Lowe High School - Towers Yearbook (Windsor, Ontario Canada)

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The Windsor-Walkerville Technical School Year Book 19 bank and went to the family law¬ yer. She confided to him her plan,, and although he strongly ad¬ vised her against it, she remained firm. At length, he promised to invest her five hundred in the Sec¬ urity Limited, which was at that time selling at a very low figure. A few days later, Betty’s father told her that he had lost all his money in Wildcat Specials and was very near ruin. He expressed a wish that he had purchased Sec¬ urity Limited, for then he would have been very rich. She then had the pleasure of giving him her shares in Security Limited which she had been keeping hidden for this occasion. Together they told the rest of the family, and Betty was heartily praised although she gave all the credit to her hunch. Today, if you are a visitor to Mr. Watson’s house, and wish to start a discussion, you have only to ask any of them if dreams come true, or if they believe in hunches, for Mr. Watson has at last seen the error of his way and no longer gambles in stocks. EVELYN MASRDEN—C3B. -o- WHEN THE LIGHTS WERE LOW LOW Prize Essay, Hilda Haisman. — C3A The Great War was grim and an event of honor and terrible tragedy, but there were many humorous incidents to make life bearable. During the war we lived in the south of England, just 30 miles from London, and we were in much danger of the German air raids, which generally occurred every moonlit night, We always knew when there was going to be an air raid because all the lights were dimmed, and then we would wait and anxiously wonder what the outcome would be. First we would hear our own guns in the distance as the enemy machines came with¬ in their range. This dull boom¬ ing would become louder and louder like the approach of a mighty storm. Then we would hear the droning of the enemy planes followed by dull vibrat¬ ing thuds as they hurled forth their weapons of death and de¬ struction. By this time the planes were getting quite near and then pandemonium broke loose. All the guns which were stationed in our immediate vicinity came into act¬ ion, and with mighty roars, sent their red hot shells into the sky. By this time,. everyone who was abroad had hurriedly taken cover to avoid being hit by the frag¬ ments of bursting shells. Now and again a shrill whistling sound could be heard followed by a hiss¬ ing thud as an unexploded shell fell from the sky and buried it¬ self in the earth. One night, while my uncle was working in the Chatham Naval dockyard, the lights suddenly went out. Of course this was the signal to let the workmen know that Ger¬ man planes were approaching. My Uncle and his pals imme¬ diately groped round in the dark¬ ness to find a place of safety, and crawled under what by its dark outline, appeared to be a steel arm¬ our-plated turret. These gun tur¬ rets are used to cover the big guns on the battle-ships. Inside this structure it was pitch dark, and the men felt absolutely secure. They sat joking, and having a quiet smoke. “Well, Jim,” remark¬ ed one of the men, “I’m glad we’re not out in that racket. This is as safe as the Bank of England.” After the Germans had come and gone and the lights had come on again they crawled out from their retreat. To their surprise they found that they had been cowering under a large black can¬ vas awning, which would have hardly protected them from the fall of a common ordinary brick. As my Uncle was the one who had

