Reading Memorial High School - Pioneer Yearbook (Reading, MA)

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Page Twenty-four The Pioneer our plunge into the world. We have played our part as sojourners in the land of education. Now we are ready to make private entries on the book of time and the pages of history. As we sever to make these personal entries, may we take with us those closing w T ords of Longfellow’s “Psalm of Life”: And, departing leave behind us, Footprints, on the sands of time. Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o’er Life’s solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing may take heart again. Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait. Harlan! J. Hook ’ 26 . for lljr (Class of In order to bring you to the full real¬ ization of how I came to possess the fol¬ lowing facts let me relate my experi¬ ences : My name is Alzabar P. Blop. I am by profession an Ornithologist sent out by the Smithsonian Institution for the pur¬ poses of research. I set up my base at the junction of the Ipswich and Amazon rivers and proceeded with investigations. The second day out I chanced upon a ver¬ itable “find” in the common vernacular. In the tip of a three foot scrub pine there was found a bird hithertofore con¬ sidered extinct, The Apteryx Australis or Flightless Kiwi, with a wing spread of twenty-seven feet. Of course we crept upon him unper¬ ceived and I put three large pieces of rock salt on the first and second primaries of his folded wings—enough to disable any bird. After he had been apparently subdued I sat astride him to observe his bright Vermillion auriculars the better. Suddenly, without a bit of warning, I found myself ten feet up in the air and rising rapidly. There was not a thing to do but hold on tightly and hope. Up, up, and up he circled. The earth began to round out, to recede and shrink in size. It became a small globe, a dot, and still we went up. After what seemed an interminable time I began to feel a sensation of light and warmth. Then we stopped and I raised my head to find myself at the Pearly Gates with St. Peter peering out at me. Apparently we had arrived. However, I fear I am taking too much time, so let it suffice to state that I spent several delightful days with St. Peter, during which I was shown many mys¬ teries. One of these was the new photoradio- active camera by the aid of which one is enabled to photograph any person, scene, or place on any world. Naturally I became interested and with the kind per¬ mission of Saint Peter I was able to secure some unusual likenesses of the members of the class in which I was rather a drab member. These I brought back with me and it is now my privilege to show them to you. It is altogether fitting and proper that I first present the one under whose guid¬ ance we were brought together in the stately conclaves of our senior year— Mr. or rather, Captain Charles Bice J ones. Captain Jones is one of the few of our class who realized his ambition. That was, in his case, to become a sea captain. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Captain Jones, commander of the ocean-going swan “Lydia P.” Next let us see the second in command of our 1926 class—Mr. Bussell C. Barnes. Mr. Barnes, I believe, set his mind on becoming a civil engineer. I am glad to say that he, too, realized his hopes. He now has charge of a whole elevator in the one-storied La Page skyscraper. You notice he is very civil to ladies. I now put in the gilhickey which en¬ abled me to see in unknown countries. The first person I endeavored to see was Miss Lois Baker, the feminine Burton Holmes. She was then in Argoland, a province of Yap. Her travelogues are quite remarkable. I next turned to the case of Miss Flor¬ ence Baker, the Government Interpreter. She has just finished interpreting and checking up, the interpretations which

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The Pioneer Page Twenty-three fiery captain “Count” Cutcliffe, with 1 ‘ Sug ’ ’ Crocker, 11 Winnie ” Horton, “Jack” Spear, and “Buff” Partelow on the floor as our defenders, while “Ding” Lyons held the manager’s hold. The girls presented “Ma” Adams, as captain, with “Gin’’ Merrill, “Fran” FoAvler, “Uppie” Upton, “Elly’’ Fultz, and 11 Connie ’ ’ Cell as mates for the girls’ varsity team in basketball. To break the strain of sports and otherwise we had double doses of school, especially College English. But we had such brilliant classmates as ‘ ‘ Franky” Norton, who relieved the tension by dramatically reciting three lines from Macbeth, “Hail, hail, hail.’’ Our Senior play, ‘ 1 The Thirteenth Chair,” which w T as a huge and. delightful success came next. 11 Kay ” Sweetser, Louise Richardson, “Fran’’ Porch, Muriel Mussells, Helen Reed, Lois Baker, Nelcena Copeland, “Franky” Norton, “Russ’’ Barnes, “Buggie” Eames, Walter White, Walter Doucette, Garrit Oldenbrook, “Al” Hodson, “Tommy” Phillips, and “Billy” Gaw were the cast. The committee chairmen were “Winnie” Horton, costumes; “Jack” Condon, properties; “Elbe” Weale, scenery; “Uppie” Upton, publicity; and ‘ 1 Hooky ” tickets. 11 Johnny ” Howard and “Bob” Moyer lent valuable aid to the production. Miss Francois of Boston, with the able help of Miss Pratt and Miss Warren coached the play, which was presented two nights. The financial returns w T ell watched by Miss Pratt’s scrutinizing organs of vision were very complete and gratifying, and might be boasted of, if we were not always so modest. Because of this fund, we are en¬ joying a happy and inexpensive gradu¬ ation. “Old Wales” body, the football dum¬ my, just a few days after the play, had to be carried to the attic and in the process “Dobbie” Jones with the grace of a dignified president of this, the Class of 1926, proceeded to ostentatiously slip through the ceiling of Room B much to Miss Ames’ horror. Being far from musical geniuses, we tired out poor Mr. Wilson and he had to leave for quieter work. I’m sure Miss Pratt will tell us it was a wise and very sane move. The baseball season opened w r ith Boyd Stewart, manager, and some Senior squad men, “Sug” Crocker, “Winnie” Horton, “Doc” Doherty, and “Jack” Spear as our representatives. The skirmish that alwavs comes in preparation for graduation came for us, of course. We had class meetings, class meetings, class meetings, and class meet¬ ings. Walter White was chosen chairman of picnic; ‘ ‘ Ding’ Lyons, sports; Muriel Mussells, banquet; “Russ” Meikle, gift; and ‘ ‘ Ma ’ ’ Adams, class elections. Some were also chosen to strut-their- stuff tonight at this honorable banquet. After quite a discussion as is common on any important question, we chose to go to Provincetown for the picnic. Who will ever forget it? If you do forget to remember June 16, 1926, then turn to the poem called “The Secret of the Sea” which runs: 1 ‘ Ah, what pleasant visions haunt me, As I gaze upon the sea! ” Commencement has cast its shadow over us and not a Senior knows where to go, and what to do next. These are busy days. In this state of affairs we close the pages of our class history. Yet, stay, my good classmates and re¬ call with me what we have written on the book of time. For 259,200 minutes, as 87 of the selected young people of Reading, we have journeyed down the path of events. We have traversed 15 classrooms. 2 labora¬ tories, 3 offices, a lunch room, and a gym in this good old R. H. S. We have tread the 211 stairs which have served us with musical accompaniment as elevators for 4320 hours past. We have been trained by 30 different teachers, 2 prin¬ cipals, 1 superintendent of schools, 2 chairmen of the School Committee, a dean of girls, 2 janitors, a janitress, a school doctor, a school nurse, 3 instruc¬ tors in music, and other helpful super¬ numeraries. Now we are ready for the battle of life, with our hand on the scrimmage line and a confidence that these our coach¬ es, are backing us, while the underclass¬ men cheer from the sidelines, as we take

