Kinston High School - Kay Aitch Ess Yearbook (Kinston, NC)

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KINSTON HIGH SCHOOL THE KAYAITCHESS NINETEEN TWENTY-FOUR Eighth: To the school-at-large we do surrender, give and bequeath the chance of distinguishing themselves literarily, as several of the members of said class have done, through working for and supporting the school publications with tireless zeal and work. May they come to cherish and protect them in the future as they have cherished and started them in the past. Ninth: l pon the said Junior Class we do place the duty of editing The Connecting Link and the 1925 Kayaitchess. Tenth: Whereas, the Junior Class is a minor by the age of three months, and will not attain the full age of seniority until September, Nineteen Hundred and Twenty-Four; now, therefore, our will and desire is that Mr. Ray Arm- strong, or his successor, as Principal of the aforesaid school, be and is hereby constituted and appointed guardian of the said Junior Class, to have and to hold the custody of their estate until the said Junior Class arrives at the full age of seniority. Eleventh: We do tender, give and bequeath to each of the single-blessed members of the said faculty of the said school one marriage license blank, and as we tender it we exhort them to find a tender one as a companion, so that theirs may be a propitious change to married life. We do solemnly advise them to do away with old pipes-, bachelor-buttons and other acquirements by instinct during their many years of single-blessedness, which have caused them to congregate and start staying in every evening after making such a change. Twelfth: Our will and desire is that all the residue of our estate, of what- soever nature, and whensoever, wheresoever, and howsoever acquired and not herein disposed of, shall be sold by our executor, or his successor, and the pro- ceeds thereof used in the purchase of an individual life-size portrait of each and every individual of this class, said photograph to be placed in the aforesaid building, at present occupied by the Kinston High School, and we do ask the succeeding principal to employ the use of police force, if necessary, to protect these pictures. Thirteenth: We hereby constitute and appoint our beloved Superintendent as «ur lawful and sole executor, to all intents and purposes, to execute this, our last will and testament, according to the true intent and meaning of the same, hereby employing the services of the scrub faculty (viz: the janitors) to en- force the disposition of our property by him — by physical force, if necessary. Fourteenth: We do give and bequeath this item of our constituted will to the support of that good old superstition that thirteen is an unlucky number. In Witness Whereof, We, the said Class of Nineteen Hundred and 1 Twenty-Four, and the testator, have to this, our last and will and testament, subscribed our title and given and bequeathed our support, this sixth day of June, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty-four. [Signed] Class of 1924. — Testator. Thirty-One

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KINSTON HIGH SCHOOL THE KAYAITCHESS NINETEEN TWENTY-FOUR LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT State of North Carolina, County of Lenoir. We, the Class of Nineteen Hundred and Twenty-Four, of the Kinston High School, aforesaid State and county, being sound of mind and in full pos- session of all our faculties, and having reached the desired step, to-wit: Our intellect being broadened and our vision of life considerably widened, realizing that our sojourn here in this memorable High School must soon come to an end, and also that High School quizzes or instruments invoked by that past great terror — the faculty — to perturb and mislead the minds of the young, are of a past age, do make, declare and publish this as our last will and testament, hereby revoking and making null and void all other wills and testaments made previously by us. All assets, rights and privileges that we have acquired, either by the hand of the fates or by our strong-arm of might, we do now dispose of, in the following way and manner, viz: First: We give and bequeath to the Junior Class of said institution the sole rights and privileges of ruling over the largest tract of our estate, bounded on the east side by East Street, on the west side by a high board fence, on the south side by Lenoir Avenue, and on the north side by Vernon Avenue, which is to be disposed of in like manner to its successors and executors. It is to be distinctly understood that their sole reign over the tract shall in no weiy in- terrupt, hinder or harass the rule of the faculty of the said school, over a build- ing, said building being situated in the center of said tract of real estate; and that in the case of the entrance of snow into our sunny Southland, they shall in no way place obstacles in the form of snowballs, et cetera, in the face or figures of the said faculty while they are departing from or arriving at the said building. Second: We do give and bequeath the above-mentioned faculty of said school the privilege of calling on us — their worthy pupils — for any of that infor- mation and erudition gained by constant use of our ingenuity and perseverance. Third: We do likewise bequeath to the said body politic, viz: The faculty of the said school, the distinct privilege of pointing out to the awed multitudes of a future date the fact that we were once their pupils, and with pleasure to watch each upward step of the personnel of the Class of ' 24. Fourth: We do give and bequeath all the sandwiches, whose crusty sides our baby-teeth were unable to penetrate, to the lunchroom. Amen. Fifth: To the Literary Societies we do hereby give and bequeath the explicit duty of replacing the speakers who make their exit, in due form, this year from the K. H. S. Sixth: We do exhort the various and sundry athletic teams of the said school to raise the Red and Blue from its dusty level and wave it on high. Seventh: To those who are not pursuing elusive erudition further next year by entering college, and who have credited themselves with the sum total of learning possible to be obtained within the walls of the said school — congratu- lations. We do bequeath to them the sole rights and privileges to the various and sundry settees, sofas, et cetera, which the male members of said Class of ' 24 have been too often prone to occupy in lieu of the preparation of Latin, or some other unnecessary and hard reality of school life, during evenings. Thirty

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KINSTON HIGH SCHOOL THE KA Y A IT CHESS NINETEEN TWENTY-FOUR CLASS PROPHECY It was in the spring of 1942. I was working in New York at the time, and had been since my graduation from High School in 1924. This special day 1 was feeling blue and wishing I were home. As I walked along the street there came to my ears a famihar sound, one that I had not heard for a good many years; in fact, the whistle that was used among the girls of the Class of ' 24. Turning around, whom should I see but Elise Gray, my old friend. Joyous greetings and exclamations followed. Finally the talk ran back t(; our dear class, that of ' 24. It has been so long since I was hf)me that I have lost track of everyone, I said. Do you know what has become of Grace Wooten? Oh! Elise said, she is married. To whom? 1 asked, Vernon Cowper? No, not Vernon, but another boy from a different part of the State. Vernon used to be crazy about Grace, and when she was married he left for the South Sea Islands to try to find consolation. Dorothy Suggs went with him, and the last I heard of them was that Vernon had built up a great practice among the natives (having studied medicine), and that Dorothy was his invalu- able assistant. x nd Marjorie Hunter? What has become of her since Grace ' s marriage? I asked. Why, Marjorie is now a staid old maid. Plato Collins expressed the wish to be a preacher, after which Marjorie declared that as she wasn ' t fit to become a preacher ' s wife, she would prefer single blessedness to marriage happiness. Plato married someone else, and seems quite happy. Amie Jordan Parham used to want to go on the stage. What has become of this wish? I asked. Elise laughed, and said, Amie is teaching school somewhere out in the country, and has her time divided between the country swains. And what has become of the girl who used to slam Science so hard — Lillah Johnston? I queried. W ell, I guess she ' s sorry for it now. She was married two or three years after her graduation. After six months of married life, I saw in the paper that her husband was trying to divorce her. And the charges! She didn ' t know how to cook, and as a servant was not available, she had to make an effort. The result was — divorce! Poor Lillah! And that Latin brought her to this fate. Of course, you remember Ruth Palmer and Louise Tyndall, don ' t you? (This from Elise.) Sure, I replied. What about them? Louise and Ruth have gone into the millinery business together. Louise does the trimming and Ruth keeps books. I saw something yesterday that surprised me not a little, said I. It was a gigantic picture, sitting before a theatre on Broadway, of Marie Williams. Marie is in the biggest ballet dance hit of the season. Thirty- Two