Meriwether Lewis High School - Pioneer Yearbook (Ivy, VA)

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Class Prophecy One warm spring night in late May, I dropped in a chair, exhausted from a hard day's work at the office. One of my office assistants had been sick and naturally Mr. Rockfish decided to catch up on all of his back correspondence that day, so I had double duty. I picked up my magazine to finish a stony I had started reading but somehow I couldn't get interested in the story and found my- self thinking back over the ten years since our class had graduated. Before very long my magazine had fallen to the floor and I was asleep and dreaming. It seemed all the members of the Class of '51 from Meriwether Lewis my old alma mater, were working for one man, whose name was Mr. R. T. Rockfish. Mr. Rockfish, by the way, was the husband of Miss Whitted, our home room teacher back at M. L. S. Mr. Rockfish, as the name suggests, had a large home and all that goes with it--including the money. He also owned a clothing factory, which employed a great many people. On the door of the main office was painted, William Morris, Manager: Lewis Harmon, Assistant Manager. They were doing agreat job with this factory. In fact, instead of drearning of the latest fashions from Paris, the girls were willing to give their right hand for one of those Morris and Harmon creations. As well as I remember, William--or Peter as he was known in those days--always had an eye for ladies' clothes. Anne Wood, Phyllis Herring, and Georgie Roach were three of the buyers for the factory, but Phyllis was thinking of quitting and getting married. Anne was already married but enjoyed the work so much that she persuaded her husband to let her continue her job. Among the secretaries for the factory, I found Mary Ann Gibson and the bookkeeper was Joyce Hicks. Joyce was still spending her spare moments hitting home runs, and keeping the basketball court occupied. She was coaching a team of her own on her spare nights. The factory sponsored a weekly program on television and, of course, Russell Ray was the announcer. The script was written by Aleyce Price, who had been to New York and taken a course in writing scripts of all kinds. In the home of Mr. Rockfish, there were many people working. Among them were a beautician, nurse, dietition, chaffeurs, and private teachers. Dorothy Morris was the beautician and everyone had the latest hair styles-- except her. Her husband was rather conservative and refused to let her dye her hair purple and have it styled in the who done it manner. Z0

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O Juniors! What a year! We had two new members to join us that year. Allen Dunn was from over near Ivy., He had dark eyes and hair and always liked to have a good time. Russell Ray was another who joined us that year. Russell has real blond curly hair and big blue eyes. He is always telling things to make us and the teachers laugh. He has added a lot to our class the two years he has been with us. We enjoyed ourselves very much going on the Junior and Senior picnic with the Seniors and also on the trip to Washington with them. The next year was our final step. We had all longed for and looked forward to our Senior year. We were very glad to have Freddie Frazier to join our class and to graduate with us. Freddie is a good-natured boy and has very quiet ways. Miss Whitted was our Senior teacher. We were very pleased to have her for our Senior year and we will never forget all the good things she has done for us. We know we will miss being with her in our ,future years. There is not long before we will all part, but I hope someday we will meet again and talk about what good times we had at M. L. S. We want to thank all the teachers that have taught us for what they have done to help us for I am sure the things they have taught us will be a great help in whatever we undertake in the future. A There you have it, the history of the Seniors of '5l. Joyce Hicks Historian 19

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Jean Burruss was the nurse. She used to be a secretary in the factory, but after a few years decided to be a nurse. She found the doctors more interesting than the business executives. No one was ever sick. How could they be when Jean was around and Nellie Cash to plan the meals. Nellie was married, but came to the home every day. Mr. Rockfish's two little nieces lived with him. He hired Miss Barbara Breeden as their private teacher and on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Katherine Carr, who was married soon after our graduation, came to give them art lessons. James Yowell was the handy man and kept the lawn mowed. When he wasn't mowing the lawn, you could bet on finding James asleep in the cornfortable chairs on the lawn. Mr. Rockfish was very fond of hunting so he invited Julian Via to go hunting with him because Julian could always carry him to the spot where the big game could be found. Between hunting trips, Julian was trying to invent a gun which would kill bears on one side of the Blue Ridge Mountains, when the hunter was standing on the other. Jim Gibson and Allen Dunn were the chaffeurs, but Mr. Rockfish was think- ing of getting a plane so Allen could do a little high flying instead of his usual low flying. Jim enjoyed being a chaffeur. He usually entertained his passen- gers with a favorite hillbilly song or one of his long-winded stories. Freddy Frazier was the private policeman to protect the big estate. Very few people got by without some kind of identification. This dream aroused my interest in my classmates and since Mr. and Mrs. Rockfish were taking a two weeks vacation in Florida, leaving me with a little spare time, I decided to do a little investigating., I have come to the conclusion that I must be psychic. Through the aid of the newspaper, telephone and the ones of our class that were working in the same town with me, I found that my dream was almost wholly true. I found Miss Whitted and the rest of the class in various parts of the world-- but all engaged in the jobs I had dreamed. Katherine Patter son Pr ophet . Z1