Lyman Hall High school - Singer Chronicle Yearbook (Wallingford, CT)

Page 29 text:

The musical organizations then had a chance to show their talent at the annual Spring Concert. Arlene Stanio, the Lily Pons of Lyman Hall, and Ellen Hall, playing her harp, made the pauses between instrumental numbers very enjoyable. The choir, proud of their new choir robes, sang as they had never sung before. Milly and Helen then put their heads together and produced the great masterpiece, “How Our Mothers Took Shorthand. It included lots of corn and loads of laughs. The whole thing went over big with the student body. Then came Pearl Harbor, a day we shall never forget. That stab in the back aroused the hatred and the anger of the American people, and “Remember Pearl Harbor became the battle-cry on the fighting front and on the home front. War bonds and defense stamps were introduced about this time, and we all did our utmost to support this drive. We almost didn’t have our “prom” in the armory, but luck was with us, and we managed to have it as usual. Hopes were high but gas was low. Plans were made and committees were chosen, Wallis Boyd acting as general chairman. The orchestra was solid and gave Pepper Daney and Crumpie a chance to show their stuff. The “prom” left us satisfied with our junior year, and we decided it was time for a vacation. Three months would be sufficient. We weren’t fussy. Seniors at last! It was a fight against great odds, but we all made it. We were still part of that happy-go-lucky crowd that had entered four years ago, but somehow it was different. Our country was at war, and in addition to our school work, we all had part-time jobs, trying to do our part to help the war effort. Most of us didn't have too much time to take part in all the extra activities that make up an enjoyable social year at school. Again we picked class officers. Our choice for president was George Dunn, then a civilian, now in the Air Corps; Bill Lanzoni, vice-president; Marion Hoffman, secretary; and Becky as treasurer. Changes and more changes! First in the faculty. Miss Kolodziej came to fill the vacancy caused by Miss Libby’s marriage. Mr. Donovan joined the F. B. I. as a special investigator and left Mr. Kenyon in charge. Mr. Otto, deciding to give the Navy a break, left us early in the year, to do his part in making this war end sooner. In our home-making department. Miss Bixler took the place of Miss Nisbet. Witty and lively Miss Farr left us to do rehabilitation work in Army hospitals, so we needn’t worry about the morale on that front. Miss Fuller now shows the art students how to use the brush. Mr. Salzman now directs the musical organizations We did our best to cheer our basketball team along, but with gas rationing so strict, we confined our cheering to our home court. Nelo DiNuzzo and John Stup did plenty of running around on the basketball floor, and they lent their long-windedness to Dom Carini, who put it to good use in sociology. The Senior Dance was well-attended, despite the ban on pleasure driving. Instead of using horsepower, we used footpower. But now they ration shoes, so Katherine, will you please complete your formula for self-sprouting wings, so we shall be able to get around? The highlight of the evening was when Marion was crowned Queen of the dance, with Nancy anil Jo as her attendants. Rationing became the topic of discussion, both at home and in school. Now, Marie Ahearn and Julius Musso put only three lumps of sugar in their coffee instead of six The sugar shortage seemed to hit us all around. At recess time, after making that mad dash to be first at the candy box. do we find candy? No! We don’t starve though. We can still buy cookies. The rationing of meat and canned goods brought among other things, headaches, hoarding, some meat, points, black markets, and a subject for discussion and debate in sociology. The Chronicle 1943 !io

Page 28 text:

