Conshohocken High School - Echo Yearbook (Conshohocken, PA)

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16 THE BLUE AND STEEL widening Fayette Street. Among the laborers were: John Steltz, Ernie Pet- tine and Jack Palmer. Jack told us that they hadn’t always worked with a pick and shovel, but had formerly traveled together in a vaudeville company as the three strong men, until John Steltz and Ernie Pettine had become too fat, so they were doing this in order to become fit for the coming season. We then left there as Clara had an appointment at Mary Head’s Beauty Shoppe. Mary has be- come quite a successful hairdresser. She had lots of practice in school. Clara was late so we decided to complete our jour- ney by taxi. Seeing a taxi drive by, we hailed the driver, whom we recognized as our old friend, Emma Ruth. Emma told us that she was owner of the Babe Ruth Taxi Company. She handed us a card bearing the slogan, “Carry your own life savers.” We asked Emma how quickly she could drive us to Med’s Beauty Shoppe. She told us she couldn’t make very good time, on account of Florence Page, for since Florence became a State Trooper, she hands out red cards to every one, including her friends. I asked Emma how Kitty Coulston was. She told me that Kitty had joined the Salvation Army. Of course, Kitty had lots of experience in public speaking from her debating work at school. Emma also told us that Mary McLean had risen to great heights. She runs the elevator in one of the large department stores in Conshy. Upon arriving at Med’s Beauty Shoppe, the place was in great confusion. Lavina Colen, a prima donna in the Bronchial Chorus of the Tonsillitis Vau- deville Company, was there crying and wringing her hands; just as we entered we heard Mary Head say that she would call the greatest rival to Sherlock Holmes, Detective Stonewall Jackson McCloy, in on the case. Piggy was al- ways good at ferreting other people’s secrets in school and we are glad to see that Piggy has used his assets to an ad- vantage. It appeared that while Mary was giving Grace Congleton, who is a teacher in the Home for the Deaf and Dumb, a shampoo in another room, an expensive transformation that Mary had just purchased from Elroy Murray, a salesman in Ladies’ Beauty Products, had been stolen and Mary accused Lavina of stealing it. Things looked pretty dark for Lavina until Betty Quigg found it, Quiggy is now the leading lady in one of the latest shows in town, called “The Honey- moon’s Over.” Upon leaving the shop we spied a drug store across the street and Clara sug- gested that we go over to see a demon- stration advertising a new kind of cream to acquire and retain an athletic figure. Through the crowd which gathered there, we caught a glimpse of a familiar figure, and upon a close inspection, who should the demonstrator be but our star basket- ball player, Betty Yost. With her assist- ant, Betty Markle, who was explaining how the cream had helped her to retain her youth and beauty. Suddenly there was a great clamor—the ambulance; it stopped some little distance up the street and seeing a great commotion among the crowd, we followed and reached the spot just in time to see the driver none other than Ethel Powell and the celebrated sur- geon, John Pollock, Jr., rush to the res- cue of Lance Staley, who was straddling a shutter on Highley’s house where he had been blown and at this moment there appeared a sad wreck of humanity, pain- fully crawling from under a pile of bricks caused by a large hole torn in the side of Elzey’s house. This was the chemist, Lance Staley, and Brad Elzey’s idea of an experiment. By this time there had arrived on the scene some other familiar faces, Baptista Giovangelo, Clara DeDeo, Diana Moore, HeUn Righter, Lillian Hiltner and Mabel Nester, who were still doing their daily dozen on the typewriters in the real estate office of their employer, Ellwood Bickhart, who was now the owner of Frog Hollow settlement. As the ambulance drove away, I left the

