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

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Page Twenty CANAL CURRENTS When Words Fail Me Many are the times that in the quiet of the evening I have gazed at one of Cape Cod’s loveliest sights — a sunset — impressing upon my mind every detail of its serene beauty that it might leave a place of loveliness with- in me — the delicate gold or silver edged clouds and the perfect blending of pastel colors. Each time I have tried to express in sound what I saw, but words failed me. Again, many are the times in the early morning that I have risen and gone out into the sweet freshness that the morning’s awakening brings into the air, filling my being — feeling awake, alive! It would indeed, be a futile effort to speak. Often has a kind friend done a thoughtful deed and although I am grateful, I can only stumble over words of thanks. Sometimes when a friend is hurt through some misunderstanding, I have tried to right the wrong, but the things that I could say to help won’t come until the opportunity is gone. Scenes, people, and happenings seem to make not only myself but words inadequate. What do you do, when words fail you? Isabel Handy, 41. “Count von Luckner” or “The Sea Devil” by Lowell Thomas The Sea Devil’’ tells about a boy who loved the sea but whose father wanted him to be a cavalry officer in the army. The boy’s name was Count Felix von Luckner. His father told him never to come back home unless he was an officer. The book tells how he ran away to follow the sea, and of the hardships and the ad- venture he had. When the World War started he enlisted as an officer in the German navy, and later was given command of an out-rigger. He slipped past the British blockade and sank a lot of Al- lied shipping before he was ship- wrecked in the South Seas. One time a ship wouldn’t surrender. He rigged up some stove pipes to look like tor- pedo tubes and then told them to sur- render or else he would sink the ship. They surrendered. It was a very inter- esting book all the way through and I enjoyed it very much. Charles Aylmer, ’41. Music of he Future Music is one of our fine arts involv- ing the very human soul. But in the future music will certainly be given us by machines. We have already had an opportunity to observe this change during our lifetime. We have wit- nessed the development of the phono- graph, the player-piano, the radio, and numerous other mechanical means of producing music. The most ultra- modern music-making machine is the pianoforte, which is able to create music by blending electrical vibrations. Such a great orchestral director as Stokowski seems to be gaining inter- est in his Westinghouse-Electrical me- chanical orchestra. He, like many other conductors, realizes which way the future faces, and he has now given himself almost completely over to scientific research in mechanical music. Mechanized music has done tre- mendous harm to the musicians, who formerly played at theaters and dances. Do we want our national anthem screeched at us through a loudspeaker, coming from a little wax disc running in circles? There is great doubt on the part of music critics, and people who appreciate good music, whether the world will overthrow this tendency to a mechanical age in the world of music. Stuart Macdonald, ’41.

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BOURNE HIGH SCHOOL Page Nineteen How Do We Learn? We learn from history that we learn nothing from history. How true this saying is. If we benefited by others’ experi- ence, if we learned from history, would the world be in the turmoil it is today? But supposing we were to benefit from the exploits of our an- cestors by knowing enough then not to step on dangerous ground, still, would we be satisfied? Indeed not. It is human nature to find these things out for oneself. Who cares if people say I told you so”? We want to learn for ourselves, to experience the thrill of discovery. Every experiment in our chemistry book has been worked thousand of times, yet every one of the twenty stu- dents in our class is going to work them for himself again, and is going to get a big kick out of doing so. We have to discover things for ourselves. It is human nature. Phyllis Stockley, ’41. Summer Boarders As soon as the rays of the summer sun touch them they come flocking to the country: young and old, thin and plump, they make up the queerest assortment of tourists imaginable. First, there is a quiet old lady who wishes only to sit in her rocking chair and knit. A congenial sort of person, she at once becomes a friend to everyone. Respect is paid to her in every possible way. Just the opposite, however, is the great inventor and ' what not,’ Mr. Jones. Middle-aged and plump, he wheezes through an account of his daring exploits, his newest time- saving devices, or anything at all that will make him the center of at- tention. On the shady side of the veranda sits the old maid absorbed in a thrill- ing love story, forgetful of her beau- tiful young charge, the debutante. Stretched lazily in the sun is that overworked young lady trying to catch up on her beauty sleep after her social fling. It is much too quiet here for her satisfaction for she craves excite- ment every minute. There’s no need of a chaperone in this lonely place,” says she. Anyone can guess who the gentle- man with the horn-rimmed spectacles is. All day he pores over thickly bound books, or crawls in the meadow near- by for bugs. A perfect afternoon greets the drowsy boarders until cries of de- light pierce the silence and bounding up the steps is Mr. Naturalist, dan- gling his precious find before him. What a queer group fate has thrown together here! No two persons are leading a similar life, or are in the same social group. It’s fun to try to imagine why each one chose this country boarding house for his or her vacation. I’ve tried very hard and I’m still trying to reach a reasonable con- clusion. I just can’t seem to. Can you? B. Natalie Wright, ’41. Let Us All Be Thankful What is the real meaning of Thanksgiving? Surely it is not just the good things we have to eat. To us Americans it cannot help but have a much deeper meaning, especially this year. We should give thanks that our country is not at war, that our boys are not in the trenches and our whole land in danger of air raids. The hungry in this nation are fed, the poor are properly clothed, and little children cared for. Our schools and other institutions are of the best. There is a chance for each and every one who wants to take it. On this Thanksgiving day, and in the Christmas Season coming, let us all be thankful we are United States citizens. Franklin Ellis, ’41.

