Port Huron High School - Student Yearbook (Port Huron, MI)

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Valedictory THOMAS HANCOCK, January. Salutatory Having reached our ultimate goal of graduation, we must never cease looking forward to our betterment of social and education duties. We have only started. We are like a ship embarking on the eternal surging sea of life. High school has been preparing us to face these turbulent waters but only by eternal vigilance and good faith will we weather the gale. We stand poised on the threshold of a new life — inexperienced, idealistic, filled with the certainty of conquering the world. As Francis Thompson says: “O world invisible, we view thee, O world intangible, we touch thee, O world unknowable, we know thee. Inapprehensible, we clutch thee.” We must set our course for the port of self-betterment and in reaching this or striving to reach it our entire intercourse with social affairs and conditions will likewise improve. Life is like a cycle. We benefit our own existence, our better life makes for a better community, a better community makes a better state, and so on until we come back to the betterment of ourselves. We have been given many instruments, which, if we follow the edicts of our good teachers, can be put to use for the accomplishment of better things for humanity. These days of strained foreign relations should prove the necessity for unceasing efforts for better and firrqer faith in each other. Only until this is accomplished can the truer state of mutual livelihood be bettered. Only through this self-same method can come the prevention of disastrous wars. Education will prove the futility of the useless slaughtering of the flower of manhood. By better equipping our minds we should be more capable of controlling barbaric emotions which cause such dilemmas. Class of 1936, these simple admonitions should merely form a prelude to your own course of action. Trusting in our own acquired abilities and fully aware of the preparedness we have received in our high school career, I am sure that our courses will be true, and we shall reach that distant port. We can here thank those competent instructors for their friendly and freely given advice — at no time did they falter in their undertakings and so we should do likewise and adhere strictly to our course. As William E. Henley writes in his immortal “Invictus”: “It matters not how straight the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.” HELEN McCABE, January.

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Valedictory Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time. — Longfellow. We, as a class, have been endeavoring for the last four years to reach a goal, namely, — graduation. At last, our goal has been reached and we stand on the threshold of the future, surveying the past with mingled hopes and regrets. Mutually we have worked during this period to promote more and greater friendships, enduring associations and lasting memories to be carried into later life. Aiding us in fulfilling these ambitions have been the important attributes of perseverance, courage, and determination which continuously guide us forward. While expounding these characteristics through our own efforts, we have been rewarded with opportunities for greater leadership among our fellow students, more services to our school and innumerable chances to obtain more knowledge. All these relationships have served to enrich our moral, social and intellectual life as a whole. While we have directly been enlightening our lives through this period, we have indirectly been striving toward a central purpose — the building of a firm foundation. A foundation, which, we hope, will be capable of withstanding the hardships of life as well as being a basis upon which more pillars of learning may be added. At all times we are reminded to work with utmost capability to better the social and economic conditions of the world so our lives will not be futile efforts but benefits to humanity. This aim has been very proficiently phrased by Longfellow when he said: In the world’s broad field of battle In the bivouac of life. Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife! Thus far, our accomplishments have been made possible, partially through our own work but to a greater extent through the ardent co-operation of the Faculty and the continued support of our parents to whom we are deeply grateful. To our classmates we also owe a debt of gratitude for their lasting associations. In conclusion it is our heartiest desire that all future efforts will be directed toward the building of stronger characters and richer lives that more nearly approach perfection. DOUGLAS DALY, June. Salutatory As we are about to close a very interesting chapter in our lives and leave behind us a happy past, we linger, before commencing our harder and more exacting life’s journey, to refresh our minds with the benefits that we have derived from our high school life and to thank the faculty who have helped us in fitting ourselves for graduation, the goal for which we have all been striving for four years. “Heaven is not reached by a single bound. But we build the ladder by which we rise From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, And we climb to its summit round by round.” — Josiah C. Holland. Thus speaks the poet of an earlier day, and well may we ponder the significance of these lines and their relation to success, as we stand upon the threshold of the future with a desire to lead useful, happy, and successful lives for years to come. Let us consider this word “Success.” It does not mean merely doing something marvelous and outstanding. It is the few, indeed, who are men and women of great achievement, and if their lives were to be our standard of success we would become discouraged at the outset. However, it does mean that which we accomplish by paying the price, making the most of every opportunity, and facing the future with hope, courage, and a determination to win. Berton Braley aptly says: “If neither cold poverty, famished and gaunt. Nor sickness nor pain Of body or brain. Can turn you away from the thing that you want, If dogged and grim you beseige and beset it, ‘You’ll get it’! WILLIAM DUNN, June. Page Nine