Big Sandy High School - Pioneer Yearbook (Big Sandy, MT)

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THE CENTENNIAL the rounds and that they had only Don Grubbs and Charles Ensley left since they had found him. “Well, if that’s the case, I guess your trip is about over,” answeded Ted. thinking slowly, “Chuck lives about one hundred and twenty miles north west of here on Eight Mile Bench, and 1 think Chuck mentioned the fact once, that Don came to visit him, so I guess they must live pretty close.” Arrangements were then made that Ted should accompany the two in the plane on to Chuck’s place. As the traffic was not as thick as usual in the upper spaces on that day, they were soon making great speed. The plane carrying the three soon arrived at Charles Ensley jr’s residence on Eight Mile Bench. Charles had a very nice home with about 640 acres of bench land, and (thanks to Mr. I. E. White, Ag. instructor of B. S. H. S. he knew how to farm and manage it properly.) As the air plane approached the whole family went out on the front porch and waited its landing, al- though they had no idea who it was, they were always ready to welcome folks. The aeroplane circled several times and finally settled to the ground a short distance away. When the three got out Chuck gave one big gasp, while an- other was lost in his speedy departure from the front steps toward the worthy three, who by this time had armed themselves for the biggest exhibit of back- slapping that ever took place. “Come in, Come in,” piped a sweet voice from the front steps and Celia Ensley who had not lost a bit of her plumpness, opened the door and bustled the whole quartette into the house. “Sit down you old warts,” said Chuck, “I’ve got a thousand and one questions that I want to ask you. How’s the rest of the class ? How many are married? How many have died and how many turned out as (no-account; ? Open up and tell me, I haven’t heard of any of them since we graduated ten years ago, except Ted and Don”. “You mean Don Grubbs,” yelled Kenneth, “he’s the last one on our list and if we find him we’ll have the complete history of the class of ’26.” “Why he lives at Grubbsborough which used to be Box Elder, you sure hit it lucky though, for he is coming here today for a visit, and of course he’ll bring Helen.” “Helen who?” asked Les, “I thought he was married to Zella Vanover.” “No,” laughed Chuck, “You see Zella turned out to be an inventor, due to her course in Physics and she invented a rolling pin that would come back when she threw it. This was too much for Don, so he obtained a divorce and later on he married Helen McHose who is of a more gentle disposition. I suppose you boys remember her, I’ll tell the world, I certainly do.—Do you remember the case we had with her Ted?” finished Chuck, laughing. “I’ll say I do,” answered Ted, “we sure had one grand battle, I laugh to think of it now!” “Here comes Don now” announced Celia at the door. There was a mad rush for the door and just then Don got out of his new Ford Eight and opened the door for his wife. Mrs. Grubbs was no sooner out than the four ambitious ex-football players hit him with such a bang that after the dust had settled somewhat they found him lying on the other side of the car. “Hello you old Grubb,” teased Les, “how is Mrs. Grubbs and all the little Grubbs by this time?” “Why, hello Les, how is Mrs. Miller and all the little Moths,” he an- swered with his ready wit. The four then picked him up an carried him bodily into the house where they soon had him telling the following story:

