Monroeville High School - Viking Yearbook (Monroeville, IN)

Page 23 text:

SENIOR CLASS PROPHECY Living in Chicago and being the leader of an all-girl orchestra is a very tiresome but enjoyable job. After finishirig a week ' s engagement at one of the large theaters, with nothing booked for the coming week, I decided to take a vacation and visit my old home town which I had not seen for sev¬ eral years. Upon arriving at the depot, 1 went in to inquire about some of my old schoolmates. There, to my surprise, I found Russell to be the ticket agent. He had been working there for about four years. He told me Joe was porter on one of the passenger trains that went through town. Russell then began to show me the town. Upon inquiring what a certain building was, I found that the two inseparables, Bette Jane and Virginia, had started a chevhng gum factory for High School pupils. When I asked what had become of Bettie Beery, he told me she had settled down to be a housewife and was now the mother of a pair of twins whom she had named Bernon and Berneta. After Russell had directed me to Bettie ' s, I proceeded to go there, where I spent the night. I slept until quite late the next morning and when I awoke, I heard some¬ one downstairs talking to Bettie. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I recognized Tony ' s voice. Just as bashful as always, he was delivering Bettie ' s ice. After he had gone, I began to inquire about different schoolmates. J was told that Leola and Berniece had gone to Central Africa as Missionaries and were sending back encouraging reports. This amused me quite a lot because in school these girls always talked about getting married and set¬ tling down. If they had to go all the way to Africa after a man, they ' ll surely come back with one. Nellie had started a shoe factory in Maples and was making shoes with a reformed last. After dinner was over, Bettie suggested we go to town to a show and out to supper afterwards. As we walked down the street I saw a sign in front of a very nice building. It said, Here is the place to buy the dresses to make you look like you want to—Madame Dorotha ' s Dress Shop. After going into Dorotha ' s shop, I asked her if she was married, and she said, No, the right man has never come along. She had put all her trust in Harvey and he had failed her, so she was pretty well discouraged with the men. Berniece Spurgeon (Louden), her model, was out to lunch at that time. I found out that Pete was President of a chain of Service Stations and his office was next door; so I could not lose that opportunity of seeing him again. Page 17

Page 22 text:

SENIOR CLASS HISTORY (Continued) three new sailors to the crew who took the place of Mr. Quinn and Mr. Bush. They were Mr. Smuts, Mrs. Martin and Mr. Miller. We Juniors then became curious to learn all about them, so we chose Mr. Smuts for our Captain and Norval Singer for the pilot. In order to get better acquainted with each other, we soon had a party. It was then that a great storm came up. This was in the form of Shorthand. During this time a very hard rain of brief forms came upon us, and several of the members were so nearly drowned that they had to give up, but the rest of the class finally struggled through to the end. We then sponsored a play entitled Oh, Doctor! Soon afterward Mr. Smuts announced that he was leaving our ship to sail on other seas. Audrey held a farewell party for him at Christmas time; but to our great surprise when we came back after Christmas Mr. Smuts was there to greet us and again take up his work with us. At last the ship was anchored in Port Reception, where thirty-five mem¬ bers met at the Anthony Hotel in Fort Wayne on April 17, 1937, and spent an enjoyable evening with the members of the ' 37 graduating class. A few days later, to offset the work of the reception, a big chicken supper was served by the Junior girls in the Home Ec room. Since we were so close to Port Vacation, there was not much more studying done that year, and we soon heard the Captain telling us that the same ship would sail again the fol¬ lowing September. On September 6, 1937, the Good Ship Knowledge pulled anchor and started sailing. We had again lost several passengers. Ruth Hennig, Goldie Franz, and Doris Morgan all chose other occupations, and Vea Ball was lost in the Sea of Matrimony, leaving the total number of thirty-one members. There was also another great loss to our class at this time, for Mr. Smuts finally left us for good. His place was filled by Miss Dickison. Mr. Miller also left us, leaving Miss Lewis to take his place. Norval Singer was again selected pilot and Mr. Martin was elected Captain. Since we were on the last lap of our voyage, we had learned until this time where the pitfalls were; and we did not collide with so many rocks. This kind of life became very tiresom.e; so we arranged to have a wiener bake and hamburger fry at Webster ' s Grove. Soon afterward we had our pictures taken as a remembrance of each passenger. Port Graduation was drawing nearer and nearer, and each member of the class became more sorrowful that we must soon disembark, to sail to¬ gether no more. When we reached the shore there were thirty-one in all. As we bade each other farewell and looked out into the distance, we could see nothing but smooth sailing, but we were warned that there were many pitfalls ahead of us, and there would also be many other ships which we would have to successfully pass. So as we took this little piece of advice to remember, we sailed away from the shore of Port Graduation, never to see it again. —Bonita Barkley Page 16

Page 24 text:

SENIOR CLASS PROPHECY (Continued) When we went in, Pete was sitting at his desk smoking a cigar. He cer¬ tainly had changed. He told me Arthur was running a Beer Garden and Dance Hall at Tillman ' s; Jack was his bartender; Louis his bouncer, and Chalmer one of his waiters. It was getting late and we knew we would have to be going if we got to the show that afternoon. After the show we went to Audrey ' s restaurant for supper. She was having considerable trouble because all her help was striking for more wages. She had one faithful helper who stuck by her; that was Geneva, her cashier. Audrey told me she had received a letter from Norval a few days before. He had a job working for the Government making airplanes. After we got home Bettie put the children to bed, then she continued to tell me about my other classmates that 1 hadn ' t yet heard about. I asked about Ray and she was so surprised to think I did not know about him. She said it had been in all the papers. He was disappointed in love 13 times, and finally committed suicide. Poor Boy! I had always though he would make some one a good man. Lawrence was touring the country with a barn-storming company as their leading Bare-of-Tone. Betty Mae and Elizabeth had built a skating rink at Zulu with their Hubbies ' money and were teaching gentlemen to skate. Kenneth had erected a trap factory just outside the city limits where he was going to patent a special ' possum trap. Donald had taken up scientific farming way out west and there were rumors around that the Love Bug had bitten him, and he was going to take the fatal step soon. Bonita had married an illustrious farmer and had found married life to be just the thing for her. Mable and Goldie were attaining great success as Chorus Girls in a Comic Opera in Bluffton. I could hardly believe this, because they never seemed to me to be the type for that profession. Clyde and Bill were dance instructors at the Trianon Ballroom. Anyone who has the ability to dance like those boys did in high school ought to make a go of it. Bettie had Bonnie and Chet in the next evening for supper. We had a very nice time. Bonnie was still as sweet and pleasant as she had always been. I only had one more day to stay so I went around and saw all the kids. After spending another evening in my old home town, I started home the next morning after four days of a fine vacation. —Phyllis Myers Page 18