Class History 19:5!) -an historic year—Hitler invaded Poland, and a new batch of freshmen invaded Lyman Hall. Invaded is not quite the word—gently overtook it would describe the process more accurately. Amazed at the monstrous expanse of the corridors, and the maze of rooms with numbers on the doors, we wandered about getting into wrong rooms at wrong times, and right times into wrong rooms. But in time, we learned, and getting over the shock of being called Miss and Mr., we took over the roles of young ladies and gentlemen. The event that raised the curtain for our social calendar was the traditional Hallowe’en party. Betsy Wooding was a feature attraction dressed as a kitchen utensil. Angus and Milly walked off with the remaining honors. Scene II was the St. Patrick’s Day Party, and here the talent of the Class of ’4.‘! showed promise, but Mike’s guitar didn’t keep it. (The electricity gave out.) The rest of our freshman year passed along very quickly, and before we knew it. came the event we had been looking forward to all year—vacation. We all marched out to the tune of “No more pencils, no more books—,” and Jean Zimmerman and “Chutch” Dondero sang the loudest. After two months of forgetting what we had learned, we came back in the best upper-classman style. About this time. Margaret and Adeline began pounding typewriters, and a bright future was predicted for them. Miss Stevenson began to wonder about Brody’s Latin, but being the only boy in a class of girls, he managed to come through without learning anything. We breezed along the rest of our sophomore year, stuffing our already overworked minds with more booklearning. But what was booklearning to us?—We were going home for vacation. Meanwhile war clouds were getting more dense over Europe. England was now at war with Germany. But it was far away then and we enjoyed our vacation thoroughly. September rolled around again and we went back to school. A surprise was waiting for us. Rooms 15 and 17 had been changed into super de luxe home-making rooms—Venetian blinds included. Here our future home-makers learned the difference between a good and a bad pie-shell and that darning a sock wasn't so bad after you knew how. But the boys were not to be left out—Room 2 had been converted into a mechanical drawing room, and here the boys spend many happy (?) hours with Mr. Hancock, learning to draw a straight line. Our downstairs department was also given the once-over, and the former cooking and sewing rooms were remodeled into a machine shop. And from these rooms are coming our future master machinists. Our first big task was the election of class officers. Jimmy Heilman was elected the big chief; the forgotten man was Charlie Barboni; Kenny Fields, that able financier, kept us out of the red; Helen McNulty was the official notetaker. Our mathematical skill was first put to work trying to figure out how many minutes earlier we should have to arise in order to beat the eight o’clock bell. Marion Hoffman and Roberta Gallagher must have gotten the wrong answers, as they couldn't seem to meet the eight o’clock deadline. (Could it have been the alarm clock?) The art classes were then given an assignment, to make posters advertising the quality and quantity of our Junior Plays. Mrs. Niehaus did a grand job, and all of the four one-act plays gave pretty keen competition to Hollywood. The Chronicle 1943 24

Page 30 text:

Suddenly red spots In-nan to appear on some of us. They turned out to Ik- German measles. In a short time we all had an extra week’s vacation- indoors. Carolyn Brockett holds the championship, with three times to her credit. Tryouts for the Senior Play were then held, and to our surprise came Cynthia with a Southern accent. The play presented was a comedy, “Ever Since Eve,” and we had never seen anything so enjoyable since the Junior Plays. There was a great deal of enthusiasm throughout the class, and the various committees worked very hard to make this play the best ever produced. Their efforts were rewarded as the play was a complete success. Janet Matz anil Angus Rees in the leads, did a splendid job, and laurels are to be presented to all the rest of the cast, as they helped make this event one of the most successful of our senior year. Moron jokes then became the rage. Everyone went around asking Dili you hear about the moron—who put a chair in his coffin so his rigor mortis could set in? or “who took a bus home but his father made him take it back?” This sort of thing was Barbara ”s specialty, and she told them in a way that would put Red Skelton to shame. The Victory Corps made quite a change in our schedule. Every day a different class was skipped to make room for our Victory Corps period. Radio held the interest of most of the students, and radio code, with its dots and dashes, began to mean more to us than just a series of long and short sounds. Other courses offered were fundamentals of radio, photography, home nursing, nutrition, automotive mechanics, blueprint reading and shop for girls, pre-flight aeronautics, typing, anil correspondence for the armed forees. These courses were offered primarily to give the boys pre-induction training that would qualify them for the particular branch of the armed forces they desired to enter. They are of value to the girls also, who are being called upon to take the places of men in essential war industries, and possibly later on to serve in one of the women’s auxiliaries. The girls were started thinking along these lines by a smartly uniformed W. A. A. C., Margaret Dringoli, who spoke to the members of the Girls’ League on the life of a private in the Women’s Army. The beginning of the new year found our sociology classes with a new subject for debate. “Should or should not a high-school boy Ik drafted before the completion of his high-school career?” Congress settled our differences of opinion by passing a hill which approved the drafting of boys in the eighteen and nineteen year age group. Shortly after the passing of this bill, several of the boys from our Senior Class were inducted into the Army. From then until now. enlistments and inductions have taken a large number of our boys, and Lyman Hall is represented in most of the branches of the armed forces. This is the first time in the history of the high schools that the boys have been called upon to serve their country before the completion of their senior year. We are sorry that all of them cannot be here for graduation, but we are more than proud of them, and we feel sure that wherever they are, they are doing their job to the best of their ability, and they will keep doing it until Victory. To these boys we say, “Good luck, keep 'em flying, keep ’em rolling, and fight for America.” We have reached the end of our high-school careers, and as we say goodby to schoolmates and faculty, we suddenly realize that this is not the end but the beginning, a new chapter that these four years at Lyman Hall have prepared us for—The Great Adventure—and we won’t forget—Success and Victory, Hand in Hand. Edith Sassi Irma Dringoli The Chronicle 1943 20