Abington High School - Abhis Yearbook (Abington, MA)

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THE ABHIS 5 LITERARY AFRICA! LAND OF MYSTERY AND ADVENTURE It is a damp, humid day in midsummer. You, a member of the safari of james A. Cahill, the well known adventurer and explorer, are trudging deep into the heart of the sweltering jungles of the Dark Continent, exotic equatorial Africa. As the result of the jumbled reports of a number of frightened natives, you, an African agent for the Chicago Zoo, in co-operation with Cahill, are stalking that most ferocious of jungle beasts, a crazed gorilla, It is near noon of the fifth day of the expedition, which has reached the point where the incessant routine marching will cease and the safari will make preparations to accomplish the purpose of the trek. The native bearers hurriedly pitch camp in a fairly large clearing, like a wide shallow cup, and within an hour and a half you are tramping off into the jungle, with several strong blacks, all equipped with picks, shovels, and the like. Some distance from camp you find a suitable location and set about the procedure of digging a great hollow pit. The broiling sun, high in the eastern sky, is a branding-iron, burning intensely down with all its barbaric force upon the hapless party of workers toiling furiously in the noonday heat. The white wide-brimmed Panama hat you wear is little, if any protection at all, from this ball of flame which is beating mercilessly down upon the murky swamps and remote tropics of the Belgian Congo. Your scorched sun-leathered face is moist with dripping perspiration. The long hours drag lazily by, the heat increasing with each hour and becom- ing extremely unbearable. Fatigued, you pause mo- mentarily to rest and watch, with unseeing eyes, the negroes as they labor relentlessly in seemingly effortless movements, their ebony black bodies pol- ished in sweat to a jet-like sheen and their muscles rippling and their sinews straining to the task. You slave in the boiling sun throughout all that afternoon, the dark jungle growth like a choking wall all around you, literally steaming. Shortly be- fore sundown a pit of great depth is completed, the sides of which are leveled to an icy smoothness with a relatively new hardening compound to in- sure the safe imprisonment of the gorilla while in captivity. Witli the natives' assistance you conceal the opening of the pit with a quantity of dry tam- bouki grass and underbrush suitable in appearance to the locality, and with a few minor additions on the following day it will be in readiness for the hunt. It is after dusk when you wearily plod through the grey-green gloom into camp, exhausted, bitten by flies and a thousand voracious breeds of insects, and your disheveled hair a snarled nest for crawly vermin. You retire immediately to your tent, too fatigued to eat, your thin cotton shirt, which is drenched with oozy sweat, perfumed by an ex- tremely repulsive odor. You bathe yourself rapidly, recline leisurely on your cot, and relax to the low, weird and somewhat languorous chant of the native bearers and to the soft tempold shufiling of their feet as they writhe and sway to the pulsing rhyth- mic throbbing of the drums. This ritual continues far into the night and you lie there within your tent in silent but anxious anticipation of the mor- row's activities. Gradually you drift off into a deep slumber, incurred by the perpetual whirring, Whistling, wheezing, buzzing, and peeping of bats, insects, and other minute jungle creatures. You arise before sunrise the following morning to find no one stirring in camp and indulge in a light but ample breakfast. Because you have noth- ing of great importance to accomplish at the time, you decide that a brisk stroll through the nearby jungle would be highly refreshing and that you would gain an opportunity to view at close range a few of the many strange and weird inhabitants of this beautiful, mysterious continent and to study their habits. As you make your way over knotted clumps of dwarfed brush and through the intricate mesh of greenery, the sun, in all its golden splendor, rises above the boundless veldts and jungles of Af- rica's remote interior, a glittering contrast to the background of pale blue sky. Tangled interwoven vines criss-cross the heavens above into a tangled canopy through which the brilliant rays of the sun pierce, forming a sort of lattice-work pattern on the jungle floor. The jungle is now reverberating with the chattering of monkeys and the clamorous caw-

