Greenfield High School - Evergreen / Exponent Yearbook (Greenfield, MA)

Page 15 text:

THE EXPONENT SOPHOMORE YEAR Early September of 1921 found us ready and v aiting to start on the second lap with forty members unfortunately dropped from the roll call. We organized again and Leonard Thompson was once more the crew’s choice of pilot; “Pinky” Fiske became the second pilot; Helen Schneck, lientenant; Philip Stearns, steward with Pauline Franklin, his assistant. We strutted about grandly in our hangar, for we had had one year of valu¬ able experience now. We did not see very much of the new recruits, for the take-off grounds being filled during the morning, they were obliged to wait until later in the day to start their trip. Not seeing them much was all the more reason why we should give them a reception in order to get acquainted. It was a grand success and, I am proud to say, the biggest reception ever given by any crew. A drive w ' as next made for new members of an association, called S. A. S., to promote activi¬ ties and athletics. The crew of ’24 answered with an enrollment of 90 per cent and chose Francis Alberti and Leonard Thompson for directors. The Exponent was again published with Philip Stearns and Roland Reed assistant business man agers. Donald Roberts was chosen to write about the crew of ’24. Thurston Munson now became cover artist. William Ballard and Robert Pratt entered the authors’ ranks as essayists and many amusing essays were contributed to the Exponent’s Literary Department. Our aviators now wished to participate in ac¬ tivities on the ground. A track team was accord¬ ingly made up, which competed with foreign crews. Ed Jangro, Fred Burke, George Streeter, and Ralph Davis, representing the class, received let¬ ters as a reward for their fine work. We also took part in tennis matches with Ralph Davis, William Galvin, and Reg Pfersick showing their excellent ability in the game of tennis. That fall war was declared against our enemies, the Valley League, and Thompson and Jangro vol¬ unteered, fighting valiantly with the oval pigskin. Jangro’s manoeuvers won him the title of “All- Valley-End.” It was a custom of Commander Smith and his assistants to take several days in which to espe¬ cially impress upon the minds of his crews the necessity of using good English. To this end, we gave a play in which “Good English” and her as¬ sistants captured and overcame “Slang” and all his associates. Winter came around and the cold air currents drove our activities indoors. Many were the thrilling tactics we saw in the Washington Hall 9 hangar with Reg Pfersick, Thompson and Fiske representing the crew of ’24. In December we were allowed a short leave of absence to obtain rest and strength for the great storm of January. Hence we were all ready to weather the dangerous wind and the air currents which so often are disastrous to some of our mates. We righted ourselves at the end of the week and found our mates well represented on the surviving Honor List. We celebrated our glory with plays. One of which a group of boys gave; a very fantastic and fearful play called “A Night in an Inn.” It does not sound fearful but we found it was very deceiving, for there were murderers, thieves, gunmen and a horrible creature with one green eye in the Inn. Oh! it made us shiver! Br-r-r! Not to be outdone by the boys, a number of girls gave a humorous play called “Joint Own¬ ers in Spain.” It concerned two old women who shared a room in a poor-farm, who were always finding fault with each other when they were to¬ gether, but were lonesome when they were sepa¬ rated. The play was very interesting and furnished a fine contrast to the boys’ play. Then those interested in the study of Latin brought us back to the days of old Rome by stag¬ ing a Latin Circus, which was both instructive and amusing. All this entertainment was very fine, but we had still to defend old G. H. S. with the ball and bat. So Corless, Jangro, Bartlett, Thompson, Brown, and Kauchinski joined in helping to uphold the honor of the flying squadron. June came and with it the fiercest storm that ever shook the dirigibles of the G. H. S. But in the end, the winds 9, 8, 7, 6, blew gently against us and we prepared to land in order to take a two months’ vacation to recuperate. JUNIOR YEAR In the early days of September, 1922, the crew ’24 came together for the roll call for the third hop. A few failed to appear as they suffered from the severe storm in June. Forces were or¬ ganized again with Leonard Thompson as first pilot, Helen Toomey, second pilot, Ellen Madolyn O’Hara, lieutenant; Francis Alberti, mechanic, and his assistant, Francis Kauchinski. Officers of the crew for S. A. S. were Irene Daignault, vice- president; Mary Ballard, secretary; Francis Alber¬ ti, director of crew ’24. There was a call from the English department for literary supplies and Catherine Putnam, Mary Ballard, Don Roberts, Philip Stearns and William Ballard contributed. In order to have our crew represented on the re¬ ports of the Exponent, Mary Ballard reported.

