Polytechnic High School - Caerulea Yearbook (Long Beach, CA)

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LITERARY 15 You run the ball well back. You have stood up under the awful test. You can trust yourself now. Nervousness has left you. From that time on, it is football and only football. THE THRILL THAT COMES ONCE IN A LIFETIME Robert Smith-VValker '21 Some people are eternally having thrills. One of my friends, last week, ascended in an airplane which got out of order about 12,000 feet above terra firma. We never expected to see Richard again, whole, but the machine righted itself at the last minute, and nothing really happened. The first thing he said on alighting was: Lord! VVhat a thrillli' Another friend's horse ran away with him, jumping several walls and fording a creek, before halting, just in time to let a train pass three yards in front of the trembling rider. He said it was thrilling, and beat his horse. My uncle once turned turtle after skidding on a muddy road, and climbed out of his coupe thirty yards down the embankment. He didn't say that he had a thrill, because he is from Boston. But I know that he thought so just the same. So it goes, I try and try to get a truly thrilling thrill, but am defeated in every attempt. I have not sufficient courage, or rather I should say sense of equilibrium, to go up in an airplane. lNIy horse is too well mannered to 1'u11 away, and jumps fences only when requested. I always have chains put on my car in wet weather, and do practically no country driving anyway. Some one is always taking the thrill out of my life. Seve1'al times I have become desperate, and gone hunting for thrills. On one occasion I went to a circus on lNIadison Square. I was about to ride an elephant, in fact, I had already paid for my 1'ide, when I saw lNIrs. Tremaine watching me from the side lines,

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3. 14 CAERULEA 21 HIIlIlIIIIIlllllIHIllIIlllIIllIllllIllllllIIllIHIIIlllIHIIIllllHIIllIIlHIIIlIIlllIIIIIIlIIIIIIIHIIPHIIIIIIIHllIlIIIIIIIIIIllIIIIIIlIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlI'llIlllIHHIIIIIllIIIIIIIIIHllIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIHH - HIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII man with the ball nearly as soon as he has laid his hands upon it. The team is working wonderfully well. The terrific onslaughts of the opposing team are almost helpless against the powerful line that they are bucking. Both teams are heavy, fast, and shifty. This will be no easy game. When your team obtains the ball, you are up on your feet in a minute. You make no noise, however, for it is all feeling with you. When one of your men takes the ball and plunges at a solid mass that he cannot penetrate, you, on the side- lines, push with all your might against the man next to you. The game, furiously and hardly fought, goes on. In the first quarter neither team can score. In the second quar- ter your team pushes over for a touch-down, but a terrible thing also happens. The quarter-back, after he has made a plunge into the lines, fails to rise to his feet. Coach leaps to his feet, he looks at the hurt regular, and then at you. You sit there tense and nervous. Coachis eyes seem to look right through you. Your heart again is beating with great force. Just as Coach starts to speak to you, the injured man rises to his feet and continues to play. It is certainly a tremendous relief to see that man rise to his feet. It is not because you are afraid to go in and play, but be- cause you realize that every regular taken from the line-up weakens the team. The next play is made, and again the once injured man fails to rise. Coach walks over to you, gives you some advice, and tells you to go into the game. You put on your headgear and run out to report to the referee. Your muscles and nerves are so drawn that you can hardly speak. You are fighting mad, nervous, and not sure of yourself, and you will be so until you once have the ball in your hands. Your team has lost the ball. The opposing team, pressed far down toward their goal, kick on the first down. The vision that you saw while in the gym has become a reality. The ball soars high in air, two men race down towards you, you who are to catch that ball and run in the direction from which it has come. You catch the ball. You plunge forward with all the speed that is in you.

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W 3' 16 CALRI ILEA 21 IIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIXIIIHllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllVIHHIIIHIIIlllllllllllIIHlilIIlllllllllllIIHHIIIllllllllllllllilHIIIHIHHIIIIHKIHHIIIIIIINllIIIIHIHNKIIIIXIIHHHIIIHIII so I gave the elaborately costumed elephant-chauffeiir some more money, and rushed away. I knew Mrs. 'I'remaiue well enough to know that she would laugh at me and it's not pleasant to be laughed at by lNfIrs. T remaine. Another time I nearly went to South America, with an uncle Cnot the one from Bostonj, to shoot tigers or something, I forget just what. But my uncle was suddenly smitten by appendicitis, and the trip was abandoned. I could go on for several pages enumerating touching instances when I was cheated out of a thrill. But I wonit. I shall merely say in conclusion that the greatest symptom of a thrill I ever had, occurred one evening after I had taken my sister Qcoming home from Harcum for the holidaysj to a simple nursery tea at the Ritz, and was obliged to part with four dollars and thirty cents, plus tips to three hatboys and a waiter. As I walked through the lobby I knew how Richard must have felt when he stepped out of the almost-wrecked plane-And how my friend felt when his horse nea1'ly collided with the mail train-And how my uncle felt as he opened the door of his upside-down coupe. Yes, I admit, I had had a thrill. SQUEAK Evelyn Feiring ,24 A squeak is a funny noise, especially when it comes from one's feet. My shoes were brand new, all shiny and stiff-the kind that squ-e-a-k! squ-e-a-k! when I walked. Today was oral comp. day and I was shaking. Yes, shaking in my new shoes! First, Mary gave hers, then Jack, then Hulda, and I began to think maybe 'cshev wouldn't call on me, but just then it came. Evelyn,', said lXIiss Wallace expectantly. I rose mechanically, and started toward the front. Oh! VV hy did they