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Page 9 text:
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HiSTORY OF CLASS ’11 Gentle reader you do not grasp the magnitude of the task before me. The Class of ’ll is some class. Do you realize that their average weight is 2540 pounds, which is more than a ton. Is this not a ponderous mass? We number twenty with intellect above the average; if our understandings were placed lengthwise they would cover a distance of almost .5 of a mile. But this is not all; were we to place ourselves one upon the other we would tower aloft to the dizzy eminence of 180 feet; mak¬ ing the school’s flag pole ashamed of its scanty height. Not in height, weight and understanding are we alone famous for we shine with the brilliancy of diamonds in the department of athletics, especially basket ball. No wonder for we have Straton and Kenvin on our five among the boys and Blanche Jillson captain of the girls’ team. Have you never seen our mighty Harold roll his opponent in the dust, incidentally grinding in his ribs, dislocating his jaw, and with Chesterfieldian politeness assist him to arise with the remark, “My dear fel¬ low, I trust I did not hurt you.” It does one good to see Kenvin with agracful hop, skip, and a jump, toss the ball, while the audience with straining eye and bating breath, watch it leave his hands, describe a circle in the air and just miss the basket. We must not forget the wits of our class, and chief among these is the studious, (when excentric little Bertha will let him alone) ponderous Jessie Blake. I never laughed so much in my life as when I heard his cutting remark to Kenvin Kenvin was, as we say, up to the neck in a Chemistry experiment and asked one of the boys to give him a knife. Our Jesse drolly replied, “what you going to do with it Ken, cut out smoking.” Grace our infant phenomenon has troubles of her own. The more she tries to study the more she is disturbed by Dena, who comes rushing into the room scattering Grace’s books everywhere. It is like the outburst of a geyser. Words follow so rapidly they almost choke her utterance but in a moment she has subsided and calm again reigns. As I look around the class as it is today I can hardly realize that four years ago we were only represented by two of our present number, Eunice and Frank. In the Freshmen year our class met in Mr. Wirt’s offices in the Phillips’ building. Even the private office had to be used as a class room. Of course complications arose. The teacher had to try and over-come the voices of the agents which came to see Mr. Wirt to sell their articles. We had no chance to loiter in the cloak room as the one we had was a single hat rack. Although there were only two Freshmen they made up for the rest of us. They received physical attention because they loved to play tricks on the teacher; such as turning up the clock to make her think she was late. The only athletics which were entered into that year was the track meet which took place at Crown Point in May. Frank entered some of the races and brought home great honors for our class. At this first meet Hyman hung up the record in the pole vault which Gary hak clung to ever since and from that point started the loyalty to Gary High School which has increased from time to time. The next year we started in at the Jefferson building. It seemed to be the most wonderful school building after going to school in an office room. This year we had the pleasure of meeting Mr Sargent our present principal. Our class had grown to the number of nine, the greater part of which were boys. The whole class had a hunger for science. The science of the sophomore year was Zoology. We were so interested in the study, that we did everything we could to gather together specimens for the work. We even went so far as to pour some old beer on a post to draw the insects.
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Page 10 text:
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HISTORY OF CLASS ' 11 Continued Foot ball started that year and the papers found out our existence. Referring back to the paper of Oct. 17, 1908, we find this editorial from the Tribune: “The football team of the Gary High School has shown its patriotism in its war cry. When the Rah-Rah boys and girls of the Gary High School indulge in their school yell this afternoon at East Chicago for the first time it will sound mighty nice. The yell runs like this: ‘1-2-3-4, 2-4-3-4 Who are we for? Gary!’ ” That war cry ought to be the motto of all residents of Gary. That is the kind of public spirit needed to build a great city and school here.” We were proud of it and I think the school yell has been lived up to by this class. After the football season was over the girls gave the football boys a large banquet. The feast was splendid as far as it went, but when the time came for the ice-cream to our dismay it had disappeared. We do not wish to recall unpleasant mem¬ ories,’ but three of the present Junior students did not show up the next day. We have always wondered why? After football came basket ball. We had no court as the school was without a gymnasium but where there is a will there is a way and so we made one in the auditorium. Many good games were played and enough victories to satisfy us. Our third year brought us over to the Emerson School. Our class was still increasing in number and we were now fourteen. The Emerson building had been our hope—to just get a chance there. It had such fine gymnasiums that athletics were taken up with much spirit. Football received special interest. We won nearly all of our games. Five or six of the eleven were Juniors. Basket ball took it’s place with both a girl’s and boy’s team. Just think, the girls had a gymnasium all to themselves and a chance to swim in the pool. The captains of both the teams were Juniors. The great event of the season, however, was the Northern Indiana Track Meet which took place at South Bend in May. We took a car load down with us and had a fine time watching the other schools win points. However, we won the pole vault. The Juniors held a prominent place on the Gary team and in the evening, our worthy president took third place in the Ora¬ torical Contest. That made us feel fine. The Junior Banquet in honor of the Seniors was a great success. Covers were set for forty-five in the sewing room. Speeches were made by members of both classes and the faculty and my! when Mr. Herrick whistled! We knew he could write, but we also found out he could whistle. At last we reached our Senior year, and as Mr. Sargent said at the banquet, “Came into our own.” We have tried to set a pace that would do us credit and make our successors, “sit up and take notice.” we have never abused the privilege of walking in our own fashion in the halls. We never have been noisy in the clock rooms or classrooms. Basket Ball was the only form of athletics entered into this year. The boys and girls both had a team. The fates were against the boys the first part of the year but later their luck turned and they made good. The girls suffered one defeat out of four games. We can scarcly realize that our twelve years of public school life is over. A glimpse at our baby pictures and then at the staid and dignified present group of Seniors shows a great growth that makes us both proud and sad. We might wish to be again children with their happy innocent smiles, just irresponsibly joyous but the future beckons us on and if it is true that past success is the earnest of future possibilities the historian of this class taking up the work where I have left it will, yea, must chronicle again the story of the success of the Class of 1911.
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