Elmwood School - Samara Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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SCHOOL OFFICERS 1962- ' 63 Head Girl Judith Carter Senior Prefect Sandra Radcliff Head of Fry Elizabeth Raymont Head of Keller Margaret Watson Head of Nightingale Karen Loeb Head Boarder Margaret Watson Prefects M. Betts, S. Cruikshank, W. Foote, R. Greenberg Sports Captain Jane Rodger SAMARA STAFF 1962- ' 63 Editor Michele Betts Advertising Editor C. Massey, R. Raymont Art Editor . . . . ■ Caroline Massey Photography Editor Elizabeth Raymont Committee M. Aldous, C. Duff , B. Fletcher, J. Mac Donald 4

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Head Mistress ' Letter Dear Elmwood: You will probably not read this Samara until it is late summer, but I am writing to you in early April. Outside my window our Elmwood grounds have some snow lying on them still, but there are grassy patches which are getting bigger every day. The rink has melted and looking at it now I can picture all those gay fancy-dress skating parties that the Juniors enjoyed so much last term. The lilac bush is not yet in bud, but soon it will be out in all its beauty. Some of us the other day saw a robin perched on one of its branches and then we knew that spring was not far behind. The view from my window is rather like your lives at Elmwood. You are in a transition period from your childhood to maturity, just as the grounds are gradually losing their winter dress and slipping into summer. For many of you this is a difficult and sometimes painful time; you feel grown-up and yet you have not yet received the freedom which the adult world seems to enjoy. You are free and yet not free and as Mr. Tulliver in The Mill on the Floss kept on remarking, it is a puzzlin ' world if not quite often an agonizing one. Like this time of the year you are betwixt and between - skiing is over and sailing has not yet begun. It is an age for you of waiting. When I was at school I used to think that Milton ' s famous line: They also serve who only stand and wait was dull and unattractive because it seemed to be passive and uncreative. I did not want to serve that way (nor, of course, did Milton choose his blindness. Now I have come to realize that the waiting -periods of our lives can be especially fruitful and exciting. When one day you are married you will look back with joy on the weeks of your engagement; there was so much to do before the great day arrived. Make the very best of this transition period of your life which you are living at Elmwood. Be PATIENT in your growing-up. If spring came to our grounds too suddenly we should have floods; there are girls to-day who have tried to grow-up too quickly and whose lives have been swamped with troubles. Be CONSCIEN- TIOUS in your work and in your day-to-day routine, just as nature takes infinite care to prepare the good earth for the flowers and fruit of summer and to develop the seed and the bulb. Be GENEROUS in all your thoughts and acts, compassionate and uncritical with each other and greathearted to all those less fortunate than yourself. No deed of self-giving is ever really wasted. Nature herself is extravagant in her bounty - walk in the woods of midsummer and see what she has done ! Would you have less of it? Above all be BRAVE and JOYFUL. There are people today who feel that the world is in such a mess that there is nothing to be cheerful about, but history makes it clear to us that most generations have lived on the edge of a precipice. In 1801 Wilberforce said: I dare not marry - the future is so unsettled. In 1806 William Pitt said: There is scarcely anything round us but ruin and despair. In 1892 Disraeli said: In industry, commerce and agriculture there is no hope, and in 1892 the dying Duke of Wellington said: I thank God I shall be spared from seeing the consummation of ruin that is all about us. Yet, here we are today! — living dangerously, perhaps, but surely not hopelessly? Shakespeare has some lovely lines describing the first wild flowers that brave the cold of early spring: ... Daffodils That come before the swallows dare and take The winds of March with beauty. So too you must be courageous as you face the future, for you are the heralds of tomorrow ' s world. Nearly two thousand years ago the Romans were cynicals and disillusioned as they faced what they felt to be the end of all ages but out of that atmosphere of insecurity and despair arose the greatest Hope that men and women have ever known or ever need to know. That Hope is alive now and says to you the words that Bernard Shaw put into the mouth of his St. Joan: His friendship will not fail me, nor His counsel, nor His love. In His strength I will dare and dare and dare until I die. God be with me. And with you all. Your affectionate friend and headmistress. 3

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I am sure that you have often wondered how our school motto, ' Success is nought; en- deavour ' s all ' , can apply in this great and terrible world where prizes are given only for suc- cess, and where, no matter how hard our efforts, they do not seem to be recognized. The fact is that, unless one has very sympathetic and exceptional friends, the truth of the quotation must be found within ourselves. ' One can only do one ' s best ' is by now a truism, but, unlike other trite sayings, its truth is still evident in our lives. One CAN only do one ' s best, and if that best is good enough to warrant a prize, well and good, for it will be deserved. But what of the others, who try their best, and who never seem to succeed? They must remember one thing: that when one door in life closes, another opens. That is an unchangeable law, and all that we must do is forget the closed door and look for the one that has opened. Some of the greatest men of all time have left behind them atrociously ill-spelt letters, and some of the greatest artists were unable to do a simple sum. The moral? (for there is one, as in the old fables.) The moral is that, having failed in one thing, we must not consider ourselves irredeemably stupid. Always to consider the grass greener on the other side of the fence and believe that our own green lawn is only crab grass is an almost inescapable attitude, and yet if we are to live at all happily, we must stop weep- ing for our own particular moons, and accept the wide green earth which we have been given. I would like to thank all those who have helped me with this Samara: Mrs. Blyth, whose constructive criticisms have been very helpful; Mrs. Aldous and Mrs. Koller who have straightened us out whenever we became too confused; the students on the committees who have given up so much of their time; all the girls who have contributed to this magazine; and above all, my co-editors Elizabeth Raymont and Caroline Massey. ' Mn Memoriam On September 5th, 1962, a tragic accident took the lives of Judy and Margot Toller, both of whom attended Elmwood for fourteen years. Judy graduated from Elmwood in June 1959 after a very successful career. She not only excelled in her studies, graduating with honours, but was also a keen sportswoman; she was our Sports ' Captain in her final year. She was about to enter her last year at Queen ' s Univer- sity where she had proved herself a credit to the name of Elmwood. Margot graduated in June, 1962, and was going into her first year at Carleton University. She was a gifted student, always ranking among the first few in her class, and had won several academic prizes during her time at Elmwood. In her final year she was an extremely popular prefect with a fine way of getting along with everyone. They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them. -Laurence Binyon