Central High School - Cog N Pen Yearbook (Newark, NJ)

Page 9 text:

IN RETROSPECT Now that I have reached the exalted status of senior, Í venture to look back upon my career at Central with varying emotions. The emotions are thankfulness and regret. As I take a retrospective view of all the good times I have enjoyed since first I entered the wel- coming portals of Central, I think of the friends I have made and with whom I associated and loved and played and studied, the friends who endeavored and succeeded in cheering me up when my spirits were low and drooping, and for whom I have retained a deep-seated and heart-felt affection. 1 think of the Central faculty among whom I number quite a few friends for whom I have extreme respect for their learning and great gratitude for all the knowledge I have gleaned from them. I think of all the football games 1 have attended and where 1 cheered myself hoarse for Central, rejoicing when we won, gloomy and downcast when we lost, but with the spirit of Central always prevalent whether we were victorious or conquered. When I think of all these things and sundry others, when events resurrect and repeat them- selves in my mind, detail by detail, in one long glori- ous sequence, | begin to realize how thankful I should be, with a deep-rooted, everlasting thankfulness be- yond compa:e. But on top of this emotion comes another— regret —to mar somewhat the beauty of my former spirit of thankfulness. When I think of the times I would have avoided a failure by a little more study, a little more concentration on work and less on play, I know that I have a great deal to regret, a very great deal; regret that is accentuated by the fact that it is lasting, and will always remain so. My sentiments are probably voiced by all those who find themselves in the same status as I find my- self: conflicting emotions of thankfulness and regret battling within them. Experience is a dear teacher, but we all get our money's worth if we become his pupils. The lesson we have learned during our high school days will be retained as long as we live. To those who may follow us in the future, who shall find themselves seniors as we ourselves are, we want to impart a message. We wish to tell them that they should profit by our experience, so that, when they make their exodus from Central High School they will take with them memories for which they will only express thankfulness, unmarred by the gnawing spirit of regret. —W. L.

Page 11 text:

WALKS THROUGH CENTRAL Have any of you ever walked through Central and felt its pulse and temperature? Have any of you ever frequented the school during vacations or at night? The feeling is one of acute loneliness. One is fearful of the intense silence and quiet that seems to reign everlastingly, and one wonders how the se empty corridors and vacant rooms could ever have been frequented by a jolly mob of howling, singing Centralites. I have walked through Central's halls and corri- dors, up its stairways and in its rooms. And I have done this at various times and periods, hearing Cen- tral's very heart-beats. I have walked through the school between periods, when the corridors are jammed with milling groups and rooms are either being very quickly emptied or very slowly filled. I have walked through Central during periods when its halls are empty but for either a few hurrying figures or a few sauntering Centralites. I have walked through Central during vacation when the forridors are jammed with milling groups halls are empty, and when my footsteps seem to echo and re-echo in the ghost-haunted corridors. | have walked through the school at night, when a few electric lamps, feeble candles! are burning, and illumine the lockers— 'bare, ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. For at night-time, and vaca- tion-time, and Saturdays, and Sundays, and holidays, Central is a morgue where the spirits of Central com- mune, where ghostly, mysterious conclaves are held, and when students are stopped for a moment on their upward jour ney toward knowledge, education, and success! Thus have I walked through Central, feeling its heart-beat, its pulse, its very life at various times. And I have learned to know her hallowed halls, to remember her sacred portals whence 1 went through to get a higher education, and to appreciate the spirit, the grit, and the courage of Central, for, as has been said before and will be said again: Central Leads And Others Follow!” —M. F. “OUR ORGAN” Our Organ! How well it sounds! The very words suggest pride, joy, the happiness of a deed well done, and the flush of victory when a battle is won. Our Organ! It seems to stand alone. Repeti- tion only makes it sound more sweet, and helps us find more meaning in it. Our Organ! No outside contribution, no beg- ging, no “pan handling won this organ, but our own, unaided contributions and efforts. We feel, and rıghtly, that the organ is ours, that every pupil of Central owns or shares it with all the rest of the multitude that have given for a seemingly vain cause and have passed away like ships that pass in the night. But let us not indulge in paeons of praise for our- selves. There is still much to be done, so let us go on as we have before, fighting, struggling, battling ever onward. —M. F.