Plymouth High School - Pilgrim Yearbook (Plymouth, MA)

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THE PILGRIM 31 ALUMNI NOTES THEN AND NOW Then refers to the old high school building which stood on Pleasant Street on the spot now occupied by the home of Capt. D. H. Craig, and which, like an old gown, was made over from the Green Church acquired by the town in 1849 for a high school. The high school was on the upper iioor and on the other were four lower grade schools. The front of the building reached from Franklin Street nearly across the whole of the lot, saving a narrow passage way on the northern side. A flight of about a dozen steps extended across the entire front, with three doorways at the top, the end ones being for the upper floor and the centre for the lower. There were three angles to be turned in the stairs before one reached the coat rooms which were in the front corners of the build- ing, -,fine exits in case of a fire! Tests showed that the main room could be vacated in one minute and, as the boys usually jumped the stairs, they emerged into the open some time before the girls. Be- tween the coat rooms was a class room, and entrance to the main room was rearward through the coat rooms. This front class room was warmed in cold seasons partly by a wood burning box stove, which cooked those seated nearest to it and created yearnings on the part of the pupils in the far cor- ners. The rope to the school bell, aloft in the belfry, hung in this room and was given a sly pull during sessions, if the signs were right. The seats were long, wooden settees, some of which were more or less ricketty. On either side were blackboards and the instruct- or was seated at a desk on a low platform at the rear of the room. Doorways were later cut direct from the main room and aided in checking disorderly conduct when classes were changing and passing through the coat rooms. The main room was also the classroom for the principal, whose desk was on a wide platform at the eastern end of the apartment and nearest the entrance for the boys. The school piano was on the opposite end of the platform and in the centre space was the spot where each Thursday certain of the grammar and rhetoric classes, picked by some unknown fto the pupilsj process, were condemned to read compositions before the whole assemblage. A broad aisle extended down the centre and separated the girls, who were on the north, from the boys on the south. There were at least eight rows of double desks reach- ing from front to back. Two rows of windows lighted the room quite well, except in winter, and then seats were often changed for ones nearer the illumination although this exposed the pupils to more or less chilly draughts from the loosely-fitting sashes. Heat was furnished by two tall cylindrical coal burners at the front of the room, two long lines of smokepipe extending from them down the sides and across the rear end of the room, Where they met in a cen- tral chimney. There were times when one did not suffer from heat unless, for perfectly good reasons on the part of the principal, one was occupying a desk nearest the platform and stove as well as the desk of the principal. I may say that, as a rule, I was not chilly in winter weather for the above reason. Sanitation was given little at- tention. The toilet facilities were scarcely as good as can be found in any military camp and were given less care. All of the water for the schools in the building was furnished by one faucet on the lower fioor in the passageway where the winter's wood was stacked. Bubblers were unknown

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30 THE PILGRIM , f-.Rx -'4-v fxr' -:rEvf ?27 ' W- 5 - 5 fm . F Q will 'J 9 I A I - . ll - :' - 'r':-I-, pf fl3:.: 3 fl .7 all f 'fef' .s... it BASEBALL The P. H. S. baseball team, un- der the direction of Coach I. E. Brown, has completed one-half of the season's schedule with four games to its credit, and five to that of its opponents. In several of these games exceptional playing was shown to the public, particu- larly in the case of the Abington game. In the first inning, one of Ab- ington's men knocked the ball for a homer. Through wonderful teamwork the score remained 1-0 until the ninth inning. Here Plymouth was able to score a run, thus necessitating another inning. Abington secured no runs. When Plymouth came to bat, Davis made a hit and was brought home by Anderson who knockd a Texas Leaguer to left field. The game was Plymouth's, with a 2-1 score. The town fans expressed their opinions on the game and declared it to be the best game ever played in Plymouth by high school teams. The second team has produced promising material for next year, and has shown up favorably in several games. ' TRACK The track team has progressed with increasing interest during the sunny spring afternoons, and re- markable results have been ob- tained in the 100-yard dash, 220- yard dash, the shot put, the run- ning high jumps, and the broad and running broad jumps. On May 23d several members of the track team attended the Harvard-Princeton Meet in the Harvard Stadium. Among those who enjoyed the exhibition were, Cavallini, Lahey, Garvin and Mc- Donald. p Several members of the track team and others picked from the school at large, were able to give a fine exhibition at the Field Day held on May 27, at the High School field. SWIMMING The Gymnasium Class, compos- ed of pupils of both the Junior and Senior High, will receive in- structions in swimming as soon as conditions permit. 1.-ll, FO'OTBALL At this time it is well to sug- gest that candidates for next year's foot-ball team should at- tend, ifpossible, one of the Citi- zen's Military Training Camps, in preparation for a strenuous sea- son with some of the best teams in Southern New England. A word to the wise is suf-- i'icient. ADDISON B. CRAIG '25

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32 THE PILGRIM and the high school water supply was in two wooden buckets, which at times got rather slimy, and these stood in an old-fashioned commode on either side of the room while a tin dipper for each served the school. In front of the boy's section was a large case of various instru- ments for physics and chemistry, many of them old timers, and on the other side of the room was a tall cabinet done in graining at which the old time painters were masters, which was seldom opened and was supposed to contain school records and books of re- ference. Against the chimney at the rear stood a number of low shelves con- stituting the school library. There was a dictionary, Lossings' Field Books of the Revolution, in two volumes, the War of 1812, and a large volume of Shakespeare's plays. Memory recalls that I read all except the first and accom- plished the feat during school hours. When my class entered the school, there was a small recita- tion room partitioned off from the main room in the southern corner of the latter. It was replaced soon afterward by a new structure mounted on stilts back of the building. It was well lighted and airy and even in winter was usu- ally quite comfortable, but some of us failed to appreciate it fully as it was there we went for our geometry, which seemed to make it unpleasant. , Small blackboards were along the sides of the principal's room, between the windows, and on some of these were written in chalk the programme for recitations, which somehow seemed to escape getting obliterated in a whole term. Three wood-finished circular openings down the centre of the ceilings were the ventilators- closed by wooden flap doors. The one above the platform bore for many years a cluster of bluish white spots, caused by wet clay luting used in an experiment in which I was learning something about book hydrogen gas. The text stated that mixed with air the gas was explosive. It was! ! ! When the old building was torn down after it had outlived its use- fulness for school purposes, it was rebuilt as a business block, and now stands in approximately its original size, except for height, on Court Street on the eastern side just north of Atlantic Street. In the old days I am recalling there were about 120 pupils in the school and it was rather crowded at times, but in spite of the lack of some of the present day facilities we learned much, thanks to our instructors, who were earnest and painstaking in their work. Now! For the latter part of the title just look around the present high school and compare it as well as may be with what pupils had a half century ago. CHARLES DOTEN There are all sorts of ways of putting things, some of which sound better than others. For ex- ample there is the case of the man of whom Lord Coleridge used to tell, whose father was hanged for highway robbery. Someone asked him how his father's death oc- curred. Sir, he said, he fell from a scaffolding outside New- gate while he was talking to a clergyman. l JOKES Auntie, will you please wash my face ? Why, Bobbie, I thought you could do that yourself. Well, I can, but I'd have to get my hands wet and they donlt need it.