Murdock High School - Tower Yearbook (Winchendon, MA)

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CLASS OF NINETEEN FORTY-SEVEN History of the Class of 1947 After a long, enjoyable summer vacation, we began our high school career at Murdock on that memorable day in September, 1943. Talk about your Green Freshmen -we certainly fitted the title to a i'T I Remembering all the horrible stories we had been told about Hheckling the Freshmen, we were a little scared that Iirst day when we walked in the front door of Murdock, and that fear remained with us and increased until it reached a climax on Fresh- men Night. Remember those paddles?-we ate standing up for the next two days-and the Shot box, -not very comfortable, was it? At that time, only one thought remained with us- Wait until we 'get' the Freshmen next year! Shortly after our initiation we held our first class meeting. Paul Herr was elected president: Clifford Harmon, vice-president: Pauline Dionne, secretary: and Albert Barbadora, treasurer. We had a little difficulty finding a class adviser, but Miss Verna Carbone finally consented to be our guiding light. Our first social event was the Class Picnic, held at the Corners . Remember what fun we had? We all ate too much, but then, that was to be expected. The chaperons, along with Miss Carbone, were Helen Hart, Rita Sullivan, Alberta Belliveau, and Malcolm Connor. They certainly were good sports. letting us wear them out playing Red Rover, Tag, and Tug o' War. Next, Miss Carbone decided it was time we learned to dance, so we had our Freshman Frolic in the Streeter Cafeteria. After two of these dances we got over our bashfulness, learned how we should act at a dance, and then we were ready to attend feature dances on a level with our big brothers and sisters. In May we had our first chance to enter into competition with the upper classes by taking part in Stunt Night. We did a mellerdrammer, entitled. And the Villin Still Pursuederf' Our Frank Murray proved himself to be a very cruel villain. We didn't get the tin cup, but we had lots of fun. anyway. Then came our first Class Day. As luck would have it, it rained that day, and the exercises were held inside. In spite of the weather, everybody turned out, even the boys, and we made a nice showing in our green and white paper costumes. Reta and Chester Priest were our marshal and cheer leader. respec- tively. Paul Herr, as president, accepted our new class colors, rust and gold, from the graduating class. And so ended our Freshman Year. When we returned to Murdock in September, 1944. to begin our Sopho- more Year, we felt pretty grown up. W.e looked down on the little Freshmen. Poor things, they were such babies: but then, they would live, and learn and grow, as we had done. This time we had an exceptionally good time at Fresh- men Night: our golden rule was: Do unto others as others have done unto you! What laughs we got out of the antics we forced the Freshmen to do! This year we chose Clifford Harmon to lead us and Beverley Catanese to assist him. Gloria Gramolini was elected taker-of-notes, but moved out of town in November and was replaced by Jane Webber. Edward Knotts became our guardian of the treasury, and Miss Carbone agreed to take us on for another year. Our Class Picnic was held this fall at Stone Farm, with Louise Burke, Helen Hart, and John Burgoyne along to help Miss Carbone see that we behaved. When we reached the top of the hill we agreed that the beautiful panorama from the top was really worth the tedious climb. Once again we played games until we were famished: then we started the fires, toasted hot dogs, and broiled hamburgers. We wondered why it took the chaperones so long to get going- Weren't they hungry ?-but we found out when Miss Carbone blurted, I took f24l

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MURDOCK HIGH SCHOOL, WINCHENDON. MASS. everything but the hamburg: it's in the refrigerator at Tarrymore Lodge! Well, Mr. Burgoyne and Buddy went back after it-we just couldn't stand by and see our chaperons go hungry. In the early part of the winter we held two food sales-one at the Wood Furniture Store and one at the Electric Light Ofiice. Oh, the cooperation! Almost everyone baked and brought us the fruits of her labor: and we got some pretty neat prices for our food, too. The proceeds constituted the Hrst bit of pront that went into our treasury, Early in February we sponsored the annual Sophomore Hop. our first feature dance. How hard we worked on the decorations! It was worth it though: our big black silhouettes brought us many compliments. and we were so proud! There was just one flaw-we had a blizzard that day that literally buried the town. We couldn't remember ever having ,had a day out of school because of inclement weather, but that day was it. And that was the one day in our entire lifetime that the walls of Murdock's classrooms, yes, and even the teachers, would have looked wonderful to us. However, we had one consola- tion-we were allowed to sell tickets at the door-and that is one thing that has always been taboo at Murdock. Well, Russ Cole got through with his super-duper orchestra, and we all had such a good time, We just hated to see eleven o'clock roll around so soon. This year, since we had become of age, we had the privilege of presenting one of the tournament plays. Our play was a one-act comedy, Pickles Is Pickles. Miss Hart coached, and Mary Adams, Beverley Catanese, Eleanor Holmes. Clifford Harmon, and Edward Knotts made up the cast. Wasn't Clifford just out of this world dressed as a girl? And how could Edward be so naive? No doubt we were awarded third prize because of our lack of acting experience. Next Murdock Night rolled around again, and this time we put on a skit, mostly pantomime. called And the Lamp Went Out. Albert Barbadora and Paul Herr were the visible sound effects and property men. The tin cup didn't fall into our hands this year either, but then. it was fun taking part, anyway. Soon it was June and time for Class Day again. Reta and Chester were chosen marshal and cheer leader once more. The girls turned out 100 per cent: the boys were in the minority. due probably to the fact that Uncle Sam had taken many of our members during the year. And so the curtain came down on the second year of our high school career. In September, 1945, we reentered Murdock to begin our Junior year. Now we were definitely upperclass-upper. anyway. We didn't take much interest in Freshmen Night this year: we were beyond that stage, so we left the heckling to those youngsters, the Sophomores, while we did the heavy looking on. This year Clifford Harmon was again chosen to lead us with Mary Adams to assist him. Jane Webber became our keeper of the minutes, and Edward Knotts stayed on as our collector of cash. Miss Carbone was again unanimously elected Class Adviser. Our annual fall outing was held at the picnic grounds at Laurel Lake early in October with Helen Hart and Bill Properzio to help Miss Carbone keep up in tow. Once again the weather man was very unkind to us and sent us a very cold day, that is, it was exceptionally cold for that time of year. Since we were really grown up now, some of us had drivers' licenses, so we went in cars. By the way, Barb and Dick, did you ever tell your folks how many people could be piled into a car if necessary? As one might expect. we got directions twisted, and half of us landed in the wrong place. However, after some scouting, we finally got together, started the fires roaring, and made pigs of ourselves. Oh, yes. Miss Carbone would still like to know where, how, and why some of our members got lost on the way hoilnelj 2 il