Hermon High School - Microphone Yearbook (Hermon, ME)

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The MICROPHONE 13 There are many other opportunities besides education in life, but this opportunity seems to be the most important to me. Without this education I feel that my life would be worth much less and have little real mean- ing. Assistant Editor Looking Ahead Are you planning for your future? Are you working to carry out these plans? Do you realize the importance of your plans to others as well as to yourself? These are questions which should be con- sidered by all high school students. Many boys and girls do not realize that their plans for the future will affect others as well as themselves. I have often heard boys who were think- ing about quitting school say, “What’s the sense of planning and working for the future? Uncle Sam will take care of that.” To some extent this is true, but does it sound reasonable and realistic? Young Americans are fighting in Korea at this very moment so that we can plan and work for our future. Why should we be selfish and not take ad- vantage of our present opportunities? Come on, boys and girls, let’s plan and work so that we too will be doing our part iff making this a better world in which to live in the future. Duty may call us to different jobs in many places. Let’s do today’s work well so we’ll be prepared for whatever the future brings. Assistant Editor Sound Off! To arms! To arms! Teenagers, must we stand for all this criticism? Why, we don’t do anvthing right! We can’t drive! We can’t behave! We talk out of turn! We trea» our elders with disrespect! We’re irresponsible! Are we going to take this? Let me sound off and I’ll tell you what I think. It’s only human to mock peoDle more im- portant than ourselves. Because some teen- age drivers try to be Junior Daredevils, we are all condemned, even though we are just as good drivers as a lot of older people. We don’t behave well in public, according to some. What about the people who slam doors in your face, or who don’t thank you when you’ve picked up something for them? I get a lot of enjoyment out of the expression on someone’s face when I hold a door open for him, stand aside for him to pass, or excuse myself when I walk in front of him. He looks so surprised to see that someone will stop hurrying and hold a door open for an older person. Just watch the expression on their faces when you, an uncouth teen-ager, do an act of chivalry. We are also irresponsible. Why? The an- swer is we haven’t had as much practice as older people have had in managing things. A lot of people don’t think we are capable of engineering anything, so they don’t give us practice. Wouldn’t some people be surprised if they could attend a class or student coun- cil meeting or a meeting of one of the var- ious clubs for teen-agers? In my opinion these meetings are just as orderly as older people’s meetings, if not more so. For an example, consider town meeting, or the gov- ernment, with its problems of cleaning up corruption, settling strikes, dealing with walk-outs at U. N. meeting, etc. Just remember that we try to act “grown- up,” but how can we if grown-ups act like children? Assistant Editor The Test The day dawned bright and clear. I joy fully sprang from my bed. Then my spirits sank when I realized what the afternoon would bring. In spite of all I did to prevent it, 3:15 P.M. drew closer. Hazel and I went to the police station and entered the office. The examiner came out and checked the registration certificate and Hazel’s license. With one look at him, I thought to myself, “Sister, your number is up!” for he looked as cross as old Scrooge in Dickens’ Christ- mas Carol. I followed him into the office, ex- pecting and hoping the floor would swallow me up any minute. He told me to sit down and look into the machine on the desk. I had hoped that I wouldn’t be “restricted to glasses” so I took them off. I couldn’t even see the white

