Bourne High School - Canal Currents Yearbook (Bourne, MA)

Page 23 text:

CANAL CURRENTS 21 RIVERS How similar a river is to a human being! It begins its life as a tiny trickle high up in the mountains and, like an infant is at its birth, small and weak. As it grows it becomes stronger and resembles a child who has just learned to play. A mountain stream has always fascinated me. It winds and twists among giant boulders forming little pools and cas- cades. Where it is going it does not seem to know or even less to care. The mountain stream later becomes a youth, — strong, adventurous, and carefree. As it becomes larger it must leave its play and go to work at driving the wheels of industry and generating electricity to light the homes of people hundreds of miles away. The river is a willing servant but sometimes it becomes angry and breaks loose from its confinement causing great loss of life and property. Finally, after many experiences, the river comes out up- on the lowlands and is content to lead a life of ease, like an old man who has worked hard and has earned his just re- ward. This river is broad and deep and carries upon its back the commerce of the great cities. Finally the river comes to its end and is lost in the sea. It has come many hundreds of miles and has seen many things. What a wonderful story it could tell if it could only speak. Burgess Brownson, ’36. ONE MINUTE A minute is but a snap of the finger; yet it may contain an eternity. When we look back at the days and years we have rushed through, or try to recall a minute of last night’s sleep, we are amazed. Time passes so quickly. But there are times when the minute apparently halts its mad flight and remains inert for a seeming eternity. Im- agine, for instance, what must take place in the minute be- fore we draw our last breath in this world. It has been said that in that minute many people relive every moment since their birth. Then again we all know how in the classroom, before our turn to recite what we haven’t done, the minutes threaten us with their seeming endlessness! This, to me, is the miracle of the minute as of time it- self. It is a set unit only as we set it.

Page 22 text:

20 CANAL CURRENTS SUNDOWN In the west the sun was slowly disappearing beyond the horizon . In the sky the clouds were aflame with the rays of the huge ball of Are, showing colors that would put an artist to shame. As the shadows fell, the noise and the bustle of the city turned into a strange quietness as practically all commerce came to an end. In the far-off country the chirping and singing of the joyful and carefree birds came to a hush. In the low and sturdy white farmhouses lamps were lit and their soft, yellow glow could be seen out of the crystal clear windows. Through the stillness of the fast-growing darkness, one could hear the soft tinkling of bells as the cows were being led home to their barns. In a short space of time all traces of the sun had disap- peared and through the inky blackness of the sky stars be- gan to twinkle to signify that another perfect day had come to an end. Walter Young, ’37. THE ANCESTOR I RESEMBLE They’re always making A scrap bag out of me. First it’s Grandp a’s nose. Then Grandma’s knee. Aunty Beth just loves my lips They’re so like Grandma Thom’s But, Aunty Lou, she loves my hips ’Cause they’re just like my Mom’s. Uncle Ned will go in raptures Over eyes of Aunty’s blue They seem to join a league against me Mother’s in it, too. They tell me who I resemble From my head down to my toes. ’Til I think I’m just a patchwork quilt. Maybe I am, who knows? But Dad’s the only sensible one In the whole “caboodle”. He says, “Never you mind. Honey. All that matters is your ‘noodle’.” Dorothy Ryan

Page 24 text:

22 CANAL CURRENTS Years ago, and not so many either, people traveled by horse and by way of water at an average of around five miles an hour which is equal to a distance of four hundred and forty feet in one minute. Today we have multiplied this four hun- dred and forty feet to thirty-five thousand nine hundred and eighty-two feet in one minute. This means that today we can travel eighty times farther in a minute than could our great-grandfather. Here we see that man is the one con- trolling factor in determining what a minute shall contain. In other fields, in practically all of the sciences, we find the minute expanding in content — the physician working to- wards the goal of eternal life, and the physicist striving to make more and more sensations possible in this expanded or extra time. Perhaps, just perhaps, life everlasting is not beyond the grave but, it may be that it lies within our own thought realm. David Ingerson, ’36.