Mount Hermon School - Gateway Yearbook (Mount Hermon, MA)

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blackboard and bang his head against them in moments of inexplicable loss of patience. Mr. Adams also arrived from Princeton, via Sleepy Hollow, to render dissertations on European His- tory. An odd buzzing sound soon called our at- tention to the supersensitive Mr. Heffley, who served a rather transitory term in the French Department. For soon deciding that Mt. Hermon was no place for such an important, but per- secuted refugee from a Parisien drawing room, Mr. Heffley flew to new cultural heights at Exeter. Dumbo ond Mr, Chips :ivy-2-3 ' N-saw 4. ,- ss V . , - . , ., . , - z.-1,4 E. X s The fall sports season was an overwhelming success, with the Juniors contributing a goodly share to Mr. Rineer's Gladiators, to the soccer squad, and to Mr. F. Renard McVeigh's Harriers through Perry and Kelly. With the echoes of Christmas Vespers still ringing in our ears, we departed for vacation. To his great consternation and surprise, Dad Two Diamonds found himself asking us if he could use his own car once in a while, and the Junior Cloud members no longer had to tramp through the snow drifts for that illicit cigarette. Dad's troubles were short-lived, however, as the train rolled us back to Hermon all too soon. The studies seemed harder that winter term but entertaining events, as the play and Glee Club Festival, helped the time pass swiftly. The Grand Purge of that winter also maintained an unflagging student interest. Each time the Com- mittee of Public Safety was in session, we all guessed, as to who would receive the next free railroad ticket from City Hall. But soon we all legally packed our bags for vacation. Returning from home, we experienced a real New England Spring-rain, rain, rain. The Gate- way seemed to have been greatly influenced by the wet atmosphere, for they broke the Puritanical tradition and held a Prohibition Prom and as usual in the Spring when a young man's fancy turns to love, many of our class rings, purchased with Dad's hard-earned cash, began to appear on the campus across the river. With the coming departure of the class of l953, we began to assume the duties of student government. Eighteen of us were chosen to be floor oFFicers, Snyder was elected Student's Council president, Bergstrom, class president, and McComb and the eminent Mr. Stoll, editors of the local scandal sheet. Executing his perennial political coup, Mr. Petschke made many of us Junior table-heads and thus greatly silenced the Junior rabble. The days passed swiftly taking a magnificent Sacred Concert with them, and bringing finals, where, to our dismay, we real- ized we had lost our sophomore nonchalance. Blue Cloud A. C. ff. f Vi et- 'N

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xx Even chefs have to eatl Harvest Ball When Smoke Gets in Your Eyes plicated claustrophobia, he reached the enlight- ened conclusion that we were hyperdominant paranoids and that he must appeal to our psy- chical depressions if the inverts were to be sublimated. As a result of the generous gift of Mr. Bev- eridge, we had some of our classes that winter in the new Beveridge Hall. lt was pleasant taking our hour exams in rooms whose soft colors were so conducive to dozing, but as usual our exams returned covered with those horribly bright red pencil marks that completely shocked us out of our blissful contemplation of the mellow hues. Founder's Day followed with its snow sculptures, athletic contests and the traditional Happy Birthday, D. L. in West Hall that evening. Be- fore long we were again sitting anxiously through the last sermon in Chapel. With Dr. RubendaIl's semi-annual Well Done, the doors burst open, and we poured out for vacation. After spring vacation the softball games and sandlot football skirmishes began to appear. Fire crackers burst and beds flew over with amazing frequency. This time Mr. Bauer had a much more intelligible diagnosis-spring fever. We witnessed the last lnterscholastics to be held at Hermon, and some of us were fortunate enough to sing in the choir at Sacred Concert. The finals were no longer the devouring mon- sters that we had feared the previous year, and before we realized, it was summer vacation. Junior year found us mature and sophisti- cated-at least we thought so-and all too ready to challenge the supremacy of those cyni- cal, blase seniors. For some cryptic reason our class treasurer did not return that year, but Sny' der, Northrup, and Blatchford were back to lead the enterprising class of i954 into its first fracas of the year-the Rope Pull. We resisted valiantly for a record of 4:20 chiefly because our eminent Beaver Stoll had generously gained thirty pounds. The altruistic feasting of Mr. Stoll and his assistant, Steve Rogers, was to no avail, however, and we reluctantly succumbed to the inevitable mudbath. The Junior year also brought Mr. Greene from Amherst to lend his dry humor and pleasant per- sonality to the Math Department. We were re- lieved to find that he did not draw X's on the

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f-is ,wav Rffflil 'Yr Sing we Noel No. 7l7 lv. Mt. Herman 8.36 But relieving some of our nervous tension through sunbathing on Mr, Dickinson's Hermon blankets, we left the Hill for our last summer vacation. ln September we bade good-bye to the beach parties and returned-blase, cosmopolitan Sen- iors at last! We proudly took immediate posses- sion of the Rock and Senior Door. For the last time, we escorted our little brothers to the movies and the Ford Cottage reception. To our great relief we would not have to struggle through the labyrinth of classical myths in Mr. Smith's Eng- lish IV classes, although we all greatly missed that gentleman. We spent the first few weeks growing accus- tomed to our newly acquired ascendancy and sneering at those unfortunate underclassmen. As usual, the faculty's calculated guesses as to who comprised the Junior Cloud were substanti- ated when some of the prime suspects were elected to the Cloud Committee. The local habi- tues, such as Stein, Jensen, Stiles, Weeks and Knapton were observed gasping for oxygen after the rigors of Varsity gym. Despite a dastardly plot to cut the rope and their added ecclesias- tical tonnage, the Juniors and the Jolly Friar took their dunking. Mountain Day arrived on a brisk October l3, and despite the fact that Mr. Erickson stirred the cocoa with a piece of firewood, the food was very good. As usual, many of our pure athletes were noticed having one last clandes- tine weed on the way up the mountain, but all, including Beaver, reached the top in one piece. Ari' Pascoe, Al Wakeman, and Jerry Huckabee seemed to have been carried away by Mr. Whyte's lectures on Pantheism, for they stripped like healthy, young Adonises and swam in the ice-encrusted pool atop Mount Monadnock. The football team was not as successful as the pre- vious season, but the spirit the hard-working team exhibited during the Deerfield game was unsurpassable. The soccer squad also had a rather unfortunate season, but the Harriers, un- der Mr. McVeigh and Mr. Greene, had a highly successful record. Under the able direction of the Social Com- mittee, the Senior Party, Harvest Ball, was a great success. Everyone agreed that Don Juan Northrup and Casanova Westermann would cap- ture the male leads in The Moon ls Blue. The winter was a very enioyable one for most of us. We fell to work enthusiastically in Mr. Whyte's Bible IV classes. The Friar's Christian Ethics were to no avail, however, for his Kinsey Report soon proved that Senior morals were quite casual. Learning to chant Te Deum Laudamus daily in Mr. Donovan's English IV classes was also a very interesting experience. The Northfield Senior Party, Paint the Town Pink, was very enjoyable. Our two local slap- stick geniuses put on another of their famous skits, entitled Red Hot Mama from Yokohama, and true to its title, it was quite risque, but rather hilarious, too. Arnie Buchman played the modern version of a Japanese Romeo on the make, while Ted Northrup was a coy, but rather hefty, Japanese waitress. Arnie, did that balloon burst accidentally, or accidentally on purpose? But our exams and College Boards quickly put an end to parties, and Spring vaca- tion came none too soon to buck us up for the remaining term of our senior year with Sacred Concert, Trial by Jury, Down in the Valley, and Graduation on its agenda.