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Page 20 text:
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r??T:r. CLASS VI: 1956-1957 Our first full day at Boston Latin School began at 8:30 A.M. on the morning of September 13, 1956, when 526 awe-inspired sixies gathered in the assembly hall to be assigned to their respective homeroom masters. Then, with the headmaster ' s warning that only one of every three would receive a diploma ringing in our ears, we filed meekly to our homerooms and into a new era of our lives. The next few days were nightmarish as we wandered aimlessly through the corridors and became acquainted with the real meaning of homework in the form of fundamentals of Latin and English grammar, geography, arithmetic, and science. The first hectic days slowly gathered momentum and the year began to melt away, as did many of our classmates. The soberin g, ever recurring scene of a friend returning his books and having his transfer form signed must have inspired many of us with a fearful determination to succeed. Suddenly we understood the meaning of pressure. While we no longer saw as much T.V.( ?), we could not help being aware of the autumn headlines. In late Octo- ber the flames of smouldering Hungarian Nationalism burst into a full-scale uprising against the oppression of Soviet imperialism. The courageous “freedom fighters” captured the imagination of the Free World as they over- threw the Communist puppet regime and gained a brief taste of freedom. However, the Russians’ diplomatic de- ceit and military might soon crushed the revolt. Fear of igniting World War III prevented the Western Powers and the UN from intervening. Simultaneously the Suez crisis erupted when French and British troops invaded Egypt to prevent President Nasser from seizing the vital canal. World peace hung in the balance while the United States sided with Russia in condemning her allies for aggression. France and Great Britain soon yielded to world opinion, but the mending of relations and the clearing of the canal took considerably longer. In November President Eisenhower was re-elected by an overwhelming majority. The outstanding athletic event of the autumn was un- doubtedly the first perfect game in world series history pitched by the Yankees’ Don Larsen. In school athletics loyal “sixies” followed the fortunes of an undefeated Latin eleven which climaxed the season with a thrilling Thanksgiving Day come-from-behind vic- tory, 19-12, at Braves Field. A few brave classmates took their first athletic steps when Ed Bell and Ed Quinn be- came members of the V and VI track team. As they always have, the Christmas Holidays now brought a welcome respite to a noticeably depopulated Class of ’62 which froliced through a week of no home- DO YOU REMEMBER? A ml Kvj George F. Barry - i For most, the winter months were much less grueling than those of the fall. The fact that we were “learning the ropes” at Latin School was reflected in improving report cards. The differences between conjugations and declensions was becoming increasingly apparent, as was the meaning of the mysterious arrows on the stairwell walls and of the purple arm bands worn by cafeteria mar- shals. The search for the fabled swimming pool was abandoned, and fewer tickets for riding the elevators were purchased. Defiant “sixies” now roamed the cor- ridors with increasing aplomb and decreasing fear of being shut in remote lockers. No longer were they daunted by the hisses and the c atcalls of upperclassmen whom they nevertheless gave wide berth. The manly sen- iors commanded singular respect, for, indeed they were full-grown men merely enduring the formality of their final year and possessing as much prestige and authority as any of the younger masters. There was always room for them at the front of the lunch line. Their lazy gait down the third floor corridors symbolized unchallenged supremacy. Oh, to be a senior! Well, some day. V, m Lloyd A. Hechinger CLASS work and promptly sank beneath the deluge of tests that greeted their return. No longer was it necessary to refer to the tattered pro- gram card, for periods now flowed smoothly in familiar succession and, like drops in the lifeblood of the student body, the first year corpuscles coursed easily through the arteries of the building and into the numbered cells of learning. The high points of the weekly grind were the eagerly awaited sessions in the small gym where dire threats and raging disputes were born and resolved in thrilling relay games and deadly basket shooting. Finally, no winter day was complete without a spirited snowball fight in the backyard or at the bus stop. Suddenly, it was spring, the season of water pistols and firecrackers. Locker rooms became the scene of many a moist duel and echoing explosion. Everyone gulped down lunch and fled to the back yard where a myriad of rubber balls whistled through the warm air. After mid-April many tired of the yard and frequently disappeared in the direction of Fenway Park. Homeroom feuds flared anew as the competitiv e intramural league flourished in the farthest corner of the Fens Stadium. The tidal wave of misdemeanor marks failed to dampen spring spirits, but did cultivate ingenious alibis. Who could study for final exams in early summer weather? So we discovered how much of the year’s material we had forgotten. Then on June 27, the muffled bang of locker doors and echoing footsteps in the corri- dors were heard for the last time that year. The pro- motion blank said that we had made it. Memory easily mingles the events of other years but those of Class VI stand apart. For the first time we were on our own, at the bottom rung of a long ladder. Suddenly we had to decide our success or failure. Many of us will come to regard that year as the first fork in the road of life.
