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

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ANNIVERSARY GREETINGS 25 correctly, its first cover was blue with a ship upon it because the name I had given it meant ' The Deep Blue Sea ' . It has grown beyond all our expectations; and true to its classical name, its early numbers themselves have become classics. I am proud of ' Caerulea ' . Long may it live and grow. MISS ELIZABETH H. BAILEY It is futile to attempt to comment on the exceptionally brilliant style of Mis-, Bailey, whose interesting letter speaks for itself. Suffice it to say that her intense interest during the years that she headed the English department at Poly was a major factor in the development of literary organization. She personally advised Caerulea. Acacia, and La Brisa. Although she is no longer teaching, her interest in Poly continues and her influence is still felt. These recollections should be entitled, ' When we were very young ' , as indeed we were. That was when you senior Caeruleans were not yet in your cradles; when your registrar, Mr. Frank G. Reid, was a bachelor with a wavy pompadour; and the high school fatuity of some twenty-live sociably lunched together around the tables in the chemistry lab, brewing cocoa and bacon in the midst of H2S or some other equally violent odor. By the incoming freshies Mr. Bureham was frequently mistaken for ' the man who fixed the clocks ' , for on each Monday morning, accompanied by Ins wiggly ladder, he hurried from room to room to start the clocks (they always stopped on Sunday) and us aright. In those primitive days the principal was also chief of the fire department, in fact, the fire department in full. Never will the old grads forget the day when at the sound of tiie fire alarm, the whole high school rushed down the stairs to find only two scared dago hoky-poky peddlers, Hannibal and Scipio. Some miscreant seniors, probably now in the judiciary or the ministry, had captured their ice cream and told them to ring the gong in the hall; Mr. Bureham would come out and give them their ice cream. They rang; Mr. Bureham did come; but to the hapless dagos it seemed Inferno had broken loose. Twenty-one years ago that was, and happily still Mr. Bureham is the center of the life of Long Beach Polytechnic High School. His office teems, as of old, with students and teachers; and he is never too rushed to listen to a fresh triumph or a dour tale of woe. From the quiet of years how petty the woes seem, but how genuine the help of my kindly, generous, broad-minded chief! A Scotch sense of justice, an Irish sense of humor, an American common sense: all that in one man, David Bureham. Lucky indeed is Long Beach Polytechnic High to hold such a man for twenty-one years. ' '

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24 CAERULRA ' 28 My Alma Mater has made many achievements since those days; and her invincible spirit of progress may in great measure, I believe, be attributed to the untiring efforts of David Burcham. His faithfulness to a vision of work well done is worthy of your highest tribute. Personally I feel that honor is due him and that it will receive the hearty approval of all who know his name. WILLIAM FENNELL ' 26 William Fennell, through his keen intellect and strong personality one of Poly ' s finest graduates and leaders, has rapidly come into prominence through his achievements at Yale University, where he has recently distinguished himself as orator and debater. I congratulate you on dedicating the 1928 annual to Mr. Burcham. If the people of Long Beach should respect any man, it is Mr. Burcham, who has served the city in its educational system for so long. He has endeared himself in the hearts of all those students who have come closely to know his warmth of friendship and his great patience in dealing with perplexing student problems. FACULTY It would be inadequate indeed to consider the achievements of the alumni without noting the leadership of the hundreds of faculty men and women who with Mr. Burcham through the years have guided the life and thought of Poly. Among those men and women are two whose anniversary greetings are of especial significance to Caerulea and her readers. MISS KATHERINE A. MOSHER Miss Katherine Mosher was a faculty member, teaching languages, when Poly High was in its infancy. To her belongs the distinction of christening Caerulea when it began in small pamphlet form. She also has the honor of being granted a certificate to teach before her graduation from Stanford University, an almost unheard of thing. She still maintains her home in Long Beach and her interest in the affairs of Polytechnic High. She sends the following greeting: I am happy to send greetings to all the alumni and teachers of Poly High whom I have known and loved, especially to Mr. Burcham. In recalling the years I was associated with him, I shall ever remember him as a fine, Christian gentleman, always exerting an uplifting influence upon the students and courteous and kind to teachers and students alike. Can it be possible that this is also the twenty-fifth anniversary of Caerulea. which made its first appearance so long ago in very modest for m? If 1 remember

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26 CAERULEA ' 28 CAERULEA ' S BIRTHDAY In presenting this, our first issue of Caerulea, to the public, we do so with tlie request that all imperfections be overlooked, modestly wrote the Caerulea staff in March, 1903. This is not just another Caerulea, write the editors of the twenty-fifth volume in 1928, proudly aware of the fascinating succession of books and their editors and of the growth of the tradition they are upholding. The first Caerulea was a fourteen-page monthly in blue paper cover. Its dedicatory page solves the much-vexed question of the origin of the name Caerulea : We on the shore land of the western sea, Which ancient people called CAERULEA, Launch with glad hearts today our precious freight. Oddly enough, its theme, though phrased in language quaint to our modern ears, expresses the idea which has motivated this year ' s birthday number — the forward look towards achievement. Reading it, one lives in a world full of slightly musty Ciceros, of pigtails and hair ribbons, of class picnics and proms . One gathers that the students whose record this is must have been immensely absorbed in the things they studied, so thoroughly is their book permeated with allusions to Victorian literary lights and to the major Greek divinities of classic mythology. The books which followed are in themselves a miniature history of the evolution of book-making during the last twenty-five years. One notes the change from paper to composition leather covers; from rough news stock to highly glazed, cream-colored pages; from crude cartoons to finished pen-and-ink illustrations; from a collection of notes on school activities to elaborately developed organized departments. One reflects on the men and women whose ideals and ambitions are herein set forth. They were the pioneers. And now the Caerulea of 1928 is in the hand of its readers. What will some editor of twenty- live years hence write of it? POLY ' S TRADITIONS To the old grad many fond memories cluster about the traditions of his school. As Poly High School has grown so have its traditions undergone changes, some to increase in scope, some to vanish. For many years, it was traditional to hold indoor track meets in the Municipal Auditorium. Signs of old age in the structure perhaps caused the discontinuation of that yearly event. Rigid enforcement of the senior section privileges in the high school auditorium has long since ceased, along with inter- girls ' scholastic athletics, the faculty-senior baseball game, and Tacky Day , a senior event which gave way in 1922 to the Catalina trip of today. In the old days before oil was discovered on Signal Hill, various classes vied for possession of the hill, that they might emblazon their class numerals on the hillside.