Sanford Preparatory School - Chrysalis Yearbook (Hockessin, DE)

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The Seniors at VVashington THE trip came as a privilege to see and understand the functions of our govern- ment, and to see the historical places which we had studied about. The three days we spent in the city itself were filled with actualities of white marble buildings, exhibits and posters, mechanisms of the Smithsonian Institute, the great bookcases in the Library of Congress, and the green lawns and richly furnished rooms of the White House. The Indian relics in the Department of the Interior, the fingerprint system in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the miniature seventeenth century English stage in the Folger Library held our inter- est, and provided side excursions from the main buildings and destinations. The night we saw the Capitol, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial in the strong beams of the floodlights impressed us more than anything else. We had seen them all in the daytimeg the Capitol, solid, marble-stepped, with a dome that seemed dull for all its spaciousness, the Monument, tall and square-cutg the Memorial, clear white marble, shining in the sun. But that night, the dome of the Capitol glistened like spun sugar, the Monument melted into the sky instead of piercing it, and the Memorial, with its wonderful statue of Lincoln, was filled with soft black depths between the strong white pillars. There was also a sunny day when we drove to Mount Vernon and Arlington. The one was dignified, beautiful above the Potomac, the other friendly, surrounded by the grounds of the Arlington National Cemetery. They made different impres- sions on all of us. When we left Washington, we drove south through the famous Shenandoah Valley and the red clay hills of Virginia, and over the Skyline Drive through clear air and above fields and fields the colors of a patchwork quilt. At the end of the Drive, we turned northeast, and traveled back to Sunny Hills, with a wider horizon opened in front of us than before. SONNET TO THE STATUE OF LINCOLN IN THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL When everything seems darkgnaught bright, I'll climb the steps to where I see The man who lives eternally, And on his face there shines a light That shows at once the calm and might. I'll feel him gazing down on me In all his noble sympathy Down from his rugged height. I'll want to reach and touch those hands, And feel their strength in ebb and flow. And while I'rn there the night will wane, And golden daylight come again, Then there'll be joy, and I will know He sees and feels and understands.

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By the fall of this year, our illustrious Class of '38 was complete with the addition of Ashton Geipel, who came during the summer, and brought with him an irrepressible good nature, and Ray Russell, that sheik from Philadelphia. Early at the commencement of this year, we elected our class officers. Ray, despite his apparent newness, became president, Dick Geiger became vice-president, and Frankie, secretary-treasurer. Their duties, beside class meetings, involved see- ing jewelers, the outcome of which was rings and pins slightly changed from last year. In our final newspaper project, Ray, the President, became besmirched with black ink from printing stencils, Dick nearly went cross-eyed from putting minute drawings on the stencils, and Frankie was almost driven completely crazy from cutting the printed sheets to the proper size. But in spite of these difficulties, they still remained good class officers. Once the whole class was together, there was no stopping them in anything. In football, Ashton was a belligerent linesman, Ray and Randy speedy ends, and Dick Geiger one of the star backfielders. Ginny absolutely cowered the opposing hockey team, as center, and later as halfback, Nettie and Barbara shot goals from left inner and outer wings, respectively. julie was also a halfback, but had the misfortune to break her hand early in the season. Her queer contraption to keep it in place while it was healing, made her the class joke. She had the kind of break typical of prizefighters, and women who hit their husbands. Hannah, clad in white shin-guards, filled the goal very effectively, and Frankie was a fierce sub- stitute at halfback. The class went at Core Period so enthusiastically, it could be heard for miles around. They made more noise in their miniature Constitutional Convention than those in the actual one, almost two hundred years ago, could possibly have made. Then there was the trip to Washington, where the boys fooled around' with water, either soaking their feet in it or waking each other up with it, and the girls talked in their sleep, and out of it, too, and kicked each other out of bed. The whole class had themselves finger-printed at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, except Nettie and Ginny, who thought they might want to do something drastic in the future. The whole class became so absorbed in watching the aquarium, that the authorities had to turn the light off to get it out. There was the drive south when no one could accommodate the enitre group, and we foresaw a night in the cars. At our final destination, Culpepper, Mother gave the girls printed bandannas to wear on their heads, and the boys jews' harps. The boys refused to be seen with a bunch of immigrantsf' and kept pulling the bandannas off, while the girls listened patiently to the inexpert, but loud playing of the harps. With our last year drawing to a close, we have much to look back on, humor- ous and otherwise. We would like to tell here, of our appreciation for the three post-graduates who contributed to our funny and serious moments both: Alice D. Simmons and Bill Stewart, who were part of last year's Senior Class, and Billy Aydelott, who came to us from way down South in New Orleans.

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Dramatics, '37f' 3 8 THIS year has seen much dramatic talent being exhibited, in assemblies and at Christmas and Easter. Long before Christmas, parts were being distributed and learned for Peg O' My Heart, the play chosen for the end of the first term. Re- hearsals came and went, and, through many difficulties and some easy times, the play took form. The opening night brought forth an excellent performance, with Ray as the villain and Billy as Jerry julie as Mrs. Chichester almost stole the show. Between the Christmas and Easter vacations the dramatics class put on in as- sembly a three-week serial called The Family Upstairs. The rest of the school either rolled in the aisles, or waited for the next scene uto be continued next week. Other classes gave minor plays, most of them humorous. One assembly period, the ethics class gave the first two scenes of i'Green Pastures, and started something, a pretty large something, for the outcome was the fact that the Sunny Hills High School gave Green Pastures for the Easter play, in which everyone participated. Those on various committees were constantly at work on costumes, scenery, properties, and everything else. There were two dress rehearsals, in which samples of makeup were tried, so that everybody looked an entirely different color than everybody else. Small booths had been built along the sides of the auditorium, in which sat those who were not on the stage at the moment. They sat and sang twenty-five spirituals with much feeling, especially in the throat, as song rehearsal had been as hard, if not harder, than line rehearsal. Again another opening night rolled around, and between scenes smutty-faced angels and soldiers, to say nothing of the main characters, waved to their respective parents, and shifted back and forth along the benches. This was the first time that Green Pastures had ever been given as an amateur performance. Randy, as God, was excellentg Ray played Hezdrel with much zealg Billy and Dick played about four parts each, Ashton made a convincing preacher, and the girls, all except Barbara, who was Cain's Gal, wore angel wings and robes, and figured in the fishfry scenes. Green Pastures marked the end of the season of big plays, and from then on, there was a mere succession of assemblies, and the Senior Class in the thick of it with a local take-off of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.