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Page 29 text:
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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
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Page 30 text:
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someone moving in or out. In Mr. Strachan's dormitory, Distler, Means, Spencer, Stackpole, Grant and W. G Loring organized nocturnal baseball games. Needless to say, you never enjoyed self-government in your dormitory life. In the dining room, you came under the eternally vigilant rule of Mr. Regan. You learned to call Miss Cram's appetizing dishes by their correct names and to use such words as please pass for 'tsling, and 'fmay I have for shoot me. You learned to pass things first to the master or to spend meal after meal watching the squirrels. In fact, so anxious did you become to satisfy the master's every wish that on one occasion Semler, when asked facetiously by Mr. Noble to inform the Rector that it was time to ring the bell, leapt up from his place and would have delivered the message if an amazed Mr. Noble had not restrained him. The First Form Room, where your historian attempted to hold sway, was also the scene of much wild activity. It was there as much as anywhere that you earned the distinction of being Hthe noisiest First Form in years. The A division of First Form Math, which met there, frequently offered the occasion for civil war as you fought for black-board space. Ten of you would go to the board, and immediately boundaries would be drawn followed by ingenious attempts to alter them and extend them in such a way that the fellow at the end of the board would be writing on the wall. One such episode ended in a near riot, and your historian barely escaped with his life. It seems that Grant had staked out for himself three feet of board space which he was willing to defend with his life. His neighbor, feeling that there had been an unequal distribution of the board, proceeded to erase Grant's boundary and redraw it to his own satisfaction. Grant, who was willing to defend his boundary with his life, did so. Seizing an eraser from the hand of his neighbor, he erased the new boundary and was in the process of re-establishing the old one when he was told that he was out of order and must sit down. Thereupon Grant was overcome by the tragedy of the situation and flung himself on his desk with much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, interspersed with cries of revenge at all who tried to intervene. -E261
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