Chatham High School - Oracle Yearbook (Chatham, OH)

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Salutatory Address The Senior Class is pleased to welcome their parents and friends on this oc- casion--our graduation from high school. This is a very pleasant task in one sense, in another, it is very difficult, due to the fact that words are very perplex and elastic. The word ‘‘welcome ’ is said to be one of the sweetest words in the Fnglish Language. Yet when spoken by some people, it is entirely deprived of its content- merely an every day lip to lip phrase, which is hollow, empty, and meaningless. The Seniors will try to say it in both an emotional and physical sense, although we know our voices can never convey to you the feelings that our hearts wish to express. - We thank everyone for coming tonight. The class extends to you our most sincere and cordial welcome. We will try hard to live up to your great expectations of becoming successful persons, before we will be able to do this, we first must know the real meaning of the word ‘‘success.'’ This is a pompous problem which is con- fronting every high school graduate today. Day after day, we receive in the mail-- folders, phamplets, all giving us advice on how to obtain success. Some of you, no doubt have given us advice too, or quote quoteable lines. Still others may give the qualifications for success. Abraham Lincoln did this, when in the darkest days of the Civil War, he declared, ‘‘Without the assistance of the divine being who attends to me, I cannot succeed, with the assistance, I cannot fail. ' My own personal qualifications for success are two thoughts which you must keep foremost in your mind. Believe and follow some type of religion, one which will set an example for you to live a clean, wholesome life. The second, smile, for a smile is like the summer sunshine, one of our most valuable assets, which requires so little effort. The power of a smile has made a smooth path for many great men. A man who can be persuaded to smile, when he is down and out is an example of a’fine, noble character. Everyone has his own ideas which will make a successful life, but how many people have defined the term or. word ‘‘success?’’ After searching through several books, I was able to find one definition of this word. Henry Ford said, ‘‘Success is a matter of adjusting one's efforts to obstacles and one's abilities to a service needed by others. Most people think of it in terms of getting. Success begins in terms of giving.’’ If you give, you are not selfish. Selfishness is one of the greatest causes for the status of the earth today. A fine example of a giving man is Socrates, who, when asked of what country he came from, did not make the answer, Athens, but of the world. He whose imagination was fuller and wider embraced the whole world for his country. He extended his friendship and society to all mankind. Maybe we should follow more in the footsteps of our progenitors. Nevertheless we cannot live on the food of yesterday forever or we would surely starve to death. lam leaving the definition of the word success up to you. Everyone will have his own ideas, everyone should have, for we have or will set an example in life. Seas you are thinking of this problem tonight, may you also think of the class which was so glad to see you here. May this be another pleasant occasion for you, which will linger long in your memories the same as it will ours. Lois Arlene Root OO Ee

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Valedictory Address Friends: The hour has come when we, the Seniors of Chatham High School, will pass from our sheltered school days into the hands of the cold, demanding world. Yet, we have not reached the end, but only the beginning of our lives. When we look back upon our school days, we heave a sigh of regret - regret that we will no longer be a part of Chatham High School and no longer engage in her act- tivities. Still, we should and do look forward to the future - there is a place for us to attain in this world. Our knees may shake a little and our confidences may waver, but we can reach it. Let us look for a moment at our class motto. ‘‘The Word American Ends In ‘I Can'.’’ Yes, we can and will succeed in this life. Sometimes this has been hard to believe. 1 know that most of us, when we first started in school, felt that we could never reach graduation. However, we kept poing year after year and now we have finally reached that long ago seemingly impossible goal - grad- uation. Fach year we learned more and more how much “I can ’ really meant in finally accomplishing our various tasks. Fach one of us can with a little work, thought, and action. To sum this up, I'd like to quote an old proverb. ‘‘Sow a thought, - reap an action; Sow an action, - reap a habit; Sow a habit, - reap a character; Sow a character, - reap a destiny. It is up to us to sow and reap our destinies. If we did things well while in school, we will do them well now that we're graduates. We could not hope that a slip- shod attitude in school would produce in us specialists upon graduation, for ‘’as we sow, so shall we reap.’’ Before we have had parents and teachers to see to it that we did what we were supposed to do when we were supposed to do it. Now we will be on our own. If we have sowed the seeds of thought and initiative while in school, we will reap the harvest of honor and success as graduates. True, we may suffer many disappointments and many reversals before we find what it is that we really want and really can do. We owe a lot to our Alma Mater, and we will miss her, too. Still, we are not being forsaken, but we have just been prepared to live our lives to their fullest and happiest extent. It is with this thought in mind that we pass this evening from the end of school into the beginning of life. Ruth Smith

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Class History In the fall of the year 1938, eighteen very bashful, but smiling youngsters braved their way up to the first grade room where Miss Emma Weber was pre- siding officer. Members of the Graduating Class who started that year are, Loretta Cleveland, Lois Root, Bill Arters, Alan Faken, Marvin McVicker, and Charles Grim. At the beginning of the second year, Ruth Smith joined our ranks, moving from Homer. Miss Emma, Miss Neidhart, Miss Cutler, Miss Loomis, and Miss Hubbard were the teachers who kept us out of trouble during our term in grade school. Our last year in grade school was high lighted by an operetta, ‘‘Tom Sawyer,' ’ with Marvin McVicker singing the title role. In the seventh and eighth grades, we learned what was expected from us in high school. Consequently we learned the art of being late for class and the eraser throwing technique very quickly. The trouble with this was it only lead to one thing-staying after school, which some of us did quite often. We gained two members to our class during the junior high. They were Lowell Anklam who came from Wintersville to Chatham in the seventh grade, and Bernie Lassond who came from Willoughby and entered the eighth grade. In the ninth grade, several members of our class took part in a high school operetta, ‘‘H..M. S. Pinafore.’’ Eleven of us participated in the Com- mencement Exercises and received our diplomas from the ninth grade. We lost one member of our class during the Sophomore year, Betty Cusack, but Jim Moore came in the spring of the year, from Mogadore, keeping the class at eleven members. When we counted noses at the beginning of our Junior year, everyone was present except Janine Porter who had moved to Spencer. The important activities of the Junior year were: a hayride, parties, a paper drive, our first play, ‘‘The Campbells Are Coming,'’ and the Junior-Senior Banquet which was held at Hartman's Restaurant in Spencer. After which we went to the Aqua Parade at the Cleveland Arena. After the arrival of Joan Dieckman to our Senior Class, things have been happening right and left. Besides doing our school work, some of the members have taken active part in sports. We have put out several school papers, spon- sored a dance, an amateur show, put ona play jointly with the Juniors entitled ‘ ‘The Kissing Link,’’ and a carnival. The last two weeks have been very busy with the Junior-Senior Banquet, Baccalaureate, Commencement and getting ready for our trip to Washington and the carnival. The banquet was held at Vere's Hungarian after which we went to the Little Lakewood Theatre and saw the professional performance of ‘‘Kiss and Tell”’ which we enjoyed very much. se a an ee Charles Grim