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

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UX GLEBANACEQQ- ACNIIE Radio Ciiy OR XVICICIQS I had looked forward to the last day of school, the day on which I would leave with my family for New York. NEW YORK - the very sound of the word flashed a thousand pictures before my mind for though I had never been there, like everyone else I had heard myriads of tales about the great metro- polis. The word brought to mind visions of towering skyscrapers, subways, overhead rail- ways, show houses of Broadway, crowded thoroughfares, traffic-jams, immense stores and many strange, fantastic, mental creations none too clearly defined. It was the city to which young hopefuls flock to become famous and rich, the city where great industrial corpora- tions and financial houses have centred, the city where fashion-mongers of American society flaunt the latest models - in short, according to all I had read or heard, a veritable house of wonders . The weeks of eagerness and anticipation slowly passed, finally the great day arrived. Our journey to New York, while exciting enough and replete with awesome natural scenery, was nevertheless typical of what many of my readers have already seen. Hence, I will spare you the details of the journey up to the point where unmistakable signs told us that we were nearing the bounds of the great city. In QEPALERE FLAMMAM TRIP TO NEW YORK CITY FIRST PRIZE TRAVELOGUE addition, to one who was a stranger to the city, the sights and wonders of New York so com- pletely overshadowed the 1'6St of the trip, that it would be superfluous to dwell on routine events of the intervening distance. We entered the city by the beautiful George VVashington bridge and Riverside Drive. Along the drive are many points of interest. On the left is Medical Centre, magnificent Riverside Church, Grant's Tomb and the Soldiers' and Sailors' monument. On the right is the Hudson river. I-Iuge steamers were plying back and forth and near the shore were anchored hun- dreds of yachts and motor boats. Seeing the city unfold before us as we drove along was indeed thrilling. On either side of the narrow congested streets towered the huge skyscrapers. Above us we were amazed to see a train hurtling over a network of steel. On all sides of us daring drivers wound in and out among the pillars supporting the elevated railway making it hair-raising for the timid driver, to say the least. The side streets were flanked on both sides by immense blank apartment houses-end- les Walls of dull brick. After passing through Central Park we crossed Queensboro Bridge to Long Island where we stayed during our visit. Re-entering the business section next day from Long Island, a wonderful skyline unfolded before us. ,The jagged outline of the huge sky- scrapers stood out clearly against the blue sky. It mattered not where we went in the city as far as visibility of the towering buildings was concerned. East, West, North and South pre- sented the same amazing spectacle. Storey piled on storey until lost in the clouds gave the impression of endlessness in height and raised uncanny feelings of insignincance within us as we drove along the streets. The Empire State Building is the tallest of them all, the tallest in the world in fact, stretch- ing one hundred and two storeys for a total of 1,248 feet into the clouds. A large massive structure at the base, it gradually narrows in until at the top it is merely a small round tower capped by a gold ball. Taking a large elevator I fl46I

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UX GLEBANACXQQQ Aaff' I-V ,, 1 Ei rv X T Ia! if t, f H, c Q T QEPALERE FLAMMAM '1 1 ' fill ,-L h iI'..:I I fasi :III III' II IIII ri BAUIQIMI g OUR VISITOR FROM NORTH CAROLINA N SEVERAL occasions the Lux Glebmm has contained articles written by visitors from distant places who Hnd themselves tem- porarily students within our midst. But seldom-only once to be exact-have these articles come from the hand of someone from another nation. The occasion referred to was when, in the 1934 edition, Miss Fumika Iwanaga of Yokohama, japan, and a member of Class 2-F at the time, gave us first-hand interesting glances at My Native Land . Again we find among ourselves a friend from another nation - this time from the land of Uncle Sam. Miss Violet Meekins from Wash- ington, North Carolina, is our visitor and has registered with Class z-D. The following article is not just the usual story. It is an interview in which Miss Meekins has agreeably responded to all my questions, giving us Hrst hand impressions of Canada as she is seeing it. In addition, she answers many questions about the sunny south and paints interesting word pictures of life and customs around her home. Violet, how did you happen to come up to Canada? e Well, I have always wanted to come, be- cause my brother who had been up here talked about skiing and skating and such things so much that I wanted to try the sports out. if Did you have much trouble in persuading your father and mother to let you come? '4Oh, I donit know. I kept trying to persuade them so long that they finally gave in. 'fHow long do you plan to stay in Canada? L'Until next june, anyway. Did you have any striking impressions as you stepped out of your own country into a strange land? No, not particularly, for it was summer when I came up here and everything was more or less as it was at home. What feature of Ottawa interested you most on your arrival? The Parliament Buildings impressed me very much. They are so different from ours. I soon noticed too that swimming was a different matter from what I am used to for the water is so much colder. I live about fifty miles inland, but we take a run down to the sea-shore every once in a while and we can stay in for two or three hours without getting chillyf' Would you point out a few of the novelties you found in Canada? It was very odd to see no darkies. Nearly half the population of our town is coloured. The horses surprised me too. At home mules, with long skinny legs and ears like corncobs, do all the work. They stand the heat better. , I suppose the difference in temperature is very marked? Oh, yes. Our coldest weather comes in December when the thermometer falls to about thirty-two degrees. Everyone is freezing and lConlinued on Page 100 45?

