Groton School - Grotonian Yearbook (Groton, MA)

Page 27 text:

TH E N RY STC DTT WI LLIAMS Smithtown, Branch L. I. A. U. S. ROBERT DUFFIELD WRENN Dedham, Mass. Harvard Ex. I944 IIENEY WISE Worm IJISTLER HUNT SLATER KERRIGAN Go1moN FARQUIIAR AUGUSTUS GARDINER MEANS TEN-ICYCK HAPGOOD JOHN MILLET RICHARD MICTHAI'1L JmIN HELY-HUTCHINSON GEORGE HERBERT SEMLER, JR. RICHARD ITUNTIGR FREDERICK GILMAN SPENCER, JE. T231

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FORM HISTORY Your Form History begins, as all Form Histories begin, with your arrival at Groton, 32 strong, on September 20, 1938. It ends, or rather this chapter of it ends, as few Form Histories have ended before it, recording the fact that eleven of you had to leave before the end of your Sixth Form year to serve in the forces of your country. Like the hurricane which descended on the School the day after you arrived, the march of events in the outside world was swift and inexorable. Munich, Czechoslovakia, Poland, France, thc Blitz, Selective Service, Pearl Harbor, Guadalcanal, Stalingrad, Africa, Sicily, round the clock bombing are only words that suggest the tide of events that ebbed and flowed on every continent while you passed from the First to the Sixth Forms. Your six years at Groton were war-filled years in which the ideals of Christian civilization were sorely tried in a confused and suffering world. First Form Year There were 32 of you when you began in 1938. As you came to know each other, you discovered that 13 came from New York State, eight from Massachusetts, three from Pennsylvania, two each from Connecticut and Illinois, one each from New Jersey, Mary- land, Canada, and one from 'way down south in Tennessee. You discovered things about each other apart from the geographical location of each other's homes. You dis- covered that Grant aspired to be boss of the First Form and that it was no mean job to dislodge him, as Spencer and Scott both discovered in the Hundred House basement shortly after the year began. You discovered that Key, the boy from Canada, had a remarkable aptitude for being sent out of class, an aptitude he was to exercise in almost all of his subjects for four years. There were many actors in your form who performed expertly both on and off the stage. Martin, the first to gain recognition, took the part of Viola in Twelfth N ight. In the Choir, Gray and Kerrigan took turns fainting at the eleven o'cloek service on Sundays. So accustomed did you all become to Gray Hkeeling over, that on one occasion Amory, who stood beside him, seeing that the inevitable was going to happen, merely stepped forward far enough for Gray to hit the floor with a thud behind him, and continued singing as if nothing had happened. You discovered that Wetmore liked to draw comic strips during evening period and that W. E. Loring could outlast any of you in an argument, especially if it was about baseball. Of course the greatest excitement of the term came the second night when the hurricane blew down trees and branches all over the School grounds and otherwise iso- lated the School. You cheered when classes were called off for a day and you were turned out to clear up debris, but you protested the following day when only the upper school was allowed to do clean-up work. However, you did your share in the afternoons in place of club football, which was postponed a week. Most of you played on the Thi1'd Club teams, but Grant, Coogan, W. C. Loring and Means made the Second Monadnocks, and Gray and Amory made the Second Wachusetts. The Monadnocks under Mr. Thomas were overwhelmingly successful and allowed Mr. Moss's Wachusetts only two victories. Your first year of dormitory life was one of almost continuous commotion. The inhabitants of the Annex became known as the eternal Okies -there was always 4251