Oxford High School - Ravelins Yearbook (Oxford, MA)

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THE RAVELIN S 1938 made no provision for a national executive or Judiciary It gave each state an equal vote in a unicameral Congress It made the union only a loose league, and in spite of the fact that the Articles spoke of the union as perpetual the states held no such concept of the duration of their membership In 1787, at Philadelphia all hope of amend mg the existing system of laws was abandoned The men at this convention set to work to draw up a new set of fundamental laws This evolved into the Constitution of the United States On September 17 1787 this document was submitted to the thirteen states for ratifi cation At least nine s ates were required to approve of it before it could be accepted Seven of the state conventions, in ratifying the Constitution expressly stated their desire to have a Bill of Rights to protect the1r inter ests, and made concrete proposals, totaling ov er one hundred, of the specific laws they wish ed to have mcluded To satisfy this desire, Madison, in 1789 intro duced in Congress a number Of amendments to the original Constitution, s ating that they would rally many people to the support of the new government, The House finally passed seventeen of these amendments The Senate reduced the number to twelve In 1791, ten were eventually ratified as the first amend ments to the Constitution In this way a Bill of Rights became an mtegral part of the Federal Constitution These rights were later enlarged by the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendment which provide for the legal revision of the Constitution, when changing condi 1d'1S re quired such action ADVICE TO INDI RGRADLA1 ES By Gordon Chaffee We, the class of 1938, welcome you pai ents, teachers, friends, and fellow students to our Class Day Exercises You, our parents friends, and teachers, we are both proud and glad to have with us on this day, which begins the of our local school life These are days that you, as well as we, have worked and wished for, for many years May their realization equal the dreams of them which each one of us has car ried in his heart' Fellow students of O H S we welcome you and we who have passed four year in high school feel qualified to give you sound coun sel Let the voice of our experience tell you to do as we say not always as we did The best words of advice which you will flnd on any seniors lips are For goodness sake watch your school habits' Make it your practice to work hard first then play equally hard after your work IS done Take part 1n every activity of high school life that you can but once you have started a thing carry it through to completion You all know from reading the ads that scientis s have proved that stop and go driv mg 1S expensive because it wastes a great deal of gasoline and causes wear and tear that shortens the life of the car You might compar yourself to an automobile and the energy spent in school and school life to the gasoline If you start many things, and instead of carrying each through to completion you stop, change your aim and start off again on another venture, you are doing the same thing that a car does things you waste a great deal of energy and reach no goal, and more than the automobile does when xt is continually starting and stop ping but never getting very far In order to use your nergy and get the most out of high school do not use the stop and go method get into the habit of carrying what you begin through to its completion When we, who are seniors and about to grad late, were underclassmen we saw things Just about as you do Now, we see them differ cntlv We have reached the end here w car not retrace our path but you are still on the road We are pointing our mistakes out to you for this purpose only that you may avoid not only some of the unhappy situations which ue have experienced, but others that w , too in a mlraculous manner, seem to have escaped On the whole our days at O H S have been delightful and in behalf of our cla of 1938 Iwish to thank each of you for his part in ma 4 mg them such, and to wish you if possible, even greater en3oyment of your school days than we have had 22 ' , , 1 . . y ' , . Y - - I b a r I . , l ' . v ' . . . 3 , - I ,,...........-..- 7 Y 1 7 T , 1 ' l L ' Y I . . f l . , ' I ' 1. A series of ceremonies that mark the completion il1'NSt0P and E0 driving- In this WHY Of doing , , . - . I . . . e ' , ss 77 I , ., L I , I I c 1 , I C v ' - ' . , 7 O V' I D u 0 . 7 4 5 ' , - . . , . , ,, , ' I 7 3 ,- . yy . ' , ' I I y 1 , I C I . . . . , , . -. . . , . vi , . ' ff 7, . , . . . ' ' f N ' - 1 53 1 . ,, . . . - - - 1 - - ss of ' ' ' ' . 1 ' . ' e

