Castleton State College - Castletone Yearbook (Castleton, VT)

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with unusually beautiful pictures. He put a hole in our magnificent conception of the “Children of the Cold’’ and enabled us to see how they really lived . . .Then one day Dr. Florence Hale, from Maine, painted a verbal picture of the challenges of rural teaching. How hard we wish that the salary in town schools were not quite so tempting . . . One evening we gathered to see and hear Shakespeare’s women as portrayed by a Little Theatre actress, Mary Hutchinson. Portia as the lawyer, Lady Macbeth with her bloody hands, Rosalind capering in the woods, Juliet softly and teasingly saying good night, and the mighty Cleopatra in all her graceful beauty came to life before us. May Mother’s Day drew near and passed as we found ourselves host to a strik¬ ingly different personality. Dr. Ting Su, of Indiana and China, a most intelligent Oriental student. He lived with us for a week, sharing our life, unconcernedly telling us of his folkways and manners, smiling at our curious superstitions, cook¬ ing chop suey in Dr. Woodruff’s little kitchen, and demonstrating the use of chop sticks at a student table . . . Not long before we had had a fascinating young Eng¬ lish sailor here to talk with us. He was able to attend our Freshman dance (the most ambitious starbedecked event of any dance committee up to that time). Mr. Jewiss is an officer, had been at the evacuation ot Havre, his home in London had had a “direct hit,’’ once he was bombed and rescued at sea, but still we found him amazingly cheerful, as Dr. Ting Su was. We wished both could have been here for our May festival to see our Queen and join in our play. Dr. Su did attend one of the Breakfast Club picnics and found us as informal as could be, even in early morning hours seeing the sweepers around in the halls wearing work dresses and with bandannas on their curls . . . Tryouts were being conducted for the big play of the year, “Pride and Prejudice,” which quite outdid “Maniken and Mini- ken” . . .But again, speaking of programs, this was a year of interesting ones in¬ deed. We heard about Mexico and saw a shrunken human head, dishes and clothing which Jimmie Moore brought with him. At one time we saw on the screen the most delightful and valuable pictures of birds and flowers of the north and west. And during chapels we saw in pictures the story of erosion and its effects, safety programs, fire and accident prevention, the workings of the telephone system and historical events. There were book displays, exhibitions of Japanese prints and Hilda Belcher portraits, illustrated art methods, and examples of Freshman and Sophomore accomplishments that would rival any compared with them. One lecture by Alice Schalek, European Journalist, imprisoned for a week by the Gestapo, proved humanly interesting. June As we look back we realize that Dr. Woodruff has really been an important part of our school since she spoke to us officially in chapel early in the year. She has been our guest at banquets or entertainments, and at her home on call for all her friends and acquaintances. As we walk through Friendship Garden we always think how it was she whom we have to thank for our beautiful grounds, including our great estate, Glenbrook . . . Our campus has bloomed with violets, dandelions, and lilacs in turn, and the Sophomores have found at least seventy-five wild flowers for science. The Freshmen have learned how to count calories, the Juniors to give oral reports, and the Seniors to write learned papers. Each of the classes have visited other institutions including Barstow school, the Yergennes Reform- eighty

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January “What did you get for Christmas” greetings were soon snowed deeply under papers and exams. We scurried around, snatching opportunities to go sliding, skiing, or skating, even tobogganing, glad that the super cold snap that had cracked pipes in the Foyer had passed and we wouldn’t be freezing our fingers. Clothes collected in laundry bags or on the lines downstairs, and parents received hints that perhaps marks weren’t quite what they should be, but—we also wrote home about the genial Welshmen who sang for us their many old-country songs, and of their soloist who gave us a cockney number and a gruesome bedtime story. . . The N. Y. A. and state helpers had plenty to do to keep up with everything, sho veling snow or coal, typing for the faculty, or seeing to it that we had sufficient vitamins and minerals set before us. February The Castleton Conference, our own really professional conference, came and went with the usual seating and serving complications that attend all our larger gatherings, and then—the long-awaited Winter Carnival. What cared we if the snow had melted and the skating were impossible? We got roller skates and skated in the gym, played volley ball, treasure hunted, and had a good time anyway, watching the proud king and queen walk down the avenue between their attendants to sit on the great ice throne, receive the reverence of their subjects, and delegate their favors and rewards. Again that night they ruled, presiding over the Sophomore Hop from a massive throne, descending to lead in the dancing. That was all during the reading spree when those interesting books circulated, with the reminder “read page 72,” since a few Juniors had been discovering books all this first semester in American Novel Class. March Again the Commuters rose to prominence by staging a feature show of stars and varieties which brought forth the talents of our soap box orators, chorus girls, laundrymen and ice peddlars. They all then celebrated their birthdays together with us at a banquet on the anniversary of the new school, with a pro¬ gram dramatizing all the important events of the past twenty years and fore¬ casting an illustrious future . . . We again turned toward the cultural and listened to the Middlebury Orchestra and Vermont State Symphony, appreciating all the instructions and information drilled into us in music classes . . . When our delegates went to the New York Convention later some of them again made use of that knowledge. That was a memorable trip for the four boys who were chosen to represent our four classes. The girls were generous that time! April Suddenly the Sophomores began to expound teaching practices and find out how little they knew when they had to face their first group of pupils. “Pro¬ fessional” was scarcely an adequate adjective for a description of all their tired glory of being teachers “in the field” . . . The Juniors and Seniors began to spruce up, for superintendents were popping in at odd times. There were shoes polished, hair combed with discrimination, smiles flashing—they just must be presentable! . . . Again a conference called us to Rutland where we mingled with the teaching crowd, examined text books, listened to discussions, and, if we were good, were privileged to hear Commander MacMillan lecture on Greenland, illustrating seventy-nine

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atory, Rutland Reformatory, and the Windsor prison. The Seniors have exper¬ ienced practiced social graces with Miss Kelly as lunch hostess, the Juniors have sat in court, the Sophomores have demonstrated their disregard for a lack of cars by riding in a truck for observation trips, and the Freshmen have participated in a p ' ay day for prospective Normal Schoolers. The International Club, Rural Club, C. N. S. Players, and Men’s Pinion have held their last meetings and elections of the year. The Birdseye has published its greatest endeavor of the season, and, we expect, bought a typewriter with their hard-earned money. The Castletone, the yearbook of yearbooks for Junior grad¬ uates, has been produced and the rumpus of securing autographs between Com¬ mencement exercises repeated once more . . . The graduates, Elementary Pro¬ fessional Probationaries, Standard, or degree-receiving, have marched down the front walk between the flower carriers to their reserved seats, to their diplomas, and a few to receive fitting awards and honors . . . All this, along with the Porch Sing, and the Candle Lighting service, was held on our campus, in the open for all to see, and that all might hear our music, our speakers, and our presentations to the school. Crowds came to see us at our last performance, parents to take our personal paraphernalia home, and friends to cheer us as we left, some of us to return in the fall, some after a year or two of teaching, some going regretfully to return only for Homecoming Day, and some perhaps, never. “Goodbye!” we said. eighty-one