Fitchburg High School - Boulder Yearbook (Fitchburg, MA)

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REFLECTIONS classmates took the prize. For intermission partners, candy in little May-baskets had to be matched, and ni} elassmates were making fine progress in the art of acquaintanceship, when, like a flash, the hall turned to an electric car, where candy and jollity seemed to reign. The next was a sehool scene. My classmates were marching into the assembly hall. The boys wore white tags upon their backs. These tags bore the black figures, 6 to 1. Their faces were exultant with smiles. Away in the baek of the room did I see the sad-faeed juniors? Another schoolroom scene appeared. In the large room in which seniors are given the honor of sitting, nearly all of my classmates were assembled, but they did not all seem to try to speak at once. They were quite polite; none of them spoke at onee, in fact, they didn’t any of them speak at all, for school was keeping and they were busy doing nothing, whieh is the law of seniors. It was so still it seemed as if all must be lost in thought. I imagined what my class- mates were thinking about. Were they thinking of spilled ink, or broken pencils, or hard lessons? Not at all. Were they thinking of hasty words or brok- en friendships ? Not at all. Shall I tell you what so gloomily held their thoughts ? Yes, that my words may in some way help the future classes and save them some of the pain which all seniors have experieneed. Underelassmen ! When you feel a sad and irresistible gloom eoming over you, when you are choking with a strange feeling, you know not what, throw it off. Do not allow yourself to think. Run, jump, dance, do anything, or grief will over- eome you and you will not be able to help it. You will think of the long 3 ears of work you have had 19

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REFLECTIONS teachers. They were welcoming each jjupil and ]jar- ent as he or she advanced. After having been re- ceived all passed into the hall again, where good things were generally enjoyed, and parents and pupils and teachers all talked at once. As soon as my duti- ful classmates saw that their parents and teachers could safely be left to entertain each other, swiftly they departed to the darkened halls above, where, after having bribed the orchestra, which was pro- ducing sweet sounds in the assembly hall, to play a waltz or two, they proceeded to happily emplo} themselves. In the next picture a dance appeared. As I looked a waltz was in progress. Whose happy voice did I hear gasping “In the good old summer-time?” Big letters S. S. (senior success) appeared. Rightly named was that party, I thought. For the next picture was another dance. Laurel and red hearts of pasteboard appeared everywhere as decorations. Strange faces were mingled with those of my classmates, but every one s eemed to be happy. The fun was in full progress. All were hunt- ing for candy hearts. I wondered if candy hearts were the only kind found. I surely did not expect to find the next scene a dance, but it was. The decoration was extremely attractive. I guessed that the party was one given by a strange school, for unfamiliar faces were every- where. Things happened so rapidly that I can hardly remember them. In the first place, each boy had a red pink, each girl a white one, to which were at- tached parts of quotations. By matching these all found partners for the first promenade and dance. Then in quick succession dances occurred. After a while a violet hunt took place, in which one of my 18

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REFLECTIONS in the high school, of the fun, demerits and lessons, and finally of the power which you hold as a senior, and realizing that soon you are to leave, soon teach- ers and pupils alike will be mourning over your departure, you will be overcome with grief and sink into an abyss of despondency. Well, after this picture of gloom, which some- times penetrates into senior life, came a picture never to be forgotten. My classmates, girls in white and boys in black, were softl3 singing together for the last time their class song. Was this sad scene to be the last ? I thought so, for when it disappeared no other came. But suddenly there was a flash of light and I saw my classmates slowly moving in a grand march. The sadness had disappeared. Triumphant, my class was ending its successful career in a grand processional ; the end of school, the beginning of life. The picture died out and the heart burst into sixty- six lights of gold and white, a picture of one of my classmates in the tip of each glow. Together the lights ascended and golden and white disappeared in the heavens. 20