Quincy High School - Goldenrod Yearbook (Quincy, MA)

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Qofcftn 1891 -1936 Eight (PubtiAked! by tke AtucJent Quincy J-fu k Sckoo£ Quincy, TTla ackuAett

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Contant Page Cover Design—Prize award by Walter Gustafson Foreword ............ 3 Frontispiece ........... 4 Title Page ............ 5 Staff ............. 6 Contents Page—Photography by the Camera Club. .... 7 The House of Golden Rod—Prize award essay by Barbara Merrill. Illustra- tion by Charlotte Downs. ........ 9 Forty-Five Years of Golden Rod. Excerpts from a contest essay by Frances Saltus. Given honorable mention. . . . . . 12 The Governor-General s At One. Prize award story by Frances Steeves. Illustrated by Ella Blaisdell. . . . . . . 13 The Golden Rod—My Literary Hayfever, by Harold Bertrand. Illustration by Clifford Dyson. . . . . . . . . . 17 Realism and Phantasy—Lora von Bergen, Vernon Weeden. ... 20 The Worm Turns—By Marie Coletti. Illustrated by Eugene Marini. . 21 Two Minutes With Leslie Howard. Interview by Fanny Szathmary and Ronald Vanelli. .......... 26 From Our Viewpoint. .......... 27 1891—Q. H. S. Chronicle—1936. ........ 24-25 That Oxford Atmosphere. ....... 28 Golden Rod in 1897—An interview with an alumnus. .... 29 The First Prize—A story by Dorothy Bassett. Illustrated by Charlotte Downs 31 Sports. Illustrated with sketches from life by Edward Houghton. George Biinn and Paul Crowley. ........ 33 Hay Fever. Cartoons by George Biinn and Dan Herlihy. ... 39 Magazines in Review. . . . . . . . . . .41 Seven

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n°ke ou e Qo£dfen (Rac5 Prize Award Story by BARBARA MERRILL Before looking at tlie back issues of Golden Rod, I was fully prepared, upon glancing through them, to find an ade- quate supply of material to ridicule. But alas! my fond hopes of a good laugh melted entirely away upon my examina- tion of one of the first numbers. True, our magazine of today is a remarkable publication for a high school and in com- parison the early Golden Rods were a rather skimpy, stuffy, and unattractive lot, but what impressed me in skimming their pages was the apparent earnestness and determination which showed in their writing. There seemed to be a more serious note prevailing in the whole issue, while ours now maintains a humorous style throughout, treating things more lightly and breezily. To account for this can we say that the modern boys and girls are a shallow, short-sighted generation, caring for nothing but the frivolous side of life with no consideration for the future or for the serious problems with which life will confront us? No, I hardly think that! By way of explanation, however, I do believe that the rapid pace of modern activity has contributed to freer thinking and less conformed customs, naturally leading to a more diversified and less stilted style of writing. In short, taking into considera- tion the rather somber literary style customary in those times, I really think that the early Golden Rods were fine magazines and each page seemed to bear out the fact that effort, hard work, and much thought had gone into their publication. In contrasting the joke sections of today s and yesterday’s Golden Rods, I would say that to appreciate the humor in any magazine of this type it would be necessary for one to be acquainted with the prevalent fads, conditions, and customs of the school at that time. Consequently, we tend to underestimate the humor in the early issues because we don’t understand the implications made, while to one aware of the facts or the persons connected with them, the jokes would probably Nine