Belmont Hill School - Belmont Hill School Yearbook (Belmont, MA)

Page 23 text:

The Senior Sentimentalists will tell you that he is a frail, morally-defeated figure carrying the burden of failure and rejectiong that he is at any given mo- ment on the threshold of some violence or anti- social actg that he is a victim of over-competition. The defeats and the frustrations are certainly present, but so is the resilient, irrepressible spirit. Listen to their laughter in the Common Roomg watch them wolf their lunches downg look at the expression of thunder-struck, child-like awe as they admire the newest sports car on campusg mark their refreshing enthusiasm for Hamlet or for the results of a science experimentg hear them scream at the athletic contest. The Senior is a long way from defeat. But isn't he just as far from any significant triumph? The School will wait and watch. DAVID A. ALOIAN SENIORS

Page 22 text:

Ei fxk 3, EW? I? R 2 my ' R Y .1 1 ' X ,wif 1 i fi, ' 3 ,. 4 Q WRU ' 'lkggff ' 14- M w , f' .. A A p ' ' - , ,Q P' f f fgifif 2- ' V ,, 1- 1 2-- , -, 4 , 1,- Jfifa' .lfl-V .. I 'fin W 1 K ' 1521?-32 : 'IQ 3.-fd? . I ' 5 V' an g '1' K ' .E ' L 1 '55 'f 1 ' f - Q'T7'W5a??'x ' f ,41.e,r3t? Q ff? 2 'Mm g '! A 4

Page 24 text:

TH E HISTORY of the Class of l963 Mark Twain once wrote that it is the difference of opinion that makes horse races. Similarly, perhaps, it is the difference between people that make life inter- esting. If in this our Class History we seem to empha- size the difference between our classmates over their similarities, their frictions over their accords, it is in the interest of both animation and honesty. Our class, per- haps more than previous ones, has lacked that essential solidarity that makes life both uniformly pleasant and uniformly dullg factions were always present, and there is no percentage in denying the fact. But we think we have gained immensely from living in a class that em- braces extremes, from dealing with both animosities and agreements, this Class History is an attempt to present as accurate a picture as possible of our years at Belmont Hill. Most Class Histories begin on the first September morning of the Fifth grade year, when the newly- arrived innocents are thrown bodily off the Seventh Grade steps of the Lower School by a bunch of older preadolescent thuglets. Ours begins however, on a spring afternoon in 1954 when about twenty-five wet- eared fourth graders sit writing bluebooks in the Lower School study hall: the entrance exam. Two weeks later fourteen mothers got calls from Mr. D., and the Class of 1963 was conceived. Not until the next fall did Fred Quinn, Joel Shapiro, John Worthen, Bud Karelis, Al Taylor, Rick Loomis, Paul Dorsey, Ricky Weiss, Glenn Merry, Butch Maxwell, Paul Consales, Bill Herron and Paul Pietz have the opportunity to be thrown off those sacred stairs. The Fifth Grade was our first taste of many of the things that were later to make life interesting-college admissions pressure, homework, music teachers and of course extracurricular activities. Who Cbesides Johnnies come latelyj can forget the Fifth Grade restroom Cin the sense of rest roomj where the more ambitious joined their first club-the HO scale electric railroad train club. This year also proved our introduction to great literature: on rainy afternoons, when we weren't viewing movies about pea canneries, Mr. Densmore read to us from Ploopie Beanshoot, the Real Diary of a Real Boy, which got funnier as you read it faster. We were also introduced to Music Appreciation by a Mr. Cowperthwaite, who was only one year older than Walshie is now. Near the middle of the year the good gentleman's eyes lost their idealistic glaze-Bel- mont Hill could not be made safe for music. Also near the middle of the year a well rounded seventh grader named Bill Hoffman fell through the study-hall ceil- ing and we got plastered for the first time. During the winter a jolly little election-year revue was presented, featuring most of the fifth grade sitting around in bikinis and discussing the S. A. Csex appeal, friendsj of Tom Deweyfs mustache. The fact that it was '54 and not '48 didn't bother us until we reached the Sixth Form and Calderized CInghamized?J history. The climactic rumble over the Steps on D-Day foreshad- owed many similar conflicts involving snow, Panel editorships, even Prom dates. Certain longstanding class neuroses can probably be traced back to the beginning of the next year, when we were designated either 6A or 6B. Maybe the arrival of our class conscience, Bill Garth, helped too. And if that didn't succeed in inhibiting the free play of our pre-pubic emotions, perhaps it was the arrival of Henry Cooper, Tummy Saliba, Tommy Werman and John McKittrick, all of whom brought new pleasures and squabbles into our lives. Both Tummy and Tommy came to chat knowingly about the world of forbidden adolescent pleasures, and Cooper began his much- bruited round of battles with McKittrick, who turned out to be nearly two hundred pounds of very vulnera- ble pot roast. Mr. Cowperthwaite was replaced by Mr. Sokol, who, Glenn assured us, wore a toupe. Another new teacher burst into the Hill that year: to Dorsey he was Daven- portereeno but to the rest of us he was Mister Plumer, and he kept a sir-bird. If Mr. Calder later taught us that precise speaking is called American Historyj, we learned from Mr. Plumer that American History is called Diction.,' Ninteen fifty-seven brought us Stu Davis, John Smethurst, M-alcolm Kirkbride, Donni Hunt, Norm Wilson, Don Andreson, a recession, and that old locker room favorite, Get a Job. Mr. Taylor Canother mu- sic teacherj also arrived to find his blackboard covered with remarks about Taylor's Groundhog beans and gouged with furrows from Loomie's fingernails, which curdled our blood. Perhaps out of revenge, Mr. Taylor decided that we should present that hit musical, Trial by Jury as our year's dramatic offering. Taylor had a thing about lyrics, he decided to alter Buddy's first line to Is this the court of the exchequer? Be firm, be firm my heart, even though Gilbert, Sullivan and most of the lower school agreed that heart didn't rhyme very well with exchequer. The Pawnees won the debating trophy for the hun- dredth-odd year in a row. Maybe they were just lucky, but some observers noted that the affirmative side of resolved: that a well-rounded education is essential to the well-rounded man was not exactly indefensible.