Lodi Union High School - Tokay Yearbook (Lodi, CA)

Page 17 text:

 FOREWORD 1 P piCTURE the French army drawn up in pa- rade formation under the clear Egyptian sky. It is the year 1798. Close by, the great pyramids raise their hoary masses. A decisive battle is to be fought presently with the Mame- lukes. With the genius that was his to inspire as well as to lead Napoleon addressed his men in these words: “Soldiers, from the heights of these pyra- mids forty centuries look down upon you.” We have only to travel a few hours to the Mariposa grove of big trees and there, standing by the side of the Grizzly Giant have forty cen- turies looking down upon us. Here are, how- ever, living centuries—for the big Sequoia still flourishes whereas the dead ages somberly gazed down upon the French army a hundred and thirty years ago. Comparing the life of the tree to that of mankind the former can well be taken as a sym- bol of immortality. Generations of men can come and pass on while the tree flourishes in full vigor of prolonged youth. So let the tree, the theme of the 1928 edition of The Tokay be a symbol of the youth and ideals which shall flourish ever fresh in this school, though genera- tions of boys and girls shall linger a short while in its pleasant environs and then pass on out in- to life.