Kent School - Kent Yearbook (Kent, CT)

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Nav ing Mouse Cutler, and Brandreth. Brandreth suffered a broken arm in the first weeks of the season, and retired gracefully from the scene, but Mouse hung on tenaciously. Gillie's athletic t v Lilies were the benefactors when the entire News Numa Board joined up. plus most of the dramatic society. Lewis, always torn between the use of his face on the boards, and his hrawn on the field, had decided on the sock for this term. and got his exercise by acting as assistant ballerina for Gillie, before his Grimace Hour. We had numerous interclub games of a knock-down, drag-out sort, and finally two outside games. Captain l'iko l'eake's cohorts gained the victory against Berkshire, with Atkin-to-Gardner working beautifully as a pass combination. Against Taft, the foe stood off our late-period attacks and won, but no one who saw that game left the field without the feeling that for plain guts and tenacity, Peake's team was never excelled. For a normally easy- going group, they fought like demons, and we were again proud. Un the evening of the Taft football game, the annual dance was held in the Lower Library. The affair was a great success, and its every detail had been thrashed out with the Chief, who had borne up bravely under the strains of hot arguments about such points as Will the cakes be round or square? The chairman ofthe decorations committee. a fiend for pine sprigs, had done his job well, and the setting was attractive indeed. Birdskin Caldwell tapped some hidden springs of power during the evening, and for some fifteen minutes the assembled guests were treated to the spectacle of Bird, with drawn pale face, and legs going like scissors, dancing madly to the enslaving music of the band. It was at this affair also that Gather ye rosebuds while ye may Gard- ner. heretofore a cynic, lapsed into a world of his own. oblivious of his surroundings. For the rest ofa blustery term. we concentrated on hot tea in the study. During the week, we drank our own rank brew. and then, with cries ofjoy, we sipped Miss Sill's tea of a Sunday. Sunday afternoon in the study was always fun. Either Prickett or Lafferty would be listening to the symphony, and ignoring side remarks by those who yet remained unappreeiative of culture. Child and the Chief did the Sunday crossword puzzle. The Chief held the pencil, and Child reeled off the answers. The rest of us sat around, manipulating our willow ware, and waiting for Figgis to explode, or ribbing Hooper, or bargaining with Miss Sill for more of the heavily rationed sugar. When not in the study, we visited Pater, and drew him out on the days when men were men. Aside from our many bull sessions. we had also a system of musical nick- names. Peckham's was Harry .lambone found a 1DR,,FEgg.,R Rose in Brooklyn . W'ard's was lting-a- dingdingu. which we fondly called an old Cos- saek number. Jock Lafferty had his own theme song, to the tune of Frere Jacques. Wallis had 3 ,,. . SWANHE

