Woodstock High School - Eureka Yearbook (Bryant Pond, ME)

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pinned down and not able to move. A hand grenade suddenly comes over the embankment and the Texan picks it up and throws it back belore it explodes. The three know what will happen if they remain here, because next time there will be two grenades. The three rise suddenly and run a crisscross pattern toward a more sheltered rock. The Red's machine gun chatters and Dave feels a numbing in his left leg as the Texan and Jason fall. Dave keeps going and dives behind the rock as another burst of fire blows pieces of rock into his face. Dave knows his predicament. The rest of the souad is pinned down on the sitle of the embankment. He is the only one with a chance to toss a grenade into the machine gun nest. He pulls the picture of his wife anti kids from his shirt pocket and looks at them for a long minute. Finally he puts the picture back in the pocket and pulls the pin on one of his hand grenades. He waits, knowing he will get it back if he throws too quickly, finally he stands straight and heaves straight armed. It hits a bull's eye as men and the machine gun both are blown into the air. Dave is smiling. He wonders what the kids are doing now. Probably just coming home from school. Suddenly he realizes his mistake as an explosion occurs in his head. He begins to see why he is here and a lot of other things, but he is sinking — sinking into a bottomless pit. The one surviving Red smiles, and sneaks away through the small trees, as the remainder of Dave's squad walk, crouching forward, up the embankment. Rex Martin '55 A CHANGE As the door opens into a home in a town of the West and you look around a small, one-room house, or rather a “shanty”. You see three children, Jodi Lynn, 16, Sammy, 10, the baby, Sally, a few weeks old, the mother, Jane, and the father Jim; they are all huddling around the small stove in the middle ol the small living quarters in which they were staying because of the low wages of the bread winner of the family. Let’s start at the beginning and see how this all started. — When Jane and Jim were first married they had a nice home, and money enough to make them live comfortably. When the first baby was born, a girl, Jodi Lynn, everything seemed complete, and things were still going fine when the next, a boy, Sammy, was born. Right after this, however, disaster struck — Jim was at work one day when a machine mashed his leg to bits, just below the knee. They rushed him to the hospital, and said he would have to recuperate a long time, but that he would be all right, if you can call losing a leg all right. Taking care of the family and hospital bills and all the other expenses had almost completely drained his savings, and he had to give up his house and car. He thought he would be all right, though, because the place where he worked offered him a job doing something else, where he could be used and not feel as if it was just a favor to him. He recovered rather well under the circumstances and was back doing fine. One night he heard a fire alarm, and was soon informed that it was the mill where he had worked, ft had burned flat; Jim was out of a job. He tried everywhere, but no one would hire a man with only one leg and crutches. They decided to move out of the village in to a small one-room shack where it would not be so hard to get along. Jim could find a job once in a while. It wasn't steady and the wages were low. It was hard to get enough for one skimpy meal a day. Things went on in this condition for several years until the next baby, Sally, was born. When she was a couple of weeks old, a letter arrived in the mail — the first one in a long time, except for bills. They thought this also was a much-hated bill of some sort, but when the postman said it was a telegram they hurriedly opened it to find the good or bad news, whichever it might be. The mother read it through once 18

