Johnson St Paris High School - Parisian Yearbook (Saint Paris, OH)

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half finished when I left. It is situated south of the Athletic field, between it and Main street. “How about the inside of the building? Don’t suppose there has been any striking there, has there?” “Well no, no ‘striking changes,’ as you say, in things in general but there are some mighty impor- tant advances I would call them. You remember what a miserable little library we used to have, well it has been increased so that when the Normals left, the main library was transfered to their room leaving only special reference books for teachers in the old room. Now both rooms are full— - there must be several thousand books in the whole library.” There is something in the study hall that would certainly surprise you alright. There is a trophy case. I would say about seven or eight feet high and extending clear across the west end of the study hall. The striking feature about it is, of course, its contents. There must be a dozen foot balls painted yellow and black with the score of some big gridiron victory. There are more than that number of loving cups of different sizes and descriptions. And say! listen, I’m not lieing to you either. There is a cup there dated, 1928. I think saying, “First Prize in the Annual State Basket Ball Tournament.” What do you think of that? Some old school eh? But to get back to the for- mer subject of the rest of the building. One thing, they are just a little slow on is their laboratories. Do you know they haven’t yet a regular course in chemistry, just because of the lack of space. The physics class, I hear has to be di- vided and given certain days to use the laboratory so as to accommodate them all. They are plan- ning on converting the seventh and eighth grade rooms into physics labs as soon as the grade build- ing is finished and equipping some of the lower grade rooms as chemistry labs. The halls on the second floor are lined on both sides with lockers. I think they have a locker for almost every student. There has been quite a change in the basement though. There was a gas company formed in the old Burg a few years after we left and they have been burning gas in the furnaces ever since. The janitor’s room was taken over by the manual training department and they moved his things to the large room used to be used for coal. The domestic science girls have also occupied the corner room on their side of the building, putting in a whole new outfit. The gym is the greatest change in the basement. I was told that the old floor got a little rough and an entire new floor was put in. There is a small balcony with two rows of seats at the south end and two stair ways lead to the floor from either end of it. There is a row of seats all the way around and “bleacher” seats at the north end. I expect in all it will seat nearly 300 or 325 people. There are showers and lockers too in each dressing room. They will probably have to arrange for a larger shower room soon. “How about the auditorium, did they make any changes in that? “No, there hasn’t been much of a change. They made the stage a little larger by changing a ven- tilator in the gym and fixed it so that they could shift scenery.” “Wonder where we are. What time is it?” “It’s twelve o’clock, we must be in Pennsylvania by this time.” “Where are you heading for, New York?” “Yes, have to get back to work again. Where you going?” “Oh! I changed at Harrisburg, going down to Washington for a few days.” “Well guess I’d better be hitting hay—so long, see you in the morning.” “It’s getting rather late guess I’d better do the same, good-night.” 68

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What We Hope Will Happen at S. P. H. S OND reader, you have read in our alumni section what has happened in S. P. H. S. in years gone by. The rest of the book has enlightened you as to what is happening now at S. P. H. S. Now let your imagination wander to the smoker of a Pullman car on a Chicago-New York flyer and see what we hope will happen at S. P. H. S. in the future. Two members of Class ’21 meet for the first time in sixteen years (Date—May 10, 1938). “Why hello Cliff, thought you were running the New York Supreme Court.” (Just leaving Co- lumbus). “Well, good-night, Ted, where’d you come from? Sit down here I want to tell you something. Pve just been back home for a few days, first time in sixteen years. How long has it been since you were back?” “Well I was back—let’s see in ’28 just after I got out of school, but it was just between trains. You know father and mother had moved to California just before that and I had to settle up some business. “Things seemed to be booming what little I saw. Tell me about it. Did you see the old school- house?” “Booming? You said it. Why, there are a dozen large factories (more or less), street cars, traf- fic cops and everything. You wouldn’t know the old schoolhouse. Remember how barren the old grounds used to look, no trees, grass or anything else. Well, they are covered with a swell lawn now. The west end of the building is covered with vines giving it an appearance of some stately old university building you have seen somewhere.” That semi-circular, crushed stone drive we used to talk so much about became a reality a year or so after we got out of High School, and say it sure looks fine. There are a row of maples on each side of it all the tvay to the building but there are none directly in front to shut off the view. “That athletic field that was laid out on the east side of the grounds has been completed and it is certainly a peach. There is a regulation foot ball field with a base ball diamond in one corner and a quarter mile cinder track around the whole thing. There is a grand stand back of the catcher’s box and bleachers on both sides of the foot ball field. The base ball diamond is so well drained that they can play on it within two or three hours after a hard rain.” “Well what good will their athletic field do them; Do they use it? It used to be that they would never play anything but basket ball and a little base ball about once in seven years.” “Don’t get in a hurry, old top, you seem to think old S. P. H. S. is still as much of an old fogie as she used to be, but you’re mistaken. Why just the day before I left, their base ball team played the deciding game of a Tri-County High School base ball league. This league was organized this year and takes in High School teams of Miami, Clarke and Champaign Counties. They won the game too, from Piqua, 11 to 12. They had a little celebration after the game, ceremony of presenting the pennant etc. That evening they staged a banquet in the gym, for both teams and I guess they must have had a glorious time from what some of the fellows were saying.” “For both teams? That’s something new isn’t it? We used to almost hoot a defeated team out of town. Remember the night the basket ball team got hooted out of Urbana? Gee ! Bob Taylor was sore that night. But go on tell me about the rest of the grounds. Did they ever do anything more to the play grounds?” “Well yes, they graveled it all over and got some new equipment. You know the school has grown so that they had to do something. The County Normal School outgrew its one room and now have a building of its own across the street.” The whole school has grown so that they were finally forced to buy more land and build a build- ing for the grades and give the old building to the High School. They had the new building about 67

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