Pershing Middle School - Reflections Yearbook (San Diego, CA)

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Track Team ms 0,; z, Covington, Meagher, F. Miller, Hubbard tCath, Johnson, Whitson, Edgar A Memorable Trip to Coalinga On the second day of April, 1921, the High Schools of Fresno County held a track meet at Coalinga. . Quite a number of the students of this school wished to go so it was voted to take the school bus which was large enough to carry all of them. The bus left the school house at ten olclock. It went by way of San Joaquin so as to finish gathering up the crowd which consisted of about thirty students and teachers. 1 We traveled along smoothly for almost the entire distance, when all of a sudden, while speeding down a hill, the bus began to quiver. The quivering increased until we thought we were being electrocuted, the vibration was so great. After this a loud crash was heard and the bus stopped. We looked down and saw a hole in the floor. Someone shouted, The rear,s all torn out? Someone else declared that it was the axle; but Mr. Greening, our driver, settled the argument by getting out and discovering the drive shaft lying at least one hundred yards up the road. All the students got out and waited. Some were hungry and some were bent upon getting to Coalinga, even though the machine was broken. Mr. Greening stopped the first machine which passed and got in and took the broken part to Coalinga to a garage to be mended. The hungry ones insisted upon our wonderful lunch being opened, so we passed it out and had a feast while we waited. XVhen the boys finished they hailed another machine and those were going to enter the athletic events left us. In about an hour a mechanic from the -35a

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Boyst Basketball 2 vmwwwaWw-vmmwwai F. Miller, E. Miller, Whitson, Johnson, Meagher, Hubbard, Edgar, Covington tCath The first game of basketball was played against Sanger at Sanger on Jan- uary 7. The game was won by Sanger after a hard struggle with our boys. The Sanger folks supplied our boys with a refreshing supper after which their long trip home was undertaken. The second game was played against Kerman at Tranquillity. Again our boys played well and hard but owing to their former experience in playing, the Kerman boys won the game. The third and last game of basketball was played against Clovis at Clovis on February 4. The Clovis boys won and our boys returned home bearing their defeat well but vowing they would have a better team the following year.

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Coalinga Garage came to get another part of the machine. He told us that Coalinga High had been kind enough to lend us one of their busses. This brightened the crowd up to such an extent that several began singing. Our happy spirits soon vanished for after fifty machines had passed us without even the suggestion of a bus we grew gloomy. After about an hour and a half someone shouted, lHere it comes! Oh, look, girls, its right here now ll We lost no time in getting in and starting to Coalinga, which we reached in a short time. The town was new to part of us and quite a surprise to me, for I had not expected to find so large and fine a school, among a forest of oil derricks. The meet had already begun, so our attention was drawn to it for the remainder of the afternoon. We found it very interesting and well worth the trip .and trouble. Although we were not successful in gaining the desired points our boys did not come out last in any race. The meet was over by five dclock. Our bus had not yet been fixed so we amused ourselves by going through the grounds and buildings of the Coalinga High School. Then we went into the Auditorium and sat down to wait for the boys who had gone to the dinner u hich the school gave to the athletes of the clav. In a short time Mr. Geer, Principal of the Coalinga High School came in to invite us down- to the Cafeteria to eat with the boys. We were bashful about eating with so many men, so we compromised on the suggestion that we eat in the Auditorium. We were soon enjoying a good dinner. By six olcloek we were ready to go back to our bus, for we were sure that it would be fixedin a short time. Again Coalinga High showed her generous spirit by offering her bus and a driver to take us back to ours. We went out to the shed and started to get into the machine when we discovered that three of our party were missing. We divided into small groups to search for them. We looked about the build- ing and in all the rooms, but to no avail. At last we decided to get into the bus and drive around the school house thinking that the lost girls might see us. This did not prove successful so we decided that they must have gone down town. We drove through the streets looking everywhere but they were not to be found. We finally started back up the highway without them. After we had gone about two miles a large machine shot past us and we recognized our girls in the back seat. They called to us to stop, which we did and we were reunited at last. We reached our broken bus at seven olclock and began our long and tire- some wait. We amused ourselves in various ways. Some sang, others ran up and down the road or walked over the hills;.some of the industrious ones gathered wood for the blazing camp-fire which we built to keep us warm; the remainder of the party slept, either in the machine or on the ground. At last at eleven olclock we were told that the car was fixed and ready to run, so we gladly got in and came home. The ride was a miserable one for the tired sleepy crowd and when we reached Tranquillity Union High School at two A. M. we all vowed that we had had enough for one day. -Elsie Stricklin, ,21. During the first week of May; our school took part in the state contest in which all schools in the state of California with an attendance of under one hundred, are entitled to enter. This is the first time in the history of our school that we have contested with schools of our own size. In the pre- liminaries we won second place in the state. The girls made their record in throwing for mark with the baseball; long distance throw with basketball; potato race; relay race, 60 yards. The boys made their record in chinning; broad jump; high jump; 100 yards, and relay race. All hope to stand high in the final meet. -36--'