Rowe High School - Viking Saga Yearbook (Lakeville, OH)

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the boys just looked darling sucking lollypops and wearing short pants and big bow ties. Our officers—President, Richard Wheeler; Vice President, Dorothy Cook; Secretary, Altha Bates; Treasurer, Marjorie Tinney were soon elected and we began to figure out ways to make money. The war was the next thing to upset us and it did not look as if we were ever going to have any parties because the school had to conserve on electricity. We finally sponsored our first party in February, a Valentine Party for the whole school. We ended up the year in grand style with a few more parties and a Tom Sawyer skit for our freshman assembly. A smaller group of students trouped into the study hall in our Sophomore year. We were not the timid little youngsters we had been a year ago. I can still hear Mrs. Kitchen telling her Latin class that she didn’t know why it was but the sophomore classes always seemed the most prankish. She was sure we were a little worse than average, however when a few of our class decided to take the afternoon off and go to the movies one sunny day. They will never forget the horrible sinking sensation they had when they came face to face with Mr. Holdson as they skipped merrily out of the theater. For our contribution in entertainment we sponsored a Hallowe’en party and also were hosts to the freshmen. Richard Wheeler was again chosen for President; Howard Irish, Vice President; Dorothy Cook, Secretary and Bernice Hershey, Treasurer. As we reached the top floor and the junior room our number had dwindled down to forty-one. We were extremely sad to have to say good-bye to Richie Wheeler when Filling His Heart with Memories Sweet and Friendly he left to go west for his health in the early part of the year. Howard Irish was voted into the President’s chair with Vice President, Richard Olson; Secretary, Dorothy Cook and Treasurer, Marjorie Tinney to assist him. Robert Parker was chosen to be our representative in the student council. Weird lights, ghosts and people cacheing under davenports were some of the sights seen and produced by Dorothy Norton, Altha Bates, Marjorie Tinney, Jo Anne Wright, Dorothy Cook, Delores Davis, Bernice Hershey, Ethel Shuster, Duane Loomis, Gordon Turner, Kay Graff and Alex Elonen. Yes, it was our Junior Play, “Watch Out For Spooks ’ directed by Miss Fritts. Delores Davis portraying the negro maid was enough to give the cast as well as the audience hysterics. Remember the expression on Miss Fritts’ face when the boys began to ad lib while dressing Duane Loomis as a girl? WTho could forget it? Then Dorothy Cook, Gordon Turner and Marjorie Tinney were elected to the National Honor Society. Plans for the Junior-Senior Prom were soon under way. A Hawaiian setting was decided on and we had an enormous palm tree in the center of the gym against which a mannikin dressed as a Hawaiian lady leaned. Theie were pink and white columns reaching to the ceiling and a number of pink and white streamers extending from these columns to a cluster of colored lights grouped above the tree. An Ashtabula orchestra was hired and we had a glorious time. Richard Olson, Alex Elonen, Altha Bates, Gordon Turner, Howard Irish, Dorothy Cook, Marjorie Tinney, Jane Hibler, Lois Wallace, Clair Bunnell, Delores Davis, Mary Lu Torrence and Allan Ritari contributed their voices to the A Cappella and

