Maynard High School - Screech Owl Yearbook (Maynard, MA)

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THE SCREECH OWL 5 you will want a position. The reply will be a pleasant Sorry, Miss, but we want a high school graduate, a college graduate, if possible. The young man who found homework and school such a bother will perhaps apply for some specialized work in the service. A hope will collapse with a curt, I’m sorry. Son, but we want boys with as much education as pos- sible. Time is short and we need trained men in a hurry. It takes brains, too, to win a war.” So you thought you were smart! Because education was free and cost you nothing, you threw it away. You threw away your own chances and never stopped to think about it. This havoc will not last forever. It will be for us, the young, to uphold and preserve the ideals our brothers fought for. Wars cannot be won without defense workers, but peace can- not be preserved without education. Those who are yet in school have a duty to themselves and to their country. That duty is to continue their education and go on to col- lege, if possible. It will be a pity if you throw away your chances to fit yourself for a place in the post- war world. You have the opportunity now; make the most of it. Anne Chodynicky, ’44. Hs Our Fine Assemblies My purpose in writing this editorial is not to review the monthly assemblies that we have had the pleasure of enjoying, as that is done in another section of this magazine, but to give credit for them where it is due, and that certainly is mainly to the teachers. In past years when no one person was in com- plete charge of each program, students were chosen more or less haphazardly to take part. The resulting performance many times was not properly coordinated, not woven into one uni- fied whole. The present system of having one teacher produce a program each month has certainly proved to be worthwhile, for the test of a high school assembly is the attentiveness of the young audience. The teachers, becoming acquainted with the abilities of those in their classes, have discov- ered some hidden talents and brought them out into the open. Mingled with a bit of serious- ness, these musicians, singers, and speakers have come forth to make assemblies very inter- esting. Another fine aspect of this system s the variety it provides. This year we have had a little of practically everything, from Shoo, Shoo, Baby’’ in Spanish to Truth and Conse- quences; from an amateur program to a har- monious Christmas choir. We have indeed been fortunate in having these fine programs. Therefore let us raise our hats to the teachers who directed and the pupils who participated in them. Editor. ❖ ❖ And Now To-morrow It seems only yesterday that we entered high school, now so familiar, with uncertain step and shy, suspicious glances. Today we find our- selves leaving high school, daring to invade the unknown called life with only the pleasant memories of yesterday to comfort us. To-morrow! What hopes we entrust to it! Yet, that very to-morrow is destined to shower some of us with disappointment, others with great reward. To-morrow! We must be brave! To find to-morrow we must venture along a new path. In this path will lie the shadow of darkness and the light of dawn, floods to sweep us astray and the calm to lead us aright, the weariness of labor and then the glorious reward of suc- cess. All these remain to be encountered. However, at the end of every road there awaits a valley of contentment where horizons are bright and happiness is master. All these are a part of life as the sun is a part of day. To-morrow will find us well prepared. We shall seize the opportunity. We shall all wear an armor of faith, and no problem will prove itself too great. Anne Chodynicky, ’44.

