Cuyahoga Falls High School - Cuyahogan Yearbook (Cuyahoga Falls, OH)

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HI -TIMES ---EV all the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition. 1 sit gazing out the window at the sights and sounds of the busy street. Suddenly a question is fired point blank at me. What shall 1 do? There in the midst of my day dreaming 1 am brought back to earth with a start and no idea of what 1 am supposed to say. For a while then 1 listen attentively with mv mind a jumble of scientif.c facts and fig- ures. My brain reels. All 1 can see is formu- las. formulas, formulas, and not a one do I know. The hands go around the clock as though there were weights on both of them, until at last, it comes, the bell of freedom, the joyful sign that there will be no more Physics until the next day. Hut the memory of that room still lingers. What is thunder? Where does electricity come from? How does a storage cell work? “Oh death, where is thy sting?” —Alar (jar et M cK in ley. When You’re on tlie Literary Program I There’s the funniest feeling around your heart, Every little sound makes you start. You say it, you think it, you look at the clock. Then say it some more and feel your knees knock. II 'IV rest of the program goes so slow You’re the last on the list you already know. Your eyes burn, your ears roar And you wish you could crawl through a hole in the floor. III You fold your hands and wiggle your feet. Then comb your hair and try to look sweet. Then all of a sudden the president stands, Calls out your name and the rest clap their hands. IV You start for the platform, your heart all a-quiver, While your voice slides down and touches your liver. T hen von begin and talk along ’Til Hip! Hurrah! There goes the gong. V It’s over, it’s over, it seems to say, It’s over until some other nice day, And you with a feeling of great relief Leave the stage and forget your grief. —Catherine Deeds. Literary Digest Reports Reports! How I hate and fear them! Why is it that as I read the article in prepara- tion for recitation, 1 can think of a wealth of material, and many remarks to make on the article. I imagine myself making a brilliant speech to a group of classmates held spell- bound by my eloquence. I hear myself hailed as a female Patrick Henry. However, as the fatal moment approaches, my courage is some what diminished. I dread hearing my name called. Frantically, I try to recall at least one statement made in the article. At last, when the suspense has be- come unbearable, my name is spoken in sepulchral tones by the teacher at the desk. I arise. Through the mist 1 seem to see a sea of faces. The silence is terrifying. With parched throat, I begin in a halting voice to speak words which sound positively idiotic. 1 cannot recall one word of the article, and at last, after floundering about for what seems like an hour, I give up in despair and sit down. This has seemed like the longest two minutes 1 have ever exper- ienced. The class, on the other hand, have appar- ently perceived no outward change, although it seems to me that my face must have been red as a lobster. Probably three-fourths of my classmates have been so busy thinking about their own talks that they have not heard mine. All that effort and worry for nothing! Such a life! —Florence Austin. HAND CARVED DESKS Since antique furniture is coming back into style. Falls High certainly is right up-to-the- minute! Anyone entering any of the numer- ous class rooms is instantly attracted by the many hand-carved desks. Some poor student, dreading the thought of being forgotten upon leaving school, has, as a last resort, taken it upon himself to carve his name into his desk in such a manner that it will remain there until the desk crumbles in ruins. In a few rare cases the carvers have even added a photo- graph to the name! If taken to an antique shop these desks would command a large sum of money for, even though many of them are comparatively new, they certainly have the appearance of furniture used by our earliest ancestors. If the school is ever in need of a sum of money, I am sure they could obtain

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HI-TIMES work tends to give the student self-confidence when he is later asked to appear on the pro- grams of the higher grades. At the beginning of the term each English class elects officers for its society; usually they are president, vice president and secre- tary. T he president then appoints a commit- tee of three or four members, who hold a meeting to make out the program. Generally three programs are rendered by each society every semester. One of the 10-B literary societies presented a fine program recently. All who were requested to appear were well prepared and the selections were good. The material is much the same as that of the upper class programs. There are musical numbers, current events, talks, poems and readings. THE TROLLY LEAGUE ORATORICAL CONTEST •The preliminaries for the annual Trolley League Oratorical Contest were held two weeks previous to the finals. Ruth Read, whose oration was “War or Peace,” was chosen to represent Cuyahoga Falls High School at Kent Roosevelt High. James Ger- man was chosen as alternate. The subject of his oration was “T he Constitution ’ To uphold Falls High in the reading contest, Margaret McKinley was the choice. Her selection was “The Americanizing of Andre Francois.” Alberta Huff, with her reading, “The Lost Word.” was decided upon as alter- nate. T he Trolley League Oratorical Contest was held in the Kent Roosevelt auditorium on April 16. The auditorium was filled with an attentive audience. T hroughout the en- tire program much interest was manifested by the Falls High students, but at no time was that interest so keen as when our girls were performing. T he expression on the faces of the Falls crowd indicated that they were well pleased with the manner in which our contest- ants conducted themselves. The results of the reading contest, as announced by the judges, were as follows: Kenmore High was placed first; Cuyahoga Falls, second, and Ra- venna, third. In orations, Roosevelt High re- ceived first honors; Cuyahoga Falls, second, and Ravenna, third. These ratings clearly indicated that Falls High had maintained its usual high standards. WRITING A THEME “You will come prepared to write a three hundred word theme in class.” How familiar are those words to all of us and yet how we loathe the very mention of a theme. We have been called upon many times in the course of our school career to write themes and essays, yet every student considers it a drudgery which can only be tolerated because of the great and ever present danger—no grade. When we are notified to prepare a theme, we begin looking around for a possible subject. The search usually lasts about two minutes, after which we give up in despair and try to console ourselves with the idea that we surely will be able to write on some subject the fol- lowing day. Benjamin Franklin once said that we should never put off till tomorrow what can be done today. A very wise and true proverb it is, but so hard to follow. It seems as though it is always much easier to postpone the unpleas- ant task. The next day as we approach the fatal hour we become more and more alarmed for it seems as though the golden subject has not presented itself. As we go into class our mis- givings increase in size and number and we begin to wonder why we ever put off getting a subject till the last minute. The rest is an old, old story. When the hour is half gone, suddenly out of a cloudy horizon comes a revelation. We begin writ- ing with fervor and as the bell rings the last word is written. Saved! But none too soon. —Thomas Hunter. MY WATERLOO Napoleon met his Waterloo, Caesar met his doom. But I met Both these things at once Up in the Physics room. The hours tick slowly by from morning till night of a school day. The morning passes, and as noon arrives, I begin counting the hours with a sinking heart. One-thirty, two-thirty —and then with the two-thirty bell sounding like a death knell on my listening ears, I pro- ceed to the Physics room, like a lamb going to the slaughter. For what possible reason I go, I do not know. For my mind is an absolute void in matters of science and that room for me holds

