Hastings High School - Saxon Yearbook (Hastings, MI)

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Daze Of The Year September: 3— Students meet with gloom The bell that seals their doom. 20—Our nerves are all on edge; The boys win from Grand Ledge- 27—Fuller and Wilcox roar’em At the Hastings debate forum. October: 4— Students rear and tear At Barry County Book Fair. 8—We hear a royal mountie And we all our money countie. 18 Hastings scores in fourth and third To give the Orioles the bird. 26—The harriers go to Kalamazoo And finish last. Ixxvhoo, boo-hoo. (My verse grew worse, so prose I chose) November: 4—Students mix it up at first mixer. 7— Plantation singers swing the sweet chariot. 8— Redskin drive repulsed; goal-line cas- ualties, two. 14-15—Farmers and gardeners strut their stuff at the annual Ag-HK exhibit. 16—Fall frolic; how jollic. 21 22- -Thanksgiving; students supposedly rest for strenuous basketball season. 29—Cage season opens as Saxons knock strij es off Allegan Tigers to the tune of 28-13. December: 5— 6—Schultz and Isenhath revert to the dark ages, as seniors present “Galahad Jones . 14—Debaters take it on the chin as they loose debates at Western State. 20— Students purchase Christmas trees and get in the last minute rush. (In the groove again with the holiday spirit.) 21— Like the Thanksgiving turkey, the Christmas goose Turns weary students on the loose. January: 6— The passing of vacation Leaves mourning in our nation. 24 Final re|H rt cards hover As the first semester’s over. 27—New classes, new seats, new faces, New teachers to get in their graces. 29—Caveny plays with little clay pies, And throws mud in the chieftain’s eyes. 30 From the boys no remonstration At the girls gym demonstration. February: 1—Oh, February, month of birthdays. Of snowy, wet. and even worth days. 7— Playing on Charlotte’s hard floor, We’re drubbed, 31 to 24. 21—Our rooters’ lungs are out of joint, As Belding triumphs by one point. March: 1-20—School is peculiarly devoid of events. 21—John Sloan’s liquid air demonstration goes over with a bang. 27 28—We see some interesting things On Our Way.” 29— On Our Way participants sav “Z-Z-Z . April: 3 Double-trouble Wilcox wins extempore and oratory contests while Gail Foster takes first in declamations. 15— Wow! Freeport wins horsehide con- test 5-2. 16— Hastings takes one second and two thirds in sub-district speech contest at Allegan. 18—Overalls and cotton dresses go to the Cotton Ball. 18— Don Hildebrandt and Ruth Beck lead seniors as valedictorian and salutato- ria n. 19— Union out-speeds Saxons in mud, 62' 2-41' 2- 25—Juniors typify general school spirit with “Spring Fever . May: 2—The juniors give the chance For the senior class to dance. 12—The seniors make a din As privileges come in. 28 The cars go in procession; The Carnival’s the obsession. June: 1—Baccalaureate services put seniors in a serious mood in first graduation week event. 2 Doomsday editor disclaims responsi- bility for all poetry in this volume. 5— Class Night gives seniors last chance to act in high school. 6 All the little freshmen, sophomores, and juniors advance a class and a head size. 6— Seniors switch tassels on caps and sally forth to conquer the world. 6— The seniors remember their table manners and their dignity at alumni banquet. 7— Students begin three month parole.