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 Yes,” urged Johnny, “my bed is big enough for two. Mom won't know you've gone if you sneak back before morning.” Dad, pleased with the idea, took his pillow and blanket and silently they tip- toed from the room. When they had left Mom got out of bed and looked out the window. Down on the lawn Jerry ran to meet them and two little boys and one big boy tramped across the lawn, blankets dragging behind. Mom snugged back in bed and said to herself “Now I can go to sleep without worrying about whether the boys are all right.” Denise Noyes ’57 HILL NO. 206 It was warm for February. The mercury has climbed to 11 above today at noon, maybe not warm compared to Miami, but warm for Korea. The Seventh Calvary has fought, walked, crawled to within ten miles of the 38th parallel. Now they are resting, licking their wounds, and preparing for another slow, tedious drive. One would never know' that these boys flirted w ith death every second, by their outward actions. In this weary moment, with the Communist troops in the immediate vicinity, they joke and laugh as they smoke cigarettes and clean guns and personal effects. Of this group one man doesn’t fit. You could tell if you had just come from the streets of New' York that he doesn’t fit. As the rest smoke and laugh, he sits sullenly and centers lus wdiole attention on the cigarette in his hand. Dave Hig- gins, that is his name, comes from Vermont. Family man, has two kids, and a pretty wife. That’s why lie's so bitter. It seems he fought all through the 2nd World War and then he got married. He just got settled, when this “police ae lion” breaks out over in this good-for-nothing hole. Oh no, they couldn’t draft single boys, who are running around killing people with cars, they have to drag him back into this dirty mess. Why is it a few always get the dirty work? Oh, that’s not all, he could stand the dirty work, but the people back home don't even know a war is going on. They open the paper to the sports page and see how the horses did. Why, the news of the war has taken the second pages now. He could stand it if he knew the people were behind them, but they aren't. Only the rela- tives of the boys know' what is happening over in the “hole”. As he thinks of his wife Betty and his daughters, Barbara and Kathy, his eyes soften, but, in a lew moments, they have again assumed that rough, indifferent look. They start forward again, crouched ready at any minute to dive to cover. Dave is flanked on his left by a Texan, a tall lean man with whom Dave has been here in Korea at the same time as Dave, and who has been liked among the best ii. remotely friendly, and on his right is the guy from Wisconsin who had arrived here in Korea at the same time as Dave, and who has been liketl among the best in the squad. Jason Smith is his name, and he too is married. Glancing at Jason, Dave notes the new lines in his face and the haunting eyes that every veteran possesses. Communist ground batteries pound away in the foreground, accom- panied moments later by shrill whines, as the shells mourn overhead or by the sudden crash nearby. The crunch of snow' under foot is all that can be heard whenever the big guns die lor a moment. “What is the name of this hill.-' Jason is asking. Dave says two hundred and something, he doesn’t know for sure, and they continue, crouched for a sudden leap, not knowing when or where, but know- ing it will come. Suddenly in front and a little to the left a machine gun chatters. To Dave's left four men double, grab their stomachs and fall, all dead when they hit the soft snow. Their legs kicked once or twice and then are still. Dave, the Texan, and Jason are hugging a little embankment, which provides momentary shelter from the machine gun, which somebody will have to knock out, before further ad- vancement. Looking about, it dawns on Dave that everyone else is in the same position. 17

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and her mouth fell open. Then Jim read it and his went the same way. All of a sudden, they both started laughing. This is what the telegram stated. You have inherited 20 thousand dollars from your great aunt Elsie Keddedy in California stop Being plated in your account in town bank immediately stop When convenient you may go there and sign any necessary papers Sam Carter, Attorney at Law. Jim and Jane didn’t believe it and decided it was a joke of some kind, but curiosity got the best of them and Jim started to town on his crutches. When he arrived, he went straight to the bank where the money was supposed to be. Sure enough, even the banker greeted him at the door, and Jim went into his oflice with the biggest smile he'd ever worn. After signing papers and papers, the money was legally his and Jane's, and he rushed home to affirm the telegram. Everyone was all a dither when he arrived and said the telegram was correct. Plans are being made now as to what they’ll use the money for. — Perhaps you can guess. — You’d do the same under the same circumstance. Andrea Poland Wing '55 IN A LITTLE SCHOOL In a small town in the middle part of Vermont, a schoolhouse sat at the top of a long hill. In the schoolhouse a man was working. The sound of a broom scratching on the cement basement floor could be heard. The janitor was a short man with many wrinkles in his kind old face. He liked children and he would often let them ring the big bell by pulling hard on the long rope. He stayed night and day at the schoolhouse, but on weekends he would go to his home. It was a cold winter night and the wind was howling around the corners of the building. The janitor thought it was about time to eat the supper which a lady teacher had given him. A basket held his favorite food — a jar of apple sauce with biscuits. Then a slam of a screen over a window startled the man. He sat back down and said aloud, “Tain’t no use to jump at a little sound. I’ll be a nervous wreck if that window ain’t fixed.” He had decided to go to bed. He slept on a cot in the boiler room beside the sale which held both grammar and high school money. Then the screen gave another bang and he thought he might as well fix it. He made his way out of the building to the outside fire escape and started climb- ing up toward the screen. As he looked up, he was struck in the face by something whic h made him sec stars. His fingers were slipping from the rungs of the ladder-like fire escape There was a thud as he fell to the ground. When he woke up, it was still night. He couldn't remember what had hap pened. He ran to the door of the schoolhouse and hurried down to the basement and to the safe. Nothing had happened there. Nothing had been stolen from this room. He went through each and every room searching lor a person who might be hiding, but he found no one. He gave up the search and went to bed. The next morning was bright and beautiful. The children were on their way up the long hill. The janitor looked at them through a window. He went to the first grade room where, on the window sill, a box had been placed in which to put crumbs for the birds. He spread some of the dried crumbs along the bottom of the box. I'.)