Knox School - Rose Leaves Yearbook (Nissequogue, NY)

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November Fifth Faculty-Girl hockey game. just as we often don't understand the mental prowess of faculty, they didn't quite understand how the ball was for most of the game either in or near their goal, which Dingy defended to the bitter end. The game was really terrihc. Durick and Dixon are quite the greatest team of score keepers we've ever seen. At every interlude in the game, they'd tear wildly down the field waving sheaves of rules and blowing whistles. A good third of the playing time was spent in reviving Peet, who at regular intervals throughout the game collapsed on the ground, arms and legs akimbo. Whereupon the faculty, skirts flying and faces flushed with battle fand generous applications of rougej , would rush en masse and hover over her as Miss Merritt administered restoratives. Despite valiant efforts on the part of all faculty concerned, they lost the game but they sure are a grand bunch of good sports. November Eighth Today the old girls went savage and gave the new girls a party equipped with camp fire, peace pipe, and indians. Ginny Pope does a terrific indian dance when occasion warrants, and- she certainly put us in the mood tonight. November Tenth So nice to put on a sweater this morning instead of the uniform blouse that is getting a little feeble in the seams after four years at Knox. The occasion for the sweater was a trip to Canajoharie for a look at the Beech-Nut Plant and the art gallery. Beech-Nut gum has earned our everlasting respect. We'Il never see a stock of it without thinking of those great white rooms packed almost to the ceil- ings with piles upon piles of gum and sifted over everything, walls, floors, machin- ery, powdered sugar . . . powdered sugar everywhere. At one point the smell of peppermint was so heavy and cold in our nostrils that we opened our mouths for a breath and found our tongues with that sweetness of powdered sugar . . . lt was like being in a candy world. I November Fifteenth Ginny, let me see, please . O Chad, you're lovely . But Robin look at my mouth. I'm going to die if Mother doesn't let me have this one for the year book . Yes, the proofs of our graduation pictures came today. Miss XVOod's room looked as it does Class Day when the whole school swarms in, anxious for year books. lt makes you feel so grown-up to pour your proofs out of the envelopes. Then there is that maddening little piece of paper attached to them which covers up' the hrst picture and must be held out of the way in order to see any of them. When you do look, you can't quite believe it's you-and for goodness sake, why can't you look like that all the time? The Dramatic Club put on two interesting plays tonight. Phil Kihn surely loses herself in a character. Deag's makeup was wonderful-she even looked pious, which couldn t have been anything but makeup. November Nineteenth Luggage piled in the Foyer! Classes were spaces of creeping time during which, if you were leaving right after lunch, you crossed and uncrossecl silk stock- inged legs every two minutes and gnawed discreetly on your pearls because you couldn't possibly answer any question in the state you were in. If you weren't leaving right after lunch you tried to concentrate on paragraph 2 - page 56, and not be reminded of a million glamorous memories which the perfume of the girl next to you kept bringing to mind. You wished just as much as she that lunch was over and that she was well on her way to wherever she was going. Lunch was politely looked at, and escaped from as quickly as the hostess would excuse you. If you were leaving, you said, No, thank you to everything offered. If you weren't going away, you nibbled lettuce and wished that you were. November 'I'wenty4Sixth They're tearing down the house next door. The old red brick house, No, it never was very good looking. Rather drear, all empty and closed in the winter. But we remember a little old gardener who used to putter around the back yard about the middle of every April. I-le never seemed as if he were doing anything: but before graduation that yard was fringed in the bright. gold of daffodils, and crimson tulips made a pool of color in the green lawn. We remember it in the fall when the old iron gates to the driveway were open and cars came and went before the front door. The people were just closing it when we came back and somehow we've always liked it. lt's just an association with Knox. jackie Byrne won a poster contest for the Chinese Relief the other day. December First Take account of your time. Read the exam through carefully. No one is to ask anything about her exams until Friday in classes. Rising bell at seven thirty and those nasty little white squares of blotters, never quite large enough. I saw Miss - at lunch and she gave me the queerest look! That fifth question - . . . EXAM WEEK IS UPON US. December Third We take out a moment here from writing the past subjunctive of 'aller' to write of queer weather and a queer day to go with it. All week it's been like this. Cloudy and warm to the point of sluggishness. No rain but fog - a crawling dimness over the hills and lake - and today amid the weird wailing of a fire alarm came Dana's gruesome discovery at Council Rock. December Fourth It is over, that four days of exams is done with, and now we sit around and picture exactly where we made mistakes in that translation, and out of a clear sky we suddenly remember the correct meaning for that idiom we missed. j Things seem more normal' now. vVe all went to the movies tonight. Radios and Vics are once more being commissioned to hll the spare moments. 83

