Hale High School - Pompositticut Yearbook (Stow, MA)

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CLASS PROP!-IE C Y The year, let us say, IS 1959 The time IS sprmg late spring, Imlght add It IS early evenmg, and the cool mght axr IS slowly replacmg the dry heat of the day and brmgxng w1th lt the sound of the many creatures whlch have laxn dormant through the day The place IS a little whlte vme covered Quonset hut ln an extremely mmute obscure town lost somewhere back 1n the wllds of central Massachusetts I thmk the natlves refer to xt as Stow, or somethmg quxte slmxlar As we slzp up to the house and peek through the fxrst lxghted wlndow we come to we see a comfortably furmshed room with bookcases and flrearms almost completely covenng the walls, and there, seated xn a soft easy chalr before the f1re a short fat fellow, h1s nose qunte burled m a book Could we but see behmd that volume, we mnght recogmze the famllnar v1s age of that gay romantzc of old Hale Hlgh me I had sat there for some tlme, my thoughts roammg from the book ln my lap and at last I could stand It no longer I threw the book as1de fllcked on the televlslon set, and sank back m my cha1r to allow the set to warm up My career as a soldzer of fortune the fortune bemg the two fifty I recewed for each weekly meetzng of the Natxonal Guard I attended was ended when they xnstxtuted maxxmum walst measurements as well as chest measurements I have, therefore, for the last fxve years, been a c1v1l englneer c1v1l to all elderly women, and engmeer on that broken down ccrrnrnuter whxch stlll plies between Hudson and Boston A p1cture slowly materxahzed on the televlsxon screen The scene was a magmflcent same renowned phllanthropxst who had made h1s fxrst mxlhon back m my old home town Upon the stage in flowmg wh1te dresses was the All Glrl Orchestra wxth 1ts mcompar able musxc But walt a mmute, one of those fa1r maldens the one seated at the concert grand looks a b1t awkward ln that evenmg gown Gad that s no falr maxden, xt s that talent touched classmate of mme from old Hale Hlgh Ralph Smlth Wlth the surprise of seexng my old compatrlot for the first t1me ID years came the rea son for my restlessness Why sure It was the sxxteenth of .Tune the tenth anmversary of my hzgh school graduatlon Sparked bv thzs realxzatzon my mmd was shocked mto the fact that ten years ago after the commencement exercxses, the Class of 1949 had solemnly promxsed to reumte at a. party wh1ch would be held on the tenth annxversary of that momentous occasxon Ten years we estzmated, would glve us ample txme to foul up our lwes The clock showed that the party was but an hour and a half away so I hurriedly rolled out that rather battered 40 Chevy and took off I was met at the door by the prearranged hostess of thxs affaxr and found to my delxght that I was the fzrst to arrxve My hostess was that same female who had kept the boys of our class so busy beatmg to death all the harmless llttle msects that chanced to hght upon her desk I later learned that she had been appointed recently professor of entomology xn the Umverslty of Massachusetts This could be no other than Eleanor McColl Rxght here and now Iwant you all to take notxce of my use when spealung of the gurl our class of the names which were glven them by thexr parents If I trxed to prophesy at thus 17 concert hall which I immediately recognized as Creelman Hall, recently established by that ' ' , ' . ' s IH

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there have been certain ideals to which our forefathers adhered traditions that they were will ing to live for fight for and in many cases even die for Their first and foremost concern was freedom of the mind freedom to think without fear freedom to act in accordance with their considered Judgment They did not look first for ease comford and convenience They believed fervently in the right to work to enjoy the products of their own labor and to receive accord ing to merit These are the foundation stones of what has become known as The Promise of America The inhabitants of the first thirteen colonies had to fight for their independence But they were determined and the Revolutionary War resulted in American independence These thir teen states sought to survive without the benefit of a central government There were men in Massachusetts as in other states who believed that to Join a Federal Union was to surrender much liberty in order to get along with the members of the pact Unfortunately a civil war had to be fought to settle final arguments We have a growing concept of the one ness of the world We are commg to it by the knowledge that the nations of the world are dependent upon one an other not only for prosperity but also actually for survival Here in America we have a system of free constitutional government Under that system we have gained the greatest religious freedom the greatest political freedom, the greatest agricultural freedom the greatest labor freedom the greatest industrial freedom ever known by any people We have the greatest productive capacity of any nation We have the best system of highways and railroads the finest schools and colleges we have the highest living standards the highest wages the best working hours and mcomparably the best working conditions of any people anywhere on the globe The poorest of our people live better than the moderately well to do or even the wealthy in most countries we wish and vote for whom we desire There are places where the people don t have these privileges In America when workers go on strike a meeting is called and terms are discuss ed In Russia a firing squad ends all strikes almost before they start In the United States if a man wishes to leave his Job for a better one, he leaves In Russia he has a choice of two things He may remain on the Job or he may take a trip to Siberia Only a short time ago some of the Boston papers carried the story of the displaced person who, upon his arrival in America. told of his mother s last request before he left Europe She asked that her son never write to her from America This woman, an inhabitant of a Russian controlled country lived in con stant fear that the Russians might find out about her son in America That would mean certain death for this mother America is the land of golden opportunity, and we must keep it that way This has to be done by the sweat of our brow and by the energy and initiative which the good Lord has given us President Conant of Harvard once said One of the highly significant ideals of the American nation has long been equality of opportunity Our educational system our political institutions and our social ideals form a closely interwoven pattern Equality of opportunity could be realized only in a political democracy it would have meaning only in a competitive society in which private ownership and the profit motive were accepted as basic principle Opportunity still knocks and will enter still if we give it half a chance We, the class of 1949, are graduating from high school at a time when the world is un settled. We, the youth of today, are the leaders of tomorrow. We cannot be certain what kind of a world we face today, or what kind of a life hes ahead. But one thing is certain. We are not going to be bored: and because we are Americans we are not going to be afraid. Marjorie Gray 16 . . . ' . . . - . . , . . , . . . . . , . . , . . . . . , . . , . - . ' . . . . I . - ' . , . . . . I I I . I l U . . . l . . . l 1 . . I . . , . S . . . . ' . ' . . . . We may attend the church of our choice, choose the school we want to go to, work where . , . . , u p . . D . . . . , . ' . . . D . . - . . . . O . , . .

