Classen High School - Orbit Yearbook (Oklahoma City, OK)

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who delights in handling a crowd and working up their reserve enthusiasni. The master this year was that loyal Blue lacket, Bill Breeding. VVith all the finesse and skill of one born to the game, Bill has followed the old custom and led us on to a rousing QnWard Classenf' An earlv tradition, indeed earliest of them all, is a custom of Miss Nlary Lawsonls, who tries to instill into the heads of the uneducated an occasional bit of English. Every morning, for years and years and years, Miss Law- son has briskly marched in our Portals Proniptly at 6:45 a. ni., rain or shine, wind or snow. For nianv years, each senior class, has, before passing on, presented to the school some gift or monument de! C75 signed to beautify or enrich the school and its lite. This is just one of the ways in which seniors hope to keep their images bright in the nieniory of the undergrads and students yet to come. Not yet old enough to he called traditional, but rapidly on its way to that title, is the annual junior-senior prom, always a high-light of the spring social season. Until only three years ago, a strict board of education, some stricter parents, and re-stricted finances prevented the launching of this idea, but tinies finally changed. The first prom was held and declared a rousing success. The succeeding hops were on an equal plane, so 'tis plain that the old fogies were wrong and dancing's really at good clean sport. -

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Another Classen group activity which takes the stu- dents back to their grade school days when they used to go wading in the rain, is the fire drills at Classen, staged every drizzly day for the benefit of the visiting fireman. practically every winter afternoon that brings rain, wind, sleet, and snow, will bring a fire drill with it. Students who have their choice of burning in the building or drowning in the gutters outside, prefer burning, as a rule. ltls such a prophetic way to diel Wliile December showers may be anathema to stu- dents, theylre rain from heaven to the cafeteria, that being the only time Classcnites ever lunch in the cafeteria. ln their customary loyal manner, on fair days, Classen stu- dents may be found in drug stores, pig stands, barbecues, any place but the cafeteria. The jernt may be an institu- tion but itls certainly not a tradition. Each year before painting the town i'ed, Classetfs senior class paints the tower gold. Like a little pixie, some moonlit night the senior president slips up to the roof and dabs on the class numbers. This story would be in1pi'oved a lot if this activity were only a little nefarious. Unfortu- nately it isn't, so 'the thing isn't half as much fun! For instance Classeifs favorite tradition, the one all the higher-ups strongly disapprove, is the rivalry between Classen and Central. The night before the Classen-Cen- tral football game is a night of riotous merry-making for all concerned. Some of the good clean fun includes rotten egg fights, paint slinging, and window breaking. Top stunt for all time was the night four officially unidenti- fied Classen heroes rode past Centrafs office and slung a bucket of paint through the window. Another dark chapter out of Classen's history con- cerns the bon fire of the V34 game. Authorities thought to forestall any foul play by holding the conflagration out- side the city limits. After the big blaze, all the partici- pants headed down town and started a snake dance and a mob scene down mainstreet that led through theatre lob- bies, hotels, drugstores, cigar stands-everything and any- thing that was open and some things that weren't. It took the two schools a couple of years and a fun night to pay off that debt. Last year's game was unusually quiet. lfveryonels wondering if it were just the calm before the storm. Clas- sen students have a way of breaking records, necks, and windows, and while faculty heads tremble Classenites sharp- en their pen knives, grind their axes, file their teeth and get ready for the '36 season and next yeaifs game. High among Classeirs traditions is one that draws admiring males from all over town to attend our fair institution. lr is, of course, her reputation as a haven for beautiful lasses. Charm and personality are put on an equal footing with pulchritude and many's the girl who combines them into what is indeed a pleasing combina- tion, New highs in excitement are produced each year with the run-offs in the queen contests. Especially im- portant to the feminine heart is the election of the Clas- sen Life queen, for this queen is really the queen of queens. A long line of gracious damsels has held this honor, and 'tis not hard to say that charming Uathel Haskins, this year's selection, is at the top in every bov's selection The definition of a tradition, taken from the Bible, is that which has prevailed, even from generation unto generation. Accordingly we nominate for traditions. the intellectual negatives who regard the old school as some- thing of a school of life---they'll spend their lives here, or know the reason whv. Richard Prank, Wlallv Dan- vers, Charlie Giffin are among those who someday should receive a degree in procrastinating. A bit of noise is always in line with a bunch of high- school youths, and to help them out we've always secured a group of red hot cheer leaders. lfvery year there will invariably crop up some leather-lunged human dynamo C65

