Ionia High School - Ionian Yearbook (Ionia, MI)

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t THE IONIAN « » 19 3 4 Salutatory Fellow Students, Members of the Faculty, and Friends: It is my privilege, as a member of the graduating class of nineteen hundred thirty-four, to welcome you to the sixty-fourth annual Class Day exercises. It has been the custom for many years for the Seniors, during their last week as high school students, to gather as a body and acknowledge to all their deep appreciation for the care, love, and friendships they have enjoyed during the formative years of their lives. Not unmindful of this tradition and its worthy cause, but more from the fullness of our hearts, we are assembled here today for the express purpose of making known to you our extreme enjoyment of your favor. This day marks a milestone in our careers. It ends the period of adolescence in which our changeable minds are influenced by every simple fad, and marks the time when we, like the young fledgling, leave the protecting care of our homes and friends, and stare life, with its joys and sorrows, straight in the face. However evasive we may have been in the past, however carefree we have seemed in former days, we face a most serious situation. Now we test the fruits of education. Now we try our knowledge. Those who have made the most of their time, who have obtained some atom of the lessons of others’ experiences, who have seriously heeded the warnings of their elders — yes, those who have gleaned the fields of counsel of their harvests, are the ones who will find the battle against life the easiest. There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, and we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.” The full sea is our lives, the tide our education. If we have taken education in the proper attitude, and followed its direction, day by day, we will bring glory to our names. If not, then our lives will be consigned to the shallows and misery. To you teachers who have guided us in our daily tasks, who have labored hard to instruct us to the best of your ability, we give our utmost thanks. There never was, or shall be, a faculty so deserving of unstinted praise. To our parents, those who have loved us, guided us, and counseled us, our sincerest appreciation is yours. To all our friends who have made life a continuous joy, we trust that friendship with us has meant a little greater understanding of life’s problems, and a small measure of the joy we have received. This day brings forward mingled feelings. To some the joy of starting life; to others, sadness of spirit for having to leave the splendid fellowships we have enjoyed in Ionia; and to still more, a varied symphony of reactions blending into a resolve for the highest of successes. So, because this day means so much to us, because it represents a milestone in our lives, because we desire the interest of all our acquaintances, in behalf of the Senior class of nineteen hundred thirty-four I take the greatest of pleasure, and feel it to be the finest privilege, to welcome you singly and as a group to this day of mutual accord. — Thane Benedict, Jr. 29

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t THE IONIAN « » « » 19 3 4 j Valedictory Friends: Today, as you witness the graduation of this class, you, who are older and more experienced in the ways of this world, undoubtedly wish that you might confer upon us a little of your experience so that we might go out into life a little more thoughtful and, though confident, with less of that air of schoolboyish self-assurance that is inevitably doomed for a sad comedown. This all arises from the fact that the world has an old and well-established opinion of the high school student. We high school students have indeed acquired a reputation that must be lived down. It is a well known fact that we have the air of knowing more than anyone else in the world simply because we know so little that we haven’t yet found how very little we do know — and furthermore we absolutely refuse to be told. Consequently, we are about to go out into life, specimens of perfect assurance until that disastrous moment when the jolt comes and we find that we are not indispensable links in the mechanism of the world after all. How many times we have all heard this threatening prediction. But if I might venture my opinion against the world's, I would say that I think the world has a very distorted view of us. I assure you that we are perfectly conscious of all that we have to learn and to experience, and that it will take many years of living to catch up with you who have been acquiring experience for years. Would it be possible for us, having lived through these recent years of financial instability still unsolved by experts, to believe we could go out and astonish the world with no effort at all? It hardly seems possible. Oliver Wendell Holmes said that a little conceit has the virtue of making a man cheerful, hopeful, and optimistic, and that, talk as much as you like, it is to humanity as salt is to the ocean. Once a man has lost all of his conceit he has lost all of his illusions and the incentive to push on and conquer. Maybe, then, it is a good thing that each year an additional quantity of self-assurance is put into circulation through the medium of high school graduates, for what the world needs is hopefulness and optimism and that’s what the high school confidence generates. With the world in its present economic state, the attitude of the graduate toward life is a great deal more serious than that of the graduate of some years ago. Our future is less snug. You never find the modern girl vacillating between marriage and a career, or discussing life and its problems theoretically. The girls of today have found that there is too much theory and too little practicality in this world, and they have turned practical. Activity dominates the world, not as a fashion or a fad, but as a necessity. The younger generation has been aroused to the value of the dollar and now is facing facts squarely. The older generation is also accepting conditions in a very broadminded way. They are less exacting in their dealings with youth and are more flexible in their opinions. This is something that calls for a great deal of admiration, for to change ideals and ideas formed for a period of years is a thing not to be scoffed at. It is certainly a noteworthy thing when you realize how the whole world has conformed to the necessary changes in life. Perhaps, after all, this turmoil in the world is just the thing that is needed to prevent it from becoming smug and intolerant. So it is into this altered world that we pass today—from the school room into the world. It is a big jump, even with that traditional high school confidence, but we sincerely hope to succeed for we feel a very heavy obligation. We fully realize, as graduates of a public school, that we are greatly indebted to our public.” We must, of course, offer something in return for those annual taxes, and perhaps that will be to show that the money invested in our education has not gone the desolate way of so many other investments. Now we must face the fatal facts. That relentless Father Time has set his seal on the first era in our lives and will not halt his pace. We must, therefore, salute the future with determination. With that determination and with the splendid support we have received from parents, faculty, and friends, we simply cannot fail. — Dorothy Nichol ► 28

