Petersburg High School - Missile Yearbook (Petersburg, VA)

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-01 PETERSBURG HIGH scnoor. 3414- 0n Spring By John Turlington What lovely flowers blossom in the spring! The birds how gayly sing from up above, And whisper to their mates in songs of love! The woods and forests with rapture seem to sing, Proclaiming this the day for ev'rything. The damsel, too, with beauty like a dove, Seeks strange adventure which she knows not of. The world seems bright and cheerful in the spring. Too soon the frost will come and kill the flowers 3 Too soon the leaves from all the trees will fallg From earth's white shroud too soon the birds will flee g No longer will they warble in their bowers. Thus time creeps stealthily upon us all- For beauty and joy last not eternally. . 0 -. The Shopkeeper of Moscow By Julie Vaughan , HE people who knew Kratsky in those later years of his life saw him only as a wizened, ageing little shop-keeper, whose nature had gradually blended itself into one with the dismal atmosphere of his surroundings. Even had they de- sired to learn more about him, they would have found it a diffi- cult task. He guarded the secrets of his past as he hoarded his coins-with a miser's care. Often during those long, dull days in the shop, his thoughts reverted to the old days at Platyev's, to the rooms he had occu- pied-the study with its windows overlooking the trees. Left with a small fortune of over three thousand rubles by the death of his father, Kratsky spent much of his time as a young man in solitude, studying, forming vague and undefined ambitions- ambitionsl nevertheless, which he hoped eventually to realize. .In those days one figure stood out before all others for him- that of Mavlinov. Mingling litle with society, Kratsky came to regard Mavlinov's friendship as a thing to be treasured. He valued the attention and criticisms the other gave his writings, and never doubted the sincerity of his friend. Mavlinov, on the other hand, saw their friendship only as a -31-

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-libf THE M1ss11.1-J D49- There were several reasons for enjoying my stay at the sana- torium. On Thursdays and Sundays we had to eat ice cream. Can you imagine anything easier or sweeter than that? The friendships which I found I value more highly than any- thing else. The superintendent Was from my home town, and several of the patients had lived nearby. On Sunday morning We attended Sunday School in the Chapel. Some of the patients were teachers. At night an interdenomina- tional service was usually held by some visiting sky pilot. We always enjoyed having visitors, but some of them we almost loathed. Whenever we saw anyone spitting on the ground or walks-well, we couldn't stand it. We had been taught sani- tation day by day, and this was too much for us. The visitors were the only ones who did it. At one time during my stay they were responsible for a chicken pox epidemic. I left after six months vacation, and so strong was the bond that bound me to the sanatorium that I didn't want to leave, and I have returned as a visitor three times since then. When I look back over that period of my life, it is not with regret, but with a pleasure that I cannot express. Tuberculosis is a disease which can be prevented, which can be checked, but which can never be cured after reaching the advanced stage. Fresh air, sunshine, good food and plenty of it, with a peaceful and optimistic mind are the necessities for a tubercular patient, if he wishes to regain his health. So-why should a stigma be attached to the mere word tu- berculosisu? Just ignorance and stupidity--that's all. l XQ?J N L X411-5 ,X X 3 fr f, 130.-

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-vbbf THE MISSILEH means of material gain. He was cleverly scheming, as it were, under a mask, awaiting an opportunity to carry out his plans. When it did come, he played his part well-so well, in fact, that he left Moscow and the bewildered Kratsky a richer man, richer by three thousand rubles-Kratsky's rubles. Mavlinov's departure marked a change in the whole course of Kratsky's life. He no longer had time for leisurely study and dreaming . There were facts to be faced. True, there were other friends to turn to, but he found that, although they were ready with their sympathetic advice, they could offer nothing more. It made him bitter against them, too, but all his hatred and anger centered on Mavlinov. A week after the latter's departure, Kratsky left Platyev's and spent days listlessly wandering the streets till the scanty sum of two hundred rubles left him had dwindled to scarcely more than twenty, and his prospects had turned to despair. At the critical moment he had accepted the meager offer of Michel- off, a shopkeeper of the poorer districts, who needed a clerk. Then came the task of settling down to the every day life of a dingy shop, to the collecting and hoarding of coin after coing the ordeal of living through days of monotonous toil, tortured by recollections of old ambitions-ambitions that were dying now with each successive lapse of day on day. Sometimes, re- membering old times at Platyev's, he felt an overwhelming dis- gust for his loathesome surroundings. At such times his pas- sionate hatred of Mavlinov reached a frenzied pitch, and he fell to scheming, forming wild, useless plans. Gradually he developed into the Kratsky that the rabble knew: a coarse, malicious Kratsky, cherishing his resentments, exaggerating them to please himself. He had ceased to hope that he might rise above his environment-that hope had given way to an almost fanatical belief that he would meet Mavlinov again, and he lived for that meeting .... But all that was past, long past. Tonight the greasy glitter of the coins, their metallic clink as he piled them one on the other, seemed repulsive, sickening. There were forty-two rubles: a good day's reckoning. Forty-two rubles? What did it matter whether there were forty or twenty? A strange, restless, indefinable feeling had come over him as he counted the coins. He wanted to do something, anything, that would make him forget himself and the unendurable life he was leading. Then he remembered the little black book he had -32-