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Page 21 text:
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HISTORY CLASS V: 1957-1958 The first month of this memorable year (aren’t they all) was spent in learning once more the official regula- tions and unwritten constitution of the school and in the merciless bad crinK of the new “sixies”. When the nov- elty of torturinfj these bewildered rookies wore off, the average “fivesie” settled down to a daily routine by which he arrived every morning at 7:30 for a spirited game of foot hockey played with an empty milk carton. The months sped by with only an occasional trip to the guid- ance office and the relentless exodus of many classmates marring tranquillity of our intellectual pursuits. In math we learned how to decipher income tax forms; in Latin we utterly mastered the much dreaded ablative absolute; in English we probed the anatomy of a sentence; in science CO again turned limewater milky; in history the tide of the Revolutionary War turned at Saratoga and that of the Civil War at Gettysburg; in the study hall we wasted our time. Highlighting many a period were the masters’ spine-tingling tales of the horrors which awaited us in the coming years. The Register and the Liber Actorum received literary honors while for the eighth consecutive year, Latin fin- ished first in the three divisions of the Schoolboy Parade. The Band, Drum Corps, and Drill units all won first place recognition. Prize Drill, Class Day, Prize Declamation, Graduation, and final exams brought the academic year to a close. As always the boys of more intense school spirit ably represented the Purple and White on the fields of friendly competition. The BLS football team, though not the best squad of the six year tenure of Coach “Pep” McCarthy, finished the season with a record of three victories and three defeats. Although the team bowed to arch-rival English on Thanksgiving Day, 26-20, it would dominate the ancient rivalry f or the next three years. The hockey team, the best team to represent the school in years, combined a strong attack with a solid defense to place runner-up in the Boston City League. In basketball, the city championship which we had been awaiting since 1955 barely eluded the Latin five. Had it not been for an upset loss to English, we would have tied for top honors. Sparked by a host of juniors and sophomores, the base- ball team swept through league competition to capture the city title and enter the Eastern Mass. Schoolboy Tourney. Meanwhile, those classmates who would later spark varsity teams were carrying our junior high teams to league championships. The V and VI basketball team, coached by Mr. Fielding, traveled an undefeated route to the league title. Stand- outs were Paul Bonner, Pete Treska, Pat Moscaritolo, and Bob Ernest. Not to be outdone, Mr. Patten’s V and VI baseball team rolled to a league championship. The starting nine in- cluded Bob Butkus, Ernie Caporale, Mitch Sikora, Pete Treska, Rico Salini, Pete Winstanley, and Pete DeSisto. On Thursday, June 17, 1958, about three hundred sur- viving “fivesies”, now freshmen, tightly clutching pro- motion blanks and anticipating a never-ending summer vacation, raced from the building. It seems like yesterday. During the school year of 1957-58, many memorable events attracted the spotlight of world attention. The most electrifying took place on October 5, li)57, when the U.S.S.R. announced that it had sent a twenty- two inch, 184 pound globe into space. Thus Sputnick I became the earth’s first man-made satellite. One month later, the Soviet Union orbited a second artificial moon, containing a live dog. The “race for space” was under- way as angry congressmen threatened to keep us in school twelve months a year and demanded an accelerated space program. The reactionary furor introduced such phi’ases as “missile gap”, “soft youth”, and added a host of words from scientific jargon to the working vocabulary of the average citizen. The uproar jolted the populace from the lethargy of complacent superiority. The United States’ reply to the Soviet challenge was not long in coming. On January 31, 1958, a powerful three-stage rocket propelled Explorer I through the pre- dawn darkness of Cape Canaveral, Florida, and into the vast blue vacuum of the stratosphere. Two months later the Navy launched Explorer II, and the steady stream of increasingly larger American satellites has been con- tinuing ever since. Amid the din of roaring rockets, the earthly struggle between democracy and communism quickened into tempo. Vice-President Nixon made a good will tour of South America that boded the ill will which many of our south- ern neighbors harbored and which has set in motion new plans for hemispheric unity. Premier Krushchev, intoxi- cated with scientific success, issued the first of his many Berlin ultimatums. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Com- munists began a periodic bombardment of Quemoy and the Matsu Islands, which now became the world’s newest trouble spot. Our foremost domestic controversies included integra- tion of Southern school systems climaxed by the crisis at Little Rock, where public high schools were closed. President Eisenhower suffered a minor blood clot on the brain, but quickly recovered. A more welcome event of 1958 was the admission of Alaska as our forty-ninth state. As world tension mounted, the tension in the world of sports melted into memories of unforgettable feats. The Milwaukee Braves became baseball’s World Cham- pions by winning the World Series from the New York Yankees four games to three. Lew Burdette emerged the series hero as he won three games and held the Yankees’ famed sluggers scoreless for twenty-five innings. In professional basketball, the St. Louis Hawks de- feated the injury-riddled Celtics, four games to two, in the final round of the play-offs. The Montreal Canadiens, led by thirty-five year old Maurice “The Rocket” Richard, mowed down our beloved Bruins four games to one in the Stanley Cup Play-offs. Here at the Boston Latin School, we launched our three hundred twenty-third year of molding boys into well- rounded students. For the class of ’62 this was the year of “Richies’ Second Steps”, “Word Wealth”, history and geography, general science and math, spiced with intro- ductory algebra. The more earnest eighth-graders bent to their books and began to take advantage of the school’s vast network of extra-curricular activities.
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