Arms Academy - Student Yearbook (Shelburne Falls, MA)

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OUR FELINE FRIENDS Dad loves animals: I adore dogs: Mother is indifferent to the whole thing: so we have cats. We have always had cats and probably always shall. Our cats have always been thoroughly anti-social. definitely unattractive, and. with perhaps one exception, of no practical value. Cats shed hairs, scratch furniture, and yowl at the most inconvenient times. They are always in when they want to be out, and they are always out when they want to be in. Worse than anything else. they have kittens lpreferably in the parlorll. Don't you love cats? As is generally known, cats have four legs-one at each corner. Each end is filled in, either by a head or a tail. They have little bristles on either side of the nose. QFor some strange reason, they heartily aislike having these bristles disengaged.J A well known adage describes the pedal extremities of the cat as a hand of iron in a velvet glove. Nothing is truer, and the usual greeting of our sweet little puss is to plant her iron hand about two inches in our delicate tleshl Q Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would meltl J My first recollection of that noble beast, the cat. dates almost as far into the deep past as 1, myself. I see myself diving under the stove tGlenwood, 19133 where I would lie by the hour and purr with a sickly yellow specimen called Dickie. fwhere do cats get their names'l'l I once declared in company Kmuch to the consternation of Materfamiliasl that to my young land innocentll mind Dickie possessed a striking resemblance to one of the local social butterflies. But alackl Dickie met the roaring death of the gas- buggyl For weeks I daily visited his lowly grave flocated between the beets and carrots in our gardenl. I used to wonder if Dickie went to heaven: dear reader, could you enlighten me? I have always considered it a fact both remarkable and noteworthy that in our long and honorable association with the cat species we have never gone to the cats ll said catsll. but they have always come to us. Little, scrawny. tourist cats, when passing. sniff and then come in. Do you suppose it's the cabbage soup or Mother's Yardley? Such was the advent into our little household of Katze, one of the most intellectual cats I have ever had the privilege of knowing. I believe that Katze's poppa was a wild cat. because she would never tolerate my advances, nor those of practically everyone else. Dad, however, could usually entice her to his arms with a bit of salmon. I think there was chemical affinity between them. Katze's exploits as a big-game hunter seem fabulous, but I will vouch for them. Kane, single handed, would bring back fusually dead-but not alwaysl monstrous rats. chipmunks, squirrels, and, upon one glorious occasion, a rabbit. Katze had kittens annually, and she used to play a kind of game with us, by depositing them in a different locality each year. We were usually able to follow her from closet to closet, but one year she stumped us. Later it was discovered that the 1932 family fit was 1932 that yearl resided in an unused stove in the attic. The doting mother made her entrances via a stove pipel As might be expected, the offspring of this unusual cat were legion. We gave away as many as possible: the undesirable remained with us. t'l'he horrible custom of drowning little innocent kittens seems to us both barbaric and iniquitous, and we are guilty of the administration of chloroform only as a drastic measure.l For that reason, our present cat is somewhat lacking in his revered mother's sterling qualities. I have observed in all my associations with felinity a decided intellect. Our cat knows the difference between Bach and Goodman. When the classics enter our abode via the ether waves. kitty sleeps peacefully: let a iam session rage, there is a noticeable twitch of the ear. When his young mistress occasionally attacks the piano, he stalks to the door and impatiently begs to be let outl In this discourse upon the physical and moral qualities of the cat, I have endeavored to show what can best be described by the German proverb, Bei nacht sint alle Katzen grau. 0 Olive Ware, '40 Page Fatty-Eight