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6 THE EXPONENT read the Good Book m the original. But they cc-rtaiiily started it all. From Massachusetts, this great reform was spread scatteringly through the colonies as far south as Pennsylvania before the Revolution. The new Northwest was given the free schools sys¬ tem as a birthright by the wise and farsighted (or perhaps, extravagant and insane) grants of land made by the Second Continental Congress. The West, therefore, has grown up with the new era, while the South just began to introduce public schools after the great Rebellion, when slavery was no longer a barrier. Now where are we? There are free schools everywhere, even in the smallest villages. Our schools and colleges do not wait for the people to come to them—they go to the people, and all the people have to do is to incline their ears and to absorb what is given them. The most wonderful thing of all, or, if you prefer, the most appalling, is the way the rest of the world is taking up t his new movement. The other Americas, North and South, Europe, Africa, Asia,—everywhere you go, outside the limits of utter savagery, you find to¬ day the free school and its amazing effects. This popular education is a right-about-face in the policies of an old, old world. It has brought radical changes in affairs, and none can say what the final outcome of it all will be, or even wheth¬ er it will be good or bad. However, we can al¬ ready distinguish some of its results. One very obvious result may be seen in coun¬ tries like India and China. The atmosphere of centuries has changed almost over-night. Students and leaders, many of them graduates of American colleges, are stimulating their countries to new life. Public schools are springing up, medical colleges have formed in the big cities, and the free education boom is on. A prominent Chinese says of his country, “The dormant giant is stir¬ ring; soon he will arise, shake himself, and then call his tormentors to account.” This is significant; education has always seemed to breed disorders and revolt. Again, the education of the masses means the passing of the ruling power from the few to the many. We may well question, as did Alexander Hamilton, the wisdom of the change. Are the masses fit to rule themselves? American tradi¬ tion holds that they are, but our government may at any time fall into the hands of educated, all¬ knowing morons, who would have been harmless hewers of wood and drawers of water under the old regime. It is not hard to believe that some¬ thing of this sort has already happened, judging by some of our recent legislation. But you can’t prevent things like that once you have taught your masses to read and write. Take this class as an example. We’re educated. We are just as good as anyone else, from our point of view. We are going to have a hand in running things bye and bye, and we’ll run them just as we see fit! Now, is it any wonder that the boat is often rocked? A fool with an education is forty times more danger¬ ous than a ditch-digging lunatic, and you will re¬ member that we educate fools and all, in our sys¬ tem. Since mass education, became so widespread, there have been great struggles going on between capital and labor. The laborers want to be on equal terms with their employers. There is no servile race today. Free education was all very well in old Athens, where there were slaves to keep the world running, but who is going to do the work today? Slavery is no longer fashionable. The younger generation, being educated to a cer¬ tain extent, feels itself above manual labor. In 1903, when the Mosely Commission came from England to study our school system, one of the Commissioners gave it as his opinion that our policy, if adopted in England, would prove her ruin. He noted that in this country a very great part of the ditch-digging and coal-heaving was done by recent immigrants who had never had a chance to learn, and he pictured England’s pre¬ dicament if her laboring class should be educated away from the pick and shovel. England has no immigration of laborers. Well, neither have we, for the new immigration bill which goes into effect in July cuts out Southern Europeans. Even if we had no such law, it is only a matter of a few years before education of the masses is firmly es¬ tablished in that region, ruining for all time that supply of workers. And this is what education has done, and is doing. Consider the people themselves. How are they affected by their education? They are taught to read and write, but not to think, and, as a result, are exposed to the propaganda of all sorts of fa¬ natics. As Pope said, “A little learning is a dan¬ gerous thing.” People thus educated, always ex¬ posed to the influence of the printed word, which is the most potent tool ever invented for the spread of evil, discontent and disorder, are bound to be misled, with unfortunate consequences. This movement is not all to the good. It is a fearful adventure, the full result of which cannot be imagined. The astounding rapidity of its com¬ ing is no more surprising than the host of new dif¬ ficulties that broke out soon after its arrival. We must go on, nevertheless, giving to the world this untested medicine, without knowing whether dt will act as a poison or a purge. It is impossible to turn back.

