Plymouth State University - Conning Tower Yearbook (Plymouth, NH)

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inspection of tin town, including: the post-office and the five and ten cent store. Among our notable purchases there were charming silver necklaces. Have you yours yet f Another discussion ensued as to who should sit in front on the return trip. Remember Mr. Swell's words. “Well. I shall be proud to sit beside any one of you!” With the sun beaming down upon us we rode blithely from the fair city of Keene. Now we were ready for Mrs. Swctt s box of delicacies. Could we eat now? We could and we did. All kinds of sandwiches, cake, olives and chocolate bars disappeared with amazing rapidity. We even chewed gum. (Sh! so did Mr. Swctt.) We had a very enjoyable return trip via Manchester and Concord where we stopped for lunch. We stopped again at the Weirs to view Kndicott Rock as marking the source of the Merrimack. Then we hurried so as to reach Plymouth before night-fall in order to make our triumphal entrance conspicuous. (We had planned, that if we should lose, we would wait until darkness descended and then creep stealthily in at a back door!) We were swooped affectionately off our feet by our joyous colleagues who were extremely anxious to tell their own experience and to hear ours. We remember that we talked for hours after supper that night, but just what we said is forgotten. In this manner, ends the record of the most important accomplishment of the Forensic in 1929. Although the debate with Keene was the most outstanding event, yet it was not the only memory to be treasured. We had

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‘THE CONNING TOWER 19 30 113 who, hv this time, dm to nausea caused l v riding in the back scat, was totally indifferent as to whether the world ever contained another scrap of advertising- or not. Conversation, somehow, was not very forthcoming:. Our minds were occupied with fearful thoughts of tin evening. If it hadn’t been for .Mary’s ceaseless, nonsensical chatter which kept us laughing in spite of ourselves, any one seeing that little Chevrolet would have declared it contained three perfect personifications of despair. Among the pile of suitcases and debating material was a huge box of “eatables” thoughtfully prepared by Mrs. Swett. We eyed the box reverently and longingly, but try as we would, we could not eat. So the big box reposed in its place of honor until the need of its contents should become more acute. We dined in Newport, and alt heartily, despite the consciousness that Keene was near and the afternoon on the wane. With chills playing tag up and down our backbones, but with a brave outward appearance, we drove down the main street of Keene and to tin administrative building of Keene Normal School. There we were cordially welcomed by “Daddy” Mason and a member of the team. After an hour of rest we were taken on a tour of the campus. In accordance with Mr. Swett’s parting instructions we succeeded in ‘‘trying out” our voices on the platform from which we were to speak. •Just before supper we received a telegram from our affirmative team, bidding us to “do our stuff” and assuring us that they were “holding the fort.” We were escorted to the dining-room by our friendly rivals, and there we met our masculine opponent who struck terror in our hearts. And then the debate itself! The events of those few hours are dear to only us who experienced them, but how priceless they are to us. Kel, remember your “little, tiny box of raisins , and the chairman, who always mispronounced your name? Remember the reference, in rebuttal to the “gentleman friend”? And after the debate was over and everyone was breathlessly awaiting the decision, remember the little notes we wrote each other saying, “We're lost, we’re lost!”, and how quickly Mary retaliated with. “Oh. shut up! A moment of (electrically) charged silence and then,— tlie negative wins! We shall never know just how we managed to rise from our chairs and shake the hands of our defeated opponents but somehow we did. Our only thought was to (ind Mr. Swett through whose thorough training our victory was accomplished. The telephone calls from Plymouth bringing the news that our affirmative team had won made our happiness complete. After light refreshments with the Keene team and members of the faculty, wo retired to our rooms in a state of bliss. The next morning Mary Fullerton and Charlotte Floyd rose very early and expressed their exuberance of spirit in a game of tennis before breakfast. After breakfast we spent the minutes remaining before leaving in a cursory

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 T H K CONNING T () E K' 19 3 0 1 15 ninny interesting elnb debates. and who could forget our banquet at the end of tin year. The Forensic members of 1929 are proud to remember these two attainments.—that they carried on the society true to its tradition in a manner affording; the maximum of mutual benefit and enterainment: and that they successfully defended the glory of Plymouth Normal School. MAIMil’KitITE TwoM ItLY. “All those interested in debating ’ the notice read and the numbers that came! The vice-president was quite embarrassed when she opened the first meeting last fall. She wasn't used to such a large and intellectual looking audience. And still they came. Room XII grew too small and Room VII became the meeting place for heated arguments on questions of vital interest to members of the faculty as well as students. Who wouldn't like to know that “College Initiation should not he abolished”—especially since the question was debated just the week before that hilarious event at P. X. S. And wasn’t that debate on the question “Coeducational schools are more beneficial to society than non-coeducational” exciting.' How the faculty laughed especially at the personal remarks on RadclilTo and other well-known non-coeducational colleges. The decision was satisfying, too, for even though P. X. s. is coeducational we hardly know it. Then that night in the dining room: “The following are on the Varsity Debating Team: Eunice Fiske, Bertha Emery, Charlotte Floyd, Mildred Kelley. Bernice Carlton. Ruth .Jones. Dorothy Ephlin. and Leila Nelson.” A pin would have made a real crash in the silence that followed. .Just as a general buzz of congratulation was well started. “On the second team arc: Frances Ephlin. Dorothy Whitelev, Charlotte Baker, Margaret Bedell, Muriel Whiteley. Helen Cushing, Bertha Franklin and Margaret Criflin.” “Isn't that something new?” “Yes.” “Well anyway that’ll give me one more chance to make something, maybe.” The second team is an innovation that lias been enthusiastically received and we hope will continue until it becomes a firmly established custom. “Of course the chance is beneficial.” “Von can't tell me—just look at that paper ’Pa’ Swell gave the alternates. Doesn’t that prove they are awful?' Feeling ran high among the members of the second team who debated the question “The Chain Stores are more detrimental than beneficial.” Perhaps those ardent students who lay the present trend toward the “bowwows to chain stores have steadily refused tin bargain sales at the A P hut it is doubtful. Mr. Swell told some one he was very seldom surprised. At least the members of the debating team know why lie can’t say “never .