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16 HI-TIMES Vi any amount they desired if they would part with these much-loved desks! No doubt such a sale would bring tears to the eyes of many teachers who have witnessed much of the carving, hut money is money, you know! —Ethel ll'ujhhergcr. A FRKSH MAN'S FIRST DAY in high school As he walked up the long curving walk, which led to those two heavy doors beyond which lay the unknown, the unexplored, and the unconquered, the Freshie paused mo- mentarily to more closely view the building which would he his study—perhaps his prison —for the next four years. As he looked at it, it semeed to assume a little less forbidding aspect, hut still there was a great desire to go back to the grammer school from which he had come. This was so different here. It made him feel very small and insignificant, much like Gulliver in the Land of Giants. Why, there was a fellow who had just gone into the buildings who looked big and old enough to be his father. Maybe it was one of those faculty members about whom he had heard vague, uncertain rumors, but still, the fellow acted more like a student. Oh, well, what was the difference—that fellow wouldn’t mean a thing to him. The immediate project was to get inside the school, and put himself in some corner where everyone wouldn’t look at h’m as though he were some rare curiosity. It was annoying to have people look at him that way, it made him feel as though some- thing were wrong about h'm, but a quick searching glance over his person always showed him that evervthing was as it should be. St'll —whv couldn’t people stop looking at him like that? Wasn’t he merely a freshman and undeserving of such attention? Finally his mind slipped away from such musings and. mustering a bold front, he marched bravely into the school. As he reached the door, he faltered, but the thought “Now or Never” flashed into his mind, so he continued, and immediately found himself in the midst of a babbling, confused crowd of people. Then he heard an authorative voice say “Everyone go into the auditorium, please.” He had scarcely settled himself in one of the front seats, middle section, lower floor, and began wondering where his friends were, when someone sa d, “Say, these seats here are re- served for upper classmen; Freshman, sit in the balcony.” File presence and words of this seemingly eminent personage overawed him, and he made haste to obey his commands. He finally managed to find a seat in the balcony near some of his friends, and there he estab- lished himself till the assembly was over. Then, in accordance with an announcement which had been made, he made his way to the lower floor where he received h s schedule for that day and many others to follow. If he had thought that he was having trou- ble before, he was thoroughly convinced of it now. His schedule was perfectly plain,—hut how did they manage to put the rooms in such unheard of places? It seemed to h'm that Columbus had a much easier proposition in discovering America than he had in discover- ing some of his rooms. Why, th’s beat that mythical Labyrinth he had heard so much about! It seemed that when he was on the third floor hunting a room, someone told him that that room was on the first floor, and thus it went throughout the day. As he went into each classroom the teacher seemed to look him over appraisingly, and he wondered what opinion they had formed. Then after he was seated with the rest, a naner was passed around to sign names on. Then the teacher began a short discussion of the subject and ended up by saying that each person would have to provide himself with a book at a certain price from her, or procure himself a second-hand one from the office. That discussion, and notice of the necessary purchases reminded him of a med- icine show h° had once seen. And worse yet, it seemed that all the teachers said the same thing. The monotony of it was broken for a brief time at noon, but commenced again immediately at 12:30. Finalh the long after- noon wore itself away, and he was free tem- porarily once more, after spending his first day in school. As he betook himself homeward, accom- panied by some of h:s friends, he wondered if he’d ever lose that self-consciousness that had trouble him, or would all the days seem as long and monotonous as this one had ? And would he ever manage to learn the system of numbering the rooms? That, however, seemed impossible. Nevertheless, if that Fresh- man could have pierced the wall of t me, and co'dd have seen hims°lf as a senior, his aston- ishment would have been unbounded. —J a m es G er mn n.