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BOURNE HIGH SCHOOL Page T wenty-one Lighted Windows Is there anything in life quite so cheerful as lighted windows? Prob- ably many of you have just taken lighted windows for granted and never thought much about whether they were cheerful or not. But if one should stop and think about them, he would realize how much lighted win- dows really mean to him. If you lived across the street from a house where no one lived, which you were accustomed to see dark ev- ery night, wouldn’t it be a cheerful sight upon looking out your window some night to see that house sudden- ly come to life, with light blazing through its windows? If your car should break down some night and you were forced to hunt for the nearest telephone, wouldn’t lighted windows, gleaming through the darkness, be the pleasant est sight possible to you at that time? A man coming home at night from his work feels contented and grateful when he comes in sight of his home and sees lighted windows welcoming him and assuring him of his wife or family, as the case may be, waiting for him there. While out driving at night don’t you like to see the houses by the road- side all lighted up? And seeing them, don’t they gladden your heart and give you the urge to peek inside? To me lighted windows signify home and loved ones therein. Doris Landers, ’41. Why?— Do you often wonder why this event or that one happened? If you haven’t you must be an extraordinary person. From baby days up all have asked why”. The great educators of the country are asking why”, scientists are asking why”, and we are asking why”. Of course, we all aren’t ask- ing for the same answers. If you stop to think, you will find that there are numerous questions that are unan- swered and numerous answered ones. Why do we eat? To help main- tain life in our bodies. Why do we go to school? (How many of us have asked that one! ) We go to learn, or to gain a knowledge of the three essentials readin’, writin’, and ’rithmetic.” Why do we have wars? Some peo- ple say it is because life would be too monotonous if we didn’t have wars, and others say that wars are caused by some greedy country which is never satisfied. As for unanswered questions we have many, such as Why do we have dreams?” — Why does the Gulf Stream follow in the unusual course that it does?” — and many others. An- swers are yet to be found to these queries but still that word persists in coming out. I firmly believe that when we stop using that word many of us will stop learning, and civiliz- ation will suffer, because that word usually spells Progress”. Louise Coombs, ’41. Explorers to the North and South Poles Men like Peary, MacMillan, and Byrd, all explorers to the North and South Poles, are to be honored. These are the men who risked their lives a hundred times a day to learn the secret of the long dark nights in the Arctic; to learn the secret of the Eskimo’s ex- istence — not to bring fame to them- selves, but that the world too might learn the secrets of the Arctic, so that the world need no longer ponder but be as familiar with that region as with any other part of the earth. Admiral Richard E. Byrd is one of the greatest Arctic and Antarctic ex plorers. In the autumn of 1928 Byrd set out with eighty-two men, four ships, and four airplanes, to explore the Antarctic, arriving at Ross Ice Barrier on Christmas Day. In Febru-