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

Page 29 text:

24 CAERULEA '34 doors by lums. So some ring-side shelters had to be kept in operation off- gridiron. In addition. a brand new flock of thoroughly disreputable levaneto's sprang, mushroom-like, into existence, almost over night adjacent to nearly every other tent house. One night it rained The daring ones who ventured out the next morning were sent home after sections, bedraggled but happy. Fortunately the old wooden structures housing the print shop and the swime ming pool still stood. When the snail-like carpenters had driven their nails there were the bleachers. too, ready for study halls and assembly A tarpaulin eheee was rigged over the south end to 7' shade ambitious students. Sunny seats were for study hall members who desired to spend a period coaching baseball and other games. On Alumni Day those same bieachers pulsaled with the emo- tions of several thousand alumni who looked and listened as Dr. Booth opened and read the con- tents of the selfesame cornerstone which he had dedicated twenty- three years before. Already for some time One of Uncle Sam's three-leuer organizations h a d been pecking and pulling at Poly's remains Upon this me- morabie alumni reunion anniverv sary many a brick artistically embellished was taken into the homes and hearts of Pely's lovers, That night. at six o'clock, the administralors and a few teachers and stu- dents stood sadly at attention as the flag was Iowered for the last time in front of the old Polyr and. taps were sounded Official summer began on July 1, Then came more tentehouses, 24' by 24' with forty seats in double rows. On the east and west sides were circus tops for study halls. Poly's sacred walls were razed and laid again as brick waIks. so rough thai French heels went out of style Hollow tile conduits for drainage intersected entrance- and cross walks, but where the streams of lup- iter Pluvius possibly could be conducted except underneath the low-lying tent floors remains a mystery, Be that as it may. before tall got frosty or dark, gas radiators were installed in tents and electric lights were strung Students' lockers were set in orderly rows, buttressing tent walls, and, judging by the way the gentle showers drizzled into them. proved past masters in eavesedropA ping, Finally, by a novel form of storage, campus trees and shrubs were given temporary housing in the small open spaces between tents. lending a verdant touch to an othervnse drab and retangular background.

Page 28 text:

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

Page 30 text:

CAERULEA '34 25 But with all these luxuries the north wind hadn't been taken intd account. When Boreas roared in one morning, he decreed a good halfnholtday, and we all blew home, gritty and grateful. Campus days were strenuous enough. The story of the shops that it took half a year to build. down by California Street, was tragedy for shopless shop classes Try to imagine teaching auto mechanics by means of blackboard diagrams and forge out of a textbook, Everywhere crowded academic classes competed with the yelling Comanches in physical education classes. or the blaring brasses ot the ROTC band, But there were compensations. Poly's magniticent distances supplied ample ex- ercise, and universal faculty yard duty provided uttreeviolet rays and lite-giving ozone, alleged by some to he the foes oi coughs and colds. How Poly was fed and sup- plied with paper and penciISe- ail this would fill an article, of it- seltl if all were told. Until the school got three-Iitths inside and upon a forty minute schedule. no attempt was made to provide food and drink During the tentative three weeks, the student body store was little more than a sun- acorched shelf out in the open. Then. a square rigged affair took term, with a counter, a shew case, a freezer, a faucet, and a black belching demon which supplied hot pottee tor the weary. There. on breezy deysd when served with sandwiches and such, many a red-face bit the dust. The fine business courtesy DI the student corps, serving under those trying circumstancea is a thing to be remembered. The compact and well appointed quarters behind the bleachers. to which the store was removed in the tall at the year, remind one, by contrast, of that wilderness tabernacle where qn days, blistering or blusteryi such a smilingtv accommodating and capable salesmanship prevailed. WW m By the turn of the semester local. project 139 was well advanced. the CWA was Working faster than ever the RFC did. and the camnus was nearly clean. The irontal columns, hereafter to be known as the portats of the past and destined to he reerected en Burcham Field by the Alumni Associatien, had been stored. A bond issue, voted in August by a courageous citizenry, refusing to be crushed by the earthquake shock, had. been purchased in part. by the federal government What the iuture holds for Poly is in the laps of the architectural and administrative gods. Fa...