Franklin School - Franklinite Yearbook (New York City, NY)

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The Senior C year likewise found us taking a good part in school activi- ties. Two of our members graced the f'Red and Blue staff, one played on the school football team, and th: nucleus of the victorious Cub Basketball Team came from our ranks. Last year our athletic ability again won us glory when we contributed three men to the 'Varsity Basketball Team, four to the Junior 'Varsity, and one to the Tennis Team. We lost the Senior Debate. but it was no ignominous defeat. This brings us up to the present year. Our class has showed itself more than equal to discharging the duties of a Senior Class. Four of our members divided among themselves the most important positions on the editorial staff of the Red and Blue . A fifth served on the managing board. Nine of our men were on the 'Varsity Basketball Team which enjoyed the most successful season in recent years. This Franklinite which you are reading, only in its second year as an institution of the school, has been carried on, we believe, suc- cessfully, by us. The initiative of the class is well demonstrated by the revival of baseball as a school sport this year. The team, which is just opening its season as this goes to press, numbers seven of our men on it. But the crowning achievement of the Class of '29 is undoubtedly the Senior Debate. During the last few years, this event, which was followed by a dance, had become more and more of a social affair, the debate being subordi- nated more each year. The climax was reached last year when, a hall seating three hundred people having been hired, the first speaker addressed an audience of but twelve persons. This year it was determined to hold a debate which would be a strictly informal affair, unconnected with any social function, which would be attended by people interested in hearing a debate. The Senior Debate this y-ear turned out to be a great success from every angle. Because of the efforts of two members of the Senior Class and one from the Junior Class, over two hundred tickets were sold: and an audience of over one hundred and twenty was on hand to hear Dr. Koenig introduce the first speaker. The debate itself was declared to be one of the most interesting in recent years and, what was more, was won by our orators. So the Senior Class History has been unfolded. As we pe-ruse these pages in years to come, events which even now are memories will return to our minds, recalling to us the mark that '29 has made in Franklin's history. Page twenty-seven

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CLASS HISTORY According to Messrs. Funk and Wagnall, a history is a systematic record of past events. To be thoroughly systematic, then, we must begin at the very beginning. Today we have remaining only four of the tots who toddled up the stairs to Primary I in the manner made famous by other class histories. Still, these infants were a lusty lot and, even in those days, made plenty of trouble for their teachers. By Intermediate I, more than half the members who are now in this class had entered our ranks. Intermediate II marked our first venture into extra-curricular activities. In this year our class organized a baseball team. This was a significant event in view of the fact that up to that time no class aggregation had ever been formed independently of outside assistance before the Intermediate III year, nor has this feat since been duplicated. This team, whose members averaged ten years of age, engaged in contests, not only with the class above us, but also with the class two years beyond us. Although our games, which were played below the railrbad tracks at Eighty-third Street and the Drive, usually lasted for not more than three or four innings because of the loss of all our balls in the river, still these contests paved the way for the more serious efforts which were forth- coming in later years. We did not taste of victory in either of the penmanship contests which are usually chronicled as the outstanding events of the Intermediate III and IV years. Nevertheless, we have the satisfaction of seeing that while our hand- writing has steadily improved since those days, the penmanship of the victors' has, by their own confession, undergone considerable deterioration. We did show our supremacy, however, in the eraser fights and interclass skirmishes which used to take place during the luncheon periods. In Junior I we first started to play baseball seriously. Our class team contested with the athletes from higher and lower grades and generally emerged victorious. In the track meet we also showed our ability by carrying away a number of the medals. Our premier participation in int-erclass debating came in the following year when our orators succeeded in overwhelming the more experienced speakers from Senior C. Our first representative to make the Red and Blue staff took oflice this year. It was then, also, that we first recognized the importance of class organization, for a class constitution was drawn up. Although this docu- ment was forgotten the week after its completion, it required many stormy class meetings to achieve its ratification. During this period a class library likewise flourished-that is, for about two months until our avid readers had consumed all the volumes and the members of the class ceased to make contributions of their old and shelf-worn books. Page twenty-six

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CLASS PROPHECY When I finally recovered from the shock of being elected class prophet, I decided that something woul'd have to be done sine mom in order to get some money to pay the outrageous price of some so-called fortune-teller, So I went from class-mate to class-mate soliciting aid. The grand total which I was able to collect was fifteen cents-no, fourteen. I shook the fifteenth out of a slot machine. Since I realized that this paltry sum would never satisfy the de- mands of an avaricious seer, the thought dawned on me that I was either in for some concentrated pensiveness, or out for someone else to take over the task which had put me under. Being a thoughtful fellow, however, I allowed myself to be struclk by a truly brilliant idea. I lined up a few fellows in front of a scale that lies about your weight on one side of a card and about your future on the other. I expended a few pennies on this contraption then, but as usual it played me false. Every third fortune was identical. So after thinking the matter over most carefully, I found that for what was left of that gigantic sum I could equivocate to myself about the future Qas I had often done about the pastj with perfect equanimity. So I worried myself into a coma, and wrote: Edmund Anderson will enter the gramaphone industry. His great com- prehensive knowledge of records will enable him to rise rapidly in his firm, and eventually he will head it. Andy will then be able to realize his great ambition -obtaining samples of records three months be-fore they are released. After a year or two, Andy will tire of collecting and assorting these wax discs, and he will dispose of them by giving them to the Salvation Army. After this generous move, Edmund will become a super at the Metropolitan Opera Company. Jerome Bernheim will become a great book-collector. Jerry will start a mania for acquiring Literary Guild Books. These books will sell at tremen- dous premiumsg and since by then Jerry will have had a great many, his fortune will be made. After assembling the greatest collection of rare books ever owned by any person, Jerry will astonish the world by selling it at auction. I could not sle-ep nights when I thought that 'Candide' and other priceless books which I bought when a stripling might be stolen, Jerry will give as his explanation. Vkfhen relieved of this great worry, Jerry will stay up all night trying to get distance on his radio set. Robert Block will become a great magazine publisher. He will edit St. Nicholas and Ropeco and many other magazines that delight the boyish heart. Though Bob's stories about fatherless boys with streaks of luck Cyou have no doubt read about some of their adventures in the Red and Blue D will be very gripping and so forth, they will make their appearance at such a time that the May issues of the magazines will appear in August, and the 1942 year books will show up late in 1943. Tiring of this editing work Cby Page twenty-eight