Palo Alto High School - Madrono Yearbook (Palo Alto, CA)

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from the old Channing Avenue building. At that time the present music room served as a library and was the pride and joy of the school. Cafeteria meals, comprising a hot dish, salad, cake and ice cream, were served in what is now the cooking room; space now devoted to the office was one big room used as a study hall; and there were no gyms, locker rooms or any rooms in the vicinity of the present library and little theater. The old practice football field, given over to girls’ sports this year, was the original football field although it remained unsodded until the mid-twenties. Shortly before the move into the new Palo Alto Union High School building, the first issue of the Campanile, very similar to the present paper, appeared. A prize of one dollar was offered to whichever high school student turned in the best name for the paper. The Campanile went on to win in 1937 the first honors in the national “Columbia Schol- astic Press Association’’ contest. An add- itional publication, known as “The Lit’’ ap- peared first in 1932. It was a monthly maga- ee we ‘é 9 Sy Left: Invitation to the board of trustees. Right: Old class picture. Note leg-o-mutton sleeves and straw ry 3 4 t ; hats. A an a r oe aie - pe 7 fo - 3 3 fi es hi 43° “ys 59 = fof | “ as Pee is f + LAtticd +k Bes Z Hite ans . pata ig deel ns Fi, Ip tece: Rs pee aa TAL eee, ws : f pg 2) t ¥ SA, 4a - FPA . wat : ? ‘ SFL fal Fim [Oe pay 3 Re] choad. wl ca wert, ; (1%. miler % fer = f ; fe lacy Eid Pe 7, 10 PANTIE NS. NGM U a GS zine containing stories, poems, etc., written by Paly students, and persisted until the war forced its abandonment, supposedly tempor- ary, although it has not yet been revived. The little handbook, given out to all pupils of the high school at the beginning of the school year, has been a familiar feature here since its inauguration twenty-two years ago. Prior to 1916, Paly had no regular physi- cal education classes, and consequently no regular athletic coach, although Mr. R. J. Jungermann ably substituted, helping the boys out after school. With the advent of military training, the leader of the project, Major Dougan, also took over the job of handling athletics until Mr. Howard C. Ray joined the faculty in 1921. In May of 1920 | the Boys’ League was organized as a devel- opment of the previously formed ‘Overall Club’’ designed to combat the high cost of clothing. At this time, too, the boys present- ed some very popular athletic shows, prob- ably forerunners of the present Boys’ Stunt Show. Noon candy sales became popular after

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AT PALO ALTO remain at home most of the time, and the boys, who acted very reserved in the pres- ence of the gentle sex, often went calling on their lady friends at home, with whom they were content to sit and talk. Hayrides and picnics were highlights of social gatherings. In addition to the Debating and Declama- tion Society, which staged a weekly debate in the assembly hall, Paly had a boys’ glee club, a literary society and an art club, or- ganized in 1907, an athletic association, and a baseball team which won several Academic Athletic League penants in the first decade of the century. The Thespians also started about this time, being called the Reading Club until 1908. They began by reading stories and poems, some aloud before the student body, and then reading and acting plays. Before long, Thespians had become the main club of the school, unseating the Debating Society, which had an interesting evolution of its own. From an inter-school debating team it became an organization which, in 1916, had the avowed purpose of “furthering debating and parliamentary law.” It is known today as the Forum Club, which name first became popular about the time of World War I. In the early years, the debates were second to no sporting events and prompted the writing of numer- ous yells and songs. Girls’ organizations were also active and about 1910 the Paly fems began to present annual ‘Stunt Parties,’ forerunners of the present “Jinx.” Football, as an inter-school sport, received The building donated by Mrs. Zschokke for a high school. See page 6. . a setback throughout the West. Because of the large number of deaths in high school and college football at that time, both Stan- ford and California switched to Rugby about 1906. Palo Alto High School, under the lead- ership of J. C. Templeton, then principal, followed suit in 1907, and did not resume American Football until 1920, a year after Stanford. Track, however, was Paly’s main glory up into the roaring twenties, and many of our athletes gained national fame. These included John K. Norton; Ruric and Robert Lyman (‘‘Dink’’) Templeton, sons of the principal; Morris Kirksey, second fastest sprinter in the world; “Feg’’ Murray, now a famous cartoonist; Hugo Leistner; George Horine, world champion high jumper in 1912; and Lester Steer—all of whom participated in the Olympic games at least once. Organized music began in the high school when, in 1911, twenty students gathered in a home and formed the Palo Alto High School Orchestra. Two years later a band was started. By 1916 the musical organizations were in full swing and presented their first concert. Evidently it was a success, for there was a second the next year: admission was twenty-five cents. A $200,000 bond issue was called for in January, 1917, for the construction of a new high school. The present location was select- ed and leased from Stanford University, and on March 23, 1918, the first cornerstone was laid. The new buildings were first occupied on December 24 of that year, when the entire student body and faculty, led by Principal Walter H. Nichols, walked over together The new shop building here at Paly.

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ATP the first World War, as did another pred- ecessor of the Stunt Show, the annual Spring Carnival, which made quite a lot of money for the school and was popular with adults as well as students. Aside from academic subjects, very much the same as now, vocal music, some instrumental music, cooking, sewing, and woodshop were offered. After an auto mechanics shop had been built in 1923, a course in that subject was also offer- ed. An amendment providing for the starting of the co-op store was adopted in 1920, and the next year the school song, “Hail, Paly Hi,” was written by Clarence Carey. In the same year the faculty first considered join- ing the California Scholarship Federation. Crowning of May Queen was another im- portant event, and in 1923, the contestants for the honor included, in addition to four students, Misses Huntington and Preston. 1924 brought much discussion about high school dances, especially on the subjects of chaperons, instructors, more mixing, and the admission of Stanford “‘roughs”. Palo Alto Union High School included a junior college in the years 1927 and 1928, but the idea was doomed to failure from the start, being opposed by Principal Nichols, and was finally abandoned for lack of funds, and rejected once again only a short while ago. In May, 1936, after Walter H. Nichols’ death in 1935, Mr. Ivan H. Linder came to us from Sacramento, highly recommended, and has been principal since that time. Changing the school colors from red and green, adopted from the Madrono Tree so long ago, to green and white, was first con- Football team with Mr. Jungermann as coach. sidered in 1935, but the idea was defeated then as it was this year, when put before the student body. It was also in 1935, with the completion of David Starr Jordan Junior High School, that our freshman class left. Intense interest in national affairs, due in part, to the depression, promoted the found- ing, in the later thirties, of several political clubs at Paly, but all have since disappeared —probably war casualties. And in 1938 our own ‘Lil Viking” made his first appearance, created by the pen of one John Kemper. Some of the original “Lil Viking’ cuts still find their way into our various publications. With the advent of World War II, a ground aviation course was begun in 1941, followed by the rejuvenation of the cadet corps. Besides constructing many model planes for the government, and participating in many other war activities, Paly students in 1943, raised $190,498.60 in War Bonds, which was more than enough to allow them to ‘buy’ a real medium bomber and have it named ‘Lil Viking.’ A photograph of the plane was presented to Mr. Linder by the government. This history of Palo Alto High School would not be complete without mentioning a few of the notables who attended our school throughout the years. Among them were Col. Henry Godman, a Paly swimming champ who was General Douglas Mac Arthur's flying chauffeur during the war; Henry Varnum Poor, the noted New York artist; tax expert, Dr. Carl Shoup; writer, Earle Stanley Gardner; and Clarence Dirks, football All-American, who captained Paly’s team in 1923. Volleyball in the “good old days.” ae