Girls High School - Halcyon Yearbook (Atlanta, GA)

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'-' , fp Virgil to uch an extent that one of their - number w s able to write the whole story A Tig of the fall of Troy in negro dialect! Such A b familiarit I rf It is lso in The Record of 1896 that - X we find the first published history of Girls .q. High, in which we note that the historian lauds her Alma Mater just as we do today. She has praise for the early struggles of her school, located in 1872 at the corner of Whitehall and Hunter Streets, and admiration for the upepw which so greatly increased the school that, by the following year, four rooms of the building at the corner of Washington and Mitchell Streets were leased. This, Girls High's second home, served until, in January 1925, our present magnifi- cent home was completed. To the senior classes of '28, '29, and '30, the new Girls High building is the true and only home of the school. Yet we know that rich memories cling to the building which housed the Girls High for fifty-two years. In its first state it was a mansion built in true old Southern style. Its owner, Mr. John Neal, spared no expense for his home to be beautiful. The spacious old place was the scene of gay revelry, even during the trying days of the Civil War. With- out doubt, many a heartsick Confederate soldier there found solace. Perhaps the echo of sweet voices, the faint fragrance from the soft folds of fluffy gowns, the very presence of old Southern gentility consecrated those halls. Even the stern occupancy of the old home by Northern troops, the unsuccessful attempt to make it house the uOglethorpe Female College of 1865, and its later prosaic triumph as a commonplace boarding house could not erase its first beautiful associations, nor rob the mansion of the spirit of the Old South. As we look back through records, the girl of the 70's seems very remote. So does the miss of the early twentieth century, in her tight little shirtwaist and long, swirling skirts. Even 1914 seems a far distant period when we see, in the publication of the year, Pipes 0' Pan, a picture of Girls High's basketball team, dressed in long tight skirts. The more festive costume of the period in- cluded the famed bobble skirt, but we, the uninitiated, as we run through Pipes O' Pan, wonder if the graduate of that day were not forced to hobble even to her sports! 1f'ar4. A 'W as 4 1.1.31 ye- I .N.-.,s...,.. 4 - ...Y .1,,,.,m,.,,, ,, Y, Y W N Wm misss---saaeiims-1'wrs,..t,N..,s,y-Bib may 3,-K,

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IHI1?3.I::1 6 9991 Girls High's curriculum in those daysD-- K - ' H 1 or was it a heavy number worded as if it were a discourse on day-dreaming, or the 1' secrets of the future, with fairy god- if 5 mothers and Prince Charmings thrown in - , - for good measure? ' .Q 1 How far away 1878 seems! Yet the I , senior class of that year chanted a farewell ' written hy one of 1ts members as youthful as modern and as regretful as any the class of 1928 will sing Goodbye upon another shore Across these dlmpllng ocean waves The cliffs will echo 0 er and o er Our voices ln eternal praise But wh11e upon this outward tide ln storm or calm we onward iioat Father be pllot at the helm A11d guide arlght each slender boat The girls of 1890 were undenlably modern 1n guiding aright their slender boats A member of that very class spoke as a senior of today might speak on The Woman Who Uses Her Education But lest such frank self reliance emphasized by graduation frocks no longer rullled and frllled but fashioned on slim severe llnes might make Miss Eighteen Ninety appear too mannlsh the speech which followed The Woman Who Uses Her Education was entitled It may be that the graduate of 1890 would not have called her younger sister womanly, since the modern girl of 1896 frequently enjoyed the sport of bicycling An ltem in the Current Events Column of the Girls High Record of the years states The craze of bicycle riding has been carried to such a degree that recently ln New York weddings and ball masques have been given on wheels It appeals to our sense of humor to believe that the class of 1896 rode to 1tS graduation exercises on bicycles However we cannot Verify the assumption by strict historical data What we can prove though is a feat equally remarkable to modern mlnds The seniors of that Very year mastered 7 7 7 7 an 0 - , ' 7 7 - - n 9 7 7 , , A . . ,, . . . . . ,L . . 77 ' ' CC ' ' 97 - ' -T 9 W - V V ' 66 ' ' 77 ' Womanly Women. L6 ' 97 ' ' ' . 46 . . . . 7 7 99 ' - e . ' 9 9

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ss M 5 y Even the war-time classes of 1917 and w . '18, graduates at the auditorium i when f S we were mere infants in early grades of t the elementary school, seem far away. But 1 . in their devotion to the cause of their day, ' an .ap they are very real. They voted, we hear, - to waive the palms and roses of traditional 7 ' QHSJE graduations for the sake of patriotic econ- ' omy. The class of '17 went further still- they wore whatever white dresses they happened to possess, and made their final bow to Girls High against a background of red, white, and blue bunting! How we should hate to forego our luxurious roses! But it is just such story-memories as these that link our present-day in- terests and pleasures with those of the past. We may formally grant that today's Girls High Times is a publication more Worthwhile because of its dis- tinguished background made by' the Record, the Pipes O, Pan, and the Mallonian. But we acknowledge a closer relation when we dare to believe that more than one outwardly haughty but inwardly wistful senior today, as she feels the end of high school days draw near, gazes with a realization of kinship at the photographs of past graduates. Perhaps they too, as June 1 came near, found themselves-to their surprise-wishing for one more year at GirlsiHigh. Thus the girl of 128 recognizes the bond of likeness to those seniors of long ago, For, though accomplishments and even pleasures have differed, the effect of work and play has been the same in all decades. The history and the stan- dards of Girls High are the living memory of the girls who have endowed the school with the spirit of their vitality, achievements, and ambitions. Even as We today possess a heritage from the fair ladies of the Old South, and from the various umodern girls of 1872, of 1896, of 1900, and of 1914, may we of 1928 leave an equally invaluable heritage to the 'fmodern girl of the Years-to-Come! 1 - .i ' , - 'X Ito, -11:1 , ' ' rrrfrrwrr - B xrnnmnlnmwr FW? nnr -U -'rn-mum'n'-un- fin: elf Ewa , ,,..,,:. .gay