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

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This yeorbook is dedicated to Mrs. Genevieve Ahrens, art teacher ot Woshington High School throughout its first forty years. Photographs serve as arrested action of the past. They are innages of the post preserved on paper. Through her memory, images of the first forty years ot Washington ore set in motion 1927 Dedication The first semester at Washington begins. As a young teacher of nineteen, Mrs. Ahrens takes the streetcar to Vermont and walks past open fields to the new school and into her first class room Students from nearby farms ride horses to school 1930 Depression. School continues v ithin the economic chaos. There are no jobs Many parents are out of work Mrs. Ahrens brings prom gowns ond accessories for the girls. 1933 The earthquake The earth under the brick school splits. Classes are moved to tents. Plays are performed in an amphitheater with the moon as a backdrop. Mom ' Ahrens and her students paint and construct scenery for plays . . . Mikado and Smiling Through. Woshington is reconstructed and re-enforced to present a new focade World War II. Many boys must leave. The life that we know is disrupted. Red Cross units are set up. Mrs. Ahrens, bringing an art folder and art supplies, visits one of her Japanese students in an internment camp Blackout. Many students work in war industry. Victory. Peace is restored. The boys come back from the war as men. Nuclear age commences. DEDICHTIOn Cold War. Society witnesses increasing industrialization and auto- mation. Speed. Man moves into space. Tradition breaks down. Mrs. Ahrens continues to know students as individuals. We progress. 1967 Dedication. We celebrate the first forty years. Teachers and students ride to school in buses, cars, and motorcycles. The open fields are now a suburban development. Mrs. Ahrens retires. We remember dedicated service We remember love. We remember an individual . . . Mrs. Genevieve Ahrens.

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