Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

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PHOPHECY This afternoon, among my assembled classmates and friends, I wish to re- late to you a strange and disturbing ex- perience that came to me one afternoon last May. Suffering from an acute attack of s::ring fever, I had taken the afternoon from my lessons to wander in the cool dim shadows of the wood. With my volume of Milton and a box of choco- lates I was reclining on a grassy bank in the very heart of the wood, alter- nately reading passages of Comus and idly thinking of the future careers of my classmates. I closed my eyes and tried to conjure up visions of each one doing his or her chosen work and, find- ing all unsatisfactory, turned again to my Comus. The drowsiness of the afternoon soon overcame me and I tossed aside my book to lie thinking of the strange power of Comus to change unwary individuals into brute forms and then of changes in general. I languidly reached for an- other piece of candy and to my be- wilderment found that the box had dis- appeared and that the trees were gradually receding. I closed my eyes in horror and when I opened them again I found myself in the corridor of an office building standing directly oprosite a door on which appeared the inscription in neat black letters, “Helen Rogers, Mfg. of Wigs and Toupees”. I opened the door softly, and my ears were deafened by the rattle of hundreds of typewriters. Seated comfortably be- fore a huge desk just inside the door of this immense office sat my old school friend “Midget” but so changed. Her eyes were almost hidden behind huge shell glasses and her hair was done in an elaborate style, which made me suspect Midget of wearing one of her own wigs. Having accepted her invitation to sit down, we were soon deep in thoughts of by-gone days. To my surprise I learned that one of Helen’s best cus- tomers was Dot Shaw who was operat- ing a beauty shop in New York. I re- membered that Dot had been rather against the use of cosmetics during high school days, but since Evelyn Bamford, her old chum had accepted a position in the Metropolitan Opera Company, her aversion to rouge and powder had taken a change for the better. As I sat there musing over this strange news, my surroundings grew dim before my eyes and in a flash I found myself walking upon a beach overhung with palm trees. Beneath the largest of these sat a group of dark skinned men and women playing ukeleles and singing “On the Beach at Waikiki”. Suddenly my eyes were attracted to a blond girl wiggling and whirling in the mazes of the hula hula. Drawing nearer in my excitement, almost col- lapsed as I recognized the girl to be “Bea” Tufts. Habit had evidently played a large part in her life for I saw that just as in dear old Manning High days she was accompanied by a (Weagle) wiggle. Suddenly everything faded from my view, and as the air became clearer I saw to my surprise that I was sitting in the newspaper room of a huge library. Before me on the table lay a copy of the “Boston Post” and, glad to see some- thing familiar, I picked it up. The first thing that met my eyes was an an- nouncement reading like this — “Begin- ning today until further notice James Burke will take over the column, ‘Talks on Love and Sentiment’ formerly written by Mildred Champagne.” “A column a day will be easy for Jimmie,” I reflected, “ a ‘Page’ used to be his limit.” Just as I was going to lay down 25

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many wandering freshmen were seized and deposited on the ledge under the window by the candy room and the win- dow locked. Several were rescued by Mr. Marston, but they dared not tell which upper classman put them there. Other poor freshmen were locked in the ventilators where only a great com- motion on their part would bring Mr. Marston to the rescue. Oh ! we vowed vengeance on the upper classmen for .;those deeds, but when ever the opportunity came for re- venge, most of us had an important en- gagement in some other part of the building. Our freshman year was the last year with Mr. Marston as principal, but in that one short year we learned to know him very well. I believe it was only the third day of the term that Miss Shaw, Miss Kimball, Spyut and myself were extended a cordial invitation to visit the office at 3.30. Of course, we hadn ' t done anything, it was merely Mr. Mars- ton’s manner of getting acquainted. Ours was a class with such celebrities as Bean, then a budding violinist with a big brother in the upper class to tell Juls just how little he knew. Of course he wouldn’t think of hitting his big brother. The famous strike of the Manning High pupils was staged in November of our freshman year. Although it was unsuccessful, we got our names in the paper. Following the strike came the great play “Captain Crossbones”, and Mr. Tozer gave us an added compliment when he picked most of his pirates from our class. Hall never forgot his ex- perience as pirate and is seriously con- templating taking up the profession after graduation. This year also saw the beginning of class games in ath- letics, a custom that has continued ever since. In our sophomore year we moved into Miss Whittemore’s room where the seats were close together, and you can imagine the result. It was not uncom- mon to see the bench filled entirely with sophomores. Class socials became prominent and many were those held in conjunction with the freshmen. The most important event of our junior year was of course the “Prom”. It was a big success, the net proceeds amounting to $110, which was divided between Porter and myself until we could give it to the class treasurer. Forty dollars was immediately turned over to the treasurer, but the other seventy dollars was almost lost. I had the forty dollars of course. Possibly Porter was thinking of starting a jitney line between Ipswich and Rowley. Our junior class was prominent in athletics having seven of the eleven on the football team and four out of six on the hockey team. Our senior year has been the greatest of all. We held a soviet government meeting and elected J. Burke, president ; Miss Shaw, vice-president ; Miss Brown, secretary and Miss Daniels, treasurer. Of course the senior play was the biggest thing of the year. After several collisions with Hall, Miss Homans de- cided that Johnny had not reached a stage of civilization as advanced as even that of pirate but more nearly resembled a cave man. Nancy should have had shock absorbers. All in all the senior year has been one we shall never forget and we sincerely hope that the next senior class will ap- preciate as much as we have what it means to be a senior and to have been associated for four years with Manning High. William Burke 24

