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

Page 31 text:

The Pioneer Page Twenty-nine dueling the teachers. After this I turned to Boston for prospects. In this city I saw the firm of Maxwell, Maxwell and Maxwell, elec¬ trical contractors. Unluckily Mr. Max¬ well was out but I was able to see the concern. The next person I perceived was Mr. Bussell Meikle, the lecturer and traveller. Mr. Meikle has kept a record of one set of his journeys which I believe would be very interesting, but as this is his per¬ sonal diary I doubt if we can see it. In Notabigga Park in Attabasco, Ver¬ mont, I first saw our man of leisure, Mr. Frank Norton. Mr. Norton w T as at that time bound for South America for the winter. With him was Mr. Lawrence Parte’ow who also was journeying south for the winter. Mr. Partelow has quite a few residences along the route. He blows bubbles for a living now. Perhaps yuu don’t know that Miss Elizabeth Berry is now making good as a big game hunter in the wilds of Bhod-: Island. She has just presented three skins of rare ring-tailed whoopenblatt to the Governor! Cur cute Miss Alice Englund, the financial wizard, now holds an office open on Canal Street, Boston, where she is showing Ponzi the dust. Leave it to Alice. Another person who is a P. C. A. is Miss Constance Hendon. In fact, she has her alcove on the forty-third story of the Woolv orth Building; that’s how high sne is getting. Miss Doris Kenney, with no ambition, is at home doing cross-word puzzles, in a cnair filled about her with cobwebs. One of our classmates washed to become President of the United States. Well all I can say is that Miss Merrill is now Pres- of the er- United States- Tooth¬ pick Company! But, as time presses, I will merely record the names of some of the other classmates, together with their businesses. Miss Hazel Morrison—B. M. steam¬ ship line. Miss Evelyn Lev ' is—The ‘ 1 Beadem and Weep” Joke Book Pub. Co. Miss Frances Mclntire—A Shaunessy’s laundry. Miss Mabel Merritt—Merritt’s Anti¬ que Furniture Manufacturing Company Miss Margaret Fitzpatrick—Demon¬ strator in a famous New 7 York reducing parlor. This last bit is perhaps out of the true prophecy line, but I hereby prophesy that if you, as individuals, will live up to the words of this following, you will make your lives a success: If any little word of ours can make one life the brighter; If any little song of ours can make one heart the lighter; God help us speak that little word and take cur bit of singing, Ai cl drop it in some lonely vale, and set the echoes ringing. John B. Howard, Junior, ’26. ©I)? ffllass ffitU In the name of yeomen, this twenty- fourth day of June, in the year of our Lord, one thousand nine hundred and twenty-six, we the Class of 1926, of the town of Beading, County of Middlesex, State of Massachusetts (and according to some of the faculty, of the state of coma), being aware of the uncertainties of life, and not unmindful of the fact that our four years of school activity are past, but of sound mind and memory, do make and declare this to be our last will and testament, in manner following, to wit: First, We give, devise and bequeath unto the school and faculty, our sincere thanks, not only for our education and culture, but for the patience they have shown in drilling and hammering that education and that culture into our so- called minds: to have and to hold unto said school and faculty, their heirs and assigns forever. Second, We give, devise, and bequeath unto ourselves, despite all contrary talk of taking things with us after death, the memories of our four years, something which we can give to no one, something wilich belongs to us, and which we hereby give to ourselves. The memory of how

Page 30 text:

Page Twenty-eight The Pioneer sentinel tramp. Up and dow he goes until silence reigns when he seeks five minutes’ peace. At this time I felt the need to try an¬ other subject so I turned to the stop en¬ titled “Musical.” I had an idea that perhaps Professor A. F. Simpson could be found here. Yes, he could and was. M}r. Simpson is now a great organist known the town over. At the same time I met Mr. Paul Wil¬ son who plays a real violin in a real or¬ chestra. I hear he gets his full meal every time he plays! We next come to one of the most humorous subjects in the whole list. It is the case of Captain Walter C. White. He is shown in full regalia of his rank as captain of the Rear Admiral’s Horse Marines. As Mr. White is very hungry he is dreaming of our classmate Mr. Walton “Fish” “Sugar” Crocker, the versatile ba Iketball-er-manufacturer of Ashkosh County, Arkansas. Near Mr. Crocker resides Mr. Richard Cummings, the celebrated eye-opener for near-sighted potatoes. Mr. Cummings is kept very busy in spite of his rather common profession. It was at Albermarle, Ohio (paging Mrs. Davis), that I found our friend Mr. Winthrop Cuteliffe. Mr. Cutcliffe as you perhaps know, is now the head of the Waiters’ Union of America. He has offices at his mammoth Ocean View Inn at Albermarle. Mr. Cutcliffe has a very able and effi¬ cient secretary, Miss Aldana Burrows. Miss Burrows has charge of all secre¬ tarial and clerical work done in the Wait¬ ers’ Union. A very high and respected position. Perhaps you didn’t know in ’26 we had a poetess in our midst. However, we did, and now we can claim as our own Miss Margaret Babine, the world-renowned lyric poet. Miss Babine is shown now putting atmosphere into a stone-age poem. In the same house with Miss Babine resides another giant, Miss Helen Dick¬ inson. Miss Dickinson has just been pre- ented a solid zinc medal for proficiency in Auto-painting. You know its all the rage now. She takes after her father. From there I skipped back to New York where by means of my wonderful camera I was able to photograph Mr. Fletcher Eames, the second Earl Carroll, at his domestic study of washing the dog in the sink. He had quite a write-up in the papers about it. It w r as in New York that I came across Mr. William Gaw T , the sole proprietor of the Hayseed Center combined Haber¬ dashery and Cafeteria. Mr. Gaw was then engaged in taking stock of the score for the rush season. He had already purchased the necessary 3 sets of overalls and two plows. While in New York I heard of the im¬ pending arrival of Miss Francis Porch so with all haste I rushed down to the dock via the camera and there I had quite a surprise. I met Chief Engineer Albert Hodson. Mr. Hodson had been testing his self-inking oil can and was quite overjoyed. As I turned to leave this interesting scene I came lens face with a very familiar figure. It vcas Mr., or rather Deacon Hook. Harlan is now president cf the Watch and Word Plus Society and was just reconnoitering. He was engaged in questioning Mr. Wendell Horton, the promising young journalist. Mr. Horton now has ab¬ solute rule over every corner from West to Forty-ninth Streets. I next turned the lens back to Reading. Here I found many of our former class¬ mates. The first was Miss Helen Badger, the dancer. Miss Badger is now teaching aesthetic dancing. She had quite a fol¬ lowing now T . At Reading High I found Madame Reed who is now teaching Franc ais. Miss Reed speaks French so fluently that even the French cannot understand her. From this department I went to the English classrooms and found Miss Louise Richardson in charge. This lady now teaches all the Freshmen and she looks all w r orn out. If she had had us to teach she would have been totally worn out. From Reading High I skipped to the Abbott-Porch School of Medieval Plumb¬ ing which is located in North Reading. It now has a total enrollment of 13 in-