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1938'S HURRICANE AND FLOOD Little did I think when I saw the moving picture. The Hurricane. that I should ever experience anything of the kind. Yet within a year after I saw the picture such a thing visited New England. and the excitement that I felt when I saw the picture was like a calm sea compared with the awe and excitement I felt on the aftemoon and night it really happened. For four days it had rained and rained and kept on raining. until I wondered if it would ever stop. As it was my first week boarding away from home I was a little home- sick, and I was beginning to wonder if the river would ever stop rising. lt rose inch by inch. day after day. until even the people who had lived near it all their IIVBB began to feel a little nervous about its ever-rising waters. On the fourth day of raln some friends and I were drenched in the downpour as we came out of the school building at dismissal: when we crossed the street we waded in water up to our knees. A BIIII wind was breaking off branches from the nearby trees. In the afternoon when I began to study I noticed that the wind was strong and the rlver was high. Dull it rained. we hdd the radio on from moming unul the electriclty was cut off ln the afternoon. and we neard reports that the water was up to the N26 flood mark and that trees Gnd buildings were being badly damaged by the terrific winds. I began to be so nervous that l C0uld hardly study. livery once in a while we would see refuse floating GOWII the rlver. Al one time we saw what I00k6Q like a lot of slabs golng ddwn. Laler we lound out that II was the roadside camp called the lndlan neselvallon, which was entirely rulned and where the one casualty of the disaster occurred. Later that night when II was QUIK and the waler was stlll rising. people began to walk the streets. when the lamlly across the street had to move out. everybody came and llelpea mem get lnelr valuables to safety. lhen several famll.es on the same stlee. uegall lu GSBBAZADAB melr valuables in order to enable them to leave quickly ln case the water rose any lllgher. une woman on the street took an old blanket and put some food alia clotnlng ID it I0 take with her ii she had to evacuate in favor of the water. AS we walked the streets we would hear first a building up the river fall into the raging muddy waler: then we would hear one down the rlver crash: every mlnule we expected to hear we knew hut what. ln addition to this people told us that Vvhitinghdm uam would break lf they QIQTII let some water out within a short time. 'l'his did not make us any less nervous. Finally at about half past ten or eleven o'clock the water reached its height: it was now level with the street on which I lived. Before midnight it had receded between two and three feet. but when they let the water out at Whitingham it came back up to the same height. By morning. however. it had receded about five feet. Much to our reliefl Wlhen I went to school I saw fallen electric light wires and uprooted trees. At school what few students were there had a grand time marching around pretending they were on a strike. Many could not get to school on account of fallen wires and trees and badly washed roads. When I came home after school I was almost sick. because I was afraid I could not get home over the weekend: I literally iumped for joy when I saw my mother and father on Friday aftemoon. I had had the experience of seeing the raging flood. but I had to wait until I got heme into the hills before I realized the damage done by the wind. Silos and farm buildings were blown over. and hundreds of trees were uprooted. I certainly hope I never see another floor or hurricane. especially the two combined. Ada Landstrom. '41 Page Fifty Seven

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FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE In Arms Academy some twenty to twenty-five pupils are carrying on an entertaining and worthwhile correspondence with boys and girls of other countries. The idea started in the French department where those who were greatly interested in the French language and customs decided it would be fun to become acquainted with students in France. At first only names of French pupils were secured. Then, as letters were received, other students became interested in the project. and more names were obtained by writing to the Directory of Boys and Girls of All Nations in Boston. New we are corresponding with students, not only in France, but also in ten or twelve other countries, including Africa. Australia. British Isles. Sweden. Switzerland. and South America. In addition to le.ters, some of the corre- spondents have exchanged souvenirs. photographs, snapshots. and stamps and coins. Stamp collecting seems to be an international hobby, and our pen-pals have been generous in contributing to our collections. Luella Tetreault received as a birthday gift a beautiful. beaded, leather belt from her correspondent in Morocco. It is interesting, as well as educational. to leam the differences of opinion between people of different nationalities and some of the mistaken beliefs each has of the other's customs. For instance. Clayton Barry's correspondent in South Africa writes: Iudging lrom the letters that some of my friends have received from their pen-pals. you people over seas seem to know absolutely nothing about South Africa. You think we are black, live as savages. and have absolutely no sense. One girl even went as far as to tell one of my friends the days of the week and the number of seconds in a minute. Pen-pals in other countries like many of the same sports as we do, but they cannot always enjoy all of them because of the climate. In a letter to Eleanor Goodnow, her friend in England writes: I am sure I should like tobogganing and skiing if only we had the snow, but actually we haven't had any snow for nearly three years. Some of the people who are almost surrounded by warring nations feel sympathy for those who have lost their homes because of war. My own pen-pal from France wrote in his last letter: In France we have refugee Spaniards. What a poor peoplel It is mournful to see them. When the correspondents are not quite sure of our language, they will often translate literally from their own tongue. Thus it makes us aware of the countless idiomatic phrases which we use every day and which must seem as strange to them as the following excerpts do to us: What a weather does he do at your country? I am not gone at home, the last month. Near Christmas we have a hard snowfall and since then we believed that winter was over, but last Friday snow began to fall again and it was allowed to hope to ski. However, during the whole winter there were only a few days when on snow it may be very well skied. Sentence construction is learned more easily by reading the errors of others. Anyone who has studied another language knows how easy it is to mix the agreement of subject and predicate in a sentence. If we really are anxious to leam the language, such state- ments as the following renew our hope: My sister know no English and Let me tell you that your French is much better, I ask you also to tell me either my English is ever good. We hope this foreign correspondence will continue for a long time. We also would encourage more people to make it one of their hobbies, as it helps one to become better acquainted with hitherto unknown brothers and sisters. Wouldn't it be thrilling if these pen-pals should at some future time have the opportunity of meeting and further strength- ening the friendships begun at Arms? Ethna Walden, '41 Page Fifty Nino