North Quincy High School - Manet Yearbook (North Quincy, MA)

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2 8 MANET ahead by inches and then the other, until about a hundred yards from the finish. Suddenly there was a loud snap followed by a great flapping. Instinctively I looked up at 1ny sails, but they were all intact. 'tThe tCynthia! the 'Cynthia'! shouted Bob. t'Her spinnakers carried away. I looked up, and sure enough, one of the spinnaker sheets had torn from its gasket and the spinnaker was flapping wildly int the wind. Ten seconds later we crossed the line victors. The silver cup was ours! SURPRISE By Barbara Munro. 8-8 This narrative was. in the opinion of the judges. the best entry made in the contest by pupils of the eighth grade. Reasons: tl! the pupil was wise i11 selecting an incident natural to his own environment, rather than one which was entirely foreign to his own experience or observation: 423 the action moves quickly: C37 the suspense is adequately maintained: tl! the surprise ending is convincing. For two months I had been saving all the money I could for the express purpose of buy- ing a. white fur coat to wear with my black velvet evening gown, but as yet I did not have the desired sum. I was rather discouraged until one night at exactly 8,35 my Aunt Kitty telephoned and asked to speak to mother. I listended intently to the conversation that fol- lowed: i'How are you, Kitty? asked Mother. Oh! I'm feeling fine. Lucy? VVhy she was here a few minutes ago. XVhy? Silence-all sorts of thoughts raced through my mind. Aunt Kitty never called unless for something important. Last time she had given me a pretty lace collar. Mother was speaking again, I listened: VVhat's that? Yes, it 's black. It will be a surprise. Lucy has wanted one for some time. Such a lovely combination! I just know Lucy will be proud of it! Did you say it was white?7' At this I literally bounded into the air. The conversation was so promising, I rushed into my room and. arrayed in my black velvet, walked up and down managing my train most successfully. Such marvelous thoughts! VVhat hopes! In the midst of my rehearsal I heard my mother exclaim: i'Did you say it has blue eyes? I stopped. Fear was breaking down my air castle. I could hear the receiver click back into place. Mother was coming to tell me 'iAunt Kitty just called. She is going to give you a white angora kitten. Isn't that ' 1 nice ! 'iflhf' I heard myself say. A STORM AT SEA By Merle Lowell, 9-1 The gallant ship sailed from the bay Out toward the angry sea. How dark and cheerless was- that day With trained men only three. A gale blew upg the waves tossed high, The ship rocked to and fro, A storm cloud burst up i11 the sky And deluged the deck below. The storm raged wildg the 111911 grew pale, The craft sank low'1' and low'1-5 There never was a iiercer gale As seen by men from Roure. THE JUNIOR CARNIVAL By Priscilla Bruce. 9-4 Listen. my children. while I relate A tale of sparkle and cheer. Of course you can guess just what it is- tlur carnival. the event of the year. The time was just after seven With fun in the assembly hall: The entertainment was most superb, A good time in store for all. Jimmie McLellan was surely a hit And Sparky just captured your heart: The pupils went crazy and squealed for more, But this was only tl1e start.. The chorus girls were next in lineg My. but they were charming. To think that North had fairies like these XVas really quite alarming. Their beautiful skirts of colors bright, Their beautiful rhythmical sway. It certainly took our football boys To dance that unusual way. Then a curtain was lowered And who should come forth but the star, For the fame of Feurtad0's dancing Has been known both near and far. I must not forget the singingg You k11ow it was quite a treat. These boys are certainly giftedg Their voices were wonderfully sweet. VVhen the show had come to an end. The pupils were ready to dance: You really hated to be stepped on so But everyone took that chance. As all good times must come to an end, Our carnival of course did toog It certainly was a grand affair. I think I'm right, don't you? SOLILOQUY BY A CAT By Elizabeth Ugilvie. 12-Z2 Oh. springtime is a mystic thing XVhereof a thousand poets sing. It is the most delightful time To rhapsodize in song and rhyme. To me it is the time of year IVhen first the little snakes appear. The poets tell of butterflies That flutt'ring o'er thecrocus rise. I grant that they are pretty things With fragile bubble-tinted wings. But. 0 to catch those bits of gauze XYithin my eager-reaching paws! And poets idolize spring floW'rs- My mistress prates of them for hours. She's talking now-so I retreat And find them really very sweet. But heavens! she will lose her head To find me in the tulip bed!

