Radford High School - Oak Leaf Yearbook (Radford, VA)

Page 7 text:

A YEAR AT RADFORD HIGH begins with the traditional “get together’’ on the front steps. Tanned faces, sun-bleached hair, freshly pressed shirts, and happy laughter greet the first of the 180 school days. Lazy summer days are over, however sad we may be to see them go. But the anticipation of new classes and teachers, ball games and pop corn, snow and ice skat- ing, dances and dates makes us eager to swing wide the doors to another school year. LOCKERS ARE A VITAL PART of our school life. They are opened and closed a hundred or more times a day. Somewhere in their messy depths we find six textbooks, the keys to the mysteries of our classes. There, too, are kept a variety of notebooks, work- books, chewing gum wrappers, notes, scrap paper, and other indispensible “junk.” It’s amazing how lockers hold the belongings of one or more persons, support those dreamv-eyed leaners, and absorb the stares of a thoughtful student weighing the problem of which book to take home. Lockers are indeed remarkable contrivances. CLASSES are the largest part of school life. For some strange reason we become accustomed to a certain desk in a particular class; we listen for that peculiar creak in the floor of a classroom above; or we glance at the names of a now forgotten love carved in a desk top. A decorated bulletin board catches our eye and we smile at an upside down letter in the title. As tests are given out, the peculiar odor of freshly mimeo- graphed paper strikes our nostrils. We un- consciously notice the posture of a classmate next to us. Often the fifty minutes are live- ly and interesting . . . occasionally they are uneventful and dull. — 3 —

Page 9 text:

MANY MOMENTS pass before us. For some unexplained reason we re- member a fleeting expression or action. Perhaps it is watching the football players as they join in a last minute prayer before the kickoff. It might be the contortions of faces laughing at the antics of others. We may notice the sparkle in someone’s eye as he passes another in the hall or the lined frown on a classmate’s face as he looks over his test paper for the last time. We concentrate on the day dreamer next to us gazing out of the window with a far-away look in his eyes. We might happen to notice light filtering through a hole in the shade or the scuff marks on a once-polished hall floor. We notice these things often without realization - — for they blend into a pattern that we see every day. ACTIVITIES swirl about us in a never-ending round of dances, ball games, and class projects. Gallantly we join the hardy souls on the dance floor doing the current dance rage, “The Twist,” or line up for the popu- lar “Bristol Stomp.” With anticipation we await a club program, an election result, or go over the last line of the play before the curtain opens. The last touch of paint is dabbed on a flower and, from a high ladder, the piece of crepe paper is hung for the dance decorations. Extra - curricular school activities give us an inner glow of accomplishment and a true sense of belonging. SCHOOL SPIRIT is a silken thread tying five classes into one student body. Proudly we sing to- gether the school song and chan t our favorite cheers in a roof-raising pep rally or in the stands at the ball games. School spirit is that certain “something” running through a crowd of people as they yell “Go! Go!” to a TD-bound ball - carrier or as that last-second basketball goal swishes through the hoop. School spirit is never lost; it prevails in our sports, in our classes, in our clubs, and in our activities. Proudly we say, “We are the Bobcats from Radford High School.” — 5 —