Clifton High School - Rotunda Yearbook (Clifton, NJ)

Page 24 text:

THE REFLECTOR IGF! VM An' jest the other day, Mamie got a letter-the first real one in ages. Listen to this part: 'Well, Mamie, not so long ago, --this is what Barb'ra writ-'I heard that Carol Bryan had married Ted Brown around three years ago. The lucky thing! Ted really used to be a terrible pest, but now he is quite famous and all on account of those two remarkable opera- tions, though, of course that was a lucky break, too. It always is. But I wonder how she ever got him! You'd think he'd be smart enough to marry someone richer, wouldn't you? She wasn't even prettyl' Kin ye-Look, Luke! Here she comes-Carol. just say hello-you don't needa say her hair looks lovely or she looks like a spring mornin',- just say hello. An' not bein' deaf, dumb, an' blind perhaps ye kin figger it out fer yerselff' RUTH I-IENGEVELD, june 1935. ON WATCHING A THUNDERSTORM It takes a thunderstorm to bring out timidity in the average person. How many of us sit out on a porch and watch the elements at their best? Most of us will get in out of the rain and sit impatiently during the storm. Let us, instead, watch the approach of a real summer storm. It is a sultry day. The sun is shining brightly. The sky has a blue-gray appear- ance. The air is still and sultry. Then in the distance we see the edge of a cloud faintly visible, its color blending with the color of the sky. A hot breeze springs up, and now clouds appear everywhere. The sun is hidden and faint rumblings of thunder are heard in the distance. By now people are scurrying everywhere, trying to get to their destinations before the storm breaks. Suddenly a wind springs up. Paper, dust, and dirt fly around, getting into our eyes, hair, clothes. People are dashing upstairs, closing windows with bangs, getting things out of the impending rain. The thunder rolls incessantly and an occasional flash of lightning breaks forth. Little drops of rain are starting to spatter the hot earth. A loud crash and the rain pours forth in torrents! Flash after flash of lightning glares brightly, even in daylight. Thunder, like the sound of giant cannon, sets the earth into vibration. Jagged streaks of fire send their hungry fingers towards the earth, trying to destroy objects which seem to displease them. For fifteen full, fearful minutes we can watch an electrical exhibi- tion put on by giants, with giant apparatus, at nature's expense. The storm dies away as it has started. The flashes are fewer and the thunder is not so loud. Before long, the storm center has moved farther on, looking for new worlds to conquer. The rain soon stops, and the sun, more glorious than ever, makes everything sparkle. Activities begin anew, and we, who have watched, have a feeling of awe due to the example that has been shown us of the power of the elements. HERBERT SUEss, June 1934. Twenty

Page 23 text:

THE REFLECTOR YM IN When they wuz here, both of 'em-Carol an' Barb'ra-wuz both good at learnin'. But in the east, Barb'ra' sociates jest wuzn't the learnin' kind. Durin' the summer when she come home, there wuzn't no peace. Fer weeks ahead, we painted and papered an' fixed everythin' up, and when she come home, there wuz always some o' them city dandies lookin' cockeyed. I r'member one time when they wuz here, some o' our reg'lar boys decided to come around. An' kin ye imagine! They come in overalls an' shirt sleeves, an' them city fellers jest stared. Well, Teddy Brown-his father is Ted Brown, too, and he's our mayor an' a good one at that-well, young Ted had a good idea, so he dragged them city guys to see the cows an' the hogs in that ol' pen, and he left Ba-ba-ra-as them city folks call her-to the mercy o' the rest o' them teasin' rascals. Well, mercy it wuzn't, 'cause they wuz jest bent on teasin' an' mortifyin' Ba-ba-ra to death. Even Barb'ra's eyes an' lipstick an' perm'nent wave didn't do no good. They wuz reg'lar boys! We know how boys is, huh, Luke? Been boys, ourself, once upon a time, huh? Well, anyway, right after Barb'ra finished school-eighteen she wuz -she went to pay a two weeks' visit to her Aunt Lily fthat's Charlie's older sisterj . She didn't use to have nothin' to do with Charlie 'cause he married Mamie 'stead o' some girl she wanted. But when she learned Barb'ra was quite nice lookin' she thought it'd be fun to have her around. That's why she invited Barb'ra to visit her in her big city home. She don't really own it, ye know, there's lots o' mortgages on it. Well, Barb'ra seemed to like it there. Butler, maid, cook an' every- thin'. So, anyways, she stayed an' stayed an' stayed. An' ye know how Ma an' Mamie is. Ma said she'd orta come home right away, an' Mamie wuz worried stiff. An' oney notes came. Well, one day when Mamie wuz near ready to go after her, Barb'ra come breezin' in, hangin' on the arm o' a small, dark dandy. An' right after her come Aunt Lily, smilin', an' introduced him to us as Wilfred Northerton. She said he was a wonde- ful author, oney twenty-six, but I never yet seen any o' his books, an' he looked fishy. Things had sure gone pretty far-Barb'ra wuz engaged. An' her mother not even knowin' she'd met anybody. How she could ever live a lifetime with a guy like that, I couldn't ha' imagined. Well, ye know Barb'ra. It wuzn't long before Mamie got a telegram. It went somethin' like this: 'Mamie, send money immediately. Books rejected. Desperate need. Barbara.' We wuz all excited, an' Ma an' Mamie almost had an endurance worryin' contest. There wuz no answer fer the money order, oney another askin' telegram a few weeks after, until finally that wuz the customary way to hear from her. After a while, Mamie writ her an' told her to come home, if she Wanted. Barb'ra's oney answer wuz that she'd never be able to live in the country again. Of all dead places! So that wuz that. Nineteen

Page 25 text:

THE REFLECTOR yu IN As The Editor Sees It WHY AREN'T THESE CLUBS ACTIVE? HAT was the cause of the discontinuance of the YN language clubs? Why isn't the Honor Societyias A V active as its quality of members might make it? Q P 'X Where is the Press Club which once had possibilities l A x of developing a fundamental training for future X journalists? Why was the Math Club done away ,D with after it had been so successful in putting out 'X mathematicians better than classwork could develop, 'iii with the aid of supplementary study? Why did the History Club relax after having begun that series of interesting lectures? Where is the Commercial Club which once had such interesting programs of outside speakers and helped the commercial students in their work? We should like to know what became of these clubs, which, when in existence, were apparently very beneficial to the school. We should like to see each and every one of them brought back into being, as there could not have been any truly serious obstacle to keep them from performing their excellent work. Looking back through school records, we find these clubs were once very prominent in the social life of the school. The present state of affairs may be the fault of che students. Now, with permission to go home after their last class, interest in extra-curricular activities has lagged. Only those ambitious ones who really like school and who understand what these extra activities represent Hnd it Worth their while to stay until the end of seventh period to participate in the social life of the school. The clubs of the school are the strongest links whereby groups of students are kept in contact with each other. In some cases, failure of a club may be due to an inactive sponsor. The disinterest of a sponsor will show almost immediately upon the mem- bers of an organization. An original, intelligent, wide-awake sponsor will not let a group of willing students with intention lose interest. First, let us consider the language clubs: In 1929, we see the Latin Club revived after a depression, under the name of Classica Sodalitasf' Of all things, the complaint was that it was hard to get members because of the fancy name. After a term of good work, it fell away again. In 1931, the club was re-organized as Nostrum Concilium Latinumf' The motto of the organization was Vivat Lingua Latina or May the Latin Twenty-one