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THE RAVELIN S 1938 t1ons the respect1ve powers of the natlonal government and of the governments of the sep arate commonwealths We Amerxcans are often lnclxned to vlew the Constltutlon of the Umted States as entlrely self created and developed 1n lsolatlon Such IS not exactly the case It IS essentlal to keep ln m1nd that 1n the early perlod the Amerlcan colomes were outposts of England and were constantly affected by her lnternal problems and by the reactlons of other of the European governments to her Th1s wlll account for a slxght European background xn our ldeas of government Yet It IS true also that our Const1tu tlon has evolved to a great degree, from the 1nd1v1dual experlence 1n government that each of 1ts colomes had We must remxnd our selves that var1ous Amerlcan colomes were settled by d1fferent types of people whose purposes ln commg to the new world varled cons1derably V1rg1n1a was founded by a trad 1ng company and was managed for a t1me l1ke a commercxal corporatlon Massachusetts was settled by a rellgxous group 1nterested ch1efly 1n perpetuat1ng 1ts own form of worshlp Rhode Island was founded by refugees from the re lxgxous persecutxon of Massachusetts New York was or1g1nally establlshed by the Dutch Penn sylvan1a was conferred upon Wxlham Penn ln payment of a debt owed to his father by the crown of England Georgxa was founded as a barrler agalnst the Spanlards ln Florlda and as a refuge where long 1mpr1soned Engl1sh debtors could make a new start 1n llfe The per1od of settlement covered over a century and a half durmg whxch t1me lmportant changes were tak1ng place ln the 1deas of the settlers 'I'he settlements extended for more than a thousand mlles along the Atlantlc seacoast The cl1mate and the manner of 11 vmg d1ffered great ly for each group Yet 1n spxte of these pomts of dxfference ln purpose and 1n envxronment, the gradually envolvmg governments of the varlous colomes showed marked s1m1lar1t1es Each of the thlrteen colomes had a governor a legislature of two houses fexcept ln Penn sylvanlaj a Judlclal system and a system of local goverrunent The ch1ef d1fference appear ed 1n the method of selectmg the colonxal gov ernor In e1ght of the colomes the governor was chosen by the Br1t1sh Crown He was usu ally an Enghshman sent to Amerlca to look af ter the xnterests of the mother country In three of the colomes the governor was chosen by the hexrs of the proprletors to whom the colony had or1g1nally been granted The remalmng two colomes, under thelr charters, possessed the nght to choose thexr own governors Wlth the outbreak of the Amerlcan Revolu t1on the colonxal form of government ln the Amerxcan colomes went to PIECES The royal governors were dnven out In many cases the Colomal Assembly was dlssolved by the gov ernor s orders before he departed Consequent ly, some 1mmed1ate arrangement had to be made to ma1nta1n internal peace and order Fmally at the suggestlon of the Contmental Congress, the var1ous states exceptlng Con nectlcut and Rhode Island, whxch retalned thelr charters, each drew up a wrltten plan outlm 1ng a framework of government for xtself These were the first effect1ve wr1tten constltutlons of modern t1mes The 1dea of a wrxtten const1tut1on had come from var1ous sources The charters 1ssued to the colomal commercxal companles had been use ful 1n help1ng to suggest th1s 1dea The great documents of Eng11sh hxstory The Magna Car ta The B111 of Rlghts and The Act of Settle ment, contr1buted to the 1dea of a fundamental wr1tten statement upon whlch the powers Of government and the restr1ct1ons upon 1ts au thorlty should be based The general belxef 1n the theory of socxal contract, accord1ng to wh1ch government was based on a voluntary cove nant among the governed was laso a v1tal fac tor 1n establxshmg th1S 1dea The fact that 1t had already been applxed m the Mayflower Compact and 1n the Fundamental Orders of Connectlcut, showed 1tS mfluence on colomal thought Durmg the txme of Cromwell a wrxt ten const1tut1on The Instrument of Govern ment, had been drawn up by the Independ ants 1n England Th1s document, Whlle never put 1nto practxce, no doubt swayed lead1ng th1nkers m Amerlca ln the d1rect1on of a wrxtten const1tut1on to stab1l1ze thexr umon From 1643 wlth the formation of the New England Confederat1on and w1th the Albany Convent1on of 1754 the 1dea of a umon was grow1ng apace When the war broke out m 1775 the Second Contmental Congress was forced to take charge of the campeugn ralse money to wage war, and enter 1nto relatlons w1th forexgn states as well as regulate domes txc affaxrs ThlS body finally provlded the rules for a form of umon ln the Artxcles of Confed eratxon adopted 1n 1781 Th1s plan was weak as 1ts provlsos show It 1 , 21 . . . . . - ' , 1 . . 