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NDRNEHT 27 THE RACE By Robert H. Smith, 9-4 This story is well written and the incidents related hold the readers interest. It should be of special interest to the boat race fans. On July 4, the Bed Harbor yacht club would hold its annual sailboat race for boats under eighteen feet in length. The race was to be held in Basset's Bay, which was about five miles long and two miles wide. The course was almost ten miles long and plainly marked with three red buoys. My boat, the Eleanor, was a seventeen foot clinker built sloop with great breadth of beam and very seaworthy. Captain Butts had built her two years ago, and he certainly knew how to build boats. He had been building them all his life and never used a blue print or other helps but, nevertheless, his boats were among the best on Cape Cod. Bob, who is my cousin, and I, planned to sail her, and our motto is: KCWIIGII the belly of the mainsail dips in the water it's time to reeff? We had thoroughly familiarized our- selves with the course and believed that with the speed which the t'Eleanor possessed and our knowledge of the bay we stood a good chance of winning. The day of the race was dark and storm clouds scudded by overhead. A strong steady south-west wind stirred up whitecaps on the bay. The race was scheduled for one-thirty o'clock and at one o'clock Bob and I rowed out to the Eleanor, As we were hoisting the sails, I saw Ben Moccasin 's friendship sloop cross the entrance to our cove headed for the yacht club. I knew he would be a worthy rival because his boat was especially designed for heavy weather and he knew the sailing game from A to Z. About thirty boats were at the yacht club. Bill Clonner's Highflyer was particularly outstanding with her tall racing rig but she was not the boat for a rough sea. The Cyn- thia owned and sailed by John LaRhette would give a good account of herself, and Gifford Lad's f'Royal Flush was sure of a place among the first if nothing happened to her. After jockeying our boats into position, we waited impatiently while Mr. Dorn read off the rules and regulations. Wlien he had finished, he consulted his watch and drew out a small pistol. Bang! The race was on. As Bob hauled in on the mainsheet, I jammed down the tiller and put the Eleanor onto the starboard tack heading her for Painis Pebble. Bob trimmed the sails as flat as possible and we gathered headway rapidly. About ten feet to the lee- ward and even with us was the Cynthia.,' She had a good start also and was sailing smoothly and easily. The wind was blowing harder now and several crews were reefing their mainsails. The Cynthia was in the lead at the first buoy but John swung her around too sharply and she lost headway. Quickly we shot into the lead. VVe were on the port tack now, heeling over until the 'cElean- or 's red underbody was plainly seen. I climbed up to the windward side and Bob ,joined me as soon as he had finished tightening the starboard mast stays. I did not luff when an extra heavy puff of wind struck us because we needed every foot we could gain. A boat from Patuwissitt had fouled Ben Moccasins sloop at the turn and broken the bowsprit off shortj It was hard luck for Ben, but he was a good sport and was probably planning on winning next year race, NVe werevin the lead with the t'Cynthia'7 and the 'tRoyal Flush about twenty-five feet be- hind. Approximately half way to the second buoy, Bob gave ine the signal and we .came about onto the starboard tack again. The wind grew more puffy and several times we took in water over the leeside. It was Bob 's duty to pump this out as quickly as he could because it made the boat logy and hard to handle. I would have to be very careful coming about around the second buoy because of the sharp turn there. As we passed the buoy, I swung on the niainsheet, I gjammed down the tiller and her head into the wind and Bob hauled in on the mainsheet. Then, as I eased her to port, Bob gave the boom a push to leeward. The sail filled rapidly, and the UEleanor heeled over shipping about a barrel of water before we righted her. Then, with the wind on her beam, I steered for the third buoy. At the critical. moment, when Bill Conners was bringing the 'tBoyal Flush about, the niainsheet jammed in a block, and at the in- stant t.he wind hit her she capsized. Instantly, the officials' motor boat went to the rescue and picked up her crew. They towed the HRoyal Flush to the sandbar off Pain's Beach and put her crew off on the beach. At low tide she would be high and dry and the crew would be able to bail her out and prepare her for launching' on the next tide. The t'Cynthia, which sailed best in the wind on her beam, caught up with us and as we rounded the third buoy and headed down the home stretch she was only a foot behind. With the wind astern and blowing a half gale both boats seemed to fly. Both of us hoisted spin- nakers which almost doubled our sail spread and sailing wing on wing hardly needed to use our rudders. Bob and I sat back as far as we could to balance the boat and hoped that the mast wouldn't break. There was a good four miles to go and the Eleanor was scarcely a foot ahead. VVe went along this way, first one boat

