Atkinson High School - Tiger Yearbook (Atkinson, IL)

Page 9 text:

FORWARD Clean and chining and scrubbed, the school opened its doors to a familiar faculty and 77 pupils on August 24, 11 5-3. 18 seniors, 11 juniors, 25 sophomores, and 23 freshmen enrolled. It was a year of many new faces, however, since the membership of the classes chang d several times during the year as old students would drop out and new students would enter. The freshman class gained 5 new members and lost 1; the sophomores gained 4 members and lost 4; the juniors gained 2 class members and lost 3; and the seniors lost 1 class member. The highest number of pupils in school at one time was 85. At the time of publication of the annual there was an enrollment of 81. A parent-teach r group organized in the fall and became affiliated with the National Parent Teachers’ Association. Officers of that group were Mrs. Gordon Taber, president; Russell Buysse, vice- presid .nt; Mrs. Leland Hoburg, secretary; and Thomas Nowers, treasurer. Students, through arrangements made by our board with the board of the recently consolidated grade school, rid.? to school in the new buses. High school students also share in the hot lunch program sponsored by the grade school. There were several all-school events during the y ar. Many, such as the carnival and the homecoming, are mentioned elsewhere. Over $1500.00 worth of magazines were sold during the magazine drive. At Christmas time a party for the school and faculty was held in the gym. The freshmen presented a play, gifts were exchanged, and refreshments were served by the faculty. A party was given in February by the losing classes in the magazine sale cont.st to the winning classes. The juniors and freshmen were the losers; the seniors and sophomores were the winers. When we return, d from Christmas vacation, we found the trees next to the school building had been removed. Some of us discovered that new storage space had be:n built in above the room to the west of the stage. We discovered i the hard way by being put to work carrying up the fireplace, football equipment, stage doors, and many boxes of odd sizes and shapes. Another change made this year which most of us welcomed was the changing of conduct grades to citizenship grades. In addition to conduct, the citizenship grade considers the pupil’s courtesy, punctuality, school spirit, trustworthiness, cooperativeness, responsibility, sportsmanship, attitude, and initiative. The year had its own fashions, fads, and favorites. Angora collars for girls and matching shirts and lev is for the boys were the most up-to-date apparel. Knock-knocks (such as: Knock-knock! Who’s there? Duane. Duane who? Duane the tub, I’m dwowning!) convulsed the student body. Favorite songs were “Stranger in Paradise,” “Ebb Tide,” “Over the Mountain,” “Wanted,” and “A Woman” (“Whatever she is, she’s necessary”). No dance was complete without the Bunny Hop danced until almost everyone was exhausted. ' We got a full dose of cinemascope movies this year; and when Marilyn Monroe got married, all the boys beat their heads against the wall. (Well, maybe not all of tlum.) There was much talk as usual about the effect of television upon teenagers. We have no opinion on that, but we, too, were outraged when Julius I aRosa was fired. We, hope you enjoy reading the yearbook as much as we have enjoyed publishing it. We hope that the 1954 Tiger will be a record of pleasant events that you may live over again each time you read these pages. Bonnie VanVooren Carl Freddy (Editors)