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THE RAVELIN S 1938 CLASS HISTORX By Mary E Barnes On September 10 1934 we the graduatmg class of 38 entered our first year of hlgh school wxth an enrollment of forty members and did we thmk we were blgl At the close of chool we could all be seen plodding home wlth books plled sky hlgh 1n an effort to xmpress others that we were studlous However, the book worm att1tude lasted only about three days, due to the fact that most of us began to feel that one or two books were heavy enough to carry at one t1me On September 20th, we gathered to hold our first class meeting and with the aid of Mr Rxch ardson, our class advlser, we elected the follow mg officers pres1dent, Stat1a Sh1V1Ck, v1ce president, Gordon Chaffee secretary, Clara Snyder and treasurer, Evy Carlson We chose Russell Proctor as our representatlve to the Student Councll Statia Sh1v1ck was chosen class reporter for Ravellns Many boys m our class proved themselves qu1te athletic 1n 1ntent, by gomg out for cross country These were Donald Mahoney, Arm and Strack Lyman Rosebrooks Richard Bel lows and Peter Pe1ore many meetmgs ln whlch we had dlscussxons about class dues, and where we should l1ke to go on our p1cn1c at the close of school Summer vaca ion was coming fast and we wanted to go to Whxte Cxty Park for a pxcnxc but It was qu1te xmposslble for us to find any one who would ar1ve us all there and back for less than a half a dollar aplece, so we all went home on the last day of school wlthout a pxc n1c but st1l1 happy because our report cards read passed which meant that we were no longer freshmen It wasn t long however bef re we were back at school again ready and wrllmg to go throu h another mterestmg year at Oxford High, wlth an enrollment of forty members This year we elected our officers as follvws president, Warren Chaffee vice pres1dent, StH'18 Sh1v1ck secretary Clara Snyd r and treasurer Gordon Chaffee M1ss Gahagan was our class advlser Our representatives to the Student Councll were Warren Chaffee and Kathryn Lane we could have two now for we were sophomores We trxed so hard to grow up thxs year but we were hand1capped because Gordon Chaffee and Russell Proctor refused to stop wearmg kmckers In our sophomore year we were well repre sented 1n basketball by Warren Chaffee M1chael Guskey, and Gordon Chaffee Warren was a member of the varsmty team Lost Vmcent Kasehs Fmder please return to Rlchard Ellls Yes, we dld lose Vmcent and seven other members, they were Helen Kallta Marlon Lougee Bessle Lowell Robert Powers, Marcel Devlllers, Vlrglnla Wrlght and Armand Strack Most of them moved to other towns leaving us reduced to a class of 32 members Well now we wonder what good deeds we dxd for O H S during th1s year? Oh yes we remember Russell Proctor s helping to boost the sale of tickets for the fall play Boy' you should have heard hzm give speeches He could have made you buy anything from a tooth brush to a vacuum cleaner On October 9 1935 the first 1ssue of Static ever mxmeographed 1n Oxford Hxgh was pub lished Several members of our class proved runmng around the school to get all the news possxble One of the real news artlcles read Flash' ' Sophomores take part in Radio Play The name of our first great expenence at broadcast1ng over W O R C on January 5 1936 was The Lawyer of Samarcand Our radlo actors were Florma Gendron, Lucille Lapan Evy Carlson, Elizabeth Palge, Mary Barnes, Kathryn Lane Russell Proctor Warren Cha' fee Donald Mahoney Joseph Ma1nv1lle and Elsie Bellows, and dld they show talent' We had lots of fun nn our sophomore year be cause now we felt that we knew all the teach ers and that all the upper classmen were so n1ce, but good thmgs are brief and school closed 1ts doors on June 27th to give us a sum mer vacation our second in hrgh school Thxs of course made us feel down hearted On September 8 1935 Just as we wer feel mg qu1te sat1sfied wlth loafmg, Bunny Sxddall, the school Jamtor found the key that actually op ned the doors at O H S m amng tha we had to go back to school for another vcar but as Juniors we had many good times to look for ' , 23 7 v , , y . I Q . I 7 7 7 7 . - as - va C ' - H . yy . A . . - n ' I 7 . I I 3 ' , 7 7 ' s , .i . . . , W.. H , H 56 77 7 ' 7 n u ' 7 o 7 ' CC ' 77 I l I - . , . , s ' 9 ' ' During our freshman year, our class held themselves very helpful in the production by . . I . , ' ' if ' 77 , . . . . ,. . . . . . . , . 7 . . . . . - ,, ,, . 1 7 7' 7 : .I I 7 7 . I ' v J U' 2 I 7 9 H 77 ' ' ' . ' . 9 , 'Y 1 v ' . . . G 7 Q , . - . 7 ' : , - . 5 . - . - D ' ' 7 I Q . 3 ' - -. . , v 1 1 I . , . . D . A , , . 1 6 ,. ' L X , , 7 e . . ., . -1 , , I . I n 1