Julia Richman High School - Spotlight Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 16 text:

As the train slowed down, Johnny's eyes roved quickly over the sta- tion. How much had happened since he had last seen it! For a moment, then, he was carried back to the front. Once again the bitter, acrid smell of gunpowder was in his nostrils and again he heard the dull, whining sounds of the battlefield. He lived it all over for a minute, then he shook himself free of the past. Those were things he must not think about, for he was coming home. Home! That word had stood for so much while he was away. It had stood for his family and friends, for all that was good and clean, for peace. That's why he had been fighting. Thatls what had kept him fighting all those weary months-the knowledge that some day he'd be able to return to his home, and all for which it stood. During the last few weeks, though, a doubt had crept into his mind. It had grown and grown until it had turned into fear-fear that his home would no longer be the same-fear that he would not be able to fit into the life he had left behind-fear that there would be no place for him and for those who had walked with him in the shadow of death. The train stopped. There were tears of pride in the eyes of the waiting parents, and smiles of joy on their lips as the grinning lads, still clad in their khaki uniforms, swung eagerly out. Johnny gazed for a moment at the milling crowd. He saw his folks searching eagerly for him. Mom, Dad, Sis, and his kid brother-Gosh, how he,d missed them! Something blurred his eyes, and he pushed blindly forward. It is strange how a fleeting smile or a hug of welcome can change dark uncertainty into security and light. It is one of the intangibles of life and must be felt to be understood. Johnny was certain then, that he would have his place in the future. This, too, he had been fighting for-a place in the new world-a place for himself, and for those who would come after. lim back! he breathed exultantly, reaching out to his family. Fm hackll' A moment later he was engulfed in a flood of joyful tears and entangled in four pairs of loving arms. The gnawing doubts were gone, the fears were no more. Johnny was home. JOAN ABISCH 12

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T T3 l-TBTIKI EHiOMsgt.n '-iv, fohnn T , ,, comes 51 f fl., X. ,r G - . ,Q 't t . marching l , 'Ev A J1 home v m-, ' Johnny is your brother, or your cousin, or, perhaps, the boy whose ufratv pin youlve been Wearing on your sweater. He's not here now. He's out there-somewhere-fighting for his home and his people. He and millions of other Johnnies all over the world are fighting for something else, too. They're fighting for the future. ' They will come back-your Johnny and all those other Johnnies. When they do, the future will rest in their hands and in your hands, and it must-it will-be moulded into something bright and shining. is as vs Pk :af as The band blared a loud welcome as the train pulled into the station, and confetti made gay splashes of color in the Warm spring air. The whole town had gathered round the depot to meet the first group of boys who were returning home from overseas. The first train-load to come back to the town since peace had been declared. 11

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