Mendota High School - Atodnem Yearbook (Mendota, IL)

Page 21 text:

folblyomores Shine in Textbook Tactzkf i HERE IS an old saying: into each life some rain must fall. This may be very true, but to the sophomores such has not occurred. They feel that this has been a wonderful year full of grand times, especially in their classes, which they will remember forever. To start this merry-go-round rolling are the English ll classes. The art of diaf gramming sentences, spelling words, and memorizing verb forms was not received very heartily by this hesitant group, but soon they realized that a knowledge of English was essential in their lives. To add to the confusion, geometry of- fered squares, circles, parallelograms, and other horrible obiects to master, The mathematicians really had a chance to give their brains a workout in this class. Leaving Latin l in the dust, an all-girl class of twentyftwo eager 'Romans' be- gan the study of Caesar in Latin ll, lt is amazing how one story can be translated to mean so many different things. Poor Caesar! Swinging to the gruesome side, we come upon biology. The sophs will never forget how much fun it was to pick apart those grasshoppers, crabs, fish, and other insects. Future historians took up their training in World History. They covered civiliza- tion froin the very beginning to the presf ent time. They will be well qualified to take up U. S. History. Commercial arithmetic was another of those brain taxing subjects. However, it was nice to think of money all the time, even if it wasn't real, Many sophs had the opportunity to take drivers training. ln this course they learned to be good drivers through class work and actual road experience. By the end of the year, several sophomores were issued their drivers licenses. This is what happened to the average sophomore. Most iuniors and seniors have only one comment to make. Sophs, you havent seen anything , yetllu

Page 20 text:

'Burnin Midni lat Ui! Payf' my Frou S CLASSES began for the freshf men, conversations ran somef thing like this: Who the dickens was Aeneas? or What is 'X' anyway? Slowly but surely, a few of the students began to see the light and the freshman class began to get acclimated to their new subjects. General science reports caused much scurrying through books in the library in a search for some new ideas in medicine The units on pumps and faucets had the girls completely baffled. The highlight of the year, though, was Coach Lewis' dem- onstration of a fire extinguisher. Somew thing went wrong and the whole appa' ratus blew up, causing the pants of Mr. Norton, an innocent bystander, to be showered with acid. The poetry scrapbooks were the bugav boos for the English I students, Whenever they would see a poem in a magazine, they would get a fanatical look in their eyes and madly rip it out. Diagramming WCIS also painfully assimilated and verb forms were slowly memorized also. Algebra caused much agony in the lives of some freshmen. The problems about rowing downstream remained a maze of complicated equations for months. Factoring and square roots were a mys- tery at first also, but under the tutoring of Mr. LeMarr, they soon became clear to all, Members of the Latin l classes usu- ally walked down the halls muttering porto, portas, portat' or Hamo, amas, amat . Around Christmas time, Latin Christmas cards were artistically C75 created and displayed on the bulletin board. lo Saturnalia' greeted all of the freshmen as they entered Miss Breeses room. ln practical math, Miss Pottinger showed the future mathematicians the easy way to work the impossible. Trips to the board to explain the various prob- lems were the dread of all the students. Valuable tips in buying and prices and even a course in manners were added to the knowledge of the practical math classes, All freshman knowledge was not gained in the classroom, however, Daily experiences in the school of hard knocks contributed much to the general brain expansion of the class of '52

Page 22 text:

izuzc f Q5 We Doon' it. . . Clam Ring! E7 Football