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IIUQI' ll aculty Front ir Presenting the Past and Present of Our Profs by Dick Breen ...Mi I WAITED three EN YCZITSQ twenty SCV- 5,4 en months, one hun- 11 dred and eight weeks, et five hundred and forty days, I waited -waited to crack the l I' ' , 1 f faculty case. Q 'T . Richard Harding Davis cracked the S p a n i sh American warg Charlie McAr- thur swung the Loeb- Leopold trial, Damon Runyon cracked the Hauptniann trial, but I cracked the faculty case. It is my assignment and I cover the faculty front. - Delving into the long-sought after subject, I find in- formation that would make William Ran- dolph Hearst blush. They all got off on the wrong foot in life. They went to col- lege. They represent the diversified Ubet- . ter halfu of thirty colleges in far flung corners of the globe: in Mexico, in Ger- many, and even in jolly old England. In my ever conscientious search for in- formation of an uncolored natural, I glanced ox er the Signing In sheet on the counter in the office. This sheet is put here for teachers who arrive at 8:15 to mark down 7:45 very coquettishly. A first year teacher was once known to have played cricket and marked down the correct time. She became a social outcast. That's the complete list there, do your derndestf' berserks Margot Gainor as I leave with the list in hand. I saved the faculty the ultimate in shame by rescuing Helen Nance, attendance clerk, from the hour slip tendencies of a proctor who thought he was really pouring it on the sophomores. It's the re- sult of that school girl complexion. Helen and her pencil are public enemies I to 40. Fern Hoover, music, via the mouth, instructor, was the first target of this news-hawking for posterityls sake. She has her trouble. John Caldwell is it. She spent the entire hour of our interview trying to keep lohn's mouth from looking like the Holland Tunnel on a rainy after- noon. Iohn believes that music is an expansive study. Then into the dramatic department to duck the di- rector-directed missiles. Here we find Mrs. Elaine Tucker, department head, practicing walk-outs before a full length mirror. Lined up against the wall are the trophies, plaques, NNN 65? li . ,gif 5 ' ali , g sw. C. K. Raff and certificates she and her proteges have won. Shels won more than any other teacher in the state, and as a mark of appreciation her students are buying her a new clear vision mirror. She's been falling down on her walkouts lately. Huser, assistant walker-outer, is coaching from the sidelines. It's a grand department of six-hour hectic re- hearsals, stage building and striking, walk-ons, walkouts, minute lunch snatches, personal triumphs, and Cavalcade of De Grushes, Traverses, Cvilleys, and Colemans march- ing on-to who knows where? Into the historical history department. Headed by Miss Clara Meyer, they all try to sour pan, but on the sly, they arenlt particularly outraged when someone can't re- member in what year the War of 1812 was fought. A gallant crew they: Nliss Blanche Holland, who flunked me in Psychology and hasn't worked up the humanitar- ianism to be sorry for me fshe always tested us on chap- ters I didn't knowwbut then, how could she be expected to guess one out of twenty?j, Miss Blanche Paul and Miss Gladys Shepard, the two good shephards of the Senior Classg Mrs. Marguerite Flood, authority of the Battle of Student Council, Miss Isabel Eastland, who is nearly as proud of Texas as she is of her sixth hour class, and Colonel C. E. 'lpopl' Grady, the nations No. I debate coach and grand guy. The English Department holds a marked fascination for meg and why shouldnlt it, after youlve flunked under everyone of the teachers, including the softies? Headed by Miss ,Florette McNeese, ' who is prejudiced and still thinks Ring l Lardner is a better writer than I am, the , English Department holds number one position for flunkers, consisting ofg Miss Iris Baughman, Miss Lucille Tandy, Miss Della Link, Miss Helen Norris, Miss Saidee Hazelwood, Miss Louise Lang, Miss Mary Lawson, Miss Margaret Lindsay, Miss Anne Pearson, and Miss Katherine Brous, who is just embarking on a long and honorable career of flunking. The Mathematics department, great haven of the snap course Qsolid geometry, trigonometry, and college algebraj was the next victim of the microscopic eye. A departmental meeting is in session when we go into the stronghold. What's the matter? You haven't flunked anybody in ages. It's getting so people occasionally get l'D,s and L'C's'I out of this department. You know that's against the rules. Now let's get some hustle! Get in there and fightl Elunkl Elunkl Elunkll' pep talks Martha Denny, C83