Humberside Collegiate Institute - Hermes Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

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.Ti we eiemmefi ,f Us-Tffx . . ,. . -, Cl gzfif 4 Excerpts from the Valea'z'vt0ry Address .M r. Wren, visitors, the szfajjf, studezits, ladies cmd g'6VLiZ'Z677ZC7fLI Today we return as graduates, but little more than five years ago we crossed the sand-dunes south of the school for the first time. Not many of us have forgotten what a motley crowd we were: grinning girls, who had not yet joined the Society for the Prevention of Shiny Noses, and awkward boys, who folded their arms stiffly and waited for the gong to ring them into the school for the first time. After the strangeness of the opening week, however, we began to appreciate the freedom of High School and to ridicule the narrow conventions of Public School before admiring younger brothers and sisters. In October, the weekly rugby game and half-holiday gave us a chance to parade about the field with school colours flying and to gossip, in between the exciting moments of the game, about the star rugby players of the Upper School, the teachers, homework, and the coming winter. At that time we could be excused for putting on running shoes in the middle of an algebra period, for con- fusing the older students with the younger teachers, or for wandering into a staff-meeting in search of the janitor. At that time, too, dress and personal appearance mattered little to us. The girls were unconscious of their long and beautiful locks doomed all too soon to fall beneath the barber's shears, the boys .were guilty of using a comb about once a week- certainly not oftener. Work was also of secondary importance, for, when unobserved, we spent our time and creative genius editing illustrated dailies, after the style of the Star, and sketching morbid faces in the margins of our Latin and French grammars. After a fall and early winter of minor diversions and major surprises, the Christmas holidays opened their arms to us through the mist of our iirst High School examinations. Wishing our teachers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, we sprang back along the homeward trail to spend the next two weeks on skiis or skates. ln January, however, we returned to school with Hrm resolutions to work a little harder. Outside in the port- ables many of us passed the pleasant day in a temperature ranging any- where from ten degrees below zero to one hundred above, and though the ink froze in winter and boiled in summer, the portables did have their advantages. They had back doors as Lwell as front, and dark corners to hide any little diversions such as dogs, cats, snakes, or salamanders. During the winter months the teachers, passing to and fro from the school, usually caught bad colds, which meant for us occasionals and the leisure to enjoy a little sleep. When the newest addition to the school was opened for occu- pation the following fall, many of us lamented the passing of the portables and, even as early as second form, could look back with sorrow on the old days. ......... . Fourth form rolled up on the other side of summer. We began to under- stand that we were children no longer but had arisen to a stage where much was expected A of us. We did not entirely abandon chalk to chalk engagements, it is trueg we did not

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THE I-iggrawutgfn A 'N a Q3 heart at these words. Truly he had been a very thoughtless father. They were in the living-room now. iiWhC1'6 is my boy? He went out to the store for me. He should be back any minute now. If you will wait a moment, I will bring you a picture of him. In a minute or two, she returned and handed it to him. As he looked at the card in his hand, an expression of horror crept over his face. Slowly he grasped the awful truth. The youth in the picture was his street tramp Y -Louis Jlfarks, V-fl. WZ.72f6f Tfwiliglzt The night came slowly on us VVith stealthy, hidden steps. The day was slowly fading From the barren wind-swept hills. A dog barked in the valley, A cold wind stirred the bushes And died away in the silence. Suddenly there was no light, All colour and sound had fled To some far corner of spaceg And only gray clouds above. VVhite snow below, remained. -Nora Hodgins, V-1-1. Night Mysterious night! Its deep silences form a background for the myriad sounds that seem to drift past on the wings of soft breezes. Across the velvet blackness of the night sky, the stars form a shining pathway for the blue, misty dream- fairies that wander from the Land of Make-Believe to visit us, as we lie sleeping. A spirit of beauty and peace steals through the world, this world of slumber and reposeg and far above in golden splendour, the moon shines serenely over all. Night is unreality, filled with the shadowy, obscure fancies of the un- known, Perhaps, indistinctly, we see the dim figure of a dream-fairy pause for a moment at our window, to blow towards us a radiant dream bubble. There is a gentle fragrance of wild llowers left behind her. Night inspires within us a feeling of awe and wonder. As we look up at the stars and planets illumined against the great arching sky, we become aware of our own insignifi- cance. Then, at last, our eyes close, and we sink into oblivion, into the grey twilight of sleep. -Gladys Ezfans, III-A.

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Tv-15 I'lEIQlVll2f 5 - . -. - - . - - if Zaiifiw- XXX admit that Virgil was a master of his art or that there was any sense at all in ancient legend. We did not even admit to ourselves that we were changing, and yet we could feel a gradual difference. Taking less for granted, we began to burrow a little below the surface before advancing an opinion, to trace our ambitions to their sources, and to wonder in just what proportions energy was rewarded later on with success. Yet we spent our time in a whirl of work and sport, Hermes and Literary Society, tea- dances, championships, and examina- tions. VVe thought that we knew how to work but we had no systems and very vague ideas of how to study. Yet we were trying to think for our- selves and that was sufficient. 'lune passed again like a shadow and Sep- tember found us sifted and scattered. Many, for reasons beyond their control, were forced to leave school. Yet they were just as much a vital part of our class as those who returned to begin a iifth year, which involved the work of a first year in the University. The following june, vainly trying to ignore the urgings of baseball, golf, and tennis, and the buzzing of flies and younger brothers, we sat down before piles of books and notes, expressed the vinegar of exist- ence on our faces, and entered the slaughter halls on the appointed dates of execution. XVe listened to the shouts of the free on the tennis courts just outside the windows and under- stood that fate was cruel. But with the end of August came the matriculation results. Many of us were surprised, many others quite surprised. Now we have scattered. We should like to direct a remark at each one of the teaching staff who has helped us along the torturous road, but time forbids as well as caution. Although we have returned to Humberside for the last official time and stand before you as graduates, we have found out in the last few months that we are merely beginners. It is rather fortunate that we can begin again once in a while. VVe have our High School education behind us as a background and as a source of judg- ment. lf we have made the best use of the past live years, it will not take us long to readjust ourselves in a new world, and, if we have not, we stand as a warning to those who follow. In such a large school as ours, we make no claim that all has been per- fect. Yet, looking back and looking forward, we have no complaint to advance, but rather a word of grati- tude. Vile have enjoyed our years at High School, and we realize now how fortunate we have been in our friends and in our teachers from whom, sub- consciously, we have learned to think and to reason. The highest aim of education is not to stuff students with methods and other people's ideas, but to draw them out and to give them a chance to understand their own interests. This High School has accomplished for most of us. But it has done still more. Education in itself would mean little to us unless we had a sense of value and proportion and were able at times to see over and above the walls of ordinary life. And, therefore, as we leave High School, we like to remem- ber it is a centre of balance which has helped to develop in us this moral foundation and a feeling of remem- brance and of gratitude which will continue to grow. It is in this spirit that we say farewell. -Henry Noyes.