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The Pioneer Page Twenty-five another interpreter has just interpreted, that is, interpretingly speaking, of course. Then I sought out Miss Cornelia Cell. Miss Cell, you know, is seeing the world as the living skeleton, with Barnum and Bailey’s. She weighs at present, fifty pounds, more or less. At this moment I happened to remem¬ ber a Miss Conefy in our class. Well, I didn’t have to search far for her, for she is so high in the business world that the camera picked her up very easily. She had just, at that time, graduated from the college of the Shredded Wheat, other¬ wise known as the Atlantic and Pacific. Speaking of the high and majestic positions reminds me of Chief Mate Elmer Goodwin. For several days I in¬ vestigated Mr. Goodwin’s case in hopes that I might get him in his most typical and grand position and I finally secured a picture. As I turned the camera around I hap¬ pened to pass by the ‘‘unknown country ’ ’ post with an unlooked for result. If I had not gone past this position I never would have caught Mr. Sherwood Upton in his native haunts. He is now, as you are perhaps well aware of, the wild man with Barnum and Bailey’s. He was theii in his native wfilds practicing for the summer season. With the same organization there are two other members of our class. I say two but I hardly know whether to call the Scanlon twins two or one. Because of their peculiar affinity for each other they have now grown together and are Pilled as the ‘ 1 only original Siamese twins there ever were or was. ’ ’ While talking about foreign countries it may be well to take a peek at our old friend Frank Graupner. Frank, you know, is now head of the Oshkosh, Maine, fire department. We were able to get him very busily occupied at his business. Now, to come back to the good old U. S. A. let us look at Miss Virginia Forbes who is now an artist. In this scene she is painting a water color of an autumn sunset in May, in oil. From; the looks of it it should find a ready cus¬ tomer. A short ways from this the camera picked up a very striking advertisement. It was one which caught the eye at once. From the Maxfield Parrish color scheme I recognized it at once as the work of Miss Elizabeth Berry. You know she does all the advertising for the Gargle Tooth Powder Company wdiich or iginated the saying, “Four out of every five have it, the other knows where to get it.” As the camera was still on the “art” connection I swung the lens about to see what else I might pick up. I was agree¬ ably surprised to come across Miss Ella Weale who now resides in the Latin quarter of Venice. She does facial por¬ traits and art studies now wholly. They say she put the ‘ 1 art ” in artistic, so high has she risen. However, “Art” takes in more than mere paint daubers, so as I continued to turn the lens I came across several of my old classmates. The first of these was that celebrated midget, Miss Mar¬ garet Adams, who is now making good in the concert line where she has become a famous pianist. It takes a good piano to keep up with her. To the music world of fame our class of 1926 has added many personalities. Besides Miss Adams I came across a Miss Elizabeth Mercer who represents ‘ 1 finesse ” in the way of extracting melody out of one mere piano. The next one to be seen was Miss Kathleen Merritt, the noted violin vir¬ tuoso. She is now touring the country. Unfortunately, however, I was only able to see her in her own suite where she was playing to her one perpetual audience. The next to be viewed was Miss Esther Southwick, the famous designer of clothing. Miss Southwick, to sum it up in brief, is to design what cloth is to clothes. In this scene she is por- tiayed at her best liked study. Another addition to the music world from our class is Madame Mussells, the concert soprano. It is said that one hundred thousand people hear her flute¬ like bass notes a year. That is recom¬ mendation plus to any one. While we are discussing the stage let us turn to the male section of the class and see what they have to offer. There are not so many but still it was to be expected. The first person to be noticed was a person almost unknown to me. His