitate 0 9 0 this edition of the ugatbtitl igdmbiln to MR. HARRY W. LAUHR . . . a teacher and a friend. Although Mr. Lauer is a resident of Lansford, his activi- ties in behalf of Lehighton High School have often occasioned his spending much more time with us than he spends in his home town. He is a 1936 graduate of Lansford High School and in 1937 he was graduated from liordentown Military Academy. After receiving his HS. degree from East Stroudsburg State Teachers' College in 1941 he took additional Work at Muh- lenberg College. Our dedicatee served in the armed forces in World Wal' ll, and upon discharge came to L. H. S. He has been with us for the past seven years and in that time has taught courses in American history, civics, Eng- lish 9, business training, reading, mathematics, health and science 9. His present work is in the fields of science 9, science ll, -lunior High literature, and reading 7 and 8. Mr. Lauer can always be depended upon to help the pupils of Lehighton High School in their extra-curricular work, and he has from time to time been advisor to the Freshman Class, chaperoned skating parties and dances, assisted with the Leni Lenapiann, and aided in producing the various school plays. Even though the teacher we honor is not of immediate Pennsylvania German ancestry, his family was among the early pioneers to this region and We know that, in keeping with our theme, we are presenting one of whom we can be proud . . . proud because he is on our faculty and proud because he is our friend! -TH E STAFF