East High School - Quill Yearbook (Des Moines, IA)

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'JTHE ,QUIL keep her face grave. However, the incident served to quiet a certain bunch of irrepressible youngsters who sat in the balcony the third hour. Hostilities of a like nature ceased, and all was quiet along the Potomac. I wonder if Marjory and Evelyn remember. O don't you remember our Freshman-Senior party! How the Seniors played all the games-and we watched-and they had a grand march and passed out stick candy and apples! Didn't you resolve that when you were a Senior you wouldn't give the Freshman stick candy? O yes, you must remember. Well, we've had our party for the Freshies, and we didn't give them stick candy. They had ice cream and cake! Score one for our class! Of course, dancing isn't good for infants so we couldn't allow, that but we let them .play with us. Dost happen to recall those days spent in the cafeteria? I am speak- ing to the girls, the incessant chatterers. Their punishment was soli- tary confinement, Mrs. B-- as jailoress and-not bread and water- but appetizing odors of the lunch hour to tantalize. O blissful days! No assemblies, either. We weakened. Remember the Shakespearean pageant and our Midsummer Nigl1t's Dream. Osie made a pretty Titania, didn't she? Kenneth Bl was Puck. It takes a wise man to play the fool, n'estce aps? The pageant brought to a close our Freshman days. We passed our first milestone. O happy care-free Sophomore days! The bloom of innocence was gone, and we were more or less sophisticated but in a childish way that was charming. We loved to air our views and opinions on the World to anyone that would listen. Next to that we liked to ask questions. George Tl asked more in a minute than could be answered in an hour. He was one of these deep thinkers and liked to propound such weighty questions as would startle the teacher into giving him an E for the intelligence he showed. Ransom, at this early age, showed symptoms of literary ability by getting some of his efforts published in the Quill. Now l1e's editor. One must not let his work interfere with his school life, so this year we had several parties. Miss M--'s English classes had a gym romp one afternoon. Baseball n'everything. And weren't the doughnuts and chocolate good! Then the history party! Shades of George W. fyou knowb Betsy Ross, Julius Caesar, etc. They all came to life. Never was such a distinguished company brought together before. And say, remember The Worsted Man? Don't you know at the party we had for our parents, and they-unravelled him! Poor Ted. Lowell Ki was some hightlutin' colahed gemmenf' Another milestone was passed. We were half through our high school course. We came back in the fall as Juniors, self-satisfied and conceited. We held an important place in the school but did not have the sadness that a Senior has in knowing it is his last year.

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THE quit The Royal Road to Learning. OUR years ago this June, a class of rollicking, eager, expectant youngsters longing to experience high school life, entered the portals of East High. They formed in twos in the corridor and then marched, on to the platform, down the aisle, made by the new graduates. In front. of themf loomed an important personage, who seemed to be ofiiciating at this initiation of the new Freshies. ,She directed them as to the matter oi' turning to the right or left, as the case might be, and saw that they quitted the platform with as good a grace as they came on. Now one of these round-eyed youngsters made the terri- ble error olf turning to the left instead of the right and Miss-this personage-grasped her firmly by the shoulder and wheeled her back int.o position. Theora never has forgotten the humiliation she felt, The program that followed was hardly comprehensible to these awed Freshies, their minds were so occupied with absorbing new emotions and sensations. At last they were part of a high school, East High. After the summer vacation, we returned to school, dreading the first day, yet eagerly anticipating it-and each small student grasped a quarter in his hand to be expended on the first symbol of high school- ship, a locker key. Many of us had difliculty in opening our lockers at first. Why, I had to call on a Freshy to help me out and wondered how I ever could open that door alone and unaided. tl was not as dexterous then with a key as I am now with a hairpin.J As we looked around tho-se corridors with their numerous classrooms and endless suc- cession of lockers, what wonder if our poor hrainsreeled as we realized. that out of that number we were expected to find our classrooms. We listened in awed humility to the A Freshmen dispensing informa- tion in a somewhat lofty and condescending manner, it is true, but we could stand anything from them until we, too, knew the ropes. VVe would have our turn to assume the wisdom of a Delphie Oracle at mid-year. In a week or two though, you couldn't faze us with any- thing, We were really an exceptionally intelligent lot of Freshmen. One Freshman English class had a live hunch of youngsters in it, too peppy at times. Now a certain young man, an excellent marksman, undertook to exhibit his skill by shooting-what is it?-O, paperwads. tlt is so long since I was a Freshman and of course Seniors don't bother with such child's play.J Now, Miss Pa- crossed the room just in time to receive the full force of its impact. She demanded who the culprit WELS. He evidenced a natural reluctance to disclose his identity. and Miss G-- happening by at this inopporitune time, took a hand in the investigation. Everyone being too modest to admit the excellent -shot was his, she asked all who ever shot paperwads to stand. All the boys rose and one girl, red-headed, I believe, and addicted to such Tom- boyish pastimes. She looked rather out of place, but the truth is she should have had company. It all ended in a lark. Miss P- retired to the window, her shoulders shaking, and Miss G- had much ado to

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GTI-IE quu. Almost immediately the girls organized into knitting groups and the boys into military training classes. 'Several of our classmates had gone to the colors, Tony Comito, Loren Taylor, Earl Walters, Perry Johnson. Our work had a new seriousness. We bought Liberty Bonds, sub- scribed to the Junior Red Cross, had old clothe-s drives and did what little we could to help in the World War. Then came the visit of the Belgium soldiers. Such a gala day! Seven assemblies! We will never forget those brave, bronzed lighters whom we were privileged -to wel- come that day. Again to break the monotony of the school routine came the visits of two poets, Edmund Vance Cooke and Vachel Lindsay. l'll wager you can remember your astonishment yet when we were told that we Juniors were to have a class meeting and then informed that we might have a class party. Vile were allowed to dance, too. In the midst of the Virginia Reel when Shrimp and Marjorie C. were iirst couple, as she advanced gracefully toward him, hands out- stretched, her foot slipped and she did the Banana Peel Glide across the polished floor. lt was done very unwillingly, I'1l admit. I-Iaven't we had grand assemblies? Will anyone forget Dr. Medbury's talks, especially the one, Lincoln, the Mann? What enthusiastic pep meetings! Remember when Grayden Myers and Earl Walters as- tonished us by their staying power in an oratorical contestq tThey were talking for a cake.J Moving Day was an all-school picnic. The French surely have the right idea of good eats if Monsieur Constant is an example. One day the Seniors summoned us by bugle call and the ruffle of drums to help in the ceremony of planting a tree in honor of Miss Goodrell. She was leaving us that June and so it was in her honor that the Seniors dedicated their tree. We as Juniors looked on at the Seniors' festivities with content, knowing-that next year we would -be in their envied position. So an another milestone was passed. We entered upon our Senior year with dignity and decorum, as be- htted such a staid, important class of students. We were the oldest body in school and we fully appreciated ,the responsibility of our posi- tion. We must set a good example that the rest of the school might follow it. I tear this responsibility rested lightly on the shoulders of some of our classmates, as their record of punctuality is not enviableg for instance, Paul F., Margaret R. and Marjorie B. The calm course of our academic lite was broken November 11 by the great news that the armistice had been signed. Didn't we have an assembly and didn't we parade afterwards! That day was a wild, crazy, hilarious one. After that-the flu-and vacation. Then came .the day of the annual football battle between West and East. We beat them 21-7, the first time since this class had been in East High. O, Glorious! We paraded home. We had a bonfire. In