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PENNY'S DIARY September Twenty-Fourth September 24th, with a few red leaves falling against the big! white front door. As we open the door we feel that familiar glow of expectation and then through the confusion of bewildered new girls and shrieking old ones we see the lake beyond the porch doors. The sight of it unchanged brings a feeling of home even more than the sudden avalanche of familiar faces and voices that bear down on us impatient with greetings. September Twenty-Ninth Despite a few random moments when we wish we were back in the middle of summer, the routine has us well in hand. Physical exams over, schedules straight- ened out, books acquired, and the first weekend past. Gilbert Lake was as gay as ever with its last fling of summer revel. The leaves wore their brightest flame as we walked around the lake chatting incessantly and dribbling eskimo pies in our wake. Coming home in the bus, hoarse from laughter and singing, tired inside and out, we saw through contented eyes the autumn hills wrapped in tattered rags of brown and gold, and dreamily watched the late afternoon shadows slip softly down the emerald hills. It was good to be back. 1 For some reason the choosing of the teams brings upon you a definite urge to slap everyone on the back and make as much noise as possible. Never do your team mates look more fellowly and never do the new girls forget their self- consciousness and smile with more assurance. Many friendships are begun on October Tenth It rained all night. Today the blackness of the tree trunks only brings out the quiet gold that seems to be in everything. Lake Street is hung with it, shut- ting off the sky. It Hutters glittering in the mellow sunlight and sifts across your footsteps with crispy whisperings. The lawn outside our window is adrift with it, and every sigh of the warm wind draws it in greater hoards from the clutching fingers of the tree. Today is a thing of vagrant crow calls and wet patchy sunligh ton the hills. Still that breathless warmth lies heavily in the breezeand into the blue, like a sudden frown on the brow of heaven, trample great thunderheads and down pours the rain, heavily, without aim, seemingly without purpose. Through the dripping woods comes the high harshness of crow calls. On our walk through the woods, we found in a moss-dulled weepy little nook a tree with leaves like transparent honey all fresh from the rain. We'll always remember that little tree because we could never find it again, and because suddenly, amid the darkness and wet silence of the forest, it reminded us of a Greek girl who fled from love and turned into a tree. Daphne rootbound that fled Apollo . October Nineteenth Strange how quickly the leaves go now. The tops of the trees in front of school are now bare. Their slim boughs rub together in the wind and creak pitifully. This afternoon we sprawled under an apple tree, and watched the wind trail across the lake making dark blue shadows of ruflied water skim along, seem- ing to melt into glass, in which trembled jacket flames of trees along the shore. VVe talked of school and averages and of each other, of England and fall clothes. The sun was wonderfully warm there in the grass under the apple tree and we were lotlt to come home to study hall. October -I-wemynrst The first Scribblers Club banquet, and it was lovely: We had a wonderful evening. Mrs. Houghton told us fascinating stories. October -1-wemyfifth that first Saturday night. This morning we were aghast to see the space between our window and the evergreen tree white with Hying snow. Snow we thought. The thought found voice and we called it out while people's voices contradicted and denied and finally yielded to the unmistakable truth, lt was actually snow and then while it whipped across the window blurring the evergreen, we knew our summer memories just didn't belong any more. Fall and its vibrant Hood of ripeness had faded. . Riding Club banquet. Madatne's humor is inimitable as always. Special Class, exemplifying the highest riding achievements at Knox, looked wonderful today. One of the pictures we'll take away with us is of Special Class with their heads up and a frosting of stock under their chins. Special Class with their yellow collars and their gleaming boots. Special, with all its special honor and distinction. October Twenty-Ninth The last of our Rose and White Hockey games played off today on a cold, hard field. The Roses won, making the season theirs by a victory of three out of three. Alby is a little show all by herself on the field .... Mady emerges from the infirmary tonight with her arm in a sling and a certain bone to pick with the bucking two-year-olds at the stables. t U This afternoon we heard someone counting the days from now until Thanks- giving and from Thanksgiving until Christmas, and we got a queer feeling that we must haveimissed half of this month. Certainly time doesn't go that fastl October Thirty-First This was a week of tension during which the K.A.A. wore their arm bands and put the sternest aspects of their duties squarely before us,. and in which we either made or unmade our averages. Came the Ghost party like an orange and black splash on a flat, dreary horizon. 82

