Francis W Parker School - Record Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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BIG BROTHERS AND SISTERS A school should be a model home . . . A model home combines the activities of the big and little brothers and sisters, gives them a chance to work together so that they may know each other better, have fun toge- ther, like each other. When we speak of the Parker family, it is more to us than a mean- ingless cliche, for each senior is a big brother or sister to one of the lower school grades. It means excited anticipation when the little ones wait to see which four belong to them, and some apprehension on the part of the seniors, while they sit hoping that their classes will be happy with them. It means setting up booths together at County Fair, and being invited to Valentine parties; being especially smiled at and yelled to, in the halls; being let in front of the line at the water fountain; waving back and forth at Morning Ex.; settling squabbles on the stairs. Not very big things, but nice things. It means friendship. PAGE TWENTY-SIX

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' That ' s not what Gunther says A tense moment in morning ex SENIORS SENIORSTUDENT: As wo aro both about to leave Parker, Oh Herbertsmith. you for your Pythia on Cape Cod, we for our diverse colleges, may we look together at one final paradox? HERBERTSMITH: Certainly. SENIORSTUDENT: Have we not come to agree that some kinds of conduct and only some kinds are to be praised and others are not? That Responsibility and Everything to Help and Nothing to Hin- der are good, and Undependability and Thoughtlessness are not? HERBERTSMITH: Indeed we have so agreed Oh Seniorstudent. SENIORSTUDENT: Does it not, then, follow that a class that has been thoughtful and diligent and mature will stand in Parker annals as admirable, and one that has been heedless and arrogant and faltering will be despised? HERBERTSMITH: Yes. But in what lies the inconsistency? SENIORSTUDENT: In this: the Class of 1956 has been both unthinking and thoughtful, kind and mean; gauche and indolent yet clever and productive. We know that we depend on each other; yet we won ' t give up any little part of ourselves that would make us any less the individuals that we strive to be. How will so contradictory a class stand in the RECORD? HERBERTSMITH: Are you not, oh Seniorstudent, forgetting the law of opposites? Had you been less frustrated by disunion, would you have learned to work together, or have achieved humility without first making the blunders of overconfidence? Is it not worth while to have been thought of, by those whose judgments are hasty, as the Worst Class in Years, in order to stand now. in th.- .judg- ment of the knowing, as ' 1956, the Class that Improved Most ' ? Herbert Smith Arlyn Miner Lunch in the Senior Room Hello Hitchcock, This is West Is Parker in There? i ' 1

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SANTA CLAUS PARTY There was a hush in the New Gym. All eyes were focused on the little stage with the large fireplace. Suddenly, a jingle of bells was heard, and emerging from the hearth of the fireplace was . . . Santa Claus! The kindergarten, first, second and third graders shouted greetings to him and the Santa Claus Party was on! The Sen- iors helped Santa into an extra-large chair on the stage, where he was nobly entertained by songs and dances of the little school classes, and by the seniors ' traditional performance of The Twelve Days of Christmas. In exchange, Santa gave candy and popcorn balls to the happy children. The Senior Santa Claus Party has been a tradition at Parker since 1913. The seniors get a feeling of usefulness and affection for the party which they give for the children of the Little School. The Gores Meet Santa Gee Santa, is that a real beard? With Reindeer Waiting