Harding High School - Folio Yearbook (Bridgeport, CT)

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STYL 5 From the Letters of a Senior July 9, 1925 Dear Aunt Hatty: My first day at Kossuth seemed to me an epochal event in the life of a great person. With the slow, dignified gait of a proud, all' knowing freshman, I made my way up the hill, accompanied, as it were, by the two high signs of my class, the flat, shining brief case and the almost traditional loosefleaf notebook. After deciding that the Frisbie Pie Company and the candy store on the corner made the location of the school ideal, I en' tered the building, where I was greeted with a list of rules and regulations. Gym must be taken at Waltersvilleg assemblies were to be held at Barnum, absence required excuses, and, above all, students must remember to keep to the right in walking through the halls. After my inferior social position had been duly impressed upon me by such directions and the dissertations of wordlyfwise sophs, I began to feel a little like Gulliver among the Brobdignagiansg but as I learned to speak in x's and y's and to decline the good farmer without making him feminine, my superiority complex gradually returned. About this time it was first rumored that the new Warren Harding building was near' ing completion and that we would be trans' ferred at Easter. But after a while such false alarms came to be a custom,. for by June the building was still in the process of erection and I was still attending the eightfroom, yelf lowfbrick schoolhouse. as :ie ae as :ie ae is Uanuary 25, 19261 After an extended vacation of three long weeks, I arrived at our new high school, which had just been completed. I had been there a few months before, at the laying of the cornerstone, and then, it being a rainy day, everything about the building seemed dull and unpromising. Consequently, I was agreeahly surprised by the high arched halls and the well-lighted rooms. Everyone was extremely proud of the new building, and we felt at last that we were attending a regular high school. In my Hrst flurry of excitement I joined four clubs and two teams, but was compelled to relinquish two because they met on the same afternoon. We have been en' joying assemblies regularly and are proud of our hall, which can seat twelve hundred students. We are beginning to participate in athletics, and Central has been designated as our bitterest rival. Because of our successful first season in sports, our teams are already gaining prestige. We have a fine athletic field, which in time will be further developed. I have joined the staff of our school paper, named, by a count of student votes, The Spectator. In English we are studying grammar at present and will in a short while take up Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, in which I never could at first get deeply interested. We are also delving into geometry and Caesar's Commentaries One admirable characteristic of our school is the spirit of activity evident everywhere- in the session rooms, the corridors, and the class rooms. Though most of our organizaf tions have been already founded, time alone can erase their crudities and air of newness, rendering them smooth and progressive. PK as is wk is wk an Uune 29, 1927, Vacation over, I went back to the old grind, only this year there was the addi' tional work of writing for the Spectator and attending college board classes. Of the latter,

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rig? THE STYL S tl .3 g, l geometry was by far the most boring, for we were not used to such concentrated study of parallelograms and angles. It was suggested one night about Eve o'elock that a cafeteria be installed to cater especially to college board students struggling with impossible originals. But these classes did not prevent my at' tending the S. O. S., French Club, and Spec' tator dances. The French dance was especial- ly picturesque with its gay booths, and venf dors in costume. The big event of the year for thc girls, however, was the Track Meet, and although we juniors did not win, we were awarded first costume prize for putting on a Pied Piper stunt. The Pied Piper, dressed in a dazzling costume with a green tunic, red and yellow cape, brown hat, green stockings, and black boots, led the procession. Following her came four frisky gray rats, who had considerable trouble manipulating their tails, and behind them were the people of Hamlin, arrayed in pied costumes and carrying red and gold balloons. Though in athletics we attained no lofty heights, we excelled in scholastic achieve- ments, ten members of our class being ad- mitted to the Intellectual Aristocracyf' an wk ae ae ae as as fMay 9, 1928, I am now a senior and enjoying the privif leges to be accorded to such an exalted posi' tion. We look down on the rest of the school with disdain and consider ourselves on top of the universe. At assemblies we sit on the stage, the cynosure of admiring eyes, and watch impassioned speakers slip too far into the footlights. At Josephson's word we are the irst to march out of the auditorium past the lower classes. Though I cannot believe it, we are soon to graduate, for we have al' ready completed the preliminary preparations, having ordered our rings at Fairchild's and chosen our class characteristics. Our class has assumed the burden of athletics, with Jacobs and Lukachik on the baseball team, and Ward and Swczey among the most prominent in football. Almost the entire personnel of the minor teams is made up of seniors. XVith our gradual rise in social standing fand perhaps in economic valuel, our type of work has changed. We are dipping into Browning and Wcardswrirth and the rest of the English poets with comparatively greater zeal, and are extending our efforts to science and American history. We are also considering the lineage of the Latin gods and translating the works of the ancients. These elevated subjects of thought and en- deavor have, as others say, molded us into seniors, but a literal interpretation of this term is apt to be misleading. The surest intif mation that I have become a senior is perhaps that I have taken up a broader estimation of life and its values, and have become a trifle philosophic. All the minor faults of my fresh' man and sophomore years have vanished into the thin air, leaving the finished product, the senior. My broader estimation of life and my acquired philosophic learning have not been permitted to interfere with my activities at home, however, for I cut the grass and tend the furnace with the same ardor as when I was a freshman. Sidney Hoffman Celia Sclwpick