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. December Seventh Today was a typical Sunday at Knox,-almost .... It was four o'clock. Betty was washing her hair. YVe sat beside the tub, our feet on the sink, the Art History book open in our lap. We watched the cold wind play wirh the sifting snow. We saw it shove aside the branches of a tree and heard the rattle of the pane as it pushed against the window. Betty spattered water on the Art History book and applied the spray to a sudsy head. Carol came in, apparently from Tuck, a half- eaten candy bar in one hand. The other hand took us in in an exaggerated gesture, her eyes were wide. We're at war with japan, they've bombed Hawaiil The spray suddenly went limp and collapsed on the bottom of the tub. From beneath a mass of sopping hair came Betty's voice, rather wet around the edges but never- theless dehant. I don't believe it. But it's on the radio! With that bleak explanation Carol departed. I looked at Betty, who was slowly wrapping a towel around her head. Those kids are alarmists , she said, and we looked at each other w d ' 'f d' ' . on ering 1 ra ios were too December Eleventh ' Once more the ladders standing around the foyer, and the strong smell of pine, keep us constantly aware that Revel is almost here. We were ,up lat.e last night going over and over the dances. Some of those tunes we shall never get out of our heads. This is one of many such things that make Knox Knox. The world changes, years of rumblings, and now warg and still, as in every other year, the pine needles are sprinkled over the foyer rug and the little Christmas trees line the hall from the library to the dining room. The newspapers shout death on a hundred fronts, and yet we sing 'Hey for the Holly' with that little breathlessness at the end of the chorus. Revel makes us remember that festivity still lives in this world' December Fifteenth Shrieks of childish laughter . . . trays of pink ice cream . . . Ribbons, boxes, paper and toy-heaped chairs . . . a crowd of eager faces . . . The Chilclren's Christmas Party. January Tenth Once more we face the long winter term, which seems to stretch an infinite line of week between now and spring. The ,sharp clap-clap of ski boots echoes on the stair cases now on afternoons. From our gym, ieachng straight across the golf course in a long crisp trail, go ski tracks cut sharply into the creamed snow. The ski hill rises white and curving, covered with moving figures. january Twenty-Seventh Y'Ve're still getting over the blow the weather man dealt us at Placid last week- end. After being so careful about tags and addresses and not getting them mis- placed or put on the wrong train, we had no use for our skis, as there wasn't enough snow to make it worth while putting them on. Outside of this we had a lovely time. Northwood was its usual genial self and the Placid Club was as vast and enchanting as alwaysg so we really didn't miss skiing too much. Watching the jumping at Intervales made us forget our own prowess any way. February Sixteenth Late Friday saw crowds of people collected in the foyer having tea and as usual the sound of men's voices ann the smell of cigarettes struck a note that is caught only at Carnival. Friday night more men's voices from the assembly room, where the Union College Glee Club gave a marvelous concert . . . 'Phones jangling' upstairs and flower boxes piled on the desk . . . The rustle of evening dresses and the tall black and white of men in evening clothes . . . Orchestra music fading down the halls, and the last good night at 12:15 in the foyer. Saturday the Horse Show, and Madeleine Raymond winning the cup . . . Sherry's jammed for tea in the late afternoon . . . The carnival at night with Sheila's skating club taking over the part the whole school used to play and doing it beautifully . . . Dancing in the assembly, with the men in ski clothes dancing in their socks. - Sunday morning and people going out to breakfast .... Sunday afternoon, quiet, wilting corsages on cold window sills . . . hurting feet and tl1e thought of the work to be done before the morning classes . . . Carnival, a wonderful weekend. February Twemylighth Knox is beginning to look like a convalescent home, Ducky on her crutches, Phil Kihn recovering from appendicitis, poor Barbara Keppel, her arm constantly in a sling, suffering in silence, and today Lydia sprained her ankle on the ski tow. March Eleventh Only one more day to go and they'll be over. This morning before breakfast the tables outside the entrance to the dining room were a litter of books and notes. A couple of brilliant people dropped knitting into the general confusion. We haven't dared to appear in public this week with anything in our hands but books, and we envy people who can.kn1t at this point. April Eleventh There was snow this morning when our select little group met in the foyer. Did we have our sharpened pencils, No. 2's preferably? Did we have our glasses? Did we have anything in our heads that we needed for the seven hours of achievement test before us? lt didn't seem so. Tonight we go to bed, hoping against hope that Smith, Vassar, Bryn Mawr and Holyoke aren't as stiff as we're afraid they are. April Thirteenth Senior pledge tonight. 'We know now the feeling of truly belonging to Knox. We know now the importance of things before us. We feel, perhaps for the first time, how very much we'll miss this all and how much it's meant. More than that though, we see what it will mean and how vital these years have been. ' April Twentieth The redwing blackbirds are back. They dropped down in a clump of trees beside the tennis courts one afternoon last week. The crew shells are out on the lake, sliding along on the breeze, smooth and free, with only an occasional splatter of water. A 84