Farmington High School - Laurel Yearbook (Farmington, ME)

Page 29 text:

THE LAUREL 315 or flower. Gardening is one of the hobbies that bring us to a closer communion with nature and with God. Generally speaking, the kind of hobby you ought to mount should be quite different from the work you do. If your profession is chiefly mental, you should take up a hobby that calls for physical exercise, and likewise, one whose work is physical gener- ally enjoys an intellectual or brain-teasing hobby. Children should have their hobbies as well as Mother and Dad. Boys especially like to collect small things, such as stamps, marbles, pebbles, and small animals. A striking example of this is Tom Sawyer and his pet toad. Radio appeals to young and old alike. One of the first acts of a radio enthusiast is to build a one-tube radio set. What a triumph it is after hours of intensive work to hear distinct voices penetrating through the ether. And sometimes very unexpected things result from ones hobby. A man told me the other day what his radio hobby did for him. He built his own two-way trans- mitter and in using it contacted a young lady in a neighboring foreign country. After talking back and forth each day for some time, he visited her and returned with her as his bride. Hobbies of prominent people are doubly interesting. Everyone is familiar with Pres- ident Roosevelt's hobby, deep-sea fishing. He finds relief from pressing national affairs by retreating to his yacht for a week or two of tranquil deepsea fishing. Perhaps a most unusual hobby for a man is that of the Duke of Windsor. He knits and crochets scarves and muficlers. When a youngster he learned this skill from his royal mother. This hobby is not so unprecedented as it seems. For generations the shepherds of Scotland have whiled away the long hours by knitting. Almost any kind of hobby you adopt will cost you money, a little or a lot depending on what it is and the thoroughness with which you ride it. Therefore, one should choose one that is within his means. Garden- ing, wood-work, and reading are inex- pensiveg while photography, music, aviation, and travel are considered among the more costly ones. Oftentimes it happens that what one chooses for a hobby may later become a vocation. Henry Ford was a machinist by trade and his hobby was making things. 1-Ie conceived the idea of building a gasoline buggy, or automobile as it is now called, merely as a hobby. He was prevailed upon by his friends to build similar cars for them. He finally went into the business of manu- facturing and marketing them to such an extent that the slogan now is: Watch the Fords go by. Among the hobbies which interested me was that of a country doctor who brought forth from the depths of his pockets samples of tatting in three threads. He declared that he was the only tatter in the world that could use three threads at once. He invented his own shuttle for the purpose while re- cuperating from a long illness. Then there is the dentist who is the creator of some magnificent hooked rugs. He volunteered that he was only one of many men who have reached prominence in an art usually considered the field of women. Aviation is a very recent hobby. We moderns learn to fiy ships of the air much easier than did our ancestors learn to sail their ships of the sea. We cannot think of the speed and comparative safety with which these winged couriers travel over land and sea without realizing that it is the coming means of travel. You perhaps know the lines of one of Robert Browning's poems where he says, Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be, but I would change this and say, Grow young along with me, the best is yet to be. And how can you do this? Why, by galloping away on a hobby. Glenys L. Gould '38.

Page 28 text:

24 THE LAUREL The original plans for her round-the-world flight were to fly from Oakland to Honolulu, from there to Howland Island, and then on to Australia. Establishing a record for the east-west crossing of 15 hours and 47 minutes, she landed at Wheeler Field, Hono- lulu. Bad weather conditions caused a long delay here, and then the giving way of a shock-absorber crumpled one wing and wiped off the landing gear at the long awaited take-off. Undiscouraged, Amelia took the plane back to Oakland to be re- stored to its proper state. Then, because of weather conditions, she decided to reverse the direction of the flight. On May 19, with Fred Noonan, her navi- gator, she hopped off from Oakland on the Hrst lap of the flight. Tuscon and New Orleans to Miami took her across the continent. At Miami the Electra had a thorough going-over. At this point she made the statement that she in- tended to give up her hazardous flights, that she had a growing conviction that she was getting old, and that now was the time for her to make way for the younger genera- tion. The world watched by newspaper and radio the Hight of the daring woman, fol- lowing her daily on her dangerous journey. The route lay along the South American coast, and then across the South Atlantic to a French colony on the African shore, across Africa, and along the coast of Arabia to India. The next stop was Australia. The following wireless came from New Guinea, her last stop before crossing the Pacific. Amelia Earhart departed for Howland Island at ten o'clock, beginning a 2,S56mile flight across the Pacific along a route never before traveled by an airplanef, Somehow she missed the island. So ended the earthly career of an inimitable and courageous woman, a true pioneer of the ever-advancing frontier of aviation. Miss Earhart has been severely criticized for taking such a dangerous flight. I want to give an excerpt from a letter to her hus- band, which was written before a perilous flight, to be read if it proved to be her last flight. H Please know I am quite aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others. In closing, may I also quote this poem written by Amelia Earhart herself, on Couragef' ri Courage is the price that life exacts for grant- ing peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release From little thingsg .4 Knows not the livitl loneliness of fear Nor mountain heights- where bitter joy can hear The sound of wings. 4. How can life grant ns boon of living, compen- sate For dnll gray ugliness and pregnant hate Unless we dare The soul's dominion? Each time we make a choice we pay With courage to behold resistless day And count it fair. Iacquelinc Greenwood '38. TT' GALLOPING AWAY ON A HOBBY ES, a hobby is the kind of a nag you Want to ride. It gives me the greatest pleasure to tell you how to break one in and go galloping over hill and dale on it. The trite saying that All work and no play makes Iack a dull boy gives the reason for a hobby in a nut-shell. More than ever before in this age of speed and nervous tension, one needs relaxation and the uplift that is gained in the riding of a hobby. Many a tired business man returning home after a hard clay at the oflice finds rest and relaxation for tired nerves in work- ing in a vegetable or flower garden. Al- though few ever become Burbanks by fol- lowing this hobby, many do become interested in growing some particular plant