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tnme just what name each of them would have ten years from now, I would soon fmd myself served wxth lawsuxts from seven msulted women Peggy Lewxs hadn t become a mechamc m her father s garage as all of us had expected but w1th her expenence m makmg sweaters for semor boys, had opened one of the most ex clusxve shops 1h all Boston, whmch specxahzes m fme yarns and exqulsltely wrought kn1tted creatxons The party was well underway when Douglas Mann trotted up It seems he had come all the way from northwestern Canada smce that mormng, and would have arrxved sooner, but had to stop off and battle a couple of forest fzres along the way Dougy you see, IS one of the Domlmon s hottest forest wardens havxng entrusted to him an area two thousand mxles long and a half mlle wlde By the way, thls str1p IS not lald out ln a stralght llne lnstead xt bends around to form a carcle Thxs may seem szlly but you d be surpr1sed how easy lt IS to patrol In one of the rear corners I found Vlrgxma Batsford, seated at a pxano, pzckmg out a s1m ple practlce exerc1se Vlrgmla s lnterest 1n the pxano orlglnated durmg her school days xn Stow She had studzed fazthfully and had mastered the longest, most involved composxtzons that Chopm or Rachmanmoff had ever produced But when she turned her talents to the teachmg of the piano, she found that those practlce exercises were so dlffxcult for her after the long classzcal pzeces, that she had to practxce them all her spare tame lest her pupils attann a Arlene Larsen whom you ll remember as a sweet blue eyed young woman, explamed to me at great length how she had won just the week before, the world championship ln uphlll motorcycle racmg Thxs IS the thlrd successlve year 1n whlch Arlene had taken thxs coveted honor I mzght add that she makes her lxvxng at gwmg demonstratlons and mstructxons ln motorcycle techmque Shlrley Jensen followed a calhng no more femmme than that of Arlene It seems this wln some mxss IS employed to subject preproductlon models of Ford cars to severe endurance tests In thls way she 15 entitled to smash up dozens of brand new models of her favorlte car before the pubhc even knows of the1r ex1stence Shxrley holds awards not only for wreckmg more cars over a stated perlod than any other tester but also for more completely demohsh mg them Harvey Trefry was there of course, as well as those gxgantlc muscles of his Harvey, as you probably read through the years, 15 one of the greatest coaches football has known smce the days of Knute Rockne and Fxeldxng Yost Last year he coached Notre Dame to 1ts fourth successlve perfect season Yes mdeed nowhere In thms country are they more proud of thelr coach than at dear old Notre Dame Female Seminary of Wounded Knee, South Dakota The two gxrls who had gone forth mto the world to become nurses, Marjorxe Gray and I-Ie1d1 Peck both had reallzed thelr amb1t1on but not qulte as they had expected Marjorie s fondness for animals had always been one of her outstandmg tra1ts Some of you mlght re member her falthful feedlng of the stray cat, whom we dubbed Elzjah, whzch was contznually wandering mto the school Perhaps It was somethlng of this nature whlch prompted Margle to accept the pos1t1on whzch she now holds, namely head nurse at the recently founded Maynard Cat and Dog Hospxtal 18 . , . . , I 1 , - . . . . D . . . , . . . I . . . . . . . . . . : . . . . . , . . . . , . U . . 0 . I superior skill in the rendition of the same. , . , - , . . . . . O I . - . ' . - . . . . . . . . , . . . O I I ' . - . . . ' I I