Camden High School - Megunticook Yearbook (Camden, ME)

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10 THE MEGVNT1COOK CAMDEN, MAINE ta, and other important papers. I don’t believe that any other building surpasses this one for beauty. The entire interior is murals in fabulous color. After visiting this, we were let loose on the city until 11:30. It was in the wee hours before we got to sleep. It was also in the wee hours when we arose for breakfast. At nine o’clock we visited Mrs. Margaret Chase Smith, our senator, in her office in the Senate Office Build- ing. At a little after 10:00 we left there and walked to the National Art Gallery. We went from one room to another gazing at paintings by such famous artists as Van Dyke and Ra- phael. We met at the fountain in the center of the building and then went to dinner at a government cafeteria nearby. The food was good there and the prices were low. Unknown to us at this time Chris Plaisted had been left behind in the Art Gallery. We went on into the Army Medical Center and then to the FBI building where the methods of criminal investigation were explained to us. After visiting the National Museum and Natural History Building we went back to the Smithsonian Institute. It was there that we found Chris at about four in the afternoon. She had missed her lunch and had gone there after visiting the Art Gallery. That evening we summoned enough energy to go out to dinner at the Lo- tus Club. It was Chinese-American and the dinner was delicious. They had a good three-act floor show. Again it was far into the night before the seniors of Camden High hit the sack, and yet again it was early when we rolled out. After breakfast we made the ride out to Virginia and Mount Vernon. We went all through the home of George Washington and looked into most of the smaller buildings around the olace. We saw Georere Washing- ton’s tomb and Martha Washington’s beautiful flower gardens, which were in full bloom. After Mount Vernon we rode through the Arlington National Cemetery to the Tomb of the Un- known Soldier. Here we witnessed the change of guards and then went on up to the Custis Lee mansion. From the front porch of this house we could look out over the entire city of Washington. Almost in a direct line in front of us were the Lincoln Me- morial, the Washington Monument, and the Capitol Building. We ascend- ed Washington Monument next; some by the stairs, but most by the eleva- tor. There are three pieces of granite from the State of Maine in this spire. However, we were only able to locate two of them. We walked from the Washington Monument down the street to the Bureau of Engraving where they make 10 billion dollars’ worth of paper money a day for the replacement of that now in use. The tour of the Capitol Building was very complete. It included the galleries of both houses, and just about all of the corridors there. We stood in the exact center of the building which was once the exact center of the District of Columbia. It was here that we saw the longest unobstructed hallway in the world. All of the murals were ex- plained to us with emphasis placed on the unfinished band that runs around the rotunda. Tuesday evening after supper we went to the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, and then to the National Airport. That night after we had all gone to bed, Mr. Payson came into our room and started yell- ing for us to be quiet. When the house dick knocked on our door, Mr. Payson ducked through the bathroom and out the door to the other room. We let the dick in and told him that Mr. Payson was making all of the noise and that he was hiding in the bathroom. Of course he couldn’t find him so he call- ed us liars in so many words. In the morning we walked to the Supreme Court, a beautiful white marble structure with a 22-carat gold decoration on the ceiling. Today we checked out after seeing the Supreme Court. We took one last look at Washington as we departed for Gettysburg, Penna. This last look included an hour or two at the zoo and a tour through the National Cathedral. Upon arrival at Gettysburg we

