Ensley High School - Jacket Yearbook (Birmingham, AL)

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6 THE GLEAM California as a state is unusual in size. I was greatly impressed by the vastness of everything, the great distances everywhere. Its valleys are broad, its mountains high, its cities are large and the ocean makes its entire Western border. At the point where the Pacific Ocean cuts in and forms the San Francisco bay and Golden Gate, the city of San Francisco has been built. The ocean, the bay and that teeming city, located on the very edge of a “peninsula”, were a sight rather awe inspiring to me. The coast is dotted with cities of all sizes, the principal one besides San Francisco being Los Angeles. Upon first thought one believes they are neighboring cities, but the distance between them is 467 miles. Those great distances cannot help but be a surprise to people from the more closely settled sections of the United States. A Coast Line trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco will show not one fertile valley but dozens of them, not one orchard or vineyard, but many dozens of them. The air of prosperity is everywhere. The ranches and ranch houses are well improved and quite in keeping with the beautiful trees, flowers, etc., surrounding them. The houses in the cities arc more of the home variety than the apartment. Many sections are filled almost entirely with bungalows very unusual in their style of architecture. This is especially true of Hollywood and Los Angeles. The climate has its good and bad features. The rainy season becomes very tiresome, but the six months of sunshine seem to be welcomed by all. That is the time of the year when most tourists go, hence the reputation for “Sunny California.” There are really two kinds of temperature, that of the coast towns and that of the interior. The coast has an average of 60-70 degrees while the weather is very warm in the central valley, the San Joaquin. Educationally, the state has made great strides. In all the schools, a very high standard of scholarship is maintained. The school buildings are not only beautiful and expensive, but entirely modem, practical and most adequately equipped in every way. The rural schools are plentiful and easily accessible on account of the good hard-surface roads everwhere over the state. The city schools, both elementary and high schools, and the colleges have the same air of prosperity and completeness exhibited everywhere. The idea of attractiveness and cleanliness, inside and outside the buildings, seems never to be lost sight of. The University of California at Berkeley and Leland-Stanford University at Palo Alto are very beautifully located naturally, and man has done all possible besides to improve upon nature. Now, with all these good things I have mentioned, I have not told any bad. No person, place or thing can be entirely perfect or absolutely ideal. Every state and nation has its desirable and undesirable features. The one nearly always balances the other. The East, the North and the

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THE GLEAM 5 Knowing all these hardships of Colonial days, we have no wonder why a Puritan father never even moved when the turkey was shot off the table by an arrow when he was saying Thanksgiving grace. GEORGE BRISBIN. ’25 ----------:o:---------- A Dream The fire grows dim. and still I sit And dream of things that interest me; I see weird shapes and hear a bit Of the music of the sea. The sea to me is a strange, great thing, Ready to leap and frolic and jump; It is a thing that sulks and sings. And gives the shore a playful bump. Yet when you think that the hand above Controls the land and sea and all, Gives the wind its song, the bee its buzz, And causes the spring and fall, How can you think the sea so strange, When it's only a part of the whole Of God's great plan that will never change While we reach up for our goal? ARTHUR POWELL, '25 ----------:o:---------- My Impressions of California In California, as in all of the other states of this United States of ours, there are many things both good and bad with which one may be impressed. I think the first impressions, which are the ones a traveler receives, are oftentimes different from the ones made later on. I shall have to treat this subject from the viewpoint of a traveler as I made only an eight weeks trip of the West, spending six weeks of that time at the University of California, located at Berkeley, across the bay from San Francisco. There may be some who will disagree with me, but I shall give my impressions as they came to me at a passing glance, so td speak, and shall group them as follows: California, with its natural resources, climate, educational facilities, and self-advertisnment.

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THE GLEAM 7 South are as wonderful as the West, each in its own way. California has been advertised. The people, especially the native sons and daughters, sell their state to the visitors. They advertise by large sign boards, newspapers. printed pamphlets and by word of mouth. They are hospitable. They talk constantly of California and its good points and at all times make excuses for all unpleasantnesses. After considering and weighing in the balance, all the good and all the bad, I find that wherever you are, whether North, East, South or West, you will find the same proportion of good things and the same proportion of bad in any section. After all contentment and happiness remain within ourselves, and the amount each individual holds depends largely upon his own desires to adapt himself to his surroundings, and choose only those things which make for the betterment of him. CAP. NEAL. -----------:o:----------- Home Lonely I wander through the woods. O’er many a hill and dale; I wander by many a waving field. And linger in many a vale; But no matter where I wander. Be it far, or be it near. To me there is no earthly place So sweet as home, and dear. ROGER RUSSELL. ’25 :o: A Star The unknown is an awful thing, and as I lie on my cozy little bed to-night peering through my window, through the bare branches of a giant tree, I see something that makes my very being throb with excitement, that makes my mind run in strange channels never dreamed of before. What is it I see in a far distance? It is a little star, shining and gleaming and bright. I'm thinking of you,- little star, and as I see your twinkling form and guiding light I cannot help but wonder that if within your bosom slumbers a tribe of mortals like unto ourselves; if they are greater in knowledge than ourselves; greater in spirit, strength—Oh, what a tale you could tell, little star, shining in the heavens. Perhaps your life is tinted with a sadness sadder by far than our own. Fame may fade, glory and riches may pass into the things of the past, but you remain steadfact, always twinkling forth your rays of glimmering light that make men wonder. We grow from our infancy to our manhood and you see us through our many struggles, through our trials and triumphs, through our joy and happiness, through sorrow and pain, and you see us pass away suddenly as we came. WILLIAM McARDLE, 25