North Carolina School for the Deaf - Clock Tower Yearbook (Morganton, NC)

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“ 5 THE CLOCK TOWER “ Thanksgiving Drama This year was the first time our school had attempted to give a play in the auditorium as part of the Thanksgiving Program. According to reports received from the spectators, this was the best play ever presented on our stage. Mrs. George H. Bailey directed the play and Miss Mary Frances Miller, crafts teacher, was in charge of the scenery. The setting was the kitchen of a log cabin at Plymouth, Mass. away back in 1621. The interior of the kitchen was very simple although realistic. The log walls were made of paper mounted on plywood and the stone fireplace also looked very convincing, although it too was made of paper. Snow-capped trees and glitter- ing snowflakes could be seen through the cab- in’s one window. The room was furnished with colonial ta- bles, chairs, a spinning wheel, a bed-warming pan, rags rugs, gourd dippers, a musket, and a dutch oven. At one time in the play a pan of bread dough was placed in the oven and later taken out fully baked, much to the astonish- ment of the audience. Those taking part in the play were: Pattie Kerley, Kenneth Leonard, Richard Absher, Joyce Gallimore, Ronald Richards, Dan Miller and Everette McAllister. They were all authen- tically dressed in costumes of the pilgrim days. These costumes were the work of the girls’ sew- ing classes under Mrs. Wesson and Mrs Free- man. Christmas Pageant For several years the Christmas Pageant has been an annual affair on the stage in our audi- torium. Each year seems to find quite a bit of improvement over the previous pageant. Mrs. Marie Davis and Mrs. Addie Knox were in charge of the program, which was attended by quite a few people from Morganton in addition to the students and faculty members. Frances Withrow enacted the part of Mary, Elrice Daniels was Joseph, Earleen Crater was Gabriel. Pattie Kerley, Ollie Calhoun, and Dot- tie Moore were the angels, Buford Pressley played the part of King Herod, and the girls and boys from 11th grade acted as wise men and travelers. The entire story of the birth of Jesus was portrayed. Beginning with the angel’s visit to Mary, we saw scenes at the inn in Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary in the stable, the angel’s visit to the shepherds, the three Wise Men following the star, and the Baby Jesus in the manger. Throughout the play the stage was lighted with a beautiful colored spotlight, which changed colors according to the mood of the scene taking place. The acting, costumes and the lighting effects were superb. Many voted it the best pageant held in years. The spectators were held spell- bound by the beauty and reality of this port- rayal of the Christmas Story.

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Next my mind turned to Elrice Daniels, and I found myself looking through a huge plate glass window bearing the following inscription: Dr. Daniels. Let me save your shoes from’ the trash pile”. On closer inspection I saw Elrice, himself, surrounded by a pile of shoes: “After watching him swing his cobbler’s hammar for a few minutes, I was convinced that he was turly a “Doctor” in his trade. Don’t ask me how he happened to take up this trade. I wanted to ask him, but of course I was unable to talk with him. Now my attention turned to Earleen Crater, the mathematic wizard. I half expected to find her teaching mathematic in some large college, but instead found her as the proud owner of a large wholesale company in New York. She had not changed much in appearance and ap- peared from very happy in her work. Earlene’s new company handled everything from shoe- strings to ocean liners. Remembering that Earl- ene had been married on July 4, 1948, I looked around for her husband but was disappointed to find he was a stranger to me. After watching Earleen for a while I was soon convinced that everyone liked her even though she was a very strict boss. She could tell at a glance whether the bookkeepers were making mistakes or not. Frances Withrow was the next to come to my mind. She had married the rich owner of one of the South’s leading textile mills and had a beautiful home on the east coast of (N. Cy I watched her go about her household duties for awhile, and discovered that three-fourths of her time was spent taking care of her four children. In the basement ! was surprised to find that she had a whole room full of Algebra books. Watch- ing her, I wondered what in the world she wanted with all of those books. After awhile I discovered the answer. Frances received great pleasure from hurling an Algebra book in the furnace whenever she felt like it. Sometimes just for variety she would chop one to pieces with an ax. Frances certainly had not changed much, Bascom Robinson proved to be a bit difficult. I had to focus my mind on him for several minutes before he came into view. He was dan- cing with a beautiful brunette and at first I thought it was his wife. Looking around the room I noticed several other young ladies watch- ing him with adoring eyes. It soon became - apparent that Bascom had become a profess- ional dancing instructor, and from the looks of his customers he was a very popular young man. When I saw Melvin Ellis, I knew at once that he had succeeded in his ambition to own a furniture factory. He was sitting at a huge mahogany desk smoking a cigar and he had a bay-window that would have taken first prize at any business men’s meeting. Above his desk there hung several pictures of factories. Upon examining them closely, I found they were pic- tures of the various branches of his furniture company. No doubt about it. Melvin was surely making a success of his life. Finally, my thoughts turned to Pattie Kerley. I expected to find her at home reading a book, but instead saw her seated at a table with a handsome man and three little girls. It was late in the evening, so she had probably finished work. However, I listened to their conversation hoping to discover what kind of work she was doing. It soon became apparent that she was teaching literature in the S. C. School for the Deaf and keeping house for her husband and children. By this time the effects of the pill had begun to wear off and I again found myself back in Dr. Randolph’s lab. I had a terrific headache and Dr. Randolph offered to let me sample another of his inventions - guaranteed to cure anything, but I politely declined and bid him a fond farewell. After fixing up my headache with a few aspirins, I looked back over my experience and was certainly pleased when I recollected that every one of my old class had been very successful in life.

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Boys’ BASKETBALL GIRLS’ BASKETBALL