Kent School - Kent Yearbook (Kent, CT)

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f' when they came out on Alumni Field for the first game. They put up a great fight against the f blue and white jerseys, and two-tone grey pants 1 Union freshmen, and only lost because of a heart- breaking last-minute play in which Johnny Ash- b , v, f' vi rf J fb -ZEVE mun caught a pass and was declared out of the end zone. The rest of the season was successful, including revenge on Taft, and a tie with f'hoate. W'e had waited so long for a win in this game that we would have pulled a Doctor Faustus for the victory, f'.O.D. and no questions asked. That was the last game the school ever played with fhoate, and yet it was a merry group that piled into the busses and prepared for the annual Grit thar fustest with the mostestu on the stores lining the route to Kent. Graham W'aldo, who was later to kill the grass outside of his window with tobacco juice, and horrify Bill the Barber by swiping his cigarettes half-smoked, did himself proud on this occasion with three black Porto Rican cigars. He tired of these however, and smoked Salada tea the rest of the way back. Athletically, we had Jerry Howe, Tom W'allis, and Raving Dave Peake on Tote W'alker's undefeated second team. The lull after the football season was spent chopping wood, and playing poker with Richardson. who claimed he had never seen the game played before, but made enough to buy all his Vhristmas presents on the train trip to New York. Vollier was still crowding on the steam in the exams, and we were content to let our marks andhis average passing. Snow was lying deep in the valley, and Begin the Beguinen was being played in the Bell Tower, as the School filed across the bridge for Christmas vacation. The battle of Britain had been fought and won over the skies of England. General W'inter looked down from Algo on Laurie Hooper and Ted Bridgeman. playing on the first wrestling and basketball teams respectively. Laurie was soon dubbed the Super Hooperman after cracking every rib in sight. It was he who started the custom of carrying Kent's opponents back to the locker room when they couldn't walk. Ted Bridgeman looked. talked. and smelled of basketball all winter. He and Laurie were the form heroes for some time. Not to be outdone, President W'allis rallied his forces for the famous W'allis Aggies, which by now were synonymous with Murder Incorporated. Wallis and his pals. Vonnolly, Little. and liergamini, had evolved a new system of body-checking through the boards instead of over them. Another undefeated season was the result. There were exams at the end of the term. contrary to expectation, and the sur- prised brothers were forced to strive their utmost to pass. This term also saw Fido l'helan's term C iuaasrn Swat' essay effort. which involved getting up at ll :30 at night and working straight through until breakfast. Richardson was chortling happily WEEK s REX IEW

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The term closed with more exams. and more amazing marks by Bob Vollicr. dean of the scholastic prestidigitators of the school. Little if tried to gain publicity by reviving the old gag CMM MOUSPI about throwing stuff into a suitcase and closing it. and cutting off whatever hung out. in the in- terests of appearance. No one paid the inventor any attention. and Little retired fiustered from the scene. The winter brought hockey to the third form with a vengeance. Three teams hit the ice, the first, and second form teams, composed of professi nials, and the W'allis Aggies, led by Mad Tom Wallis. president of the form. No one knows what happened to the first and second teams, but Tom's flashing six. playing a game that resembled golf more than hockey, went through an undefeated season. With the spring term of third form year came athletics, and in that field of extra- curricular aetivity we were only fair. Jerry Howe. he of the Neapolitan mane, made the first baseball team. The third form was represented in the annual crew regatta by two organizations which may have looked smooth elsewhere, but resembled an aggre- gation of hiccuping playboys on the river. We retired for the summer with good grace, to whistle over the German progress in France, and at girls as a matter of policy, we being on the verge of manhood. W'hen we came back for fourth form year, certain definite trends began to show themselves. W'e were quartered in the new library building, which we all considered great, under the guidance of Bassett, Brewster, Tapscott. Burnham, Klaus and fross. We had with us numerous Englishmen, including the honorable Vere Harmsworth, who was an English peer, and suffered therefor, and also Michael John deltougemout Richardson, who roomed with Symington, a cast-oft' from the class of 194-2 who had spent some time in St. Louis, trying to grow a normal head of hair. ln Fall Term of that year, the full genius of Janboy Harvey flowered into evil luxuriance. Every type of gambling game known to man fiourished in John's shaded little den on the first floor. Birdskin Caldwell, an enthusiastic roommate, was pressed into service as an assistant dealer. Even the great Hank Elser of the fifth form came down and played with us. At the center of the mad whirl sat Harvey, a green eyeshade over his face, his impas- sive tone sounding flatly over the room: Place yore bets, gentsf' However, Jan's roulette wheel and croupier's rake were confiscated by the authorities, and we stuck to poker, craps, and a game played by guessing numbers on a painted shirt cardboard. This game evidently did not have the odds fixed right, as Jan lost a goodly sum before revising MONKEY M AC them, whereupon we would no longer play with him. That fall the first football team was wearing

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Nlwwi Rmn during this period. being a charter member of the Lower Library Late Lights Study Club, and having easy access to the Encyclopedia Britan- nica, from which he copied all assigned work word for word. Bronx Park was wont to put a sixty on these gems, with the remark. Yes, Richardson, they're good, but they're familiar. Spring came slowly, and left the field below the North Dorm covered with large cakes of Honsatonic ice, which were whisked away on work holidays. lt was not long, however, before tennis, crew, and the Naughty Nine were flourishing. Dogmeat Ellis. prefect par excellence, wore out several pair of athletic store gumshoes chasing up itlount Algo, and when he finally nabbed the catch, the dust bowl behind the Library Building was transformed into a lovely scenic park. Soon there came the time of council elections. There was much controversy over whether the intentions of Ajax Jones, the ex-exponent of forced horticulture. were on the up-and-up. It was finally decided that the revolution could wait, and W'allis, Dewey and Howe were re-installed in the rear seats of Study Hall for the last month of the year. We were present at the rainy resignation of Pater, and the advent of Father Chalmers, but. truth to tell, we didn't hear many of the speeches because we were too busy watching the little photographer put flashbulbs in his camera, and count the house. Also, liew Baldwin won the History prize, and created quite a disturbance by skipping the festivities, an unheard of occurrence. As the last game of Nigger Baby ended in front of the dining hall, and Jazer McClain, the class of 1941's top buglist, played taps to the incoming sixth form, we packed our belongings for another summer at home. Greaser Vook disappeared down the State Road toward Litchfield, suburb of Torrington, in a cloud of dust, and we were once more separated. to loll to our heart's content, and watch the progress of Hitler into Bussia in the late summer. The summer of I9-t-1 was spent in sunny surroundings. None of the brothers did anything but loaf. to the best of our knowledge. W'ar was a far-away quantity which could never reach the shores of the good old t'.S.A., no matter what fluff-guff W'hite- ley, or the Honorable Vere, or Richardson, or llavenshaw-the English-said about You Ameddicans will be in ere long, you know. W'ith September came fifth form year. We returned leisurely, in no hurry, watched with disdain while the lower formers scurried about, and settled into rooms in the Dining Hall and the Auditorium. There has been a lot of talk made as to how the fifth form looks forward to the sixth form, and down upon the lower forms. This is only half true. The fifth form looks down on A Iior ciARTERS both the sixth form and the lower forms. It con- lincarn tinually, in the first two or three days of the term. has its bigger brothers sirred by the lower 5 Q