Malden High School - Maldonian Yearbook (Malden, MA)

Page 19 text:

There Should Have Been Snow The Senior Class held the annual Christmas Tree Sale at MacDonald Stadium this winter for the third year in a row. It was one of their main fund raisers of the year and the Seniors were hoping for a huge profit. In previous years the sale was always a success and this sale would prove to be no different. The irony of this sale that made it quite different from previous years was the weather conditions. Winter was more like spring. On December fourth, the day the Senior Class picked up their trees, the temperature hit a record high of seventy degrees. It seemed that the class should have been purchasing spring flowers to sell rather than Christmas trees. Instead of hot chocolate to keep the kids warm, cold soda would have been more appropriate. The sale required a great deal of time and effort to be rendered by the Seniors. They put in long hours from three in the afternoon until ten o’clock at night on weekdays and ten in the morning un til ten o’clock at night on weekends. To the Senior Class getting involved in the sale was more important than a social life with friends or staying in and talking on the phone all day and night. For those who chose not to get involved soon realized that most of their friends were already helping out at the sale. The Seniors were aided in their project by their class advisors, Bob McCarthy and Richard Malatesta, neither of whom presently teach at the high school but try to remain active in the class just the same. The Seniors worked hard but they made their work fun and the comraderie shown between the workers was an important addition to their earned success. Christmas Tree Sale 15

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5 %, 1. During a lull in the action, Seniors Renie Ryan, Tracey Flanagan, and Patty Paino proudly rose with a sign advertising their trees. 2. A prospective customer consults the opinion of workers John Caruso and Linda Berry. 3. After a long day’s work, fatigue shows in the faces of John Caruso, Renie Ryan, Head Advisor Bob McCarthy, and Linda Berry. 4. Tracey Flanagan helps out by transporting a purchesed tree to a satisfied customer. 5. Seniors John Caruso, Renie Ryan, and Patty Paino watch as they leave the strenuous work of sawing trees to advisor Bob McCarthy. 14 Christmas Tree Sale

Page 20 text:

Things Were To Go Wrong After a year without it, the Senior Class decided to reinstitute a senior tradition, the Senior Play. This year’s play, “House of Cards’’ written by John O’Brien, should have been practically fail proof. Previously titled, “Break a leg, Cast,” the play was intended to be a comedy based on a high school play in which anything that could go wrong did. What could be a better plot? The hard working playwright commented that after twenty- five years of trying to produce a play that would run smoothly, he found it more applicable to write one about the mishaps of plays. John O’Brien didn’t know at the time that the play would soon turn out to be more factual than fictional. The cast included many Seniors, not all of whom were members of the high school drama club, Green Room. There was all kinds of new talent discovered along with the experienced Green Room members. There was a lack of morale in the early stages of the play when rehersals were vital. Attendance at these rehersals grew poor. So hard work was in demand of everybody. There was even a chance that the production would be cancelled due to lack of involvement and responsibility. However, John O’Brien and his cast pulled through the chaos and put the production on stage. Of course, there were mistakes and mishaps, but that was the whole idea of the play in the beginning. All in all the play was successful in getting its point across. “House of Cards” may never be like “Camelot” or “Evita” or even “Annie” but the Senior Class was proud to have a play of their own production. 16 Senior Play