Phillips High School - Mirror Yearbook (Birmingham, AL)

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T II K M I K |{ () K Memory - Go - Round Slowly we opened the wide door and peeked in. There before us stretched the longest, the widest, the highest, and. in our estimation, the most crowded corridor we had ever seen. It was the Phillips High School hall. Standing there saucer-eyed, mouths gaping, we realized that this was our big moment. We were freshmen then, facing four years of goodness knows what. We looked like little Miss Nobody, and felt like less. We envied the ants and ostriches that could crawl into a hole or stick their heads in the ground. We couldn’t perform any such feats, so we just stood there and hoped that the floor would open up. Now at long last we are Seniors, and we look back on those days and laugh There are a lot of cockeyed things we did as rats” that we will remember, and a lot that we'd like to forget. Nevertheless, suppose we go back and dig up a few of those embarrassing moments and then we'll all go hide our faces in the corner Memory Lane, first hall to your right, please. Do you remember the time, after being dubbed rat by the way we hugged the wall, that we decided that we would show 'em”? It happened when we came to an intersection during the between class rush and promptly resolved to do or die”. Shutting our eyes and gritting our teeth, we made one wild dash into that mass of humanity and ended in a perfect three point landing. With our feelings, pride, and everything else injured, we crawled out a full-fledged rat. Then how about that exhausting search for 214? Up one hall, down another. On and on we wandered, guided only by our nose, until finally we stumbled, out of breath, into that evasive room. Three minutes late one day, five minutes the next, until eventually we found out which stairway led where. It was like hunting for Yehudi’s private study. Then and there we resolved to rebuild Phillips minus any hidden chambers. Remember the first time we got caught going up the down side of the steps and a not any too pleased teacher glared into our surprised faces and sent us flying to the bottom again? After that it became a jump and run affair, three steps at a time so that no teacher could catch us. regardless. We can still laugh about the way we used to lope up to every marshal and insist on her personal inspection of our O. K. Those days are gone forever, for now we gallop down the hall completely oblivious of the presence of any such creature, and consider ourselves highly insulted if asked to produce an O. K. It was during that first awful semester that we were forced to crawl to our bottom lockers and then, just as we were getting up. some unconscious student would trip over our backbones. It got so that we didn’t mind sitting on the hall floor much. Then came the educated rat” era. and the first time that we had to sign up for our own schedule. We would have given the Lone Ranger a tough race that day. Pandemonium had broken loose right around our cars and we were scared stiff. That was one hectic day that we'll never forget. Our sophomore year was a little tamer, but still packed with excitement. How about those first demerits in study hall and our quandary as to which was the best way of committing suicide. We’re laughing now «I hope), but we hadn't learned to take demerits with peace, poise, and equanimity then. We weren't hardened to the practice yet. In that year we traveled the halls for the first time minus an O. K. entered a club, and were late to class for the first time since 214. Math staggered ( 25)

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T H B M I R R O K Other Graduates Doll Averett Calvin Walton Fite Myra Sue Freeman Sylvia Gerber Jcptha Curry Holmes Noble Jackson Jones Richard Franklin Macey Melba Edren McAnally Sara Margaret McKenzie Dorothy Jeane Murray Hazel Pridmore Harold Bert Smith James Howard Upchurch George Vlahakes Raymond Walsh. Jr. Benton White Hi Yo! Seniors! Hi Yo! Seniors, or salutations, congratulations and farewell. We salute you on your completion of four years of hard work in high school in preparation for your real life course, upon the threshold of which you now stand. Some of your group will cross that threshold and cast themselves into the great struggle of life and self-sustenance. Others will continue their preparations for later years by attending higher institutions of learning than this from which you now depart. But no matter which path you take, we salute you. for you deserve it. As for congratulations, we give you ours, whole heartedly. as you have really accomplished something of which to be proud. Even though a high school education is not regarded so highly as it once was. still it is in high school that the basis for future life work is usually established. These four years you have just passed through are the most important ones in the development and forming of character and attitude, and. having successfully completed their course, you are to be congratulated. In saying farewell to you. perhaps we should temper our felicitations with a bit of philosophy. Although you have made a good start, still you are a long, long way from maturity, that place where you can rely on your own thoughts and actions. True, vou have laid the foundations of your future life, but it is only a foundation, and the upper stories of the building are yet to be completed. Thus your attitude ought to be one of humble eagerness to build them firm and strong. So hail to your achievements, and farewell to this phase of life; hail to a glorious future and farewell to all doubts and misgivings. Again, ave atque vale”. —Joe Rice. (24)

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T II E M I R R O R us, foreign languages. English, and history finished us up. By the end of the year we were a “full fledged wreck, but our trials and tribulations had been conquered tor vice-versa). Then came the junior year. By that time we had acquired a top locker, weren't afraid of big, bad Seniors, and probably had a marshal post, as demerits had dulled our fondness for study halls which we didn’t like in the first place. During that year also we reached the height of embarrassment by doing acrobatic stunts iunsuccessfully) with our tray and contents in the lunch room, and were promptly applauded. At long last we arrive at the stage when we smirk and say. Yes. I’m a Senior; what would you like to know?” It is then that we look with astonishment at the queer antics of freshmen, learn to acquire more than one locker, manage to dig up a reason for roaming the halls at any and all times, and learn to turn the corner without sliding around it. Finally comes the Senior Play and the Senior Class jam sessions in auditorium concerning the ordeal of graduation. Then comes the end. That, students, is Memory Lane. Four years of hard work filled with pleasure and sorrow alike. We’re glad to be Seniors; you can bet your life on that; but most of us aren’t as slap-happy” about leaving as you might think. Next semester another class will be traveling down Memory Lane, and the semester after that another class, and so the School World wags. Here’s hoping they will all enjoy it as much as we have. -—Betty Gehrken. INSPIRATION AT GRADUATION Stardust and moonglow Roses and Wine . Someone to whisper “You’re simply divine” Bah! That’s taboo at this time of year: There’s only ONE song I’m longing to hear! We won by a touch down! We’re champs for the state! You passed with ALL A’s - Your essay was great! Begone! I’m disheartened! My outlook is drear. Won’t someone PLEASE say what I’m waiting to hear? For weeks have I trained; for days have I thought! My musing is strained—my climax is wrought All for those words of soul-stirring cheer: What would you like for graduation, dear?” —Beulah Samples. UNKNOWN Breathes there a soul With spirit bold. Who dares, when stopped, to say: Yes. Sir. it’s true. fWhat will I do?) I’m caught with no O. K.! (26) - Beulah Samples.