Page 32 text:

Page Thirty The Pioneer as Freshmen, we wandered (some of us are still wandering), into this great in¬ stitution adjusted ourselves to all con¬ ditions, is still fresh. The memories of the great games, the classes, the inspiring talks given us, the splendid entertain¬ ments sponsored by Mr. Sussmann, the trips to the office (although we made few), the numerous school and social ac¬ tivities, and the wonderful corps of teachers, will stay with us forever, to have and to hold unto said Class of 1926, their heirs and assigns fcrever. Third, We give, devise, and becpieatii vnto the classes, the undergraduates, a few of the faculty and our own class, numerous general bequests, viz: 1. To the classes: A—To the Junior class, our successors, we leave Count Cut- cll ffe, so they may have at least one good looking boy in their class. E—To the Sophomore class, we lea e this little basketball with the fond hope that they will practice religiously, so on arriving at that exalted state when they will be called Seniors they will be able to uphold the basketball records of E. H. S. C—To the Freshmen class, for whom we might have set a good example and who have three long years ahead of them in which to improve themselves and make themselves a credit to E. H. S., we leave—well, we’ll leave them alone. 2. To the undergraduates, who are not such a bad lot once you know them, we leave them, hoping that they will not forget us. A—To our Junior girl, Madeline Lyons, we leave the destiny of next year’s bas¬ ketball team, feeling quite secure of its outcome. B—To our Junior boy, Lawrence Zwicker, we leave the football team, which he will lead to victory next year, and also this Avonderful device which en¬ ables one to hear the wearer speak only for a radius of about ten feet. Doubt¬ less this will be appreciated by those who take lunch the same period he does. Perhaps he got this way from riding in a certain type of Dodge car, Avhich at times Avas rather noisy itself. If so, the blame belongs elseAvhere. C—To Clarence Gay, we leave the right to be knoAvn henceforth as ‘ ‘ Spike.’ ’ D—To Morton Wade, we leave this golf club which was sent from England by Jesse SAveetser, over the radio. E—To Helen Turner, we lea T e this pair of dancing pumps; we trust they will stand the strain. F—To Ernest Conti, we leave the cake of Palmolive soap that Avas willed to “Doc” Doherty in 1923, so that he could keep his school girl complexion. 11 Doc ’ ’ didn’t need it, his shyness kept that pretty pink blush on his cheek. G—To Leonice Cook we leave an order for a public speaking system, so that she can make herself heard during the bas¬ ketball games. II—To George Siegars we leave the shoes of “Count” Cutcliffe, hoping he Avill fill them as capably as did “Count.” We also leave him (with all apologies to Harlan Hook), a few unpaid Pioneer bills so that he will have something to do next fall. I—Not to be outdone by the faculty, we leave one half dozen straight ‘ 1 A’s ” to Eleanor Crafts, to add to her collec¬ tion. J—To “Al” Merritt we leave the empty presidential chair and hope he will fill it as well as did our president, Charles Jones. 3. To some of the faculty Ave leave a feAV tokens, but to all the faculty we leave our deepest sympathy: we realize fully, just what they must put up with next year. Maybe that is the reason the number of periods was cut to seven. We knoAV (and they do too) that they’ll never have another class like ours, so we could do nothing better than to leave them. A—To Mr. Taylor, our favorite teach¬ er, we leave this little book on domestic science, written by Hermon T. Wheeler. We trust he will become familiar w T ith its contents. B—To Miss Pratt, our senior advisor, our most hearty thanks for the Avork she has done in guiding us through the year. She knows more than anyone else just AA ' hat kind of a class Ave Avere. C—To Miss Warren and Mr. Boehm we also leave our thanks for their work on the Senior Play. D—To Mr. Aldred we leave husky