Onondaga Central School - Onondagan Yearbook (Nedrow, NY)

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The Donkey Basketball Game The Donkey Basketball Game was sponsored by the Senior Class and was held at the school on the evening of January 2, l941 at 7:30 P. M. The participants in the game consisted of men of the Faculty and the Varsity Basketball Squad. The game itself is difficult due to the fact that the players play astride donkeys. The evening was highlighted by the constant action, and humorous events that were constantly occurring. The student body and everyone present laughed uproariously to see students and teachers go tumbling off their respective donkeys after the ball. It was debatable who enjoyed the game the most, the players or the spectators. After the game, a hobby horse race was run off with everyone eligible to enter and spills were frequent. Opereitas The Music Department, under the direction of Mr. Harold Swartz, presented two operettas on Ianuary 9, 1941. These were: Friendship, by Engelbert Humperdinck, presented by high school students, and Hansel and Gretel, by Mary Lichthardt, the grade operetta. FRIENDSHIP The action takes place in Vienna, Austria, in 1785, when Mozart, the great composer, was obliged to teach the daughters of wealthy shopkeepers in order to obtain sufficient means of support. The story is chiefly concerned with the events that occur when a wealthy Frenchwoman wishes her daughter, who has no talent for writing music, to study musical composition with Mozart. The daughter induces her talented maid to write the music for her, but eventually has her thrown into jail because the maid cannot find her manuscripts. However, the maid is saved from death by a friend who had taken the manuscripts and entered them into a contest. A few days late, this maid discloses the fact that the manuscripts have won first prize: the daughter admits her secret to her mother and is forgiven. The curtain falls as all the characters, including the ladies of the court, sing a song of friendship. HANSEL AND GRETEL The action takes place in the Harz Mountains, Where a poor broom-maker and his wife live in a little cottage with their children, Hansel and Gretel. It is the old familiar story of how Hansel and Gretel become lost in the forest and are captured by the wicked old Witch. Iust as she is about to bake the children into gingerbread, they overcome her and push her into the oven. Immediately all the gingerbread shapes in front of the house transform into the boys they once Were. Then Hansel and Gretel's Mother and Father burst in upon the scene and the final scene is a chorus of thanksgiving. Spring Concert One of the annual affairs of the school is the Spring Concert presented by the combined Musical Clubs of the school. This event took place on May 23, 1941, and included numbers done by the Grade Choruses, Glee Club, Voice Class, and Orchestra, as Well as vocal, instrumental, and dance solos presented by the students possessing musical talent. --19-