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Fino Some of us calne back early for the opening of the term. Uthers came the day before the ,sk deluge, as per instructions. Un one train that day , were Jones and Figgis. lt was hot and dry. and BILL Figgis swore that he had a thirst that was con- suming him. What he would not drink in Dan- bury was not fit for camels. Danbury appeared around the bend. and the thirsty lads leaped off the train. The bartender of the local bistro said tothe handful hardy enough to enter, Hey, boys, where's all yer friends? Figgis and liegs Kerr quietly drank a quart bottle of orange pop. Arriving at Kent. we hastened over to Aunt I'Illen's fora steak repast, and imitated Artie Nicolai with eclat. We were glad to be back. We crossed the bridge to school, received our instructions on how to handle brats, and waited. On the morrow they came, three for every one of us with what seemed legions of twins. We showed them about, and retired to our large rooms, replete with arm- chairs and Hoor-lamps. to consider the situation. Once settled, we looked about us and took stock. Lucian Baldwin was not with us. He had forsaken us for college and cashmere coats. Balsam had disappeared. Bevo Hasbrouck, with a satchelfnl of slide rules, had gone to Yale. Ajax, man of mystery, had disappeared no one knew where. Never more would he wear his seer- sucker suits in the dead of winter, and flaunt his ringing, But Sir, in the face of authority. Harry lNIcKinlay, the galloping one, and his roommate Van Yoast, co- founders of the ADQV, and Algo Uuting Association. were no longer in evidence. Whitely. the long suffering Englishman. was at Williams. Earlius W'ilson, origi- nator of nncounted plots, was at cram school. Our only acquisition had been our new Uaf, W'illiamson. The form was hardly big enough to fill the study, and we found ourselves huddled around the pool of light over the C'hief's desk of an evening, like campers in the Wild West, afraid of the dark region about the magazine table, where only the semi distinct forms of Shaffer, Warren, Vollier. Kerr and Vonnolly could be seen, nnnnbling the rituals of bridge. Nevertheless, our strange form spirit, composed mostly of rampant individualism. and a dislike of doing anything en masse, gave nearly all of us a desire to do our jobs as sixth formers right, even though we were spread thin. Uccasionally however, Bill Nadal would have to get up and point out that to his certain knowledge, the door mats of the Main Building had not been swept fora month. Also. 0. G. Derr was forced to invent worse and worse penalties for lateness to Assembly, and Frere Blair thereby became Kent's own Bulova, and every morning announced the correct time. Biunor: Our immediate hopes lay in some sort of a football season. Athletics were favored with all the old standbys, and some new addicts. includ-

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Wlsnv been ltose 0'Day for many moons. Fodder llod- der even had a cheer all his own. Boyd had the longest name. as he answered grandly to the title FISH of Squirt-me-with-the-skunk-scent. When not active academically. the brothers studiously pur- sued their hobbies. Anson Gardner was now known as Hot , and he had forgotten airplanes and sailboats. Anything that rhymed with moon and June was his hobby. XYhew Buckingham spent his days recounting the feats of his favorite football player. and almost severed relations with his classmates when they intimated that his hero was a flop. Shaffer, when not making bets that he could reduce to 175 pounds, swapped accents with Lewis. Atkin and YYilliamson. the Sequoias of the form, had evolved a check list. replete with red and blue lines. to deter- mine whether their numerous girls had written them lately. Prickett devoted himself to higher things.such as the relativepower that a sixth former can wield. and the degree of ego to be found in his roommate. Symington. Jimmy Crane, member of the Year Book board. struggled manfully with syntax. Lafferty and Lewis just plain struggled in getting the News out every week. Ogden was now playing the violin. He could play any two tunes in ten minutes. Edward Dewey. the lawful president ofthe form. was always on hand to smile. and Is that right. to the amazing assertions of Fodder Hodder. who yearned for a good hot presidential campaign. Bird and Janboy. uninhibited Kentucky boys, had resorted to football pools in their unceasing efforts to wean the public of its dough. Dick Jones and fonnolly manipulated dumbbells in the Library building. they being converts to muscle. Peake and Howe waited like vultures until Hloose Voste left for the Army. and then leaped rabbit-quick into his vacated suite. The second floor south of the library harbored Dick Little and lVierum. Dick will be remembered in Spanish circles as long as there is any distinction whatsoever between the partitive and the general. Opposite this pair lived Swansdown Silvers, whose smiles were as rare as triple plays. and his roommate Vhild, lover of the obscure in culture. Un the other side. Nevill Smythe. photographer of yawning hippopotami. pursued his artistic talents. Harrison Took. he of the easy golf swing. and foe of physics, roomed alone. liuzby. now bringing up his second-form brother in the ways of truth. was another inhabitant of this corridor. In the class room. new vistas were opened before us. In English class. while the rest of us learned all sorts of strange and wonderful things along with our good hard English. Figgis strove desperately to keep his mind unsullied by erudition. The Deacon was always good for an awful tale, and he always made things easier by saying. YYell. these two fellows got 96 and 97 on this test. and rw they graduated with BIS. lhey eouldn't do this problem. No one has ever done it. You have SAPPHIIH-I Iflxq I-Rx