Mendota High School - Atodnem Yearbook (Mendota, IL)

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As We were permitted to participate in declamatory this year we displayed our talent and carried away our share of the honors. Our president who took first place in the Preliminary won second in the Illinois Valley Contest. Our contributions to athletics were numerous in our Junior year. Besides those who became stars in football and basketball, there were those who showed the remarkable ability of our class in track work, which was new to Mendota High. In the spring of this year, Ruth Cooprider, who had served as our class secretary ever since we were in high school, moved to Washington. It was a sorrowful class that saw Ruth go, and we know that she is proving her worth at Washington as she did here. As is the custom we made plans to present a play to raise funds to enter- tain the Seniors, but We did not get further than plans, something always pre- vented our carrying them out. Nevertheless there was a Senior-Junior Prom at Hotel Kaskaskia at LaSalle that year. We came back this year ready to do the work of Seniors. We elected Elmer Schaller president and as in our Freshmen year, Miss Coffey is our class adviser, and Mr. Beebe, our principal. We had come to the conclusion that school was not the worst place in the world, and our wish that we were Freshmen again was stronger because of them. Our class wort laurels for the school in athletics this year. Eleven men of our class played football, and the basketball team was supported by eight Seniors. - Because we could not give a play when we were Juniors we determined to have two during our Senior year. The first one was staged near the close of the first semester, the second at the end of the school term. -This annual is considered by us all to be the most important achievement of our high school life. We hope that it will please everyone, for we worked hard with that purpose in view. Our faces will no longer be seen daily in the halls of learning of M. T. H. S., but we trust that our examples in discipline, study, and school spirit will ever be present to the classes to follow. We hope that the underclassmen will have as pleasant memories of us now that we are leaving, as we have of them. J OSEPHINE llIILLER Twenty-six

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in Yu I Class History 1917 -- 1921 N a bright sunny day in September, 1917, seventy-eight little Freshmen passed through the portals of the Mendota Township High School to spend four years there acquiring a high school education. We we1'e and al- ways will be proud that we, the first class in our new building, were also the largest class that entered the high school up to that time. We had no more difficulty in getting settled down to our work than the other classes had, for they were just as strange as we. After organizing our class we chose our colors and succeeded in putting them on the wall of the study hall without difficulty. The upper class-men can testify that we were very timid this year. When the cheer leaders told us to yell, they occasionally heard a squeak. Our bravery, if we may call it that, was shown in another way. To help the good old U. S. A., we purchased a Liberty bond, and had the honor of being the first class in school to pay for one. The donations made by the m.embers of our class were so generous, that we kindly gave aid to our persecutors, the seniors. Our social life consisted of a Halloween party given by the Juniors and Seniors. We made plans for a picnic to be given in honor of the Sophomores at the close of the year, but for various reason we could not have the picnic. At the end of our first year, we felt that we had spent the time success- fully in learning the rudiments of a high school career under the guidance of Miss Coffey, our class adviser and Mr. Beebe our principal. In the fall of 1918 we, a smaller but a wise class, returned to resume our studies. With Miss Nussle as class adviser and Waldo Nauman as president, we became more active and did our share toward sustaining the honor of the school. What remembrances we have of our Sophomore year! During the eight weeks of forced vacation, which the Flu gave us, we lost Pauline Leifeit, one of our dear members by death. To make up the lost time we worked and worked overtime, in compensation for which we were excused from all exams. With the Freshmen we closed our Sophomore year with a picnic to Starvcd Rock. We entered the third stage of our high school career with Miss Barnett as class adviser and Millie Phelps as president. Being Juniors we determined to do our part well, as such, we became dignified and felt that we were almost equal to the Seniors. Twenty-Jive

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Prophecy of Class of '21 MONG the various pieces of mail matter found upon my table was a small envelope, post marked Mendota. I opened it and found that it contained an invitation-the form of which had not changed greatly in ten years-to at- tend the reunion of the class of 1921, at Mendota, Ill. The class of 1921, of dear old M. H. S! What a host of memories the words recalled! How long had it been since I had heard from the class or even the school? I wondered if it would be possible to gather the members together, scattered as they were to the four winds. I hoped that they wbuldr all respond to the invitation the same as I intended to do, regardless of the distance. On the appointed day, early in the mxorning, I rang for my aeroplane driv- er and we started on our trip. After steadily winging our way through the air for some time we arrived at Mendota. How wonderful it seemed to be back! True it was that many things had changed, but it was still the old town of my school days, and it filled me with eagerness to behold once more the faces of my dear class mates. Before the hour set I wound my way up the old familiar streets to the high school, but upon arriving I saw that there were others ahead of me for the halls were all lit up and I could see figures moving up and down the hall. For a moment after entering the building I felt like a stranger in a for- eign land, for none of those assembled were familiar to me, and 1 thought I must have stepped into the wrong place. But the confusion reassured me for it could issue from nothing else save a '21 class meeting. From the doorway I scanned the crowd, trying to recognize a face. A woman of medium height was relating very energetically, in a voice now high, now low, her experiences of plantation life. Suddenly I realized it was Letha Schmidt, and as near as I could make out from the snatehes of conversation, she had married some years ago a member of our faculty of '21, and had set- tled down in the south on a plantation. Another woman now joined the group. One could not easily mistake Grace Serven, our old high school editor. She had become editor of a Journal in Chi- cago, and had made it famous internationally. Always with an eye to business she had scented a story in Letha's accounts. At this point Helen Easter Cliasterdayb rushed up to the group exclaiming impulsively, What will I ever do! Horn has just come, and instead of stopping at the house for my music, he came right over from his garage at La Moille. He is so stupid-and now I will not be able to sing for you. Oh well, I sup- pose he thinks he can entertain you just as well by telling about his wonderful success in base ball and foot ball games around the country, and his garage. Twenty-.seven