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MAN ET 2 9 S. S. York City, cfo Reardon Smith Line. Merthyr House, James Street, Cardiff, VVales. Dear Mother: VVell, I left Falmouth in Devon on this packet where she was laid up for eight months, and went to Clueta tpronounced Suetab, in Spanish Africa, and got about 1,000 tons of oil there. It is a wonderful place, and you can see people in their long white robes, and the Mohammed XVOIHPII with their veils. Fellows came aboard selling silk shirts and things cheap. Soap comes next. to tobacco on these tramps. I learned that the next day, Sunday, there was to be a bull-fight, and from what I heard it seems that everybody in Clueta was going to be at that bull-fight, but we did not get ashore as we were there only about six hours. The next place was Constantinople, but we lay at anchor waiting for orders. It looked like a nice place with its Moslem temples and Sultan 's palace. We got orders to proceed to Novarissisk in Southern Russia on the Black Sea. The place was all cobble-stones and had no sanitary arrangements, but it is the same all over Russia. VVe called at Port Said in Egypt at the en- trance to the Suez Canal. Most of the things you buy there are made in England, and they can speak better English there than some of us. NVhen coming through the Suez you have to tie up a lot, as it is very narrow, to let tankers and mail boats through. VVhile we were tied up some of us went swimming and it was great. You can see Ali Baba on his camel in the desert, and it stretches for miles on either sfde. The Red Sea took the biscuit for heat- 120 and 130 degrees in the shade, and over 200 in the engine room-some heat, believe mel At Moji, Japan, we got some coal and what is called a bum boat. Nobody can beat the Japs for cheapness. I am sorry I had not the time to get a set of china. They cost anything from 10X to two pounds there, but I had not a chance, as it was work all the time. I offered 25f to some of the fellows on the ship for a set, but they would not sell theirs-not for any money. But. maybe I will be in Japan again soon, and I will make sure that I get a set. We only stopped there for coal and bam- boos, and we sailed the same day. Three days from there we arrived at Vladivostock, one of the biggest railway centers of the U. S. S. R. The temperature there was four below zero. XVinches and everything froze. We went along- side after the soldiers had searched us and had given us our passes. Every one in Russia to- day has a. pass, and must produce it when asked, and so we had our passes as well, just slips of paper with our name and the name of the ship and an official stamp on it. If you lose it, you have to pay ten gold rubles or 2150! in our money. They have there what is called an international club, and all they talk about is a revolution that would benefit the working class in capitalist countries. It is a lot of bunkum, but I used to go there when there was The working class and no place else to go. every one else has to get his whack of black bread every four days, and doctors have been known to carry their black bread. They work five days and have a day off every sixth, but the work still goes on as they take it in turns. They get money, but it is no use to them as I have seen them throw it away, because the government controls everything, and everybody. They told us at the club that religion is free in Russia, but they only laugh at religion. The only religion they have is Com- munism. I could write a book about the U. S. S. R. The climate was awful, and if the bolsheviks of England went to Russia, they would never again preach Bolshevism. We have a stowa- way, and to get out of Russia he stopped down one of the ship 's holds for five days and' licked the ship 's side for water. He got frostbitten on the legs, and has not the use of them, and maybe never will. He risked being caught by the police, for they searched the ship, and if he had been caught he would have been shot. So you can guess what kind of a country Russia is. The Americans don 't seem to like Russia as I have read some of their comments in the Saturday Evening Post, and the Literary Digest, and they certainly can advertise a thing. VVe left Russia after being over a month there and went to Moranor in Japan again for so1ne coal, but we didn 't get a bum boat there, so I couldn't. get anything. I forgot to tell you that it took two ice-breakers to get us out of Vladivostok. The temperature was 16 below. Now we are nearly three weeks on the Pacific, and not near San Pedro yet. She only does nine knots at the best, and the weather has not been very good. Snowstorms, hailstorms, and heavy seas are present as I am writing this. It is blowing' a gale and we are about 1,700 miles from San Pedro where we will get oil and stores. I am looking forward to it as it is in California, and I want to give you my opinion of the States, but maybe we won't go alongside. VVe might go to Hamburg or to some port in England. The work here is hard and you work eight hours a day, all right, and the food is not too good, Board of Trade rations, but the money is three pounds a month, and that's a consola- tion especially when we get paid off. At pres- ent we are short. of flour, and are on sea bis- cuits. The potatoes got all frosted up along with the other vegetables, and you can't eat