East Longmeadow High School - Aegis Yearbook (East Longmeadow, MA)

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How many of us, as we leave this building, have ever seen the second floor hall in the late afternoon? The sun streaming through the great windows, seems to be the light of the future beckoning the seniors of this class toward promises and delights unknown. As the seniors leave this building, and the comfort ir has offered, it is fitting that they should remember the second floor in the late afternoon. These seniors walk for the last time down ,the halls of the classroom wing that has marked, for them, an educational home for the past three years. What are their thoughts? What are they saying? Where will they go? What memories will they treasure forever? These are questions which are asked as the senior class marches into history.

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SENIGR CLASS

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1,,1e:ff1virii'1 we .,,.. ., HISTORY of the DAVID LALIMA BRYAN PLUMB ROBERT A. NELSON CLASS Of President, 59-60, Vice-President, 59-60, Member, Student Council, Member-At-Large, 61-62. President, 60-61, 59-62. Many times it has been said that the new, low, modern high school of today is quite similar, both in appearance and performance, to a factory. The students seem to enter one end and leave the other, as a class, all packaged and sealed and ready for a business or college career. Yet, unlike the thousands of exact reproductions that pour off the end of an assembly line, the classes that leave a high school are different in many ways, each being unique in its own way. Also unlike the factory which turns out hundreds of articles each day, the high school graduates a class only after 12 long years of study in the elementary, junior high, and high school levels. These are years of study to prepare us for the day when we must face the world on our own with our education serving as the sword with which we will defend ourselves and carve our place in the future. The class of 1962, upon graduating from East Long- meadow High School, boasted of being the first class ever to graduate from our school. The class of 1964, immedi- ately behind us, will be proud of being the first-and probably only-class to graduate having served four suc- cessive years in the high school. We, the second in line of these first three classes to attend the new school, are a unique class also. We are as proud, if not prouder, to be the first class to graduate from ELHS having served the entirety of our 12 years of schooling in the wonderful town of East Longmeadow. Many of our original class- mates have departed for other corners of the country, if not the world, and many more have come to East Long- meadow from neighboring and distant towns and cities. However, the majority of the members of the Class of 1963 have spent their entire school lives in our town. Most of us started in either Pleasantview or Center School and from there went either to Maple Shade or to Birchland Park. In these last two schools we finished our elementary years of learning the fundamentals of reading, writing, and 'rithmatic. Then in the fall of 1957 came something new: junior high school at Birchland Park. During those f1rst few weeks of junior high school we were all enraptured by the new experience of changing classes and teachers for different subjects. Those three happy and carefree years went by so quickly. Yes, before we knew it we were the old timers at Birchland. The school year 1959-60 served to be a significant one for our class. It was our senior year in junior high and we enjoyed every minute of it. Our class officers were elected early in the year: David LaLima, President, Bryan Plumb, Vice Presidentg Michael Prendergast, Treasurer, and Susan Byrne, Secretary. Though we did not do much as a class, our officers proved to be mighty important when grad- uation neared. Our enthusiasm was high and when we weren't studying sciences, math, English or a foreign lan- gauge, we were participating in the many athletic, musi- cal, and social activities during the year. Remember Open Vice-President, 61-62. House 1960, the Student-Varsity Game, the many school dances, I Remember Mama by the Drama Club, and our newspaper, the Birchland Banner? The Student Govern- ment also played an important role in the extra-curricular life at Birchland that year. Yes, we were the joyous seniors, the admired leaders, and we proved it with our fiery spirit at the games. Ninth graders proved to be significant to the varsity athletic squads. Our basketball team, all seniors, was almost un- defeated that year, losing only the first game to Somers by 1 point and sweeping away the other 13 contests, in- cluding the Longmeadow freshmen. The baseball team followed through with another good' record to make it a thrilling year all around. Though'we were spirited, when the time came to hit the books we all buckled down to study our basic majors, music, shop and home economics. We were anxious to prepare ourselves for the 3 years of high school life ahead. This anxiety was sparked as we watched that massive complex of stone and steel, East Longmeadow High School, slowly rising out of the ground on Maple Street. Time passed so quickly and graduation night, June 10, 1960, found many a shaky knee as 152 students marched into the Birchland Park gymnasium to the chords of Pomp and Circumrlance. David LaLima greeted our happy parents and then a score of us had an opportunity to recite before the audience of 800. As we accepted our diplomas each of us felt a sigh of relief as many wonderful memories and mixed emotions flashed in our minds. We were sorry to leave the school we loved so much but we were ready and willing to accept the challenge of high school life the following September in the new high school. The summer of 1960 sped by, as they all do, and in September we entered East Longmeadow High School as the sophomore class. We were class number two of the first three classes to attend ELHS in its first and most difiicult year. Our past years in the East Longmeadow School System had prepared us well for this new scholas- tic challenge and our class spirit, carried from our senior year at Birchland, seemed to triple at the very first whistle of our very first football game. An early event in the year was the election of class officers and Student Government members, following three days of hard campaigning with lively speeches and flashy buttons and posters. Our new Executive Committee con- sisted of Bryan Plumb, Presidentg James Brock, Vice Presi- dentg Angela Rafaele, Secretary: and Bob Lloyd, Treasurer. Our class really began to work as a unit, supervised by Mrs. Adams. We attended regular class meetings, collected dues for the treasuryg sponsored the first sophomore dance, Cupid? Wloirl, which was a whirling success, ordered class rings for our junior year, and wrote an excellent consti- tution to insure smooth operation of the class at all times. Our Student Government representatives were Kathleen 2