John A Johnson High School - Maroon Yearbook (St Paul, MN)

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In a special meeting November seventh the constitution of the class was adopted and David Hendrickson elected marshall. Thereafter meetings were held once a month at which the president and vice-president made fiery speeches in an attempt to make the students do something for the honor of the class. The difii- dence of the class could hardly be eradicated, but the agitation was successful in having the class start something novel at Johnson, the wearing of class buttons. When these had been sold it seemed as if everyone in school was a Sophomore. About basketball time the boys had sufficiently recovered from the effects of the first football scrimmage to organize a class basketball team. Those who played on this team were Fred Howe, captain, Algot Lindahl, Floyd Morgan, Dale Anderson, Adolph Hoffmann, and Herbert Schutte. This team played one game, that with Central High Sophomores. An attempt was made by Jennie Bloom to organize a Sophomore girls' team, but they never secured enough confidence to challenge other girl teams. This attempt by the girls to have the class support a girls' team was perhaps caused by the seniors of that year, who had had the experience of having the girls pack a regular meeting of the class, and elect a girl to every ofiice. The sophomore girls of course could not stand being outwitted, so they organized the shortlived quintette. Incidentally this marked the entrance of militancy into our class affairs. During the fall the first issue of the school paper, the Gleam, was issued, and we were being exhorted to scribble and subscribe for it. january came and we were stale Sophs. We grew better acquainted with Mr. Shakespeare, New- comer, Peabody, More, and others. No more were we compelled to write themes to be handed in Monday mornings. We became a little more communicative, for we wished to know what flowers our friends had found for their herberiums. No Easter vacation this year. Baseball season saw us trying out for the team with little success. Our president was sub on this team, which lost not a single game all season, winning the baseball trophy. At the May class meeting it was decided that we have a picnic at Wildwood, and Mr. and Mrs. Churchill were invited to come with us. At the meeting tan and purple were chosen class colors after six months of debate. The picnic was held the last day of school and everyone except the committee on refreshments had a good time. Those on this committee had the time of their lives keeping the ice cream from being consumed before lunch time. At this picnic class numerals were presented to the players on the two class basket- ball teams. The Class of 1915 started its junior year by holding its annual election of officers Monday, September 15, 1913, in room 29, reads the secretary's report. At this meeting Kieffer Vaux was elected president, Lester Palmer vice-president, Marie Palmer treasurer, and Adolph Hoffmann secretary. There were one hun- dred and nine juniors enrolled. About this time we again tried our heads at football. Three seniors, Lester Palmer, Leon La Mottte, and Leonard Holmgren, became members of the 1913 team which had the honor of being the fastest in the city. During October a class basketball team was organized by Tom Moran and a girls' team by Jennie Bloom. Tom Moran subsequently resigned this position to become manager of the High School basketball team. A tournament was announced by Coach Churchill for class teams, the winner to be awarded a trophy offered by the alumni. The junior team was composed of Fred Howe, captain, Aloysius Spellacy, Axel johnson, Herbert Schutte, Arthur Gilstad, and Algot Lindahl. This team beat out the Senior team in the race for the championship by winning the play-off of the tie and getting the custody of the cup for one year. Helen and Lucile Kranz were selected as members of the Gleam staff for the school year and by their faithful work aided greatly in making the school paper a success. A play was to have been given at Thanksgiving time, but the timidity of some of those requested to take part caused practice to be discontinued.

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1 rf +V, Glass ilhlfstorn A I N the spring of 1911 the new John A. johnson High School was -IT: V completed and dedicated and Mr. J. M. Guise chosen for VW principal. The following September there were enrolled in this Q. 1 1 -b new school a hundred and some odd shy freshmen composing I-'-:if 'ii 5 the class of 1915. Pride forbids describing minutely our appear- Pf-'1' T- ance and behavior on this occasion. of , ' During that first semester we unintentionally came into contact with certain austere and haughty persons designated by one word, Seniors . These superior beings caused us great chagrin on various occasions by making such remarks as Look at the new crop of greens when speaking of us and by advising us to take the elevator to fourth Hoor when we had asked them the way to the library. For this treatment we took revenge by speaking only when a plus was badly needed, and on those rare occasions when addressed by a Senior. Whenever this occurred our hearts would jump into our throat and nearly strangle us so that we were only able to articulate Yeh when we had intended saying 'fYes, sir . There was little social life during the first year. Our talk was confined to Yeh and HI haven't studied that . We passed safely our first term examinations and became acquainted with Shakespeare, Wells, Julius Caesar, Mr. Haeberle, Mr. Guise, and others. Some few of us ventured to attend the games, were unhurt when it was over, and boasted of our courage for months. The boys began to pay more attention to their appearance, combing their hair, pressing their trousers, keeping the mud off their shoes, and discarding their grade school graduation pins. Easter vacation came and went. Then spring came and found us hauling ashes to make enough money to attend the baseball games. Here we lost enough of our shyness to be able to yell when Buck or Curly made a hit. We began to wish we were athletes, and when a heretofore haughty Senior approached a few members of our class and surprised us by asking us to try out for the football team in the fall we had visions of a place on the all-star team. Accordingly we started taking exercise so as to be able to show those Seniors they had made no mistake by asking us to try out. So we and the second team passed. Then came relief when our long-looked- forward-to vacation came. One hundred and twenty-two students were enrolled at Johnson High School in September as members of the Sophomore class. But what a change had taken place in the persons of the students. The boys were wearing neatly pressed long trousers, stiff collars and respectable appearing neckties. The girls were trying their best to look sophisticated in their long skirts, and to appear as if wearing their hair done up in the latest style was not unusual, although they did occasionally forget they had discarded hair ribbons, and their hands from habit would steal up to their head as if to straighten them out. Everybody was soon settling down again to the routine of school life, with as little trouble as possible. At the first call for candidates for the team the boys hunted up their old football togs and sprinted to Post Siding, where we tackled and were tackled, jumped on and were jumped on all afternoon, and we hobbled home minus half a jersey, a sock, half a liter of blood, a hundred square inches of skin, and an idea that we wanted to play football. The next few days we spent in discussing the merits of various liniments, crutches, nerve and vigor restorers, and the number of bones and muscles in our bodies, one boy exclaiming he had five hundred muscles at least, for he had felt every one of them ache. This First practice was the last for most of us,and we soon became interested in other things. October twenty-fourth a meeting of sophomores was held and the class of 1915 organized. At this meeting Lester Palmer was elected President, Kieffer Vaus vice-president, Marie Fischer secretary, and Mildred Lindahl treasurer. X