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10 THE EXPONENT William Ballard was assistant editor, Phil Stearns, business manager and Catherine Putnam and Rob¬ ert Pratt were assistant literary editors. Bob Pratt was inspired with some of the marvellous views on the trip and wrote some poetry about them. As the cold winds started to arrive and the kick¬ off in football came, Leonard Thompson, Edmund Jangro, Reg Pfersick, Francis Kauchinski, Ed Fiske, George Streeter, Paul Corless, Sam Payne and Jack Keefe ploughed the dirt at Green River flying grounds for squadron G. H, S. It was a fine representation for the crew ’24 and in exchange for the “rassberries” received, letters were award¬ ed. Winter had arrived and the mid-year storm hit the dirigible with a thundering crash. Marks of all sorts were imprinted on us all. Some of the weaker ones tottered and fell. Such is.ilife! We again started flying and tried to recover from the storm. Listen! There is the whistle for basket-ball at the Washington hangar. Both boys and girls were answering the call. Madolyn O’Hara, Dorothy Johnson, Isabelle Livingston, Catherine Putnam and Mary Ballard were ringing the bell. The boys of the class who were in the basket-ball lime-light were Reg Pfersick, Ed Fiske, Leonard Thompson and Rolland Reed. Reg Pfersick was one of the highest scorers in the valley. Now and then we received a talk on our con¬ duct on board with the rest of the crews of the squadron G. H. S. We were proud to say that only a few of the crew ’24 received pink meal tickets. Prizes were offered for the best essays on “Advantages of a Public Playground.” Mary Ballard and Sarah Portman strolled up and took the cash. A prize offered for the best essay on “Courtesy” offered by the Kiwanis Club was awarded also to Mary Ballard. As we had been in the air quite a while the English Department offered a prize to the boy and girl of the crew ’24 who could speak the best. All of the crew tried for this. Dorothy Johnson, Ma- belle Farr, Mary Ballard, Irene Daignault and Helen Hurlburt made the finals for the girls. Wil¬ liam Ballard, Francis Alberti, Lawrence Comins and Thurston Munson represented the boys. In the contest for the prize for the girl, Mabelle Farr was successful and William Ballard came out ahead for the boys. Someone hollered “Play Ball!” so we glided down to land and Corless, Kauchinski, Jangro, Pfersick and Thompson clouted the apple to all of the four winds. Sometimes they clouted the wind and not the apple. We then went into the air again. An argument arose between the crew ’24 and the crew ’23 re¬ garding the gasoline tax of our home state. The picked team of our crew consisting of Captain Phil Stearns, Isabelle Livingston, Don Roberts and Catherine Putnam as alternate had it out with the team of crew ’23. After a hot and stormy battle the crew ’23 won from crew ’24. We were all in¬ terested as a gasoline tax would affect our run¬ ning the dirigible ’24. The Spanish class of crew ’23 asked William O’Hara to board their dirigible and take part in a Spanish play. Bill played his part with all the necessary ability. Reports from the dirigible Commercial of the squadron ’24 showed that Ruth Blackall, Blanche Robinson and George Brown were the first of the crew to receive certificates on the Underwood. This report satisfied the curiosity of some of the crew on other dirigibles for they had not understood what the fast clicking had been that had bothered them in the past. Someone said something about “love ” so Reg Pfersick, William Galvin and Ralph Davis made a rush to do the courting with a racquet. In the reports of track Paul Corless, Reg Pfer¬ sick, Leonard Thompson, Fred Burke, and Mowry Hawks took medals to pin on their chests. Some¬ one asked if a cyclone had gone down the track, but they were told that it was Hawks just getting all “het” up for the race. It was getting near time for the crew ’23 to finish their trip, so plans were made to give them a send off into distant lands of the globe. A meet¬ ing was called and Madolyn O’Hara was put in charge of refreshments; Myrtle Atcherson, deco¬ rations; Bill Galvin, music; Thui’ston Munson, printing; Don Roberts, floor. On May 26 the an¬ nual Junior Prom was given by crew ’24 to crew ’23. After final farewells the crew ’23 went on to finish their final lap. In the distance black clouds loomed and all knew that the June storms were about to hit us. They arrived and for a week we struggled and fought them, but at last the kindly light appeared and we were granted a ten week furlough. We were all glad to complete the third jump as it had been a busy trip with many excit¬ ing events. SENIOR YEAR On September 5, 1923, we assembled for the last hop. The crew consisted of about one hun¬ dred and ten mates, sixty less than when we start¬ ed on our flight. Officers of the crew were chosen with Leonard Thompson first pilot, Madolyn O’Hara, second pilot; Marion Wells, lieutenant; Francis Alberti, mechanic and Phil Stearns, assist¬ ant mechanic. We were now on the final lap and much was expected of us. The Exponent always