Abington Friends School - Outward Bound Yearbook (Jenkintown, PA)

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Class Histor lVe now turn back the calendar to 1939, when we find Sissy High, the oldest member of the '53's, entering kindergarten four. The teachers couldn't figure out whether she was a budding circus clown or had the beginnings of a cowgirl. She was always either laughing at some joke or playing cowpoke with the boys. In kindergarten five, Nat Mlriggins, Sue Simon, Brita Strandberg, Trudy Putney, and Helen Fitzgerald arrived. Nat and Brita spied the paint jars and started improving the room with touches of yellow here and purple there. Helen and Trudy found kindergarten a series of whose turn it was for the pink chair. Sue made friends with the boys. They were good patients she said, and they gave her experience in practicing to be a veterinarian. First grade-we will never forget the day Marty Wiegand joined us. We thought she was a boy, since her hair had been cut off in a bout with 'scarlet fever. She soon made friends with everyone and had us all in knots as she taught us jujitsu. Second grade was interrupted by periodical air raids and spelling tests. VVe had to stand books in front of us on the tables-insurance against peeking. All went well until Helen took a look at someone else's paper. Her spelling hasn't been the same since! The boys didn't return in third grade. XfVe must have been too much for them! Anyway, we got along just as well without them! The fire escape at the end of the hall proved to be a great temptation to us, and more than once Sue and Sissy were kept in from recess for taking a short cut to the playground. Our spelling and pronunciation were progressing, but we had quite an argument about whether it was dinoSOVVER or dinoSOOR. Fourth grade brought us Sally The Bird Redd. She soon impressed us with her singing and led the class as we joined in on Chiquita Banana before listening to the Science Is Fun broadcasts every Monday. This interest in science did not detract from our project of knitting an afghan for Greece. Too bad Ginger wasn't there to help us! Ginger Gable did come in fifth grade and was soon busy winning the jacks games and the juniprope tournament. These were just the beginning of her bril- liant sports record. Wie appeared every Wlednesday in our green Girl Scout uni- forms, and people started getting tired of our oft repeated question, Do you want to buy some cookies? jackie joined us in sixth grade amid preparations for Miss Moore's wedding. Her engagement shower was a big success, though our poor teacher almost broke her ankles trying to keep up with our jitterbugging To show that we were really learning some Spanish, we gave a program about Rolito, a little Mexican boy. Wfe drove our parents crazy, trying to speak Spanish at every opportunity. lt was fun being the oldest class, but we looked forward even more to becoming the youngest as we entered seventh grade. In seventh grade we crossed the threshold from the lower school to the upper school. A new girl, in the small form of Corinne Rolnig, kept us entertained with her tales of Penn Charter. This was a memorable year. We also had our first male teacher, Mr. Smith. And everyone knew Georgie, our little invisible friend. Eighth grade brought jane Brooke and Trudy Putney. Our favorite pastime was cooking. Ginger proved her ability by boiling peas not only in the pot, but in the box as well. Then came the poisoned jello, which Mrs. Estes got by mis- Twenty eight

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CLASS WILL We, the Class of 1953, being of sound inind and body, do declare this to be our last will and testament. We hereby bequeath the following: CARo1. leaves her home permanents to Betsy Helveston. junv leaves her horse sense to Jane Jordan. JANE leaves her adeptness at knitting to Joanne McDowell. JACKIE leaves her nailpolish to Barbara Danehower. HELEN leaves her athletic ability to jane Cobourn. GINGER leaves her figure to the skeleton in the science lab. LEE leaves her ebullience to Mary Ickler. SIssY leaves her High laugh to Joan High. BARBARA leaves her stage fright to Shirley Pearson. TRUDY leaves her love for basketball to Adele Fitzgerald. MARYLEE leaves her college weekends to Betty Ann Smith. SALLY leaves her airplane to Janet Scott to Hy around in. NANCY leaves her frankness to Charlotte Whalen. CoRlNNE leaves her 5 feet 1 inch to the junior Class. SUE leaves her unruffled disposition to Joan Oppenheimer. BRITA leaves her glasses to Barbara Sheppard. MARTY leaves her jokes lingering in the locker rooin. NA'l' leaves her natural blondness to Carol Young. MARY leaves her Western lingo to Mandy Funk. The Senior Class leave their annual house party to another jolly group. The Senior Class leaves .... In witness thereof we set our hand and seal this tenth day of June, 1953. The Class of 1953 Twen ty-seven

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take. Enough said about that. Sissy's other diversion was to soak a handkerchief with perfume and pretend it was chloroform. Once a teacher was chloroformed instead of Sally. j In ninth grade, we were welcomed with four girls: Nancy Reeves, Marylee Rabe, Ruth Ingersoll, and Barbara Householder. On Freshman Day we were initiated into the upper school. Our play was ingenious. We were disappointed, though, the following day, because of icy weather. Too many girls were absent. We had been so anxious to see everyone with straight hair parted in the middle. After Freshman Day we wore lipstick without having the guilty feeling of being too young, much to the dislike of the faculty. In tenth grade four girls came to complete the '53's: Lee Hammer, Carol Anderson, Mary Yoder, and Judy Belfield. Carol soon displayed her singing ability, which became an asset to our class. Helen was more surprised than any- one else when her picture was sent to an art exhibit. This year, we took our first real interest in the Dramatic Club play. VVC also gave a smaller production called Mamma's Getting Married . Our Latin classes were quite lively, and Lee kept them jumping. Who said that it was redheads who have terrible tempers? june brought with it Brita's houseparty in Stone Harbor, and everyone had a wonder- ful time. In our junior year we still had the largest class in the upper school, but our Latin class was rather small. It was interesting, though. We discussed everything under the sun and a few things above it. Finally, we got our class rings which made us feel grown-up. Speaking of rings. how surprised we were when Ruth appeared with a diamond on the right finger. Gee , we thought, who will be next? We decided on jewelry as our class project. Lee immediately responded with I can get it for you wholesale. 'The junior Prom was our big event. We tried to turn the club into one of the Hawaiian Islands. Remember the pond of water that leaked? Missing persons could usually be found out on the first tee. By the time graduation came along, we all hoped that we would never see an- other daisy. At the houseparty, Casey Crime Photographer, better known as Marty, was forever sneaking around corners and catching us off guard. The pic- tures in the yearbook are proof of that. At last we were seniors. Our senior year involved a lot of hard work with the yearbook, prom, Ring Dinner, and other events, but it wasn't all work. We had fun, too. Our class alone turned out enough socks for the U. S. Army. It was also a year of hen parties, since most of the boys were either away at college or in the service. Corinne held an election party, and Nat had a party for making the snowman for the prom. lVe will never forget Carol's home permanent. She left it up all night. Brita, Sissy, and Mary, our three Western gals, couldn't for- get the trip out VVest, and they made sure that no one else forgot it either. Even though we had a few mishaps, we managed to get through the remainder of the year, because we were kept busy with the Dramatic Club Play, Arbor Day, May Day, and finally our own Commencement. The play was successful, and on Arbor Day, some new greenery was added to the school surroundings. We couldn't wait to discover who was May Queen. lN7e thought about our graduation dresses 'way back in November, so by june, we were prepared. As time goes by and we stop to look back upon our years at A. F. S., we will always remember them as years of happiness, the best years of our lives. Twenty mne