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WW At the january class hneeting we did someiliin lly novel. We decided to get our class pins while we were yet Juniors, so while e Seniors were display- ing their pins we came forth with our own and the laugh was on them. When baseball time came again Lester Palmer and Leon La Motte were made regulars on the High School team and helped to bring to Johnson the second consecutive baseball championship, and another silver trophy was added to the collection in the office. In April the junior-Senior play, The Winning Chance, was given in the High School auditorium. Lester Palmer, Edna Ohlsson, Fred Howe, Algot Lindahl, Tom Moran, Hedwig Allen, Ambrose Lewis, and Aloysius Spellacy were the Juniors who took part in this very successful production. Lester as Junius, the fat and jolly music teacher, was irresistably mirth provoking, and his vain attempts to produce musical harmony from Sidell's budding operatic stars drew thundrous applause from the appreciative audience. The Juniors' party for the Seniors was held May 1st, in the school gym- nasium. The chairman of the various committees who had charge of arrange- ments were Fred Howe, Hedvig Allen, Ila Saul, Marie Fischer. Those Seniors who did not attend regretted it, for the party became the chief topic in school and remained so for a month. Those who attended will recall with little effort those impersonations, those novel races, and the deceitful quick-change artist. The attempts by people who came in costume to live up to said costumes added greatly to the hilarity of the occasion. Especially good was the portrayal of Inga by Marque Nelson, of Inga's Feller by Elmer Nyberg, of the Mexican by Dalton Salisbury, 'fUncle Sam by Harry Andreason, of Tootsy by Melville Neyer, of a brunette Chinee by Elsie Hoffman, of a Sultan's Favorite by Florence Peterson, Weary Willie by Roy Korfhage, and Master of Cere- monies by Lester Palmer. What time the juniors had to spare was spent in attending the meetings of the jefferson Literary Society and playing tennis on the grounds laid out by the faculty during the Easter vacation. Some of the class went in for extem- poraneous speaking, and a team selected by Miss Moore, class advisor, won for the class a silver trophy offered by the jefferson Literary Society. Lester Palmer and Tom Moran represented the Juniors. This unusually busy and interesting year was completed by the Juniors with their annual dissipation, a picnic at Wildwood on the last day of school. Of course it rained, but that did not interfere with the good time, for the rain, unable to dampen our spirits, soon let up, and we stopped bowling long enough to consume ice cream, lemonade, and sandwiches. The rest of the afternoon we spent recklessly and hilariously, glad that we had passed in our studies, and that we would now face new scenes for the three months best liked by the student, the summer vacation. The last long school vacation for many of us passed all too quickly and Fair Week, and we sprang blithly up at seven, then five, then thirteen steps, turned into a little corridor and into the ofhce to watch the Freshmen being enrolled. We had now arrived at the state we had envied some four years before, and the feeling was a little disappointing. It was not as we had then pictured it. We soon settled down to our routine again and the second week held our Senior meet- ing. Here on September 7, 1914, in room 29, the usual place, the officers for the year were elected-Leif Gilstad as president, Leonard Palmquist as vice- president, Lester Palmer as treasurer, and Paula Doerman, secretary, to relieve Adolph Hoffmann of the arduous work of keeping the class records. The result of the election met with a popular approval of the class, for it realized that it must have in this, its Senior year, officials both stately and wise who could com- mand admiration from the Freshmen and yet write legibly. We are proud of them, even of Lester, whom we cannot imagine as filling any specified require- ment. But console thyself, Lester, for none of them was on the football team, the debating team, the Senior basketball team, nor was captain of the High School