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THE MEGUNT1COOK CAMDEN, MAINE 9 THE WASHINGTON TRIP We left Camden amidst the yells and cheers of our friends and parents at about seven-thirty on the morning of Saturday, April 14. At once the boys’ bus took the lead and we were off. Our first sight of a big city was Portland. We stopped there at the train station for a rest stop, the first of so many. On the other side of Port- land we left the narrower roads of Maine and entered the turnpike, and from Portland to Washington we had four and six-lane highways most of the way. Our second big city was, of course, Boston. We hadn’t planned to go through Boston but the Greyhound Bus Line had made other plans. We had to change buses there because the ones we were on weren’t register- ed for states south of Massachusetts. The boys’ bus again took the lead which it had held thus far. In the Connecticut Valley we saw tobacco fields and sheds. There wasn’t any tobacco growing this early though. We by-passed Hartford and went through New Haven where, by going up a one-way street, we were able to lose the girls’ bus which had done pretty well in keeping up with us that far. When they were finally lo- cated, they were half way to Bridge- port, pulled up beside the road watch- ing a movie in a nearby drive-in thea- tre; just waiting for us. Being unaccustomed to long hours of confinement such as we had on the buses, when we reached Bridgeport we were dead. However, we did our best to paint the town red that night. Some of our comrades tried a test on our chaperones to see how long they could stay out after hours. By the way, Class of ’52, when you are told to get in at 11:30, it is best that you do so. Six o’clock came too soon and the desk clerk rang us on the telephone and wished us a bright good-morning. We stumbled down to a small lunch stand across the street and had break- fast. Then after getting our baggage aboard the buses we were off on our second day—Sunday. Gambling was heavy in the boys’ bus; we were try- ing to guess the time that we would cross the George Washington Bridge. The kitty was a front seat for the winner with the opportunity to take pictures of the bridge through the windshield. Orman Goodwin was the winner with Jim McGrath clicking right behind him. After crossing over into Jersey we went up onto the Pulaski Skyway, a highway in the air. From this Sky- way we could look out over Jersey City, a flat, smoky, highly industrial city. It was then that we were im- pressed by the flatness of the land: not a hill in sight on our side of the river. We stopped at the Newark Air- port for a rest stop. As our buses tra- veled down the state, we noticed that as well as an everlasting flatness to the land there weren’t any rocks in the fields and no stone walls around the fields. Underpinnings for houses and walls were made of either cement or cinder blocks, no rocks at all. It was through that same section that the buses passed through a dust storm as thick as fog. It came in heavy gusts and we couldn’t see out except in between gusts. The natives of New Jersey said that it was the first storm of that kind for a hundred years. At Pennsville, N. J., we ferried across to Newcastle, Md. It was quite windy but there was beautiful scen- ery so we didn’t mind. Baltimore was all that people have said it was with its miles and miles of apartment houses with white mar- ble steps at every front door. We got into Washington, D. C., just as the sun was setting. We drove up by the Capitol and the Congressional Library and then down the street less than three blocks to our hotel. We were rallied in the lobby and the hotel manager. Mr. Blackistone, told us to be quiet in our rooms, no visiting be- tween rooms, and then gave us our kevs. The Union Station was just across the square from us so several ate sup- per there. After supper, Mr. Pavson led us back up the street on foot to the Congressional Library where we saw the Constitution, the Magna Car-

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THE MEGUNTICOOK CAMDEN, MAINE 11 contracted for a guide to show us the battlefield. The battlefield is covered with monuments. We saw the Eternal Peace Light and the spot where Lin- coln gave his famous “Gettysburg Address.” We had supper in our hotel. After supper we visited the Cyclorama, which is an immense painting of the battle. From there we went to the electric map where the major steps of the battle were shown to us step by step, each advance and retreat. Also in this same building was a mu- seum of the battle. The class as a whole went to bed early—just rest- ing up for New York the next day. It was late afternoon when we ar- rived in New York. Mr. Payson took us on a tour of the RCA Building. It was from the top of this building, which is 300 feet higher than the Washington Monument, that we saw the city at night lit up like an enor- mous Christmas tree. That evening we were on our own and I guess we made the most of it. Early the next morning we went by boat out to the Statue of Liberty, a gift to the U. S. from France. It is ten stories from the ground level up to the foot of the statue. One can go this far in an elevator, but to reach the top it is a 12-story walk from there. We got back to Battery Park in downtown Manhattan in time to hold a class meeting to decide where to go next. We journeyed up White- hall Street onto Broadway to watch General MacArthur’s reception. Along with l - million other people we stood on Broadway with confetti coming down from the sky in what seemed like an endless stream. Right in the middle of it all we heard the bands playing and the boat whistles blowing and we got a wonderful, first- hand, never-to-be-forgotten glimpse of General MacArthur. Never was anything so exciting! After all had gotten back from the parade we went to the Radio City Music Hall where we saw the world- famous Rockettes and other skilled performers in a stage show. In the evening of our second night in New York we went to the Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus. It was a circus that would put all others to shame. After the circus we crossed over to Broadway and made it a point to be in Times Square at mid- night. By the size of the crowd there I guess everybody else did too. 5:15 came as somewhat of a shock that morning. We left for home at 6:30. Coming up through Connecticut and Massachusetts the cops were thicker than flies again. One stopped us and passed the time of day with our drivers. A Good Humor ice cream man stopped and passed the time of day with the rest of us. The girls had to change buses in Boston again on the way home but the boys didn’t. The boys called a rest stop in Portland but the girls being a hardy lot held out until Brunswick. The reception we got when we rolled into Camden at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, April 21. didn’t compare with MacArthur’s for size but it certainly matched it for spirit and sincerity. Fifteen minutes behind the boys’ bus came the girls’. We had a grand time seeing the sights and everyone learned a great deal, but the trip did have its lighter side. For instance, there was the time that Elston got locked out of his sec- ond-story room in the hotel, went down to the first floor and climbed the outside of the hotel to his win- dow. A1 Bennett got locked out of his room too, in a rather embarrassing situation, but we won’t go into that. If there is one person who didn’t get lost in the New York subways, I challenge you to find him. The prize remark of the trip oc- curred on Broadway when three Cam- den boys heard a lady behind them remark to her companion: “It’s a good thing we got in back of three boys who live in New York and know where they’re going.” Ha! There is a rumor that Bebe Leon- ard did a fine job of hotel room ser- vice one night. You’ll have to ask her about that: most of us don’t know the details. Thus ended a memorable trip; one that will never be forgotten by the Class of 1951.