Fryeburg Academy - Academy Bell Yearbook (Fryeburg, ME)

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The Academy Bell 25 IDRUMMANIA BEALE Street at midnight was an ever-rising undertone of chants, tinkling pianos and mysterious aromas. Soft lights streamed from cracks in clouded windows. The low monotones of throbbing drums brought pulsating rhythm to your blood. Once inside, you found dim blue lights playing tricks upon your eyes. Before you, a vision of a beautiful girl giving forth with Blues In The Night stimulated you with excitement. Her background accompaniment was a screen of smoke through which you occasionally caught a glimpse of a glassy-eyed drummer and a gangling half-awake pianist. The throaty notes of the singer played upon your emotions till you were drugged with the atmosphere. The last thing you remembered was the pulsating rhythm of the tom-tom passing in the night, then you were swept out of reality into memories of the past or dreams of the future. MARGARET WARNER, '46 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL Book One of my life is closed, It's not a perfect book: I've made mistakes, I have missed many things, There are things I should have done, And things I should do over. There will be regrets, many of them, When I look upon this book, upon myself. The book of my F ryeburg life is finished, Except a few short lines- Homecomings, reunions- Days of painful, nostalgic joy. How I hate to see the covers of this book Still shine with the smiles of school day friends Close to my reluctant eyes! I place it on my shelf and turn- And lo! upon my desk a new book Dancing in the light of things to come. I open it and on the page, These words, and a golden pen. Those words were these, just six: This book you write, my sonli' Pfc. ROBERT CHUTE, '44

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24 The Academy Bell i Then no more ghostly footsteps trod Across that wet and blood-soaked sod. Instead of martial tramp of feet, F ootfalls of freedom filled the street. Tho, happy people laughed and cried, From time to time one of them sighedg For still the garnet stained earth Was there reminding them of death. But soon they cast their gloom aside- The reason why the dead had died Was so the living might live on- Have freedom, license-sorrow gone. So twilight fell on world serene, For soon the sod ,gain would be clean.- Then I awoke in world war-torn-, Saw people suffiring and forlorn. Yet still my dream encouraged meg I saw this strife not long to be. The rains, the blood, the tramping feet, The battle-over and complete. Soon twilight on this troubled scene Will fall, the red earth will be clean By morning, when we'll start anew To build our world-a union true. IANE BROWN, '45 SHADE AND SHADOW DARKNEss is pervading all things. The long shadows of afternoon have now spread, covering all things in this silent march. The golden brown and tans of afternoon have faded into the grays and blacks of evening. Those bright clouds that hung silver during the day have now become beauti- ful shades of gray. Beginning with pitch black in the east, the hues run across the skies until they become a little lighter over there in the west where the sun was last. Now all the friendly buildings and trees have suddenly become menacing giants without form or shape. They tower high above us, all their former shape gone. The advancing wave of darkness robs them of their daytime dress and clothes them in shadows and darkness. This is a picture of shade and shadow-the world at twilight. RICHARD COFFIN, ,47

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26 The Academy Bell EEK-A MOUSE! IT was Valentine's Day and Sandy and I were hurrying back from downtown so that we might make Alumni I-Iouse's 5:30 dead-line just on the dot, per usual. As we trudged along, laboriously picking up and laying down our heavy storm boots, one of us suddenly stopped short and uttered a stifled cry, Look, it's a mouseln Now, don't let me give the impression that we two girls were frightened by a mouse. Oh, no, nothing like that! It was just that the little gray animal running around in circles on the ice-covered sidewalk before us startled us for a moment. We were perfectly all right after we had disentangled our arms from about each other, and I had let go the strangle hold I had acquired on Sandra's neck. Indeed, Sandra, the braver of us two, even leaned over and picked our little friend up by the tail. As we stood there, gazing doubtfully down at him, the clever thing gave a leap and plunged into the snowbank. Not wanting him to escape so easily, we dived after him and a minute later our friend mouse was safely tucked away in- side Sandy's mitten. Sandrais face lighted up as she exclaimed, I've a brilliant idea! On Valentine's Day you're supposed to give gifts to those you like, aren't you? Which teacher's on duty today?', I, immediately conceiving Sandra,s idea, answered, Miss Moore's on dutyf' Then I echoed, somewhat less heartily, 'AThat is a brilliant idea. About three minutes later Miss Moore opened her door in answer to a timid knock and greeted two slightly hesitant, but mischievous-looking girls. After a few preliminary words and motions, I managed to extricate the mouse from in- side folds of the mitten and thrust it toward our startled teacher. Miss Moore glanced once at the poor little innocent thing and, with a scream, jumped up on the bed. The scream pierced the room so loudly that it shocked to a standstill the entire third Hoof except the mouse. He shot from my hands and darted under a chair. Then followed such a racket as Alumni House never hopes to hear again. Such a slamming of doors, scraping of chairs, creaking of mattresses, thumping of wastebaskets, and squealing of fright and laughter that came from inside that room! When Miss Moore emerged from her room about fifteen minutes later, she was bearing both a triumphant smile on her face and the mouse in a kleenex box. She glanced at Sandra and me, who, panting wearily, were straggling out be- hind her. Incidentally, Miss Watson said that her cat enjoyed his supper very much that night. Too, the doctor said that the gash in Sandrais finger where the mouse bit her would heal up soon, in fact, it would scarcely be noticeable in a week or two. MARILY'N Gnans, '46