Guilford High School - Rostrum Yearbook (Guilford, ME)

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20 V THE ROSTRUM Then things changed. War came and potato chips went. With them went the pleasure, the bother, the fun, the heart- aches they had caused. No more do you have nice potato chip suppers. No more is suspense broken by potato chip-eating children Qnow they use peanuts and popcornj. No more do you dread pot- luck lunches or the night after the fair. Of course, itis natural for you to feel had not being able to buy your favorite food now. But soon you hear there are some in town. If youire smart you leave everything and rush to the store to get some, but if youire just average you put it off itil another day. At last, being aver- age, you enter the store, and, after look- ing around cautiously, you ask if they have any potato chips. VVe,re sorry, but we just sold the last packagef, the answer you receive. You cuss at yourself for being lazy and the wonderful taste which you have been harboring in your mouth the last few days suddenly becomes flat. Next time you promise to be the first one there. Then the rumor reaches you there are some more potato chips in town. Rush- ing up to your dealer you ask with a hopeful gleam in your eye if he has some. He answers that he hasnit any potato chips, BUT Qyour hope is again roused, he has some potato-pops which are the same only made from dehydrated potatoes. You take one out of the cello- phane. It is thicker than the old kind. VVondering if it tastes as good as it looks, you sink your teeth into it and crunch, crunch, crunch, it feels like good old potato chips. At last a perfect substitutel But waitl VVhere is that salty tang? XVhere is that undefinable flavor that you have been anticipating? You find these chips 'have no particular taste to them. Alas! There is no substitute for good old potato chips. But perhaps it is just as well if you donit have any potato chips. For if there arenit any, you wonit go spending your money foolishly for something you donit need and that money you save can al- ways be put into use for the government when it asks us to give all we can for War Bonds. XVith these bonds in future years, even if times are tough, you will he able to buy all the potato chips you wish. lVhat a beautiful future to look forward tol C. Johnston ,4-1. I CAN, I WILL, I MUST There are many opportunities for those of us who are young today-oppole tunities which many of us do not see. XVe have parents, schools, churches, col- leges, and so many other places which are both amusing and educational. Each ol' these opportunities has a challenge- a ehallenge to build our ow11 character and to build a better America. Are we going to say that we can accept these challenges, or are we going to continue lo go our own selfish way and never give thought to others? To any of us who will say, 1 can,', there seems to be greater opportunities and greater chal- lenges. For example, take a young boy who has just completed grammar school. He is faced with the question as to Whether or not he will go to high school. He has every opportunity that a boy would want, but he doesnit know just what he will do. Finally, he says that he can go- Ifor there is nothing to stop him. The next question is Whether or not he will go. What else is there for him to do? Yes, he can get a job, but without his high school education it is apt to be a small one, and probably it will not be a lasting one. At last he says he will go. .-Xfter giving the question still more thought, he comes to the conclusion that he must go if he is going to prepare him- self to give America his best. It is not only a boy about to enter high school who is faced with these three things, but all of us, sometime in life, will come to a place where we donit know just what to do. It is then that

