Kalona High School - Centerika Yearbook (Kalona, IA)

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Spring fever is like a Ford, one doesn’t feel like doing anything. One lags around the house, since one is too lazy to move or work. A Ford also lags around like a man with spring fever. AEN Spring fever is like an animal in hibernation. Also it is like a dormant door, swinging only when it has to. People who catch this disease are never seen doing strenuous or unnecessary work. W. S. Spring fever is like a contagious disease. It is like paralysis creeping up on you and taking away all ambition. It seems as though it were the lull before the storm. It catches a person unaware like a cat. It has different symptoms like the flu and has a variety of results like the measles. M. F. Spring fever is like hay fever. It comes every year just as Santa Claus does. When one should be working he is lying around li’e a bear in hiber- nation. This is very monotonous. Gai Spring fever is like a contagious disease be- cause it spreads very rapidly. It causes people to become tired or ambitionless. The best cure for such a disease is to sleep until one feels “fit as a fiddle’ to start work. The disease usually lasts long enough to make a person feel foolish. hee ie Spring fever is like a contagious disease. One likes to watch other people work, but he, himself, is fond of the shade seeking habit. One good thing a person gets out of spring fever is catching up on sleep and obtaining more knowledge from the daily newspapers. The best cure is to wait until winter comes. ames Spring fever is like the life a lazy negro leads. It gives you the feeling that doing nothing is fun. It makes work seem impossible. LK: Spring fever is to hay fever as day is to night. There are times when hay fever is monotonous as spring fever is tiresome. Both make you feel dull. ars Informal Letters Kalona, Iowa March 26, 1941 Dear Betty, This is the most beautiful spring day of 1941. The blue sky with large fluffy clouds floating through it seems to recall to my mind a vivid inci- dent, which will go down as history in the diary of Center High School. It was a surprise party for our English teacher, Miss Thomas, who was married in June. Miss Thomas treated us all to candy bars one day, so, we students, wishing to be just as nice to her, planned to surprise her. And surprise her we did. For nearly three weeks we carefully made plans for the party only to have them interrupted by the weather. We set the date of the party for a week later. The day arrived and our hearts beat with anxiety for that evening, to our disappoint- ment, we learned that Miss Thomas was going to her home in North English. Our hopes vanished for now the party would be delayed longer. Mrs. Swartzendruber, realizing what distress it would bring to us, cleverly planned a way in which to keep our teacher from going home. And so after many days of planning we were able to have our party. Was Miss Thomas surprised! She stood and stared at us for a moment not knowing whether it was real or whether she was dreaming. We had fun, of course, but today the after effects of the party are PAGE 22 showing on all the pupils’ faces. We will probably go to sleep before the day is over. Write soon and tell me all about what has been happening to you. Your cousin Kathleen Kalona, Iowa March 26, 1941 Dear Ardis, Are you still journeying to school each morn- ing; how do you like it? Yes, I’m still in school, struggling with algebra problems and enjoying’ it. Isn’t it great that we have schools and are able to attend them? Since our chief tools in school are books, I’ll tell you how I feel about them. Some books are to me as friends while cthers are as enemies. These so-called “‘enemy’” books may be compared to soldiers who use camouflage to hide themselves. They look safe on the outside while un- der the cover they are dangerous and harmful. My schoolbooks and many others, are my friends. I would appreciate a letter from you giving your opinion on this subject. Sincerely Irene Brenneman

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Reminiscences In the loneliest part of a small Tennessee valley stands a desolate, forsaken house. Its small green shutters hang limply on their hinges and the creak- ing old door stands open. Inside this house cobwebs may be seen anywhere. A musty odor fills the house. Its walls and ceilings are stained with the rain which seeps through the cracks everytime it storms. An old fireplace in the far corner shows signs of crumbling. This house was not always so unhappy for years ago it had spent many a happy day watching and sheltering an old man, his wife, and four curly head- ed children. Those were happy days and the o!d house would often smile to itself as it watched this happy little family. Its roof and windows wer= always decorated with roses. But since then the family moved to town and left the house alone in the valley. If one listened closely he could often hear the house sigh or sob as it looked at its tattered doors and windows, all the time thinking of the happy days gone by. You won’t let your house be sad, will you? Bee Ye 4 Ou Graduating On May the fourteenth a great event will take place in the lives of eight people. An event for which they have toiled four years and to which they have looked forward with great anticipation. To them, in their fancies, it was to be a great day, a sunshiny, flower bedecked, gloriously happy day—a day when labor and realities would cease and life would begin. These were their dreams. Reviewing the four year’s course, would any of us have believed then that our dreams would soon be forgotten, that life did consist of reality? That inevitable day draws nigh. Some will be glad, others will regret the ending of the course. On that mor- row we are our own. Do any of us know what re- sponsibilities, what troubles, what happiness, joy, or sorrow that we shall have to face? We have pre- pared to live. Soon our preparation period will be over. A question comes up—Are wo prepared enough to bear life’s burdens? For my part, I am glad that the course is end- ing. On the morrow our opportunity comes to help others to more of life’s abundance. Surely if each of us can remember that our lives were lent for noble deeds, we can be glad for the commencement. Should we aim for success? Shouldn’t we aim more for serving humanity? If we can find joy in help- ing others, surely life cannot be so great a problem as we might have thought. I also regret the course’s ending. I remember my great-grandfather saying when I was a very PAGE 24 small child, ‘“‘These are the young years of your life and they are the best, so make the most of them.” On the day when I receive by high school diploma, childhood has ended. No more can I dream for plea- sure, no more can I dream of great palaces and courtyards, no more can I dream of long travels, of visiting my ancestral land—beautiful Ireland. My childhocd has ended. At the present America stands on the verge of a great crisis. But America has a far greater prob- lem on her own back door than the political prob- lems which form an international puzzle. America must moralize her pecple. If one looks around him, he may well see that the American people are too flippant, too emotional and impulsive. They let their liberties lead them in “the way of the world.” They lack a good backbone. No longer do you hear boys hoping to grow up to be president of the United States. Instead, they want to grow up to have fun. The question is: Can democracy stand without someone backing it up and can it remain for peopte who care little for it, other than that they can do as they please, without it demoralizing the rest of the world? It is a point we must vitally consider. We are eight. If we can go into the world of tomorrow, not for getting alcng alone, but rather to help humanity, then, aren’t the sacrifices made for our education worthwhile? BM. E48