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

Page 15 text:

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

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

Page 16 text:

Galainef Number One li li S ' s McCane Spencer Peterson Le Grand Flegel Hawkins Boone Shafer Hocum Woodward Scott Mr. Hughes: Ah, those arduous days in the school, when customs and traditions were in the making! We should look with sympathy at the first officers and leaders of the student body, their struggles to adopt a suitable constitution by which the students might govern themselves, and the trials of the first officers who had to establish precedents with a student body overwhelmingly junior high. To Bradley Spencer, first president, was given the task of showing all future presidents how this office should be conducted. Credit should go, too, to other members of that first cabinet: james McCane and Alice Peterson, vice-presidents, Mildred Haw- kins, secretary, Allan Scott, manager of athletics, Geraldine Hocum and Robert Woodward, self-government presidents, Leona Flegal and Loren Boone, Boys' and Girls' League presidents, Archie Schafer, manager of publications, and Bud Le Grand, manager of finances. But the student body officers weren't the only ones taking part in those formulating days. There were also the leaders in athletics, scholarship, and social life, who played such important roles in organizing activities and winning honors which have made high school life more enjoyable and valuable. For instance, there were the first Sealbearers, Evelyn Graves, Aeoma Schellhous, Mary Provaz- nik, William McNeIis, and Maurice Yazloff, the first Knight, Archie Schafer, and the number one Lady, Fanchon Martinson. And let us not forget the athletes. Dal Neville, track captain, Bud Kenny, baseball pilotg Ed Allen, varsity football head man, Bill Davis, captain of varsity basketball: and Ellamay Foyle, G. A. A. president. Others who had their share in buildingfschool spirit were Dick Goodwin, yell leader, Maurice Yazloff, editor-in-chief of the Sur- veyor: and Mary Provaznik, editor of the first Continental. Nor should we forget the first of our Ephebians, Aeoma Schellhous, And in these 2