Plymouth High School - Pilgrim Yearbook (Plymouth, MA)

Page 6 text:

PILGRIM STAFF Editor-in-chief-Karin S. Engstrom Junior Assistant Editor-Barbara Warnsman Sophomore Assistant Editor- Claire Vancini Business Staff-Roger Weaver, Manager Philip Canevazzi, Asst. Manager, James Goodwin, Christopher Hussey, Patricia Brady, Philip Sherman, Marie Hasz, Peter Miller, Robert Miskelly Art Staff-Joyce Brenner, Editor John Ledo, Elizabeth Bobb, Jeanette Brenner, Robert Kuhn Photography Staff - Cecelia Lillich, Editor Carol Melahoures, Asst., Sally Arons, Mary Bradley School News - Janice Kingman Senior Statistics-Edward Borgatti, Editor John Vancini, Jacqueline Weston, Lorraine Freitas Senior Features-Carol Connelly, Editor Claire Connelly, June Wood, Marie Hasz Boys' Sports Editor-Ira Carlin Girls' Sports Editor-Audrey Verkade French Editor-Nancy Maloni Latin Editor - Wallace Crowell Science-Math Editor - Charles Branagan Typists-Patricia Gellar, Delores Almeida, Lemieux Joyce Pederzini, Elizabeth

Page 5 text:

The Principal Speaks The French have a proverb which translates roughly as follows: It is easy to be wise for others, but it is not easy to be wise for one's self. I suppose we might express that more pungently in our own idiom:- We find it easy to tell another man how to run his business although we may not know how to mind our own. And in present-day life because the government through relief pro- grams, social security, school lunch programs, and subsidies to farmers, milk producers, shipbuilders, air-line operators, etc., provides for us so many of the things which formerly we expected to provide for ourselves, our self-reliance is weakened and our much-vaunted spirit of independence considerably diluted. All too many our people are quite contentedly con- ditioning themselves to accepting government handouts, they not only are unable to mind their own business, they don't even seem to want to. And yet every boy possessed of a spark of manhood wants to stand on his own feet-and the same can be said of every self-respecting girl. All except the weaklings want to stand erect, beholden to no one for favors. What protection then is there against this insidious weakening of our national character ? Are we to turn into a race of chiselersl'? Can we stand up before any self-respecting nation-even the Russians-and take pride in our achievements when underlying it all lies the rot-and we know it - of the cheap practices that the weak-willed, slippery-minded, morally blind, shyly dishonest have worked out to take advantage of the social legislation set up to aid and protect the truly unfortunate? CNO one can have any serious quarrel with the intent of this legislation-but all of us must guard against the abuses it makes possiblej And it is the insidious temptation within ourselves that I'm talking about-not what someone else does, but what you or I may do. For the ultimate bulwark of all law is the conscience of the individual. And so it is that conscience becomes the only real protection against national decay. We become a race of chiselers only if you and I and our friends stoop to chiseling. As a people we lose our self-reliance, our typically American spirit of independence, when you and I seek in govern- ment hand-outs those things which we should by our own work supply for ourselves. A decent pride, an honest self-respect, can grow only out of a good conscience, and a decent nation evolves only from decent citizens. EDGAR J. MONGAN

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With Stars ln Uur Eyes The theatre is deserted for another summer and stands waiting for the new cast that will take the leading roles in the fall. Itls hard to realize that our P. H. S. days have run out-three years filled with sun and shadows, laughter and tears, work and play-the little things, after all-the understanding smile, the helping friendships in times of trouble, the friendly advice-all cast against remembered backgrounds. Thus graduation day rings down the final curtain for the class of '54-with smiles for new adventures ahead, smiles and tears for friends and memories left behind. These props left behind lie waiting through the summer for the new cast. But there are other legacies there, too, just as real, even if not as easily described. They are all the goodwill, all the hopes for success, and all the affection that those former actors and actresses have left for the ones that come back to that deserted theatre in the fall. Plymouth High School takes pleasure in reviewing a drama which portrays the daily life, activities and achievements of a year. We have all taken part in this drama, and we feel that somehow we have gained from it something of great value, that we have grown stronger and better because of it. Therefore, we take deepest pride in presenting to you the 1954 PILGRIM. KARIN S. ENGSTROM Editor-in-Chief