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To the Seniors: The Omega of your school days and the Alpha of your life is at hand. You are to be the men and women of tomorrow. In your hands America lays her stars and stripes. She looks to you for the ultimate issues of all the vital things which are her life. Slight not your birthright, and go forth from the portals of Maynard High School with the resolution to work well and to persevere in spite of all ad- versaries and apparent failure. The world owes you nothing, but you owe much to many in it. Your first great debt is to your parents or guardians. They have ten- derly watched you through infancy, cared for your every want in childhood, and encouraged you in every worthy endeavor. They have been the ones who have made the sacrifices; they are the ones to be your first concern. You are going into a unit of democracy in which you will have duties, privileges, and re- sponsibilities, but where you must learn to share, to help and serve and respect the rights and privileges of others. Never in the history of the world was there a greater need for self-control and discipline. It is crude discipline where might makes right. Too vast an extent of the world is suffering today from the crushing might of the dictators. Be loyal to your country, flag, and the reli- gious belief in which you have been reared and to which your country gives full sanction. Be tolerant of the beliefs of others. The world has turned too long to materialism and for years has been reaping the results of its false doctrines. You cannot all be heroes and thrill a hemis- phere. With some great daring venture, some deed that mocks at fear. But you can fill a lifetime with kindly acts and true. There’s always noble service for noble hearts to do. Mary A. Doyle, Superintendent of Schools. Keep Maynard Clean The natural reaction for anyone when he sees a dirty-looking individual or an untidy house is to try to avoid that person and to keep from going to that house. So it is with a town which has streets littered with paper, yards full of rubbish, and buildings sooty and dirty. Just as a man is judged by his outward ap- pearance, so also is this true of a community. If the town is clean, it gives a visitor the desire to come and pay a visit more often, but if it is filthy, the guest will undoubtedly leave as quickly as possible and never return. Not only is cleanliness beneficial for appear- ance but it is one of the main ways that we have for fighting disease. If streets, alleys, and backyards were kept clean, there would be fewer places for germs to develop. Of course, I do not for one moment mean that the town officials of Maynard are not doing their best, for they undoubtedly are. But I feel that in these times it is impossible for them to scour the town, owing to the lack of man- power. Therefore, it is the duty of every man, woman, and child to do all they can to keep Maynard clean. Not only the streets and back- yards should be kept clear of rubbish, but the empty lots as well. So from now on, let us all try to keep our community clean and thereby make it a more attractive place in which to live. Editor. ❖ ❖ ❖ On Education So you think you’re smart! So your educa- tion is just so much homework and bother. As far as you can see, it’s all useless. There’s big money in defense work and clever you has to quit school to get into the big money.” Someday, perhaps sooner than you expect,

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The Conductor Jonathan Bug was a lightning fiend. When I say fiend, I don’t mean that he was crazy or addicted to murder, but that he had one ob- session — lightning. At the early age of six, he had seen all the livestock on the farm on which he lived wiped out completely by what seemed to be a concen- trated electrical storm. The horses, cows, pigs, and chickens went, along with his father, who had been hurrying to get the cattle into the barn. He vaguely remembered hearing what seemed to be a derisive laugh above the howling wind, just before his father had been struck down. Three years later his mother had been killed by a bolt of lightning during a quick- breaking thunderstorm in which they had no time to seek cover. Although he had been knocked flat, Jonathan was unharmed. Again he had heard the howl of laughter, and from then on he was deathly afraid of lightning be- cause he believed it was out to get” him next. The farm was now abandoned, Jonathan being shipped off to the state orphanage, where he spent the next three years of his life seek- ing cover from thunderstorms in the darkest corners of the cellar in the institution. Finally he ran away to a part of the country where electrical storms were less frequent, and there studied lightning and various ways to stop or arrest it. When he came of age, the farm be- came his, and he moved back, his strategy planned to outwit the lightning menace. The lightning god, high up in his clouds, chuckled to himself as he saw Jonathan fever- ishly erecting lightning rods on his house. Such a display of rods you never saw before in your life: small ones, large fancy ones, all grounded by a maze of wires running into the earth. Thus began the colorful but brief career of Jonathan. The god of lightning saw Jonathan proudly surveying his work, and, gathering the black ominous clouds into a thunderstorm, struck with blazing fury at the house. Jonathan saw the tempest coming and, ducking into the house, laughed at the furious efforts of the lightning to penetrate his elaborate defense of lightning rods. The lightning god at first shrieked with anger, but he soon calmed down and with- drew laughing into his clouds. Since he had been pestering the people of the earth for over a million years, he could afford to wait until Jonathan would slip up. Although Jonathan was highly pleased with his results, he soon became afraid that the rods weren’t enough and he set to work to build more protection. He insulated one room completely, walls, floor, everything with rubber (this, of course, was before the rubber shortage) even to having a rubber curtain to fasten over the windows. He went so far as to wear rubber soled shoes all the time. One day he started thinking that he might be caught out in the fields; so he built a number of shacks about the size of a telephone booth, spacing them at intervals easily accessible from any part of the fields. These also were insulated with rubber and were topped by a large lightning rod. At the first sign of a storm he dashed for a booth and stayed there until it was over. One day Jonathan became too engrossed in the farm work and didn’t notice a storm sneak- ing upon him until almost too late. He had no sooner reached a shelter than a terrific bolt of lightning struck where he had been an in- stant before. That incident irritated Jonathan, and for