Hartsville High School - Retrospect Yearbook (Hartsville, SC)

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CLASS HISTORY As the Class of 19 0 approaches the climax of graduation, it would be interesting perhaps to review for a few moments the highlights in its existence. From the very first, this class, in spite of the turbulent period that has marked its career, has been notable for its spirit of unification. Every member has always entered wholeheartedly into whatever the group undertook to achieve. The correct mental attitude of cooperation and helpfulness toward the school and school authorities has distinguished this group. Our class. 240 strong, started to school on a bright September morning in the fall of 1932. Although this was the peak year of the depression, conditions in the Hartsville schools were kept more stable than in most other schools of the State. One reason for this was that, even though salaries were cut. they were never completely stopped. Our teachers had fewer financial worries and were, therefore, able to do better work, so that we. their mischievous young charges, were sublimely unconscious of the gloom hanging just over our heads. Of the 240 students that entered the first grade. 129 graduated from grammar school. Because of the epidemic of infantile paralysis in the spring of 1939. we were not allowed to have the graduation exercises from grammar school that had been the privilege of all the other classes before us. This was a particularly great disappointment to everyone who had looked forward to a special part in the exercises. In spite of this restriction, however, we had a short program out under the huge oak tree on the school grounds where we received our certificates. When this group of 129, together with 56 others from outlying districts, entered high school, it continued on its way just as it had done in grammar school, except on a larger and wider scale. Its members entered into the larger field of high school life with the same zeal that had distinguished them in their first seven school years and quickly adjusted themselves to the new conditions around them. In the freshman year Orgla Powell. Jis president, piloted the class forward: in the sophomore year Gordon Moore took over this office, and Merle Davis was chosen head of the junior class. In its senior year. Harrell Gardner became president of the class. Our entrance into high school in the fall of 1939 had been marked by another catastrophe, one of world-wide significance, for it was on September 1. 19 39. that the Nazis marched into Poland. Already people were talking about the prospect of America's entering the war. Although this global conflict has brought about many changes in the high school, the members of our war time class have been able to continue their education along almost the same lines as those of previous years. During their junior and senior years, they voted not to have the Junior-Senior banquet. This banquet has always meant a great deal to every class, but they were consoled in the thoughts that in their small way they were contributing toward the war effort. In the ninth grade, the students wrote themes entitled. My Chosen Vocation. Most of the vocations were the ordinary ones of teachers, interior decorators, florists, doctors, nurses, news reporters, secretaries, beauty operators, farmers, and business men. Almost all the peacetime careers were represented. Only one boy mentioned a career in the army or navy and this was only from a desire to see the world. Now. we do not know what peacetime work to prepare for. because we do not know what kind of world this will be after the war. Long range planning is almost impossible. Girls are joining the WAACS. WAVES, and SPARS. Boys are entering various branches of the armed forces. Because of the war. this class has lost almost one-half of its membership in the four high school years. This loss is due to two reasons. First, pupils themselves are going into war work. Second, a number of students are kept at home because their fathers and mothers are doing some kind of work that has opened up to them because of the war. Of the 31 boys starting out in the Senior Class, we have lost eight. One boy made enough units to enter college for the second semester. Two boys entered the armed forces and the others entered various types of defense work. Of the 185 boys and girls who entered high school in the fall of 19 39 at the beginning of the war. 75 have survived. We have come a long way since the depression year of 1932. We have braved the perils of disease, only to come out in the midst of the most merciless conflict the world has ever known. Yet we have always found the courage to laugh: for in our hearts we have the high hopes of youth that the journey is. after all. just beginning and that henceforth our ways may be the ways of peace, freedom, and happiness. —MERLE Davis. Class Historian '43 Page Twenty-two

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Orr Outlaw Powell Register Scott Stokes Stuckey T URNER Twitty Walters Winburn White Page Ticenty-onc

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SENIOR SUPERLATIVES Gordon Moore Most Studious Boy Though Gordon, characteristically, is carrying an armful of textl ooks, he is surely amused at the moment by the passage Margaret is pointing out on the subject of Sjwrts. Margaret Stucky Most Studious Girl What’s the knotty problem, Margaret? Or are yon merely pretending a brown study? For the book you hold in your hand is surely a treatise on baseball rather than physics. Raymond Stokes Most Athletic Boy “He's a wonder, he’s a dream, he’s the captain of our team. Raymond surely has what it takes and he never gives up till the very end. Ruth Barbie Most Athletic Girl You need more to be a good athlete than mere muscle. Good sportsmanship ami a sense of fair play count as much as physical ability. For these and other reasons, we have in Ruth a true athlete. Bob Bass Most Patriotic Boy When it comes to whipping the Axis on the home front. Bob, the captain of the I . K. I , company, really leaves the Marines tagging behind. Lucille McLeod Most Patriotic Girl She may not In a WAVE, nor yet a WAAC: but she’s doing her bit by buying war stamps ami bonds. Norwood Davis Best Looking Boy You may think that those three famous adjectives, “tall. dark, and handsome.’’ are just something you read about; Hut have you seen our pride and joy, Norwood Davis? Carolyn Kea Best Looking Girl In Carolyn we think we have the answer to a movie scout’s prayer. We don’t know about the acting, but she really has the looks.