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

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CAEBULEA '34 A View 1mm the Ble achers Poly had stood at attention on the big oval, class groups found themselves staked out, With a folding chair for the teacher and. for the studentsl time and space. Some teachers had brought card tables. and some had beach umbrele last One had a galvanized can to build a fire in, a charcoal burner, as it were. As for the eager students, they who could sat on the turf and others stood up The sun turned even the least industrious into fervent and ardent seekers for truth or shade. But for the courtesy of the Texaco broadcasting wagon, boom- ing out the encouraging voice of Daddy Burcham. that that day would have been a mad scramble. Instead, it was only a happy riot ot successive ten, minute periods. joy to stucients, modified pandemonium to instructorst The otftces of this open-air, antt-tuherculosis school Were first at the part- time sahool, then in the rear end at the auditorium, then in a tent, and finally in the girls' outdoor gym. This building acquired canvas waltsl lights, heat, and telephones. The library pursued a ditterent and somewhat more individual evolution. After being opened beneath the weeping partrtime school pepper tree, it moved to the south tunnel under the bleachers, then to the north tunnel, and tmally into the wide open spaces of the outdoor gym. there to await the slow routine of Franklin D's RFCs. Who ultimately set in place some shelves and a part of the books. Meanwhile, by a similarly devious advance. the discipd linary ottictals: Vice-Prtncipal. Dean of Girls, attendance clerks, and school nurse. alter gallivcmttng tor a time about the bleachers gates and tunnels, soon tound asylum in the schoot-owned cottage down at the deadaend of Myrtle Avenue There they were costly ensconced and snugly tit is even rumored smuqut content. But there were no cosy cottages tor classes and teachers, Tent-houses, it is true were promised and contracted for, but the ten-day guarantee of com- pletion was destined to lengthen into more than twenty. 1n the interval every- body scrambled tor planks and boxes. City parks furnished picnic tables Shortly, as it by some evil magic. distorted skeleton trames appeared on gride

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CAERULEA '34 21 CHRONICLE Charles Francis Seymour S SIX o'clock approached, on March 10, 1933, the Girls' League friend- ship committee and its adviser hurried underneath the dome and through the columns, lot it was nearly dinner time. Then the automatic clock system clicked 5:55 p.m. Something snappedl Upon the very spot; where hurrying test had barely passed, with a maddening roar Poly's dome came hurtling down and lay a mass of tangled masonry. At that very mo- ment the Girls' l'L club and its two sponsors were sitting down to banquet in the sociai hall. They didn't stay to sit, rushing trom the building instead, plasterecovered but uninjured. In another minute or two the Science Building was in flames. ted unquenchabty by storerooms full of combustible chemicals. And Poly lay a ruin, all because Nature had taken eleven seconds to play a Chime of ten pins. Then for a fortnight. uncompromising guarcts stood in the way at all ap- proaches to the wrecked school. At tirst. even the teachers were not allowed to Cross the street. The registrar smtted quizzically and remarked that It was the first time anybcdy had ever been able to keep him 0111 Of his OfflCe. Fin, ally there came a day when the authorities cnndescended to permit some teachers, men only, to sign their lives away and to enter the tottering remains of dear old Poly, of course under the directicn Of a supposedly expert wreck? ing crew. Then the reputedly fragile femate instructors lined up on curbs, while vatiant pedagogs 0t sterner stuft Came and went, carrying to them prized personal possessions and the tools of teaching However, matters shortly be came somewhat ordered, As the third week at enforced vacation wore away, one day the oftice staff took seats behind an ottic'ml rope at the edge of the lawn; For two days long lines of waiting students receiVEd identification and the aforementioned courageous faculty males, assisted by caretakers, equip- ped with waste baskets and cards bearing the locker combinations, ran end- less errands and delivered tons Gt textbooks to wearied hut eager FBCiDiemS. for on the following Monday, school was to reopen. But where? At least we had an auditorium. No , said the inspectorst The walls have spread ever so tittle; the roof bolts have been sheared Off and the Whole top might cave in. if We should have another eleven seconds Well then. the bleachers. But, HNo. aqaint The braces had the jim-jams and the superstructure, the jitters. There was no place for us on the bleachers. So Burcham Field was pegged eff to represent moms. Consequently. when at nine o'clock on a bright April 3, the bugle sounded and a reassembled

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CAERULEA '34 23 A Tentroom iron and running track, then became adorned with parti-cotored contributions, altogether the- work 0! the students. teachers and caretakers. Those who went searching tor building materials didn't stop at anythmq, Sheets, bedspreads and pieced quilts, moldy canvas. gaudy posters and sat- vaged btackboards were the order at the day. It was a veritable thsy en, campmentt Although it was hot, cold, dry, wet, and windy by turns: with a place actually to sit tat least sometimest, school became tolerable; and per- iods lengthened to twenty minutes. But, even at that, imagine standiup study hallst And, at course, qym classes had to play. Consequently when one gen- tle-voiced woman teacher selected the rear ot the back-stop as an especially choice headquarters, .the class listened to MBitt! Bang! StrikeE Atta Boy! Batter Up 1 and the place was a veritable Hades tor oral recitation Inciden- tally, other kinds of teachers than those in the English department learned tn conduct regular daily conferences! for there was a day set apart for this Subiect and a day tor that one. And so, betore nine in the morning and alter twelve at noon, Burcham Field was dotted with groups of the more conscien- tious teachers going it hammer and tongs and students mildly resistant. Woe bettde the slothtut youth who would not come to conference. It was a chant aster testing timPH those three weeks. The lines were drawn between A's and PS and many an honor as well as many a failure originated on the Poly sports area. Naturally the sweet was mixed with the bitter. One of the soul-stirring occurrences was a word at encouragement 1mm Poty's chief nvat on the south, The students of San Diego High School sent material expression in the term of more than seventy doltars cash, raised by voluntary contributions. To this sum. our own student body added enough to purchase the public address system without which assemblies would have been impossible Finally the tent houses were tinishect, lortyiseven of them. strung along the girls' athletic courts on the south side of the campus. 01 course there weren't enough. The result was a newhtangted. three-titths compromise -with apol- ogies to the fathers of the conshtutionitor two-titths of us remained out of