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LITERARY Some of our students, as you know, Often have an inspiration to write, Now we pass on some of their work To you for public sight. POTATO CHIPS Remember the days before the war, when you could go to the nearest grocer and buy any time, any amount of those luscious, crispy, crunchy potato chips? The tired housewife, having returned from a hectic day of shopping, would find she had only ten minutes to get supper. She would send Iohnny to the store and have him get some potato chips. Do you remember how nice they tasted, especially with a salad? Of course they were annoying also. You would decide to go to a thrilling motion picture filled with suspense, tears, and bloodshed. You'd get a good seat where you could see perfectly for fmuch to your delightj the row in front of you would be filled with small chil- dren. The movie would get well under way and the villain would be about to shoot the heroine. The hero would ride up on his white horse and he and the villain -would go into a violent fight. All you could see was the beautiful face of the heroine as, through glycerin tears, she watches them struggle for the gun. A shot would ring out. Suspense would fill the air. You watched intently to see who was dead-who was the victor. The theatre was as still as death and every nerve was tense. Then a slight rustle met your ear and a crunch of teeth broke the silence. Pop! would go the suspense. The mood would be ruined and so would your good humor. Then you were invited to a pot-luck picnic, and everyone was asked to take something for everybody, not letting them know what it was. You would all be sitting around the tablecloth, when you were asked to present your food. As if by magic, every hand was instantly filled with bags of potato chips! Itis lucky someone brought along some water. Remember when you went to the fair to spend all your money? Of course you claimed you wouldnit spend it all, but usually you did. To begin with you would see a stand with lots of those lit- tle cellophane bags just waiting for you to purchase. You stepped right up and bought a dimeis worth. Having downed them you need a drink to quench your thirst. No water was near you so you had to buy some soda pop. Still you were hungry and then ate some more. This performance was repeated many times until finally you had used all your money or it was time to go home. When you sat down to supper it was no use. Your stomach would take no more. At last you went to bed and all night were kept awake by agonizing pains. You sat there wondering why you'd given in to those potato chips and would promise never to do the same thing again. But next year it happened again. If you worked in a store, restaurant, theatre, or other public place, you would hate the things, 'because when it came time to sweep, the floor would be cov- ered with small chips and crumbs of dry potatoes. They were, in reality, the toughest things in the world to get up, for they always stuck to something. How many enemies were made by these seemingly innocent little chips! Joe had just bought some and was walk- ing along the street when jim, being one of Ioeis best friends, rushed up and walked with him. If Ioe didn't offer any chips, Jim would be angry and it would ruin their friendship. On the other hand, if he did offer Iim some, Ioe would think that Jim walked with him in order to get some of the potato chips.

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THE ROSTRUM 21 we can say to ourselves, 6'VVe can do the job, we will do it, and we must do itfi All of us are in this world for a purpose, and we should do our best to fulfill that purpose. So let us remember that if we have a desire to do a thing and if we feel that we must do it, we can and we will do it! Bernice Foss ,44. OUR BONE NEIGHBORS There are over two hundred bones in the body, but I donit believe many aver- age persons can name these promiptly, if at all. There are a few of these bones, however, that we all know. These bones represent some of the people we know very well, although I doubt if we often think of classifying people according to bones. There are the wish-bonev people, for instance. In this group of people we find the people who are always wishing for something, but who are doing very little to make their wishes come true. They wisfh that school lasted only three days a week, they wish and dream about breaking the dishes instead of washing them, they wish money grew on trees, and they wish they could go to college next fall. These people live in a dreamy world full of their desires, but what do they do about these wishes? IVhat do they do about the money they need for college next fall? They dream about possessing it, but they donit dream of doing any work to obtain it. Yes, I think we all know some of the Wishbone peo- ple, but we donit care to have them for close friends. There are also the 'funnyboneii people. XVho comes in this group? XVhy, the person who laughs because his wife has left him, the boy who grins when he Hunks an exam, the woman who bursts into laughter when she runs her stock- ing, and the girl who giggles when she has kept her date waiting an hour for her. VVe all know these people who laugh when it rains, laugh when the sun shines, laugh when they are late for school, and laugh when they burn up a cake. Of course we all want to be able to laugh at the humorous side of life, but do we want to be a person who gig- gles at everyt'hing? I think you will agree with me that the answer is definitely No . Then there are the ujawbonev people wiho are nearly opposite the ufunnybonev people. Here we find the person who yells, Turn that radio off! It sounds as though a hurricane were raging in this roomlv You promptly turn the radio off and then he complains, You'd think some was dead in the house, itis so quietlv In this group we also find the elderly aunt who raves when you are a long time doing the dishes, but if you speed up the process she scolds for she knows you canit possibly have wiped them dry. VVe also find here the person who jaws because the room is too hot, you open the window and itis too cold. Certainly everyone knows and spends some time avoiding people in this group. I will try to tell you of only one more of the borne people, like 'gbackbonev people. Among these people we find the persons we like to know and the persons we like to be. VVho are some of these backbone people? The man who started a small novelty store and is today the townis leading business man, the awk- ward country lawyer who later became one of the greatest Presidents of our na- tion and the Negrois emancipator, the young man whom people made fun of when he walked down the streets of Philadelphia with two loaves of bread in his pocket, but later he became the cityis most distinguished citizen, and the poor boy across the street who worked his way through school and is now caring for an aged father and mother. In other words, these are the people, the aback- boneii people, that are the backbone and foundation of our great nation. Donna VVelts '44,