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Now It Can Be Told The problem of finding a suitable theme around which to develop a detailed class history is indeed a weighty one. The his- torian must plan to have his theme coincide with that of the entire annual, and vet it must not copy an idea used by some preceding historian for, as some great philosophical mind has stated. “A twice told tale is never good. One of the past historians tried to picture the entering freshies as lowly savages who, because of the excellent influence of our high school, gradually became civilized citizens, and. after reaching their ultimate goal of graduating seniors, they had acquired a shining polish to remain everlastingly a tribute to Hastings High School. Your historian has for obvious reasons discarded this pro- cedure and declined to make use of these rather vulgar ways of picturing a class of freshmen entering the portals of Hastings High School. Instead he intends to eliminate all artificial characterization and present to the reader not savages, not explorers, but one hundred forty-four slightly l ewildered ninth grade Americans seeking the free blessing of an education. These beginners, or freshies as the upper- classmen so unceremoniously clubbed them, set about the business of learning the necessi- ties of life, aided by twenty-seven slightly more advanced freshmen who had a semester start. Being democracy-loving individuals they immediately elected their presiding officers and. with the help of Mr. Knopf and Miss Schreiber, began to put the grinding wheels of progress into motion. Believing in the saying. All work and no play. etc. , the newly-initiated frosh l egan to look on the bright side of life or what is more properly known as the world of enter- tainment. To provoke laughs for the whole school Bill DeC'ou. Bill Dibble, Rachel Mal- colm, and Cyntheal Reed gave ample proof in one act that You Never Know What a Woman Will I)o. With the able Mr. Aten as coach a fresh- man nine proceeded to trounce the faculty twice, much to the latter’s consternation, in our great American game of baseball. Another athletic event of importance was the West Central League freshman track meet in which our lads edged out Ionia to win 38 to 36. With the coming of summer the once very confused frosh began to get their bearings, and they really got into the social swim at the water carnival. The summer fled by and another fall faced this band of lean, bronzed, and reassured sophomores returning to Hastings High to take up their duties as the guiding spirits and initiators of the new freshmen. It was hard to Indieve that these domineering and sophisti- cated tenth graders were the same cowering freshmen of the year before. To climax an illustrious year Bill Dibble won the declamation contest and gained more glories for himself and for his class. To im- press upon the people of our community the value and need of good lx oks, the annual Spotlight was entitled “Am 1 Red. The sophomores gave a modernistic version of Booth Tarkington’s hilarious Seventeen , in which an outstanding feature was the pre- sentation of “The Big Apple” with Elayne Knapp doing a little rug-cutting on the side. When January and a new school term rolled around, the tenth graders were informed that they constituted the largest class in school with a total enrollment of one hundred sixty- three students. Soon after this the sophs were cordially invited to attend the first of a series of dime dances, with the then-function- ing, school swing band providing the music. Upon returning to the sweat and toil of classes in the fall, the juniors decided to mix entertainment with an expression of com- munity pride and they took part in the S{x»t- light. Our Town. Slidst a swirl of dust and the clatter of hooves the eleventh grade ex- posed to the audience the complicated process of putting on a county fair as their portion of the presentation. The home economics division of the eighteenth annual Ag-HE was organized and directed by chairman Joan Erway. a very competent member of the junior class. Then came romance, tragedy, comedy, and drama. The juniors were presenting Little Women under the direction of Mr. Wheater, with Cosma Newton, Marjorie Cogswell, Florence Wright. Neva Warner, and Lyle Hathaway the principal characters. With the financial rewards from this master- piece. the juniors entertained the seniors with great pomp and ceremony at the annual J-Hop, the last school party of the year. To conform with the theme of When You Wish Upon a Star. the gym was decorated as a fashionable roof garden. Glittering stars twinkling from the ceiling and a wishing well added atmosphere to the memorable occasion. As the time for nomination of school officers approached, the juniors put in their nomina- tions for positions in the coming year’s govern- ing body. When the last echoes of the cam- paign speeches had died away in the shadows and the hustling election managers had com- pleted the vote tallying. Bill DeCou emerged from the fray as mayor, Bob Parker prepared to give justice to all, Maxine Brandt began looking for unsanitary situations to correct. Bernard Whitmore continued his ditties of traffic direction, and Ronald Conklin became the public service chief. Just before the end of the term all classes were caught in a storm, or rather a shower, of dusty and tattered old books. To provide future classes with new instruments of printed knowledge the Kellogg Foundation offered one new book for every five old ones collected. After a summer of expectant waiting the former juniors returned to carry on the tradi- tions left by the graduated seniors of the years Indore. With a profound determination to leave the school in a blaze of glory they pitched into both the school work and the