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Class History When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal attention to which the laws of nature and nature’s God entitled them, a decent respect to the opinion of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impelled them to that separation. Therefore I shall endeavor to relate in as few words as possible the events which led up to this separation and resulted in this declaration of independence. Twelve years ago, we the class of ’45, leaving our carefree kindergarten days behind, formed these bands by starting our school life at Farnham, Amboy and East Conneaut. Our trials started on that very first day. As an example I will cite the case of Altha Bates who had to stand in the corner because she talked to the little boy sitting across from her. A very unjust punishment she thought for how else can you make friends but by talking to them? The first few months seemed full of these unjust punishments until we learned there are some rules you must abide by for the good of other people. In the meantime we learned our numbers and A. B. C.’s and by the time the year was over we felt pretty smart because we could read and add just like grown-ups—almost. It seemed that the next few years until the eighth grade passed very rapidly with minor incidents here and there to remember. Cookie never will forget Would remind them forevermore when someone batted a baseball right into her face; it hit her on the nose and hurt “something awful!” The eighth year is the one we all can remember the clearest. In Farnham Mrs. Wellman started the first Junior A Cappella Choir with great success. We had robes and were very proud of ourselves until we heard a recording of our voices. Then we thought we sounded too much like babies and not enough like the Rowe High A Cappella Choir. This also was the year we met as one group to take our I. Q. test at Rowe. We all looked at each other and thought, “Will I ever know the names of all those kids?” Soon after this ordeal was over we obtained our diplomas and said good-bye to elementary school. Many of us from Amboy and Farnham wondered if we ever would learn what to do and where to go when the bells rang and a few had horrible nightmares of getting lost in that big high school. Finally, however, September of that memorable year, 1941, arrived and fifty-five of us were ushered into our big freshman room feeling very small and insignificant among all the strange faces. To top this off the upper classmen were leering at us from the open doorway as if we were a cage of monkeys in a zoo. I believe the first thing the teachers noticed was that we seemed to be addicted to pushing our books out of our desks. They said each class had some peculiarity and this was ours. After a few days we discovered high school was not as scary as we had thought it was going to be. In fact we might admit we were having a great deal of fun. Even the initiation wasn’t as bad as the seniors pretended they were going to make it;

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Richard Chambers, Clair Bunnell, Tom Kantola and Richard Olson made the varsity basketball team. No little excitement was stirred up in the latter part of our year when our little Conneaut Township became the incorporated village of Lakeville. We juniors got into many a discussion over this plan and cheered it to the end. As we preceded the seniors down the aisle the night of Baccalaureate we at last realized that we only had one more year in this beloved high school. In starting this our last year of high school we found that one of our classmates, Pauline Kostura. could not be with us because of a severe accident which had happened to her during the summer. Many others of our former classmates did not show up so that our number was now reduced to twenty-seven. We were reminded of term papers and scrap books the first week of school so that we would have no excuse for not having them in on time. The former President, Secretary and Treasurer were voted in again and Gordon Turner was made Vice President. One bright sunshiny day the senior room seemed to be in a chaos with many students standing up to the windows gazing up into the sky, shouting and laughing. A group of the seniors had bet Cliffy he’d get sick in an airplane and so A1 Gardner was giving him everything in the books. The result—Cliffy got kind of green but he won the bet. Around November any senior could be seen stalking through the hall with a very angry expression. It seemed that there was a presidential election going on and we were taking it quite to heart even if we couldn’t vote. Arguments for and against both candidates were heating up the senior room and many a nice friendship was almost broken up. John was outnumbered but put up a great fight. Then of course there All Its Pleasures and Its Griefs were a few quiet people like Louise Carey, Dot Holbrook and Dorothy Snow who didn’t assert themselves one way or the other. After the returns came in and we found we would still have the same president we had had since we started to school everything went back to normal and the class was again on good terms. On the heels of this election came our nice long vacation, due to an overabundance of snow. As it has been said, “Our dream of a white Christmas became quite a nightmare.” As we came back to school and began pounding our books again to make up for lost time we were very much discouraged to find the war was really knocking at our back door. Most of our boys had to sign up to fight for Uncle Sam. Then our dear Uncle decided he needed two of them more than we did and took Gordon and Kay to fight in his navy. With this loss fresh in our minds but knowing they would want us to carry on we embarked on our senior play. “A Little Honey ’ was chosen by our committee and with Mrs. Kitchen directing and Dorothy Cook, Altha Bates, Alex Elonen, Pauline Cole, Mary Lu Torrence, Duane Loomis, Howard Irish, Delores Davis, Catherine Cole. Lois Wallace, Marjorie Tinney and Allan Ritari playing the parts the audience seemed to enjoy its presentation as much as the cast and director did its preparation. We tried several times to put on an assembly but something interfered with our plans every time. The rest of our days passed swiftly until now, thus, although we share regret at leaving the sheltered walls of our Alma Mater mingled with elation at having completed our assigned task, we end our school life with this declaration of independence and for the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor, and hope to become alumni of whom Rowe High School w ill ever be proud.