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4 THE ABHIS A THOUGHT As Christmas is not far away, it is fitting that we say a few words here, concerning the most impor- tant day of the year. Christmas is the day set aside each year in commemoration of the birth of our Lord. It should be observed in a manner befitting such an occasion. During these days of Com- munistic aggression much importance rests upon our own ideas concerning Democracy and this gen- eration's attitude toward Christian principles. Sev- eral foreign nations have erased both jewish and Christian doctrines from the minds of their youth. As a result we are again engaged in conflict with another people. Here, in America, we have the opportunity to follow the teachings of our churches, homes, and schools. We should make a serious effort to uphold and make secure these beliefs which are renewed in our faith at this time each year. Each one of us should strive to catch the true Christmas spirit, the spirit of love. If we, as the leaders of tomorrow, maintain these ideals, the world-wide merry Christ- mas of our dream will some day become a reality. MARJORIB KRISTIANSBN, '51 EDUCATION IN AMERICA Few students at any school in America under- stand the full meaning of education. As defined in Webster's Dictionary, education is the act or process of educating. It is also defined as a science dealing with the principles and practise of teaching and learning. James McNary once said, Education is a thing that will follow me through all the years of my life, yet now is the time for me to learn. Most students go to school because they have to and not because they should. The young people who do not have at least a high school education find it ditiicult to obtain jobs in which there is a promise of a higher position. Most jobs require a college education and some a degree in the field which the candidate wishes to enter. Education is not an activity. It is a must for every human being on this earth. Without it one would not be as successful as he could be with it. An education is the essential thing in life and one cannot risk being without it.' That is why it is nec- essary for everyone to have at least a high school education. MARGARET Hows, '51 IN APPRECIATION Often there comes to my mind a comparison of advantages I have over those had by other youths in other countries as well as in other places in my own United States. just now I am thinking par- ticularly of my school. What do I appreciate about Abington High School? Not long ago I listened to Salom Rizk as he told of his life in Syria. He said that for a school in his village there was a small charred one-room shack, a leftover of the former school building after the savages of World War I. In his village school there was only one class, but he considered the children who attended this school to be highly privileged. He did not himself have this privilege, because he could not afford twenty cents a month for school. The conditions of schools in many places in Eu- rope today is worse than those which this speaker described. Often it is not a one-room school but no school whatsoever. The only way the children in some sections of Europe have of learning is by what they can acquire themselves. In America the youth take for granted the privi- lege of attending school. Today many young people regard school as an obligation rather than a privilege. When I think seriously of school, I begin to realize this wonderful opportunity which is mine for the taking. As I look over Abington High from the front I see the green grass, the freshly trimmed hedge, the smooth, clean walks, the beautiful architecture, the general construction of the red brick building, the tall flag pole flying the American flag, the flag of freedom, and behind it the symbol of freedom, the school. On the inside the outlook is bright. The clean corridors, the offices, the classrooms, the practical arts room, the science rooms, the cafeteria, the beautiful auditorium, and other facilities demon- strate the best in educational advantages. In the rear of the school are our track and foot- ball field, baseball diamond, and tennis courts for the purpose of developing the student physically as well as mentally. All these advantages exceed not only those in many schools in other countries but those in many schools in our own locality. There is also in Abington High a respect for teachers. Students do not fear teachers. The rela- tionship between student and teachers is very in- formal, teachers are friends who are doing their utmost to train us to become better world citizens. If each of us sat down and thought it over and took all the wonderful features into consideration, he would smile when thinking of our school. He would realize that in this glorious land of ours God has shed His grace on us. WILLIAM Cnoox, '51

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6 THE ABHIS ing and screaming of macaws, parrakeets, and countless other boisterous members of the animal kingdom, -the cries of which are echoing and re- echoing through the impenetrable thickets of this desolate wilderness. As you are about to return to the clearing, the usual tropical noises are abruptly stilled by the agonized, shrill, almost inhuman shriek of some terrified creature, which gradually tapers off into a chortled gurgle! A tense unbearable silence fol- lows. Suddenly there is a crackling and crashing from within the underbrush and through the mat- ted green foliage and entangled growth appears the massive head and powerfully molded shoulders of a huge gorilla! It emerges slowly from the snarled mass of vegetation, and as you stand there motionless in your tracks and gripped by a paralyz- ing fear, you distinguish the ugly features and gro- tesque crinkled countenance of the enormous hairy monster, not fifty yards distant. One great bloody paw tightly clutches the horrible, sickening re- mains of a human arm, evidently wrenched brutally from the socket of its recent owner. The explana- tion is now all too simple. An unfortunate native bearer must have unknowingly antagonized the beast in some manner so as to achieve such fatal results. As the animal, apparently insane with an- ger, advances with murderous intent, you overcome your horror and break out into a frenzied run for camp. The gorilla rises to its full height, and as it expands its mighty chest, the jungle resounds with a ferocious thundering roar that strikes terror into the hearts of all within hearing distance. Then the hairy beast, its tortured mind maddened by your intrusion on the scene, charges after you. You are now running the most important race of your ca- reer, a frantic dash for life! Presently you remem- ber the pit! If you can reach the pit before that insane monster reaches you, perhaps you can win this desperate race. For a brief instant you halt, turn, and rush into the jungle, at a right angle to the direction of camp. As you stumble blindly through the jungle thick- ets, tripping constantly over concealed vines, horri- fied, you hear the crashing and crunching of mighty feet on the growth behind you, signifying the steady gain of that clumsy monster, surprisingly agile for his great magnitude. The seconds appear as minutes, the minutes as hours. You cannot keep this up much longer! Could you have misjudged the position of the pit? Suddenly an uncontrollable panic seizes you, a sharp pain stabs you in the small of the back. You are about to surrender to a horrible fate when mi- raculously the pit looms ominously into view and with renewed effort you cover the remaining yard- age to your objective, clearing the pit with a final burst of strength, the feared gorilla grunting sadis- tically, not more than twenty feet behind. Almost instantaneously the beast plunges through the con- cealing underbrush and with a rumbling crash plunges, howling, to the depths of the pit! The gorilla is captured. You are safe! WILLIAM GRooM, '53 THE ARTIST First of all, let me tell you that Chris was an artist who could draw almost anything that anyone might ask her to draw. Inspired by her admiration for anything beautiful, her artistic hands moved like wildfire over canvas. Chris had always dawdled on her school papers instead of doing the regular work and sometimes had not done very well in her subjects. It all happened right after Christmas when her mother gave her that beautiful art set, complete with special pens, paper and other seemingly end- less articles. On the first day of school after Christmas vaca- tion Christine's mother said she would have to go shopping and did not know when she would be back. Chris skipped back to school and boasted to her chums about her new art set. She had an unusually successful day in her studies and had just turned the corner onto the street leading up to her house, when, suddenly, disturbing her beautiful dreams, came the sound of a siren! The thought struck her -a lire engine! Chris did not think much more about the subject until the red truck also turned the corner, going in her direction. She smelled smoke! She watched with eager eyesg then suddenly the truck screeched to a stop! Men began yelling for hoses and ladders, running frantically about. Finally Chris came to her senses. Her house! They had stopped at her house! Before she knew what she was doing, she found be