Niverville High School - High Lights Yearbook (Niverville, Manitoba Canada)

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LITERARY ON SMOKING Quite often these days high school students are offered cigarettes by older persons as a friendly gesture. The easiest thing to do is to accept it and to smoke it. If the cigarette is accepted every time that it is offered, smoking will soon become a habit and the student will soon be buying his own cigarettes. In early days the peace pipe was passed around the council while the chief spoke. This gave them something to do ito keep their hands busy. Almost the same situation is true today. When a group of people meet they “light up” to keep their hands busy thus relieving the nervousness and making conversation easier. The exact effect of smoking on the human body is not quite certain but no one ever claims that smoking improves the health of a person. These three bad effects, however, are certain: i) it interferes with the growth of the heart, ii) it interferes with the respiratory system by irritating the membranes of the throat, iii) it inter¬ feres with the action of the digestive juices. Tobacco contains a very poisonous drug called nicotine. Three cigarettes have enough nicotine to kill a person if it were injected directly into the blood stream. Only four per cent is absorbed when smoking but twelve per cent is absorbed if a person inhales. Besides nicotine, tobacco also contains other irritating chemicals. These are especially poisonous and irritating to the throat and lungs. These tars are considered to be a definite cause of mouth and lung cancer. Endurance athletes are usually people with heart beats slower than the average. The slow powerful beat gives the heart a longer resting period in between beats. Smoking speeds up the heart beat and therefore the athlete that smokes loses his endurance abilities. Smoking slows down the movement of the stomach as well. It is these movements that cause the hunger pangs. The cost of smoking for a heavy smoker during his lifetime may be equivalent to a comfortable six or seven-room house. If the wife also smokes it would be equivalent to the cost of furnishing this house. A great many fires are caused annually by careless smokers. Millions of dollars worth of damage is done each year. Most of this is caused by forest fires which put a big dent in the national economy by destroying timber, killing wildlife, and causing unemployment. Many fires result in the loss of life when people fall asleep with lighted cigarettes. Smoking has become a widespread social custom because it seems harmless and attractive and because it is so habit forming. It is also a form of relaxation. On the other hand, it is a waste of money and is harmful to physical and mental health. It is up to each individual himself to make up his mind about the smoking habit. —Aaron Redekop, Gr. X MY FIRST JOB What a wonderful feeling rests upon a person who ventures out for the first time to stand on his own feet and to shoulder responsibility. I got this “feeling” when I first undertook the position as Nurses’ Aid at a hospital. First, there was that day when I applied for the job. Well I remember the long and careful attention I gave to my appearance that morning; also the forced smile and slight nervousness which were the result of my tension. This sensation of slight fear had turned into a sensation of joy when I left the personnel office that morning, for I had been accepted to the position. Then there was that first day of work. Though I was energetic, zealous, and vivacious in the morning of this day, I had by evening turned into a person with considerably less energy, and with a pair of miserably tired feet. The first few days were more or less days of instruction and getting acquainted with the hospital as a whole. We were shown by the supervisor to the diverse divisions, like the central supply room, diet kitchen, locker room, treatment and service rooms, etc., on and off our individual wards. I soon was acquainted with the general routine of our work and was told that I “seemed to control the situation Page 30

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Girls’ Sports The high school girls were not active as far as competing with other schools was concerned. Although they managed to play a few games of volleyball with Grunthal, which incidently we lost, most of the time for competing with other schools was spent watching our male confederates playing. Although not too many games were played against other schools, the girls still managed to play quite a bit of baseball last fall. In charge of the girls’ sports were Loma Schultz and Irmgard Braun. With the colder weather, a few games of volley¬ ball were played, some futile attempts at basketball were made, and a few games of soccer and leap-frog were attempted, but their careers were short-lived. With the return of fairer weather, perhaps some inter-baseball with the boys will be attempted. —Loma Schultz Boys’ Sports The sports story in Niverville this year has been one of only moderate success as far as the won-lost column is concerned. We started the football season with a game against Grunthal which we lost dismally. Our second game we played against Grunthal and this one turned out much better for us even though we also lost. Then we turned to hockey. In our first game against Bothwell we overpowered them and won by a comfortable margin. Our second game wasn’t accompanied with such success as we lost to Grunthal, again by a wide margin. Though we lost some games so badly, our boys are to be commended on the way they played right through to the end and the way they controlled their tempers and kept up the high standards of sportsmanship in Niverville High. On Friday afternoons all those students interested in curling took part in our curling tournament. Two teams were eliminated of the six competing during the regular season. Of the four taking part in the finals, Sandy Grant’s rink was the winner. Sandy’s rink consisted of Johnny Giesbrecht, Eugene Wiebe, Paul Heinrichs, and as spare Annie Heinrichs. A few rinks also entered bonspiels at other places. Our two rinks that entered the High School Bonspiel at Steinbach did quite well there. Page 29

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