Page 30 text:

26 THE: l..AL.RItI, ADDRESS TO UNDERGRADUATES Izmiors, Soplzomores, and Freshmen: It is not pleasant to be critic, but since I have been asked to give you some advice which may be of help to you when you re- turn to school in the fall, the following quotation from Cicero expresses my feel- ings: Both to advise and to be advised is a feature of real friendship. We all do things heedlessly, not thinking of the con- sequences, and I hope you will return to school in the fall determined to do better. The main purpose of the high school is undoubtedly for study and learning, but not for that alone. Your high school life should contain three ranges of activitiy: intellectual, social, extra-curricular. As you grow mentally you will want to make more friends, because of the broader view you will have toward other students. Your social activity will then be a daily event instead of merely a special occasion. If you keep your intellectual and social life well-balanced, you will feel the urge to go out for extracurricu- lar activities: music, sports, or public speaking. Soon your veins will thrill with school spirit, and you won't think school such a bore after all. It is surprising when we stop to realize it, how much time we waste though every day seems crammed with activityg but all too often, it is with useless, ineffectual activity. We Hit spasmodically from one thing to an- other. Too many times we half-heartedly tackle the easier task and hopelessly wish the harder one were done. Before we know it, there isn't time enough to thoroughly study that important assignment in chem- istry or biology. That is why you frequently see so many of your friends hurriedly scan- ning a text-book during the twenty-five minute period or a few minutes before class. You will rarely find time to study that les- son you didn't fully prepare last week. Slackness in one thing has the tendency to lead to slackness in othersg and it doesn't take long to gain the reputation of being a shirker. I-Iave you ever walked along a busy street just at the rush hour when a group of persons decide to call a conference and do so right there and then? If you have never encountered such a congestion, take a glance at the bevy of girls conversing at the end of the girls' walk just before school begins. Will they move to let one by? Not a frac- tion of an inch more than the Rock of Gibraltar would! It is a very convenient place to talk before the bell ringsg but we should show at least the common courtesy of stepping aside when someone would like to get by. Now I admire a person who has a little get-up-and-go in him, but when it comes to getting up and going all over the building when he should be studying just to ramble around in order to satisfy a yearning to travel is quite a different story. We all know who the chronic meanderers of the school are. Have you ever been in the library when two so-called book worms of the human variety were trying to whisper fOh! so quietlyj and then they looked up innocently to Hnd the eyes of the student teacher turned toward them? It is advisable not to use a speaking privilege for a tete a tete either in the library, main room, or elsewhere. More- over, have you ever heard anyone speak right out without permission because he thinks the teacher librarian is his friend and will overlook the broken rule? In the October issue of the Reader's Digest there was an anecdote telling of the thrill the Serbians get from breaking glass just for sheer enjoyment. I can sympathize with this idea of pleasure. There is something about the sound of breaking glass that is fascinating, but will someone please tell me where the fun comes from tearing paper into tiny bits until it looks like confetti, and then covertly dropping it on the Hoor or depositing it in another person's desk? Missives which are of such private nature that it is necessary to tear them into minute particles in order to keep their contents hidden from inquisitive eyes should not be