Newport News High School - Anchor Yearbook (Newport News, VA)

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24 THE BEACON PRETTIEST CHATTERBOX

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THE BEACON 23 BEST ALL-ROUND WITTIEST

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On a hot September day, four years ago, a large auditorium was the gath- ering place of a certain class of peo- ple that have made great histories in the time. This class of people was divided into four parts, Seniors, Juniors, Sophomores, Freshmen, and the greatest of these were the Fresh- men (in their own estimation). Hear ye now the history of this class as told by one of the members, who with the approval of the other members of the class of June, T9, ' will impart to you our four long years of ventures, both “mis” and “ad.” 1 have said the day was a hot one in September, and so it was, hotter than some of the summer days that had just passed. Nevertheless, each member of our group of over one hun- dred, felt shivers and thrills chasing each other up and down his spine, and no wonder! It was our first day in really, truly, High School! Can you who read this history imagine how “awe-full” we felt? In timid silence, we listened to the buzz of the voices of those who had been there before. How young and unsophisticated we felt for a while. Suddenly a bell sounded through the hall and it became miraculously quiet. Mr. Norman L. Clark, Principal of the High School, began to speak. He gave us a lecture on school careers and how to study, and when he had finished, our young minds and hearts were filled with mad desires to “Sink or swim, live or die, survive or per- ish.” After the lecture was over we were assigned to our classrooms. As the Freshman passed out, low, but ominous hisses that sounded like “rats! rats!” struck our innocent ears, and though we hung our heads and blushed with shame, our souls concealed the pride we felt in being even “rats.” That was the beginning. On the fol- lowing day we vainly wrote our names and grade in English History, Clark’s General Science, Bookkeeping records or Bennett’s Latin Grammar. Our class had been divided into two sec- tions, Bookkeeping and Latin. That first year we were quiet and unobtrusive as good Freshmen should be. We learned to apply the golden rule of “amo, amas amat, amamus, amatus, amant” to our teachers, prin- cipal and school-mates — or rather to all our school-mates except the Soph- omores; I think we hated them. Eng- lish History was drilled into us so thoroughly that it was really difficult to convince ourselves that we were actually born and bred in America, and were not Queen Elizabeth ' s cour- tiers, and certainly not her admirers. Thus our first year slipped by, and we were “rats” no longer. By this time High School was already an old story to us and we smiled with con- descending interest at the quiet en- thusiasm of the Freshmen newcomers. With that second year, Caesar came