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my newspaper I saw in headlines on the Sport Page — Manager Raupach of the Braves purchases Dondero, star pitcher of the Red Sox, for $10,000 and Robert Kent, his star sub thrown in. “Will wonders never cease ; ” I thought when a voice at my ear startled me and I heard in lady-like accents, “The Library closes at 5.30, Madam; so Pll have to ask you to leave.” I turned around and my reply never passed my lips for the librarian was none other than Anita Daniels. We fell in each others arms and, when we had our breath again, I learned that Anita’s assistant was Elsie Marr who had entire charge of the Art and Marine Room where Albert Spyut was a constant visitor. He was seek- ing inspiration for a new yacht to be called the “Elsie” and modelled after the “Hull” of his first. It seems Albert has been amassing a fortune since he and Jonathan Hall had joined forces building pleasure boats. John had am- bitions for a much larger boat than Albert’s and work had already been started on his masterpiece, “The Sway Easy”. During this last bit of gossip my sur- roundings had grown dim but as I waited objects became clearer and I found myself in a plain but dignified church. Directly in front of me sitting upright behind the reading desk sat a woman dressed as ’ a Quaker. Not a ' sound could be heard. Then abruptly anothe- woman dressed similarly passed up the aisle quickly and addressed the congregation. I held my breath. It was Ruth Gilday and the words she spoke were these, “Brothers and Sisters, the spirit has moved and I wish to an- nounce the world famous preacher. Sis- ter Helen Bruce who will favor us with an address on ‘How it is Possible to Remain Silent for Three Days.’ ” The shock of this announcement was too much for me remembering Brucy’s ability for having the last word in 1923 when her stage whispers could be heard in the noisiest of class rooms. Suddenly darkness descended upon me. This time I came to myself in the dusty street of a village directly oppos- site a store which bore the announce- ment on a huge sign over the door “Hamilton Bros., General Merchandise, Skowhegan, Maine.” I was about to en- ter when, with a rattle and roar, a huge jitney bus drew up beside me, and a verj business-like young woman descended from behind the wheel. As in a dream I watched her advance with out-stretched hands and with a start recognized in this spruce young lady Catherine Ryan. She suggested that we take a stroll through the village, and glad for a chance to talk over old times, I agreed. She informed me that any other day I should have met Ruth Brown, who was one of her regular passengers since she had been teaching school in the country. The scene changed without warning and I found that I was in the lobby of an enormous theatre, which was hung with portraits of the same beautiful young man, under each of which was printed in red and gold letters “William Burke the successor to Rudolph Valentino, sup- ported by Bernice Connor, his leading lady. All this week in his latest picture Wour eyes have told me so.’ ” Press notices attached to the signs explained the sudden rise to fame of the new star. The increased demand for Burke’s pic- tures by the flapper element of the coun- try had placed Valentino in the discard and he had been forced to seek employ- ment in a garage. In my eagerness to see my old class- mates in pictures I rushed past the man at the door and found myself in total darkness which began to grow light as 26