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18 The Windsor-Walkerville Technical School Year Book “What? Eighty cents? That’s coming, but can’t you make it twenty cents more? Come folks, come, come, am I offered only a dollar for this kettle?” “Why its nearly new, just take a look and you’ll see for yourself. There, did I hear someone say a dollar and a quarter? That’s com¬ ing on fine, but”- “What. Did someone Isay a dollar and half? Well, that’s bet¬ ter but its worth more. All right folks, its going at a dollar and a half, only a dollar and a half. Go¬ ing, going—sold.” “Of course, young lady, there is a little hole in the bottom of the kettle but you can easily mend that.” -o- HUNCHES Mr. Watson would have been an excellent provider for his wife and two daughter-, except that he had one unforgivable fault. He could never resist the high-powered sales talk of men who wished to sell him stock in imaginary propositions. Consequently, numerous family quarrels resulted, in which the younger daughter Betty, usually took her father’s part against the others. Once Mr. Watson had made a fortunate investment in bonds, and he always used this as an argu¬ ment when his wife and Elsie, the elder daughter, tried to prevent him from investing in some new scheme. He had tried several dozen different stocks since his first lucky buy, and he had always been unfortunate enough to lose his money. No matter how Mrs. Watson and Elsie remonstrated with him, however, he was just as eager to throw away his money the next time. On the last occasion Mr. Watson had been given a gold opportunity , to buy Wildcat Special, which was the best get-rich-quick scheme he had ever discovered. Betty, who had more influence with her father than either her teister or her mother, tried to dissuade him, as she had done on former occasions, but he was determined. Now Mr. Watson was a firm be¬ liever in hunches, and Betty was, too. One evening, Mr. Watson an¬ nounced to his family that he had invested all his spare money in Wildcat Special. Betty worried a great deal over her father that night, and when she finally fell asleep, she had a dream, which she afterwards said must have been a hunch. She seemed to be standing on a deserted road, when suddenly she noticed two strange-looking fig¬ ures coming towards her. As they approached, she discovered that they were made entirely of paper, and they reminded her very much of some of the stock certificates which her father had at home. Each of the figures bore a pla¬ card, one reading “Wildcat Spec¬ ial and the other “Security Lim¬ ited.” As she watched Security Limited begun to dwindle away and finally disappeared altogeth- ed. Betty feared this paper giant, so turning around, she began to run away quickly. She stumbled and fell—then suddenly she was awake in bed, panting. Her dream troubled her greatly at first, and she thought about it a good deal. She told no one, but a plan had begun to form in her mind, and the more she thought of it, the more she liked the idea Mr. Watson had given his two daughters a very generous allow¬ ance and Betty had saved most of hers. Consequently, she had near¬ ly five hundred dollars to her credit in the bank. Finally, she determined to carry out her plan. She withdrew her money from the

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20 The Windsor-Walkerville Technical School Year Book led them to this flimsy protection he came in for a lot of chaff from his fellow workmen. But my most distinct remem¬ brance ot the war was of one dark night when we were in real fear for our lives because a zeppelin, which was making towards Lon¬ don, was reported to be right over¬ head. Our guns could do nothing because the Zeppelin was too high up. It was letting fall several bombs on the off chance that they might do some real damage, as there were no lights and they could see nothing. We were looking out of the window when suddenly we heard the scream of a falling shell. It fell in a garden right across the street from us, but luckily failed to explode. Then we heard the noise of aeroplanes but could not see what had happened because it was so dark. But then, before our eyes, a flash of flame showed in the sky, and like a pillar of fire, the burning Zeppelin crashed to earth. It appeared that two Eng¬ lish aeroplanes had climbed up above the Zeppelin and fired some incendiary bullets, which had the effect of making the Zeppelin burst into flame directly they touched it. Everyone rushed into the street, and we all gave a mighty cheer when we perceived the enemy hurling earthward in a mass of flame. -o—- A NORTH-WESTERN CANAD¬ IAN WINTER One morning in late November 1 awoke to see my room almost in darkness, dreary and cold. I pull¬ ed up my shade and looked out o ' ' ithe window. To my great sur¬ prise I saw that all the world which surrounded me, was one great big blanket of soft and fluffv white snow. It was beautiful. It made me feel almost like a little bunny in his home under the fallen poplar tree, which was just around the corner of the house. I thought of all the fun that we could have now that our long wished for win¬ ter had come. First of all. we would have the fun of cleaning the snow away from around the house, and best oi all. making a little skating rink in the garden for the kiddies. And will they not just adore the little slide we ll make them, or the won¬ derful little Eskimo fashion snow house ? Work before play is our North Western Motto. So we took our shovels and brooms, and walked away to the half mile limit and cleared the rink there. But what fun! Why even the little ones en¬ joyed it, because while we shovel¬ ed and swept we had our skates on. This made it possible for us to do two things at once. We attached to ourselves a pair of sleighs and gave the little ones all the rides they could stand during one day. In the afternoons of most days we would go skating. Friday was our special skating and toboggan¬ ing day. Snow-shoeing was regu¬ lar every Saturday evening. Father and all the grownups around our place would join in. We had the grandest time, while on these part¬ ies. At first just as we entered the hills and forest, we would see just the tiniest trace of a bobbing tail of a rabbit disappearing with his ears up and frightened as though the world were falling on him. A sleeping partridge in the evergreens was quite frequently seen. And on one occasion we were all nearly frightened to death by a hooting owl. When we returned home, although we were a bit tired and a little cold, we were none the worse for the walk, for weren’t we all rosy, smiling and laughing? Why. we were the happiest crowd of people you could ever see. Another of our wonderful sports was cutting down trees in the