Onarga Township High School - Onarquois Yearbook (Onarga, IL)

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Senior JJistor After the first six weeks our class received the highest grade average for the whole school. The candidate for the King and Queen of our Carnival were Jack Price and Marge Scott. During the year we lost Robert Magnussen, Jack Price, Gloris Ilsie, Clyde Parker, Carolyn Poulson and Virginia Turner. In our sophomore year we had five new members: Judy Voss, Terry Workman, who transfe rred from O.M .S., Joanne Doyle, Brad Perkinson, and Harold Lathrop. The new members were very active in sports. Brad Perkinson and Juanita Henegar were candidates for the King and Queen of our Carnival. Tom Brim lead our class as Pre sident, Te rry Workman was Vice-President, Betty Seggebruch was secretary and Jean Curphey was Treasurer. Juanita Henegar and Tom Brim were chosen to represent our c lass in the Student Council. Our last year as underclassmen” is over so on we march to the Junior section. Our Junior year started with thirty-three members in our class. This year most of the class took part in some extra work outside of the regular classes. The girls participated in choruses and other parts of the music department. The boys took part in athletics and also in music. We put on our first class play this year. It was a three-act comedy, “Bolts and Nuts”. The biggest thing during this year was the Prom. We had worked ever since we had been in high school to get money for this one big evening. We worked the last two weeks in May decorating the gym. We had a lowered ceiling and the people ate at card tables around the edge of the gym. In the center was the dance floor. The Prom went off ve ry nicely and was considered by almost everyone to be one of the best that Onarga has ever had. This ended most of the school year except for semesters and the end of school. Seniors at last! This was the year that we had looked forward to ever since we started to school. We had reached the climax of our school days forever. This year began with thirty-three students but the number was cut to thirty-one before the year was over. This year was the busiest year of all. Several of the boys took part in athletics and many of the members were in music, dramatics and speech. The class officers for this year were Harold Da thr op-Pre sident, Jim Lewis-Vice -President, Betty Seggebruch-Secretary, Jerry Jones-Treasurer. No one will ever forget about how much history we got out of for class meetings ! Our senior play, “Lena Rivers”, was a big success. Several members of the class became Thespians after this play. True to tradition, we were “let out” early, and from May 18 till graduation we were free. Seniors who had made “C ” averages didn’t even have to report for final examinations. We took our senior trip and went to Chicago from May 22 to May 23. During the day everyone could do whatever he wanted to do. Some of the girls went to the Breakfast Club broadcast, plays and movies, and several of the boys went to a baseball game. We spent the first part of our evening at River View and then stayed at the Palmer House Hotel. Baccalaureate was May 28 and Commencement May 3 1. Most of the class were really sad to be leaving high school and entering upon a completely new phase of life. When the school bell rings next September, it will find some members of the class of ’50 in college, some will be married, and some will be on their own--working. But no matter where we are or what we do, we will not soon forget the many happy days we had together at dear old O. H. S. 11

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Senior We left all our trucks, tractors, and dolls at home and trudged off to school holding our mother’s hand very tightly. Our firstday of school! In our firstyear we learned to read and write. Music? Now that was what we starred in. We had our own Rhythm Band” of which Jerry Jones was the Drum Major. As we started on our second year we were well acquainted with the rules. No talking, note writing and such things as that. Well.it happened every boy picked out a girl friend and every girl had picked out a boy friend by now so a post office was organized to handle all the notes. Sue Ficklin was chosen to be Postmistress. We are now getting into higher and tougher arithmetic. It’s multiplication now. What a time we had but we finally mastered them. Fourth grade, how we envy those lucky kids who are upstairs. We all thoughthow grownup it would be when we would have to go upstairs. That would be a great step in our education, but--first we must study our new subject, geography. Here we go, climbing the stairs to our new room. We often had brief moments of freedom, frequent fire drills. The bells would ring and down we would go through the fire escape. That was the most enjoyable thing about fifth gradebut along with play goeswork;we started history. Each one brought costumes to imitate the different characters in our book. In sixth grade, under the teaching of Miss Yaw, we now are interested in art. Everyone enjoyed painting landscape pictures but we usually had more paint on us than on the picture. Seventh grade was full of hard studying for us. We learned percentage in arithmetic and made salt maps in geography, but we did it without grumbling because we were looking forward to next year. Here we are finally in the eighth grade. “Big-shots of the school, so we thought. The boys took all the sixth grader’s boots and hid them, but as punishment they all got D’s in music. This was our last yearin grade schoolwith graduation just around the corner. Jerry Jones and Diane Rice received the American Legion awards. Clyde Parker was chosen as valedictorian and Jerry Jones was salutatorian. Thirty-three scared, pea-green freshmen walked into study hall, into a new phase of education. We had finished our first eight years and now only four more. In time we became used to all the kidding, which is always for the freshman, and became an organized and active class. The class officers were Jack Price-President, Jerry Jones-Vice -President, Jean Curphey-Secretary, and James Lewis-Treasurer. The boys took great interest in football and basketball and the girls joined G. A. A. and F. H. A. SJistor 10

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1enior Coach Thomas E. Brim Onarga High School Onarga, Illinois Dear Whaley, I haven’t been down to see Onarga's new ultra-modern gymnasium but 1 hear that it is really a honey! You must be doing well in your new position as coach. It has been a long time since I have heard from you and as I have seen a few of our old classmates lately, I thought I would write and tell you what they are doing. Our old pal, Chief Ed Bottorff, walked into my dental office here on South State Street just the other day, wanting dental treatment for his tribe. Ed has just completed an expedition to North Dakota studying how to acquire territory for the North American Indians. We were just making plans to tour Chicago, when another of our friends, Irvin “Hair less Joe Jean, wandered in. Irvin, as you remember, after having completed his high school training, became famous as a scientist and had the whole office on the edge of our seats telling us of his daring expedition in the Yukon, where he has made a valuable discovery--the distilling of seal oil. So the three of us set out to tour the city. Do you remember when we took our class trip 'way back in '50, the little newstand on the corner of State and Madison? Well, Sue Ficklin, is now on that corner selling old newspapers for a penny apiece. I was shocked to note that the papers were the old Narghi News that Sue had edited when a Junior in high school. 1 never thought Sue would have to resort to this. She also told me that Jeanne Curphey was home at the apartment that they share, writing her book, “Live, Love, and Be Happy. They are making out as best they can on Sue's earnings. At noon we stopped for lunch in a restaurant, and in our anxiety to leave, forgot to pay the bill. Who should call our attention to it but our former classmate, Beverly Haerr. It seems that she and Leon are making out all right in their establishment. Who should be sitting at an adjoining table but Reverend and Mrs. Ronald Schnurr and their little Sunday School class enjoying a day away from his demanding work at a church right in the heart of Skid Row. Ronny is doing a good job of “cleaning up” and enjoys his work. (You remember Bobbye, don’t you Whaley?) We decided to spend part of the afternoonat one of the museums and chose the Chicago Museum of Mummies. Who should be gatekeeper, but “Me rv” Hanne r. He likes his job even though he is so far away from home--and Watseka.As we wandered along the corridors, we found agrcup ofcollege students and in the group was Brad Perkinson, who hasjust received his degree from the Skid Row School for Psychology Students. Brad also joined our group and was overjoyed to see his buddies again. Having nothing better to do we spent the remainder of the afternoon listening to a lecture by Betty Seggebruch. Her subject was “F. F. A. Chapters of the Country.” And she seemed to be well informed on her subject, due to her high school days, no doubt.