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

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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.

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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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Senior Prophecy As personal director of the newly formed Traveling Teachers’ Association I hurriedly packed my hags and caught a taxi for the Los Angeles Airport and not stopping to catch a breath boarded the Transcontinental Clipper for Washington, D. C. I remembered that just twenty years ago to the day I had graduated from Rowe High School, and to my surprise on the front page of the Los Angeles Gazette I saw that Kay Graff is the star in the new movie “Their Breath Was Taken, ’ a role which back in 1945 would have been played by Charles Boyer. Evidently Kay was cashing in on his appellation of “Casanova” Graff. Turning to the society page I saw that Pauline Cole’s novelty band “Pauline Cole and Her Hicks from the Sticks” had made their debut in Farnham. So Pauline is the successor of Spike Jones who back in 1944 directed radio’s number one novelty band. Look, on the sport page a picture of—yes sir, sure enough—Lois Wallace featured as the all-star guard of girls' professional basketball team, the “Killer-Dillers.” It was reported that during the season casualties were low—only two hundrey fifty one (251) bones broken all told. I arrived at Washington late the next day. As I climbed into a taxi, I heard a vaguely familiar voice in the distance shout my name and on turning around I saw Johnny Ericksen loping One Thought. One Word Can Set in Motion toward me. Johnny is in Washington pulling strings and cutting miles of red tape as a last step toward those four stars on his shoulder. Remember way back in 1945 he promised to be a general? On approaching me I saw that his uniform was none other than that of an elevator starter. He and I chatted for a long time and he told me that Dick (Dainty) Chambers had taken the position as master cake decorator in “The Dainty Wainty Bakery” in Chicago. He also told me that Delores Da is, now Mrs. Jim Mitchell, is living in Washington so I got her address, made it a point to go visit her. I had to call in the evening as she is “Lefty the Riveter” in the “Junk and Trash” airplane factory there and Jim is doing the house work and taking care of their ten children. I dashed over there that evening and she told me more of the class of ’45. It seems that Mary Lu Torrence has taken the position of chief tester for “Chewie’ Gum Company, an easy job for Mary Lu who was an inveterate gum chewer since high school days. Howard Irish is the nation’s number one crooner. He made 15,000 girls faint in one evening. In 1945, Frank Sinatra had tried for this goal but Howard really made it. Dorothy Holbrook had joined the Russian Guerrillas in World War III and was fighting as a sharp shooter against the Eskimos. Delores told me that a couple of nights before she had received a visit from Cliff Osborne. He was in Washington on strictly business. He had come to see how his chances were on becoming a politician and readily agreed that he had the ability to argue if that’s all the qualities that were needed.