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UX GLEBANAGH9- 1 MARJORIE TOWNSEND 4-F we ascended to the one hundredth floor, a quarter of a mile at a speed of twenty miles per hour or about 42 feet every second. It was bad enough going up-but a pleasure compared with coming down. A smaller elevator took us on to the look-out. The View following was breath-taking. Near-by buildings were dwarf- ed by the height of the Empire State and pedes- trians were mere ants in the streets below, we could see far out to sea and spot numerous ships twenty, thirty and even forty miles out on their way across the Atlantic. It was our good for- tune to see also from this point of vantage the huge French liner N ormfmdie riding at anchor in the harbour after her maiden voyage across the ocean. Radio City was another place of interest for us. We visited its beautiful music hall, a novel piece of construction in which, elaborate ideas of splendour have been coupled with utility. Below the theatre is a modern magnificent lounge, furnished beautifully for the use of the patrons. But of more interest, because of the radio broadcasts that we are continuously being told Horiginate in the N.B.C. Studios in New Y ork was a visit to these very Studios. Our guide showed us many interesting things about a broadcasting station, explained how the vari- ous sounds were imitated on the programs and to our delight allowed us to listen to a broadcast and an audition. A trip to New York would not be complete without a shopping expedition. To make it a typical day of this sort we left our car behind and determined to look and act as far as possible like real New Yorkers. We experimented with tubes , those funny underground railways which hurl one through dark unknown areas at breakneck speed, pretending of course that We were hurrying to Macy's, New Y ork's largest departmental store, to cash in on some nine o'clock specials, but in reality without the fog- giest notion of where we were going. And it was slight comfort to emerge from the subway to find ourselves away over in Brooklyn, miles from our assumed destination. The return journey was made on the overhead trolley for we felt we might be more at home among the fl QQPALERE FLAMMAM Urrmznwoon a UNDERXVOOD The Sky Line of New York skyscrapers which we, by this time, looked on as old friends and fair guides to the heart of the city. Climbing out of the tram at Forty- Second Street and Fifth Avenue, an intersection which looked rather important, and getting down a long stair-case to the street, we pre- sently found plenty of stores to visit though we were rather late for the morning specials. We at last actually did locate Macy's quite by acci- dent and did our buying. It is a store much like Eaton's or Simpson's, ten storeys high and occupying an entire city block. Almost any article I think one can mention could be pur- chased there. The shops of New York seemed endless in number and a great many of them were very exclusive in the goods they carried. Only one more can I take space to mention- -Tiffanys-probably the most elaborate jew- ellry store in the world, where prices of indi- vidual articles range anywhere from a dollar or so to over one hundred thousand dollars. Our sojourn in New York was rudely inter- rupted by a warm spell. Hence we decided to spend a few days at the sea-shore, besides, sight- seeing was strenuous and a day or two of relaxation would be welcome. From the many beaches which line the shores of Long Island we selected jones' Beach, an attractive spot and the quietest one in the vicinity. The beach at Coney Island is more popular but so crowded that a person must literally walk over people to get to the water and even at that you can't always be sure in which direction the water is, for the mass of humanity in the way. A motly crowd patronizes this beach and there was too much excitement in the air for our party of tired sightseers. At jones' Beach we bathed in the ocean for the first time. While the waves were too high to permit swimming, we enjoyed lConlinued on Page 97 47l