Scituate High School - Chimes Yearbook (Scituate, MA)

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THE CHIMES 9 ing to the types of people who pursue them. Children, for the most part, have hobbies such as keeping scrap books, reading and playing games; whereas older people have more varied interests — sports, books, stamp- collecting, animals, flowers, birds, or numberless other things. Upon inquiring about a certain girl ' s hobby the other day, I was much amazed. It was — increasing her vocabulary! Being quite astounded at this revelation, I pressed this extraordinary individual ( at least I regarded her as such) for further enlightenment. She replied that she spent hours at a time over the dictionary, finding all the synonyms and then the an- tonyms of a certain word. A profitable hobby, don ' t you think? Another person that I discovered with an unusual hobby was a soap collector. This enthusiast was a much-traveled person, and found pleasure in collecting one bar of soap from each hotel she visited. Each bar served as a reminder of her stay at that particular place; thus it had a story attached to it. A third hobby that I regard as unique is that of an amateur artist whom I have interviewed. Her hobby was a diary, but one without any writing! Instead, it was a small notebook filled with sketches. This girl made some little sketch each day of the thing that she regarded as the most important event of the day. For instance, when looking through the diary, I came to a picture of a clown with a few animals and a tent in the back- ground. Have you guessed how she spent that day? I think this is a very clever and original idea; don ' t you? A hobby, as well as being an interesting pastime, may be educational, and may develop one ' s character. Have you one? MR. CAVANAUGH Donald Pitkin, ' 39 There had been a heavy squall that afternoon. So after dinner we all went down to my boat to make sure that it was all right. I kept it down at the pier of the Boston Sand and Gravel Company, a concern which tears up the surrounding hills in bulk and sends them through a stone-crushing machine, later to come out in the form of sand. We found my boat to be all right, and while we were standing on the dock, entranced by the silent dusk, the stillness was broken by a deep voice saying, Hello! I turned around suddenly and beheld the heavy blocklike form of Mr. Cavanaugh, captain of Barge 30. Mother and Dad, I should like you to meet Mr. Cavanaugh, who has helped me a lot this summer with my boat. He offered my father and mother a big sun-burned hand, one w hich had seen a lot of work. He seemed very glad to see us, and as if he didn ' t want us to go, started right in talking.

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8 THE CHIMES EDITORIALS YOUTH MARCHES FORWARD Grace Reynolds, ' 37 The month of June is approaching and with it comes graduation. Four years have slipped by so quickly that they seem to have been but four short months. For four years we have played and worked in a circum- scribed society. This time has been essentially carefree. All our needs have been provided for by a watchful older generation. The state has pro- vided for our education, and we have had no major decisions to make, no great need to meet. Now, on the threshold of life, we find ourselves on our own. The time has arrived when we must free ourselves from the restraints of childhood. From now on, we may be influenced by our parents and teachers, but we will no longer be controlled by them. We must form opinions for ourselves. One of the characteristics of childhood is to hold certain beliefs just because our parents hold them, but one of the charac- teristics of manhood and womanhood is to form opinions for ourselves. The future of America is in our hands. We can make of this country what we will. We hear so many elderly people today expressing the most pessimistic views on the future. They tell us that America is going the red and bloody way of Russia and Spain, They say that war is inevitable. They can do nothing to offset the impending calamities they whine about, but WE CAN. In our ranks are future leaders of the nation, leaders who will control the destiny of the world. If we keep uppermost in us the innate principles of honesty and courage and right, we have nothing to fear for the future of America. But if we lose courage, and with courage, the will to make America what it ought to be, the future indeed will be black and stormy. So as another June rolls around, with a brave fanfare of trumpets and a waving of bright banners, youth marches forward toward a new and better world. HOBBIES Mary Cahir, ' 37 Making a survey of other people ' s hobbies is, I think, one of the most engaging pastimes of all. The field is an extensive one, and could be dis- cussed indefinitely. Hobbies are many and varied, differing widely, accord-

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10 THE CHIMES ' ' Lord), don ' t nienlion about helping you with your boat. I ' m alto- gether too glad to help. Heaven knows it ' s lonesome enough here, and I like someone to talk with. I always wanted to know, asked my father, what happens to these barges when you get caught in a storm. Oh, they cast us loose, and all we can do is hope to heavens we will get picked up. I should think you would be awfully afraid of a storm, said my mother. Oh, no, lady. When you follow the sea, you find there ain ' t no time to be afraid. Why, many ' s the time — We saw there was going to be a story; so we sat down — w hen I ' ve been in plenty of tight spots, and it just doesn ' t pay to be afraid. How long have you followed the sea? I asked. I ran away from my home up in Vermont when I was fourteen and came down to Boston, where I shipped as a cabin boy in a clipper ship. Boy! that was a tough ship with a tough crew, the worst I ' ve ever run up against. He spit a thin stream of tobacco out into the w ater and drew his big rough hand across his mouth. Yep, he went on hurriedly, fearing that we might go, nearly every morning w hen I went on deck to scrub ' em down, I found blood. There was a feud between the first mate and old Dan, the Finn. One day in a storm the mate sent him aloft up the royal mainmast to fix the main sky sail for no reason at all. When Dan reached the top, the first mate spun the wheel around and the ship came into the wind with a whang which threw old Dan off. Off! Off where? asked Mother. Off in the sea, Ma ' m, and that ' s right where he is today. That was a dirty, cowardly trick of the mate ' s, and we swore to revenge old Dan, we did. One day when I and a couple of other fellows were aloft, we dropped a two-hundred pound block on the mate ' s head. We thought sure it had killed him, but it hadn ' t. After a week he came to consciousness, but he had a fractured skull and a broken back; he warn ' t fit for the sea no more. Did you ever see him again? Yep, that was what I was coming to. Twenty years later when I was express man at the old Providence Depot, which was where the Statler Hotel is today, I saw him. He was in the station sweeping the floor. He saw me and said, ' Hello, John, I ' m awful glad to see you. ' ' I ' m glad to see you, too, ' I said. ' Right where you are now, doing a nigger ' s job, wearing a nigger ' s cap. It serves you right. You killed a good man, drowned him. You should of died w hen you were hit with the block, but you didn ' t. God saved you so you could do a job like this, a nigger ' s job, and I ' m glad of it. ' He was white with rage and would have like to hit me, but I was in my prime and could have licked him ten times over. He just stared and walked off. There was a long silence. Then, he said with a little sigh,