Kent School - Kent Yearbook (Kent, CT)

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DEECK verse activities above mentioned galvanized, for the most rart into football. The dissenters, such l o as Jimmy franc, .lock Lafferty, .lim Vhild, who studied the science of touch football as a scientist does astronomy, J. S. Boyd, and the ever lethar- .lusr I'i,,us .lm gic Brandy Brandreth, who was dubbed Harmon by the scotfers, played for Gilliarn's Vommandos. Wallis, Hooper, Howe and Peake were snapped up by the first team. The residue went to the second team, and some, including Little Budd Ogden, sifted down to the juniors. It was a good football season, culminating in a trip to Taft, which, although the game was lost, gave most of the fifth form a chance to cadge rides in genuine automobiles, while the proletariat rode in busses. Sunday, December 7, 1941, was a gray, dirty day, and we sat about the buildings moping, slinging hull in a bored way, or sleeping. During the afternoon, Hose 1Vallis came down the hall, and said, Well, boys, the .laps are bombing Pearl Harbor. Sure, Rosie, we said, that's a hot one. It was a hot one all right, as we soon found out, and realized to the fullest the next morning when we gathered in job as- sembly to hear President ltoosevelt's speech. At first, great excitement swept over us, but we soon calmed down, and became quiet and angry. All of a sudden, the cryptic little notices in the paper about men lost in battles over Europe, and the warnings of our English classmates came back to us. Within the next few weeks, the swift changes in the country and the confusion in lvashington, might have fazed us completely if it were not for the help and understanding of Father Vhalmers, who made us realize that our job was at Kent until the government told us where to go. 1Ye began to see the job that faced us then, and the job ahead in sixth form year. 1Yhcn we came back for the winter term. after a vacation spent in admiring female charm, we fell to producing an epic drama. The Girl From India, a product of Pater's active mind. We were particularly honored in being allowed to produce this play, as usually they come but once every three years. and the class of 1941 had given a renowned exhibition only two years before. With Pater's scheme, and willing hands, the tale of love among the Himalayas was given on the auditorium stage. Joe l.ewis played the part of a middle aged secretary to a high-pressure business- Inan, with bird feathers for hair, and an awful Bronx accent. Vutler, attired in a sheet and his imagination. was Gandhi. Sabu 3 bumps and a grind that'll shake the second balcony franc was the heroine, and Fido Phelan gave an amazing im- personation of Tinny lfakah, the hater of cold, Drum whose watch word was lt's cold as a balm in here. We had a racy chorus line, with Earlius 1Yilson. ltame Harris. Dick Jones. and Frere Blair as the babes dressed in costumes thought E, . .I ERE

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Q H game played in an atmosphere far removed from the old-time gambling fests which we held of yore. Bame Harris was constantly being mis- taken for a second former, except when in class. e WHOSE GIRL IS THAT? Bergamini, the pre-historic, lay like the Vardiff giant on his bed, in the corner room of the Dining Hall, and talked learnedly of the different smells and noises of milk cans at five o'clock in the morning, and airplane engines, and cameras. Bevo Hasbrouck was, after four years, still explaining Einstein. lYilliam Harrison Took was still taking pains to be completely fog-bound in Latin Class, sending llr. Humphreys into convulsions of rhetoric. Frereo Blair was none other than Frereo. Figgis was constantly tormenting Humphreys, with new and more awful nicknames springing from his fertile brain every week. Figgis himself had acquired a couple of nicknames that caused him to snarl like a trapped animal whenever they were mentioned. ltlonkey Dickson was developing poise, most of the time. Benny Balsam, charter member. and connoisseur of the nether-world, was so absorbed in his New York contacts and loud ties that he had almost forgotten us. Bridgeman, red-headed, and always draped in a natty pin- stripe, was the sports-loving roommate of Howe. Brandy Brandreth, he of the sus- piciously heavy pack-basket, he who knew the local Coca Cola dealer well enough to get reductions on the price per case, roomed with Buckingham, angular cultivator of the Tennessee walking horse. Scudder Boyd was still in business, except that now it was fine furs instead of trunks. Boyd had formed a syndicate, with S. Boyd as president and treasurer, and various lower form hangers-on, including the fabulous Smoky Stone, as skinners of skunks. Boyd was, with the exception of Cliff Loomis, the most acute mail-order businessman in the school, and occasionally received letters to the general effect that the writer had been in business twenty years, and had never been called no liar by no young whipper-snapper yet. This never plussedfif that be the opposite of non- plussedfour Scud, who made substantial profits every quarter. Now, as we leave the specihc, and turn on into the general, let us consider for a moment the case of Ajax Jones. Oh, Ajax, how regally did he wear his crown of ver- satile corruption. Lewis has vouched for the beauty of the sob stories he wrote when he should have been listening to words of wisdom. Ajax himself proposed to a high official a mass fight between the fifth and sixth forms. for the avowed purpose of unifyiing the fifth form. When his room was raided, and practically the entire wains- coting stripped off in search of secret panels, Ajax was not angry: he merely said ruefully, Well, if .lock they'd only asked me the combination, they wonldn't have had to rip up the floor, too. During that crisp autumn of 1941, the di- Lacs

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NIPS up by Mmes. Humphreys, Julier, and Nadal. and curves courtesy of AYright and llitson. The faculty took Randolph P. Teupercent. and his sou, Bunnydnster. a playboy with a yen fora LITTLE BWP hen. in good part considering their avowed scurrility. Athletically, the Wallis Aggies, slowed down with age and care, were still in existence. Peake and Monkey Dickson were on the first hockey squad, Fatty Atty Lambkins and Ted Bridgeman on the basketball team. and the iudefatigable Laurie Hooper and Jerry Howe were our wrestling maiustays. The fans got a double treat at one wrestling match, when in the midst of a bout during which Jerry was trying foot- ball tactics ou a wily foe, a whole stand collapsed, trapping some of the brothers. After winter examinations came spring vacation, and a rest while the weather changed from slush to green grass. Then, as spring came upon us, and Gillie once again wafted out flies to the faithful. and the crews hit the river, and the tennis eu- thusiasts rolled aud scraped, we began to think for the first time of the noble life of a sixth former. After a series of talks with Father f'halmers. we decided to be a tough bunch, and try to do the job of running the school right. Our immediate interest, how- ever. was not in the theory of being a sixth former, but in the practical issne of' what color the rock was to be painted. There were long. soul-tearing fights in study hall, with many combinations advocated and fought for fiercely. The gangling figure of Fod the Hod was everywhere, urging on the legions of' politicians who wanted helio- trope and mauve or magenta. in place of commonplace colors. lied and white was decided on after it was found out that a flashing airplane silver would not be available. f'omiug into job assembly. the fateful morning. we had carefully arrayed ourselves in the oldest, most tattered clothes imaginable. As usual, Aus Garduc-r's short shorts, ex- posing a wealth of shapely calf, took honors for abbreviation. After a panting job assembly, the fifth form was dismissed, and we beat it down past the incinerator. with Howe and Humphreys trying to strangle each other with the rope. and others demand- ing that the paint cans be opened immediately. lest it be found too late that we were gypped. After an arduous climb, tough on our Wednesday-night meeting lungs, we slung the rope about the cross. and set ourselves to the task of shaping our three. Bevo llasbrouck shared the honors of the first hour or so with ltose Wallis, who grew so attached to his Mona Lisa effect on the numerals that there were mntterings before he relinquished his post to the next man. Bevo was. that day, a fly. We will swear it. lle walked up. down, and sideways over that precipitous rock face all morning, rescued the white paint when the can tipped over, and only fell once. He rolled .lox-: Bu. Dick