Glebe Collegiate Institute - Lux Glebana Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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UX GLEBANACEQQ ,QPALERE FLAMMAM 5414?

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UX GLEBANACQ- ,gf,,PgALERE FLAMMAM IFTH FORM VALEDICTCRY H19 EMOTION induced by saying good- bye has always been a fertile source of rhetoric. Leave-taking has always been an occasion for both sentiment and sentimentality. The distress of parting has been productive of many lyric master- pieces, from In Memoriam to Fare Thee Well Annabelle . For us fifth formers, to-day marks the end of our five years' stay at Collegiate. The school is finished with us, we think, and we with it. Our five years' work is behind us. No matter how onerous the task may have been, the knowledge that now it has passed irrevocably beyond is distressing. Often, how- ever, the distress is masked with a kind of relief and joy that we are done, but with the years the joy fades and the regret waxes stronger. In a very true sense the Fifth Form are aware of this. Very dimly now perhaps, but increasingly as the years advance, the realization of what is irretrievably behind us will be felt. But it is with only the greatest difficulty that we can give voice to this as yet vague emotion. It used to be the fashion to weep and the he-est of he-men thought nothing of whisking forth his neat and delicately scented square of cambric, and dabbing his eyes at the sight of a poor wilted geranium, or a cross-eyed cat. lt used to be the fashion, too, to break into purple prose at the least emotion, and iterate and re-iterate in johnsonian language that one was experiencing a moment of poignant re- crimination or an anguished interlude, when one had simply eaten too much turkey for dinner. But fashions change, and few of us Fifth- formers when asked what we felt upon leaving the school, would include such phrases in our answer. This does not mean that we are in- different to parting, although some of us may pretend to be so, and indeed may be quite loud in our protests of how glad we are to leave this Old Dump . Finally we discover all 3 DUNCAN YVHITAIORE that we are not pleased at all. In fact our minds have been playing that trick on us which the psychologists call rationalization. There is something upsetting and Hnal about the word never , and to the Fifth Form this day means the beginning of a host of nevers. Never again will we skulk, palpitating, into Miss Cowie's room without our homework done, never again will we try to divert Mr. Thoms into the discussion of some social prob- lem instead of taking up fifteen questions on Sohrab and Rustumwg never again will we experience that awful dread as we realize that that twinkle in Mr. Sonley's eyes means that we are about to be initiated into another of his mysterious Mystos g never again will we argue with Mr. Bullock whether the latest precipitate is to be filed under caterpillar green, or whether it isn't really colourless after all, we will never note with astonishment and delight that the fire alarm has rung just when Mr. Kiell was getting too inquisitive about our homework. After to-day we who are graduating will never again from this platform be called fellow-students . At the concerts we will be outsiders looking in, privileged out- siders of course, who will pass remarks on How infinitely better the concerts were when . . . , but outsiders none the less. At the At- lf' lCanlimced on Page 95

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UX GLEBANACKQ- QEPALERE FLAMMAM Zsuhel Ruth iiaarrg N THE Hrst'Monday in December the school was profoundly shocked at the announcement of the untimely death of Isobel Ruth Harry. Cf her twenty-six years of life, Miss Harry had spent ten within the Glebe, five as student and five as secretary. She was admirably fitted by nature for the responsible position which she filled, for she combined unfailing courtesy, high efficiency, and a sure sense of the fitness of things. Staff and students knew Well that she could at all times be counted upon to do the right thing in any eniergencyg and every one with whom she came in contact will long remember the pleasant and effective manner in which she carried out her daily round of duties. Perhaps the most outstanding of her many high qualities was her unswerving loyalty to the Glebe. One does not easily forget that the lasttthing she did before submitting to what she knew to be a critical operation was to come to the school to set her desk to rights and point out the tasks that remained unfinished. We miss her radiant personality from among us, and to her family we extend the deepest sympathy. fllsle