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► T HE IQNI A N « » « » 19 34 Class Prophecy After running the last days in championship form, the 1959 World’s Fair, The Parade of Progress, finishes, completing the most awe-inspiring and mammoth exposition that has ever taken place. Detroit — the host of the show — a city of over five million people, has witnessed the multitudes that have gathered to view the magnificent progressive steps which have been taken in science and transportation. Surely the exhibits have given the American people a clear view of the mighty advancements that are being made in their day. Belle Isle, the scene of the Show of a Century, has been changed into an enchanting island of beautiful, large buildings of architectural grandeur. It is brilliantly illuminated at night, with lighting effects beyond description. My work at this huge exposition has been one of enjoyment and interest from the very start. In the capacity of advertising agent for a large New York concern, I was sent here early in the year to take general charge of its advertising campaign. As I look back over the most eventful few months of my whole life, I find, among other things, that many of my old friendships have been renewed. As many of my acquaintances from Ionia have attended the fair here in Detroit, I have had an opportunity to talk with quite a few of my old I. H. S. classmates of ’34. ’34 — a quarter of a century ago. Twenty-five long years have passed since the class of ninety-three students — the pride of the school — graduated from that old building, long since removed from the corner of Lincoln and Union. We re all in the greying forties now. We’ve gone into various and widely separated fields of endeavor. When I review the summer that I’ve spent here on the grounds and think of the many old acquaintances that have been renewed, I find that I have either seen or heard of every one of my old classmates. I met some of the ’34 grads the first day of the exposition. Early in the morning I found Willard McDonald, Wayne Zander, and Ray Porter in the Dairy Building. They told me that they were planning on spending the entire day there, but I imagine they found out that it would take fully three days to cover all the building, which, by the way, was constructed under the supervision of the Underwood Russell Construction Company. I understand that Curtis drew the plans and that Laurence was in charge of the construction work. In fact, I find that a number of our class had something to do with the construction of the fair and its buildings. Virginia Allen and Sarah McGannon were in charge of the interior decorating of the Village of Model Homes, located near the Science Buildings. I understand that Beatrice Ross and Margaret Northrup have had charge of some of these homes during the fair. They tell me that they have had a hard time explaining to some of us old-timers just why the houses have no kitchens. Raymond Schwyn and Gilbert De Line have also tried to make it clear by showing some of the important steps in the preparation of pre-digested food. This explanation came in connection with the Chemistry Show that they give four times a day. One afternoon, after I had watched their very interesting demonstration, I talked with them for a while. Among other things, I learned what Dan Bowerman and Thane Benedict, Jr., were doing now. Dan is a professor of mathematics in the State College at East Lansing. Thane is located in Washington, working for the United States in the Department of Foreign Relations. Near the Village of Model Homes are the special Beauty Salons that have been set up for instruction classes in beauty culture. Our class seems to have its share of girls who are in favor of glorifying the American Woman. I learned that there are four classes in all, each one taking up a phase of beauty treatment. Before I visited there, I might have imagined that each step told how to put on another layer of make-up and that when one came out they had a thorough job — a four-coat finished product. But after I talked to Maxine McVeigh, Ruth Hurd, and Velma Smith, who worked in the Salon, I had a quite different idea in regard to the complexion of the whole affair. ► 30