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12 The MICROPHONE he will sit home and worry all the time you are away. There is one way to cut down this terrify- ing teenage rate. That way is through high school driver training. Police accident records show that the trained high school driver has up to seven times less accidents and ten times fewer traffic tickets than the untrained one of the same age. High school driver training has proven more effective than anything else in the history of the safety field in cutting accidents. Why then isn’t high school driver training made com- pulsory in all high schools? Opponents of compulsory driver training cite the following reasons: Its cost is too high. Schools already teach too many sub- jects that distract from their primary func- tion—reading, writing, and arithmetic. Teaching a person to drive is the respon- sibility of the family, the community and the police. In answer to this opposition: first, dual- control driver training cars are available without cost to every United States high school that has a trained teacher and can offer the course a minimum number of hours. The only costs are those of training an in- structor and the cost of books. Second, what could be of any more importance to a person than his life? If a person isn’t alive he cer- tainly doesn’t have to worry about reading, writing, and arithmetic. Learning to be a safe driver is of far more importance than learning to be an excellent speller or typist. Perhaps few people do make their living by driving automobiles, but what good is a job as manager or head of a concern if that person is killed or badly injured while travel- ing to his job? Few of us live within walking distance of our jobs. Therefore, we must travel by automobile. And if we all have to drive an automobile some time in our lives, why aren’t we trained to do so? Third, only from a trained teacher can one learn driving without picking up dozens of mistakes most older drivers make un- consciously, like incorrect parking, illegal turning of corners, speeding, and riding the clutch. The habits we form the first few times behind the wheel are the habits we shall continue to follow' throughout our driv- ing career. Therefore, why aren’t these habits made to be the habits of a good driver and not those of a trial and error driver? All of us are sick and tired of being ex- posed to the dangerous, careless drivers who cause accidents to themselves and others. And every one wants to cut down the 35,000 and over yearly death toll on the highways. Is compulsory high school driver education the solution? Edi tor-in-Chief Opportunity, Our Future Our future depends on us. It is up to us to make that future worthwhile. There are many opportunities for all of us, including the opportunity to live happy and successful lives. We have had the opportunity to re- ceive a very useful education. Perhaps at times we have considered the task a tough struggle. Perhaps we have become very dis- couraged with school, especially the week of term tests but all this discouragcipent and struggling has been worth that long-aw aited diploma. Our job may have been difficult, but what can we expect? We can’t expect to have our education passed to us on a platter trimmed w ith gold, can we? We have to work for what we get in this world. Per- haps w'e have considered this deal rough, but it hasn’t been so bad with the careful guid- ance w’e have received during our school days. Things will probably tend to be much more difficult now’ that wre shall have to dig things out for ourselves. Some day we shall realize what an opportunity this has been— if we don’t realize it now. It is a great opportunity to be able to go out into this world of ours after graduation and be able to get a nice job and earn an honest living. It is also an opportunity to have the right to vote, to do as we think just, and to own a business, a car, a home, and other necessary and enjoyable articles. Would we be able to do all the things in life w’hich are right without this great op- portunity of education? There w’ould be many things in government w’e w’ould not understand completely without the aid w'e have received in school. There would also be many things in our daily living that w'e w’ould not understand without this education. As we can see, education has much to do with the opportunities for us in the future.

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14 The MICROPHONE dots, much less the black dots on the white ones! “Put ’em back on,” he said, being a man of few words I found. Thus were my hopes smitten. Didn’t he think I could read? He pointed to signs on a board and told me to read them. Then came the questions, thick and fast. Be- fore I finished answering one, he’d fire an- other at me. The final step was the road test. “Bessie” —our Oldsmobile—was good to me and started without stalling. “Turn left,” he said, just as if I hadn’t been over the route five times previously. On Everett Street the emergency brake wouldn’t hold. “It’s got to,” he said, which, of course, made me all the more nervous. I guess he fina.ly took pity on me, because he told me to release it and give it a hard pull. That worked and I went on down Ohio Street. When the red light at the intersection turned green, there was a truck coming out of High Street as I came out of Ohio. 1 started sweating gumdrops, but Lady Luck was with me. The truck was going the same way I was. As I was about to turn onto Court Street, there was a car coming up the hill. I was afraid if I didn’t wait, I would have to re- turn in six months and go all through this ordeal again, so I waited. “You had plenty of time,” he stated in a I’ve-had-a-hard-day- at-the-office tone of voice. The police station was like a vision of an oasis in the desert to me, and I pulled into the reserved parking place. Then, with no pomp or ceremony whatsoever, he shoved a piece of paper at me and said, “Sign it.” I gulped. I gasped. I looked at the paper in disbelief, for it was a temporary license. I had passed! Patricia Leathers ’53 What America Means to Me America to me means the land of oppor- tunity. In few other countries of the world could I have the opportunities that I have in America. I am entitled to free education in public schools. I can continue on to college, if I have the will to work. In America anyone can go to college, if he has the ambition. If anyone has the ambition, he will find help along the way. In America I can say what I wish, but I must respect the rights of others. I am en- titled to police protection. I can read any- thing I wish without fear of imprisonment. I have the right to choose my own religion. No one says to me, “You go to this church or you can’t go to any church.” When I become of age I will have the privilege and duty to vote for my local, state, and national repre- sentatives. Thus in America I have many opportuni- ties, but I must take advantage of them. I can’t loaf and wait for a golden opportunity to appear. I must work and help make my own, and, if one should appear, take advan- tage of it. Chester Heughan ’53 Something for Nothing Something for nothing is just wh'it it says. Do we expect something for nothing all the time? We teen-agers should not ex- pect our parents to do everything for us, just because we think it’s their duty. We should and are able to do many things by ourselves. If we expect Dad to paint our bookshelves, we should plan to spend part of Saturday after- noon out of doors washing the storm win- dows. The same idea applies to housework. Per- haps we help mother every night with the dishes, but when we have an extra loid of homework, she does them by herself. Then we should do something for her or do the dishes the next night. And how about that airplane model or that nail polish that mother got you in town last week? Doesn’t that obligate you to do errands for her? You see, even at home practice should be- gin in repaying others for the services they have rendered you. We must not go through life with the idea that the world owes us something—something that we expect for nothing. Assistant Editor