Ionia High School - Ionian Yearbook (Ionia, MI)

Page 27 text:

(grftatorimt Aft ress G. Galloway Classmates, Members of the Faculty, Alumni, Parents and Friends: In keeping- with a favored custom of this school, it is my happy privilege today, in behalf of the Senior Class of nineteen hundred twenty-one, to place in the hands of this cherished school and its many devoted friends a small remembrance of our high esteem and respect. We know how well books survive the passing years, and how dull this life would be without them for companions. Therefore, we think our little gift today to be one both lasting and appropriate. By it we hope to be remembered often by our many friends and especially by the present and future alumni. We have not been inspired to rival the mighty classics in these simple lines and messages; we only seek to hold for ourselves and to bring to others some of the cheer and happiness of our good school days. For twelve years v e have been passed from one grade to the next—the “hand-me-ups” of all the teachers, who have wished us on our way, some with regret and somp, of course, with pleasure. Yet in this little volume we have caught only a bit of the brightness and but few of the memories that make those years so dear to us. Our friendship for the faculty, members, and friends of Ionia High School is very keen and deep; and we hope we have merited, in a small degree at least, the confidence and well wishes so often mani- fested toward us. When at some future time you may chance to look through this little book, it is our sincere wish that it will bring to your mind some kindly thoughts of us. When we peruse its pages, in what our Prophet has told us will be happy and prosperous years, it will be with thoughts like those of that well known verse by James Whitcomb Riley: “As one who cons at evening, o’er an album all alone, And muses on the faces of the friends that he has known, So I turn the leaves of fancy till, in shadowy design, I find the smiling features of an old schoolmate of mine.” As a member of the Senior Class of nineteen hundred twenty-one I have the honor and pleasure of presenting to this school and its friends the Official Year Book of the class of 1921.

Page 26 text:

Claaa postit Robert Bills. It’s time to say good-bye To our old High School here. We really want to sigh Now that parting is so near. We know what we are leaving, And what pleasure and delight We found when at our games To win we had to fight. And soon we will be parting From the friends we hold so dear; But our memories will not die For those we’ve met while here. And when the years have passed, Though we’ve strayed far away We’ll recall the faces of the friends We knew in our school days. It’s time to say good-bye To the tasks here begun; But we haven’t time for sighs; There are great deeds to be done. And some day, I am sure, That in this class of ’21 There’ll be some to reach the goal. They’ll keep fighting till it’s won.

Page 28 text:

$al? tct0ry Lois Normington In history only those nations and peoples are deemed worthy of extended study who have contributed most to the progress of civiliza- tion. One new idea or invention that can advance humanity a single step is worth more than the power wielded by the mightiest king or the most magnificent monument ever raised. The history of the world is repeated in our own lives. From the time we begin life our character takes shape. It is molded by our surroundings. In child hood we feel our way and every unfolding idea is to us a wonderful discovery. Home and playmates and school are modifying and developing our inherited tendencies. In youth we begin to deduce and reason. We are pliable, susceptible, and receive impressions that go far toward building character. In high school our studies give us the keys to vast storehouses of knowledge; and whatever we learn exerts its influence on our lives. Antiquity, philosophy, nature, foreign lands are full of inspir- ing examples that would all lie in darkness unless they were reached by the light of literature. We who have learned to glean the best from what we read will have this advantage, that all the experience of the past is ours and we can make use of it in whatever we do or say. Every real experience, faithfully recorded by those who know, read and remembered may prove valuable to us, whether it is learning to row a boat fom the description in Virgil, making a toy from the illustrations of catapults in Caesar, gaining interesting closings for letters from Mr. Macawber, recognizing the note of a bird from the essays of Henry Thoreau and John Burroughs, or feeling acquainted with the sounds and smells of India from reading Kipling. When our class was studying History and Caesar the World War was being fought on the ancient battlefields of western Europe. We saw the struggle of Roman civilization and the barbarian hordes— later that of the Saracens and the Christians while the armies of freedom and autocracy were battling on the same ground for world supremacy. How much greater was our understanding because of a little knowledge of the past! All our studies help in daily living. You all know how we struggled with X and Y till finally we learned their intricacies. The problem of life is to be faced in the same way. There is the known and the unknown to be handled; and if we assume facts to be true before they are so proved, confusion may result. Our mathematicsjeads to clear, orderly thinking, the kind that arrives at accurate conclusions. But this is only one of the sciences. What is a rainbow? How can a camera take a picture? Why do people wear white clothes in hot weather? Why are hills and stones? What makes a fire burn? The sciences attempt to answer these and all similar questions and isn’t it a glorious feeling to be able to explain to the little child just “what makes the wheels go ’round”?