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THE CENTENNIAL CLASS PROPHECY OF 26 The day was still, there was no twittering of birds, no melancholy notes of a meadowlark, there was not a cloud on the horizon, while at its zenith the sun poured down its incessant, blistering rays upon the parched land. Not even a cooling breeze found its way to this second pergatory. Amidst all this torrid heat and scorched surrounding a lone cowpuncher, who lay in the shade of his horse, watching with drowsy eyes the little herd of scrubby long horns grazing upon the scant bunch of grass near by. But, alas! not even the shade of the horse could completely shut off the heat of that sun, and soon the rider, already tired and sleepy, began to rub his eyes, and nod his head in a drowsy manner. No sooner had his head begun to nod than he saw a black speck ap- pearing over the horizon which, as it drew nearer, took the form of a large bird and low! when it was almost overhead what should it be but one of Ford’s new aeroplanes which had become very prominent in the last ten years. When the aeroplane came almost overhead the rider, who was none other than Ted Homan of the senior class of ’26, could plainly see the occupants and finally placed then as Kenneth Ray and Leslie Miller also of the class of ’26. His joy knew no bounds, with a wild cowboy whoop he leaped to his feet, waved his big hat frantically and yelled at the top of his voice. No young- boy or beast of the tropics could have gone through all the antics he did. At last he was successful in attracting the attention of those in the plane for he heard above the roar of the motor a never-to-be-forgotten voice. “Hey Kenneth I think there must be a lunatic or a sheep herder down there, judging by his actions, I think we’d better go down and look him over if we can before he hurts himself.” Ted did not catch the answer but it must have been in the affirmative for as a great hawk circles over it’s prey, the plane began to circle slowly downward until finally it glided to a stop some fifty yards away. With another wild yell, Ted pulled out his 45 and brandishing it aloft as he went, made a wild dash for the two men who now stood near the plane. At this wild re- ception, the two unprepared men, unable to defend themselves in anyway ex- cept rapid flight, started to scramble for the plane. Fate must have been with Ted that day. for as Leslie turned to run he plunked his foot squarely into a prairie dog hole and Kenneth who was directly behind him, and who was too slow to stop quick, went sprawling down on top of him. By the time they had untangled their legs Ted had ar- rived at the spot and throwing himself down on the ground gave every evidence of a man who has pulled “a good one on his neighbor. “Why you wall-eyed, bow-legged, club-footed, pigeon-toed air fiends, don’t you know an old side kick when you see him ? Why you ought to be-----? He did not have time to finish the sentence, for with a joyful yell of recog- nition they pounced upon their old classmate and soon had him initiated in- to their league of companionship again. They even quite overlooked the trick he played on them and their bruises, for they had often had worse tricks pulled on them in the dormitory at Big Sandy ten years before. They soon had their various smokes going and began to gossip as con- fidently as any group of old maids. Ted soon learned that Kenneth and Leslie, who were now well fixed, had taken it upon themselves that spring, to seek every member of the class of ’26, and see if she or he were making a success of life, as had been expect- ed of them when they graduated. He also learned that they had almost made

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THE CENTENNIAL “I graduated with you boys and then went to work the following August for Mr. Brown of Box Elder. I worked for him two years and in the mean- time was married to Zella Vanover. But I got cold feet and took a trip to Reno to get a divorce. One year, seven months and three and one-half days later, if I remember correctly. I was married to Helen here,who has made a very wonderful wife. I bought two sections of land at Box Elder and have lived there ever since. Bytheway my family ought to be getting here soon, they were following behind in a truck!” Chuck was next on the program and began thus: “I waited until Celia had graduated, then we were married and went to live with my folks. We had a bumper crop in ’29 and so I bought this place and have lived there since.” “Ted I guess you’re next,” announced Les, “and if you tell us all about yourself we’ll then give you a report on the rest of the class. Ted had a long, sad, hard luck story. “After I graduated I went to college and took a public speaking course together with a course in law. I ran for governor in 1934 and no doubt would have been elected but for a batch of hard luck. While campaigning one day, one of the farmers had to take off his shoe, to get a tack out of his foot. He set the shoe on my platform and it got the best of my stomach and now I’ve been riding in the open for two years trying to recover my ap- petite.” “Hooray for Ted,” cried Les, “I knew you wouldn’t be an old withered up cowpuncher of your own accord. “Who would you like to hear from next?”, asked Kenneth. “Hazel Flatness”, everyone cried. “You tell them about Hazel, Les, as yon know her much better thanl do.” “I guess you’re correct about that,” Les answered, settling himself com- fortably in a big chair. “Well, to begin with, I want to correct you as to her name. She is now Hazel Hall. She and Earl were married in the happy'‘Ping time’ as Earl used to call it and weiit down to Pasadena, California, for their honeymoon. While there, Earl, who was always handy with machinery, was offered a contract as chief engineer in a factory. Hazel has made a very ef- ficient housewife. They have a very nice home and get along wonderfully well. Hazel invited us up to look over the place as she is very proud of it. When we went inside we were greatly amazed at the number of “little halls” in the house but refrained from saying anything and had a splendifer- ous time. 1 There was silence for a moment and then someone asked, “How about Bessie Arnold?” “Bessie is still her sweet self,” said Kenneth, ’“she is playing piano solos at station I. N. A. R. for Sears Roebuck and company. She plays won- derfully well and has a position in the New York Theatre as soon as her contract with Sears expires. She is getting $500 a week now and told us she was content to remain single as long as she could command such a salary as that.” “Say,” said Don, “Hows old John Jenkins, I’ll bet he’s a prominent man somewhere.” You bet he is”, Les exclaimed, “he lives at West Minister Abbey at Lon- don and is a writer of critics and satires. He handed us a lot of advice as usual and told us how to make an interesting report. He is a very distin- guished man there but expects to move back to New York soon. He has acquired a vast fortune. It’s too bad some of us couldn’t be bom as he was.”