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15 THE BLUE AND STEEL Who’s Who Most Brilliant—Elizabeth Koch. Smallest—Baptista Giovangelo. Class Skyscraper—William Giles. Thinnest—Eulia Adair. Best All Around Sport—John Blackburn. Greatest Athlete {Boy)—Harry Miksch. Greatest Athlete (Girl)—Betty Yost. Most Popular Girl—Clara Fulmer. Best-Nalured—Dorothy Lobb. Greatest Joker—Ernest Pettine. Wittiest—Bea Gormley. Greatest Bluffer—John McCloy. Meekest—Lillian Hiltner. Most frilling—Ellwood Bickhart. Best Musician—Carlon DeHaven. Best Salesman—Elroy Murray. Handsomest—John Steltz. Vainest—Mabel Nestor. Most Dignified—Florence Page. Most Bashful Boy—Simon Cion. Shyest Girl—Mary McLean. Class Bachelor—Fred Youngjohns. Most Sensitive—Helen Righter. Noisiest Girl—Mary Head. Most Demure—Clara Murray. Most Studious—Eleanor Caine. Best Typist—Clara DeDeo. Most Childish—Duane MacFarland. Most Popular Boy—Edward White. Prettiest Girl—Betty Quigg. Most Ambitious—Bradley Elzey. Most Agreeable—Emma Ruth. Fattest—David Martin. Most Serious—John Pollock. Quietest—Ethel Powell. Most Talkative—Lavinia Colen. Most Cheerful—Clara Johnston. Most Polite—Helen Gabin. Class Romeo—Carl Hill. Class Poet—Grace Congleton. Class Giggler—Betty Markle. Best Orator—Catharine Coulston. Cutest Girl—Gladys Campbell. Greatest Kidder—Jack Palmer. Class Fiddler—Lance Staley. Most Unconcerned—Diana Moore. William Giles, ’28. Prophecy June, 1943. EAR CLIP: It doesn’t seem possible that fifteen years have elapsed since that memorable June, when the class of twenty-eight left Conshohocken High. The other day I went into a restaurant on Market Street and who was seated behind the cash register but Clara Mur- ray. I was surprised to see her, but Clara toid me that there were Murray restau- rants all over the state and that she had charge of the Philadelphia branch. She asked me to go home with her for a visit and as it was so long since I had seen any of my old schoolmates, I accepted her invitation with pleasure. We had just gotten settled on the train and were engrossed in the subject of old friends when a loud voice demanded to see our tickets. Startled, I turned around and beheld my old friend, Dave Martin, all dressed up in brass buttons with a ticket puncher in his hand. I asked Dave all about the boys in Jeffersonville—he told me that Rev. Miksch had retired and that Harry is leading a happy mar- ried life as the minister of the Jefferson- ville Presbyterian Church. I didn’t have time to ask David any more for the train was just slowing into the Conshohocken station. As we were about to leave the station my attention was attracted by a huge crowd of people grouped around a poster at one end of the platform. Being curi- ous, we pushed our way through the crowd and finally succeeded in reading about the lecture to be given by Miss Elizabeth Koch, in the New City Hall, telling all about her rocket trip to Mars, with pictures to illustrate. After reading about Elizabeth, I wasn’t surprised when Clara told me that Eleanor Caine and Clara Johnston were missionaries in Africa. We left the platform of the station and had only gone a short distance up the street, when we were confronted by a gang of workmen who were employed in

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THE BLUE AND STEEL 17 girls and looked around for Clara. I found her talking to Gladys Campbell, as I knew her in school, but who is now Mrs.------ (but that would be telling). She was on her way down to see Simon Cion in regards to papering her home. Gladys walked down the street with us as far as a Hill’s Department store for women. Carl was standing in the door- way and I wasn’t one bit surprised to hear that Carl was the owner, for Carl always did have a way with the opposite sex. Just then there was a great com- motion across the street caused by two men who were in a heated argument, and finally coming to blows. I thought I rec- ognized the voices, and as I drew nearer, I saw my old friends, Ed White and John Blackburn. Very much surprised, I asked Clara what was wrong, as Ed and John had always been such good friends in school. She informed me it was the same thing every time they met, since Ed became Mayor of Narcissa, and John, Mayor of Spring Mill, each one tried to convince the other that his office was the most important—just then the patrol wagon appeared, the driver’s seat was occupied by Fred Youngjohns while Duane MacFarland brought up the rear. They pounced upon the whirling com- batants, and hurried them to the station house. Ed and John were dismissed with the order to appear the next day, owing to the absence of the magistrate, John Wil- liam Giles, Jr., who was playing tiddle winks in another room with Dorothy Lobb, who decided to remain in single blessedness and therefore accepted the position of court crier and stenographer in the county court. Upon greeting Dot she told us that she was very happy in her work as it gave her an outlet for her excess conversational ability. Both John and Ed insisted on an immediate hearing and appeared before the county judge, Carlon De Haven, who was entertaining the jury with a saxophone solo. Both John and Ed were dismissed after being bound over the peace, because Carlon’s solo placed the jury in a good humor. As we left the court house we met Eulia Adair( who had taken up the pro- fession of teaching because her husband ieft her, as her pastry didn’t agree with his digestive system. She told us she was taking her charges to the zoo for an out- ing. Not having very much time to make my train home, I said good-bye to Clara and Eulia and hurried to th» station. After getting on the train, not having anything to do I started to read a book Clara had given me, entitled “How to Train a Husband,” by Helen Gabin, who is now quite a famous novelist. When I reached home I knew you would be interested in hearing about the Class of ’28, so I thought I would write and tell you about all our old school- mates. Wishing you all possible success in your work as chairman of the Uplift Society of Cold Point and also in your Physical Education work in Fulmer’s Health School for the Aged and Infirm of Plymouth Meeting and Harmonville, I am Affectionately yours, Beatrice Frances Gormley, ’28.