Oakwood School - Quercus Yearbook (Poughkeepsie, NY)

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l9g32 - DRUS - 1932 lass ilgrrrphermg Scene I Scene-A room in the Girls' Dorm. Beatrice Merritt, Hope Bulkley, Dot Alley, Carrie Bryan, Ruth Scales and Helen Clark reclining on beds, etc. Ginnie Taylor on floor with tea kettle and electric stove. Ginnie-l wonder where Frieda and Danie are-this water's boiling. fPours teaj. A knock and Danella Murray and Frieda l'lan1 enter. Dot-Here they are. fGeneral confusion as they settle themselves, Frieda-You all look sort of glum-what's wrong ? Helen-Not glum-just that commencement is almost here-it made us feel a little strange. Carrie-Have some cookies-Dot made them, they're good. fsilence while everyone drinks tea, eats cookies and looks as tho they were thinking. Dot-A penny for your thoughts, Ginnie. Ginnie-O nothing-l was just thinking. Ten years from now, twenty years from now-where will we all be? We have such hopes and dreams now-they are so idealistic and so high. We will probably be far apart, maybe we will not even remember some of our friends here. fsilencel. Danie-And we know so little about each other's dreams. We only know the surface things-we are afraid to tell the deepest things in our lives-it's silly, isn't it ? Helen-Well letis start right now-what are our dreams and ambitions? Ginnie looks very sophisticated there on the floor. That tin teapot might turn to silver-Ginnie at a tea table in a large draw- ing room full of distinguished people. But seriously Ginnie, what are your real ideals ? Ginnie-Well, at Holyoke next year l'm going to major in French. Probably in plain ordinary life l shall be a French teacher. But l also want to find some means of self-expression by which I may make other people see and feel my emotions-and also express them to myself. I want to study dramatics and interpretive dancing-maybe not to do anything with them other than amuse myself. Carrie-These cookies speak for Dot-how about it? Dot-Yes, cookies come in it, l suppose, cookies and food in general. I'll be taking a Home Ee. course at Russell Sage next year. l know Sz'1'e11fcr11

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T 1932 -- DRUS - 1932 Qllaurfs Zhisturg OUR years ago! ln our Freshman year, the high school course seemed to fill an eternity of time. But now that it is over, it seems like no time at all. We look back with pleasure tinged with regret to the carefree days of our first year at Oakwood. We did not DO much, the outstanding formal event was the presentation of the class play, Don't Judge by Appearances . Yet in that year we learned probably more than in any other. Everything was new, most of it was enjoyable. Our attitude all through the past four years has been to a great extent determined by the events of our Freshman year. ive grew in those ten months, unconsciously but none the less certainly. Then the Sophomore year. The forming of new friendships and the re-cementing of old. Activities were more varied and more ap- preciated. The class play, The Perplexing Situation was one of those activities. Parties, games, socials were also included here. It was in our Sophomore year that we began to look ahead to college and, perhaps, to life after college. Plans were made, in many cases careers were chosen in that year. And still we grewg not so much as in the Freshman year, but surely a good deal. During the next year, l930-3l, we juniors began to shape our lives more definitely toward some future goal. However, do not get the idea that we spent all our time working for graduation. The process of preparation was mainly unconscious. We still had good times. Who can forget that Junior-Senior ring fight, and the subsequent banquet? The parties, the hikes, and all the manifold events of last year ? It is impossible for us to describe our Senior year. It is too new to us, we lack perspective. All we can say is that it is in this year that we came to realize that meaning of life at Oakwood. And this realiza- tion did not detract from our enjoymentg it added immeasurably to it. The play Outward Bound is symbolic in a way of the whole year. It is serious, yet abounds in humor. lt has a lesson to teach, but preaches not at all. It took a great deal of work, yet repaid us a thousandfold. And so with the other phases of school life as Seniors. We fear that the traditional Senior dignity this year was more hypothetical than actual, but, after all, dignity is an empty pretense. The final test of anything is the lasting satisfaction it gives: according to this, the year of l93l-32 has been an unqualified success. A class history is not a calendar of events, it is a living, vital record of the lives of a group of people. It is, therefore, absolutely impossible to put down on paper a real class history. We only state the facts and leave the sympathetic reader to infer their real meanings. Sl.1'fl i'Il

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1932 -- DRUS -- 1932 it may sound sort of common place-but I feel that there is something very worthwhile in helping people understand the im- portance of right food and clothing. I would like to specialize in dietetics. Frieda-I want to take up Home Ee., too. I feel that learning and teaching other people to run a home efficiently and neatly is one of the biggest things one can do for society. Happy people come from happy, comfortable homes. I think that I would be happier in this line than studying abstract things or working in a business office. I-Iope1The things that Dot said appeals to me greatly in nursing. It seems that helping people keep well and strong and caring for them when they are sick is one of the greatest services one can do for the world. It is rather like-well-being a helper of God. Carrie-I want to be a nurse too-but altho I feel somewhat as Hope does-something else has a stronger pull for me. It seems to me that a nurse has one of the greatest opportunities for an understand- ing of character-of human hearts and desires. Thru this under- standing there is so much help, mental as well as physical, that can come from a nurse. Bee-Ruth, what are you going to do ? Ruth-Oh, I think I should like to study psychology and criminology. I should like to work with prisoners and mental deficients and help them to adjust themselves to society. Dr. Liepman inter- ested me a great deal when she was here. I should like to do somewhat the same sort of thing she is doing. Danie-I'm afraid you'll all laugh when I tell you what I want to be- but the height of my ambition is to be a dress buyer in Lord and Tayl0r's or Bonwit-Teller. To study designing and styles both here and in Paris. It will mean working up from a sales girl- but I think I can do it. Bee-we haven't heard from you. Bee-Well-I think I'll take a secretarial course for a year and go into that field for awhile, but after that I want to go back to school and study something in the line of bacteriology. A scien- tist working with those tiny microscopic bits of life which mean so much to animal and plant life, and most of all to mang it is an ideal I hope I can reach. Ginnie-Helen takes it all in from the corner-come on-what's your ideal ? Helen-I don't know exactly what I want to be. I want to take up literary work, languages, and psychology. It doesn't make much difference to me what I do as long as I find something I am inter- Eiylztvvlz