George Washington High School - Continental Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

Page 14 text:

Mrs. Olga Sutherland digs up some old-time slants: Mr. Whedon teaching science, and prepping for the V.P.'s office . . . 1. l. Hol- lingsworth just out of New York with a hair cut like Beatrice Lillie's and a skirt line like Texas Guinan's . . . Faculty meetings to deliberate on the wisdom of building a nursery for the B7's . . . Mr. Edwards growing more and more restless about the traffic situation . . . Peter Kuhlburger working those days, because some day he might get to be a Head . . . lvlr. Peter B. Kuhlburger: We even experienced dirt floors made 'bl possi e through the persistence of many of our students in going mud skating in the fields after rains. We had cement floors, but the mud coating had to be dried and inhaled before the cement became visible. Mr. T. B. Kelly: The science department was small, with only five teachers. There was no physiology laboratory, only one biology, one chemistry, and one physics laboratory. During the first semes- ter there was one chemistry class and one physiology class. There were several biology and general science classes. Miss joycie Hollingsworth: I always remember this incident: As well as being counselor then, I taught an English class. One day l was called into Mr. Hughes's office. There a very irate mother accused me of calling her son a scurvy elephant. l racked my memory and finally recalled that what l had said to him was that he was a disturbing element. Mr. L. A. Baker recalls: Dinwiddie's Daily, the Continental, and all the student clubs, the writing of school songs and yells, and choice of colors, the first edition of the Surveyor and the first athletic teams. All were l'k h i e t e buds that feebly grow from the protecting leaf and burst into full bloom. Qltdaftdlflgle - an gdfllll DGVS O

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9 Om Mrs. . remember that Mr. Richmond taught half day and acted as registrar the other half, so some students managed always to be out of class. Miss Lulu Draper: One of my most vivid recollections is of the time when the grounds were being graded just outside the windows of room l2I. The steam shovel would very often approach the windows as if contemplating coming in to join the Spanish class. Miss Elthea Kohler: I first arrived, August I, 1927. Room IO8 was established as headquarters With the help of just one clerk, thousands of textbooks were stamped, numbered, and sorted! teacher assignments were checked: equipment and supplies re- ceived, checked, and distributed: incoming grades filed, etc., and all this with practically no equipment. l sat on a keg of nails covered with a piece of old carpeting, my desk was a packing box, and I typed on a portable typewriter, brought from home. Mr. A. I. Smith: Picture the auditorium of ten years ago-no seats, no orchestra pit, no curtains, a bare stage, and no linoleum aisles. The first week we secured some typewriter boxes to use for band and orchestra seats. A Mrs. Genevieve Ahrens: Ten years ago I got off a street car on Ver- mont lthere was no Normandie bus thenl, and started walking toward the school and my first job. l glanced up lO8th Street and saw large red brick buildings rising out of green fields. Sud- denly I was aware that this was Washington high school. Miss Kate L. Gridleyz It seems impossible that ten years have passed since Washington high school first opened its doors, so swiftly has year followed year. Those of us who were here when the school opened still dwell with a certain affection on those early days. Beginnings are always interesting, and pioneering in a school draws its members together. What we are today is all a part of what we were then. May the next ten years bring as steady a progress as the last ten have witnessed. Dessie Myers' I Ellfzsf Elaculfxl

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Mr. Hughes: To obtain a more complete picture of the history of the school, let us retrace the steps of Father Time and visualize that first day of school on a September morning in 1927. Here were the future greats of Washington, all lined up and eager for a chance to begin school. imagine the confusion when students knew nothing about either the school or its regulations, and the new faculty knew little more. Mr. Richmond, our registrar, remembers that day vividly, and l'm going to ask him to step up and recall his memories of it. Mr. Richmond: To describe the boys and girls who gathered at Washington high school the first day the doors were opened is impossible. The best I can do is to say that they were a milling, shouting mob. They were jammed in the main hall of the Administration building and overflowed up the main steps to the second floor. The school had been planned for about 700 to 800 students, but ll00 came instead. A bell was rung for the students to assemble in the auditorium. But none of them knew this, for they didn't hear the bell. ln fact, they didn't even know where the aud was. At last, under the pressure of insistent ringing and the personal urging of Mr. Hughes and some of the faculty, the mob was finally herded ifor that is just what was donel to the aud. The first to arrive there began to throw sticks which the builders had left back and forth between the balcony until they were finally stopped. There were no seats yet, so the students sat on the round iron ventilator buttons on the floor or lounged against the walls. Mr. Hughes then proceeded to shout from the bare stage above the terrific din, ithere was no public address systeml all new instructions. After the assembly, the mob noisily charged out the doors in a rush to sign up for classes. vzsf Gonfmenfal S7066