Scituate High School - Chimes Yearbook (Scituate, MA)

Page 15 text:

13 THE SNIPER Theodore Holland, ' 44 IT was a da late in February and a lang of spring; was in the air. The slock was all fed and watered; so I had the remainder of the day to myself. What to do? I could fix the two flats on my tractor, or 1 might start overhaul- ing the various farm implements that I would soon be using. I discarded both these ideas as they would require far more |)atience and physical exertion than I felt up to at the time. Mournfully 1 reached for my rifle and headed for the tall timber, my only retreat at a time like this. I wandered for hours, aimlessly, drinking in the warmth and beauty of the early spiing sunshine. Then my progress was rudely obstructed by a high wire fence! How can this be? I said to myself. Who could have pur- chased this land? So I followed the barrier until the opportunity arose to creep under it, which I did without hesi- tation. I continued my stroll, stopping now and then to rest myself, as it was becom- ing quite warm. During one of these pauses, I felt a bee buzz by my head and land on a nearby pine. That ' s strange, I thought, a bee this early? Then I heard another and another. I looked on the bark of the tree, but found only a few woodpecker holes into which the bees must have crawled. As I peered into one of these holes. I felt another bee whizz by my head. Upon exami- nation I found another woodpecker hole and no bee. It struck me suddenly that someone was shooting at me, and I found myself on one of the topmost branches of the pine before I could decide what to do about it. From my perch I had a splendid view of the countryside round about. 1 saw several men, dressed strangely alike, shooting in the general direction of a group of targets about one hun- dred feet from them and situated between the muzzles of their guns and me. I concluded from this surveillance that they were target shooting. I also deduced that these men were Marines, and that the high fence I had met was the boundarv of the Hingham Arsenal, which had been re- cently expanded. I watched the activities of these Marines through the telescope sight of my gun and was surprised to see them all suddenly fling them- selves prone on the ground and turn their guns in my general direction. They must have been frightened by something in my vicinity. I peered around to see what it was, but I could see nothing out of the ordinary. Then the Marine who was obviously in charge crept cautiously to the barrack at one side of the field and returned with a long, round some- thiTig which proved to be a 30-calibre machine gun. After it was set up, he rose and swept my tree with a pair of binoculars. I grinned and waved at him and was pleased to see him grin

Page 14 text:

12 of getting there. When the ban on pleasure driv- ing went into effect, however, dancing school had to be discontinued temporarily. Also, and more important to the seniors, the senior class play had to be given up this year for the same reason. The gasoline problem really IS a problem. Our school cafeteria, too, has had its share of wartime hardships. The ice cream shortage re- duced the regular large variety of ice cream to sherbets I which many of us liked better any- way) ; candy i s disappearing from the counters; and the food shortage had caused a small in- crease in price on some of the dishes. But we have cheerfully accepted these changes, as we knew that the school was doing the best it could for us. After the February vacation two new courses were started for the juniors and seniors. One was a course in mathematics for boys, and the other gave instruction in preflight aeronautics to the girls as well as to the boys. Among the student body many familiar faces have disappeared during the school year as some of the older boys answered their country ' s call for help by joining a branch of the service or by working at a defense plant where workers were needed. To us these changes haven ' t seemed too great when spread out over a year ' s time although, when listed, they seem considerable. However, under fine management we have enjoyed the year in spite of everything. But it is evident, from all this, how war changes even the school life here in the United States, which seems so far from the battlefronts of the world. Yes, war has far-reaching effects. BUILD THEE MORE STATELY MANSIONS Marguerite Bartlett, ' 44 With the tide of battle slowly swinging towards the Allies, it is time to think about the dawn of a new peace. This time we must make sure that there will be a lasting peace founded on the brotherhood of man. It is time to lay the cornerstones now, and we must have a solid foun- dation on which to build our mansion of peace. The four cornerstones might well be the four freedoms ' outlined by President Roosevelt: free- dom from want, that all men may have their daily bread; freedom from fear, that all men. as brothers, may stand on an equal footing and eiijo) the same privileges; freedom of the press, that men ma) know what their brothers are doing all over the world; and freedom of religion, that all men may worship the god the choose, the way they choose. This time we must remem- ber that all men are brothers striving for a com- mon goal. If our mansion is to stand through generations, it must be acceptable to all nations. We must let each nation have something to sav about its structure. Just as Chinese architecture might not appeal to us, some of their customs are not ours. But their ideas of freedom are identical. The same applies to all nations and we must respect their customs and beliefs. If we remember the other fellow and give him a chance, our mansion of peace and good will may stand throughout the ages as a monument to the brotherhood of man. THE VALUE OF A LIBERAL EDUCATION TODAY Matthew Miles, ' 43 In this present-day world of science, mechan- ics, war. and destruction, many educators are of the opinion that a liberal education (according to the Old World definition, that is, a classical one I is best parked on any convenient shelf for the duration. They feel ( and rightly I that Latin and Greek, 16th century French art and Francis Bacon, should not take precedence over trigonom- etry and navigation, over German and Spanish, over ordnance and aircraft maintenance. You cannot win a war by quoting Cicero or Aristotle. Specialized technical education is a must in this conflict. The fact that a young man is a gradu- ate from The Harvard College of Liberal Arts does not make him a better rear gunner or a defter riveter. This same scheme of things will hold true after the war. The world of tomorrow will be a technocracy. To prevent a post-war slump, industry must continue a high output, thus employing large numbers of workers and creating a huge market. American industry can not and must not return to its pre-war pace. In a world such as this promises to be, a classical education is of practically no use at all. However, the liberal education which is lit- erally liberal will play a very great part in the future. Huxley defines the owner of a liberal education as one who is in good physical con- dition, who has a clear, logical, well-oiled mind, who discerns the fine points of life as well as the obvious ones, who knows the laws of nature and of man, who loves beauty, hates evil, and respects all others; in short, one who lives, who gets along with his fellow man. Certainly, this is the individual which the post-war world needs. [Continued on Page 14)

Page 16 text:

14 and wave back. He then settled himself behind the machine gun and began to trim the branches around and above my head. As they became scarcer and scarcer, I decided that I might be in his way; so I shifted myself to a better place of refuge behind the main trunk of the tree. He finally stopped firing and so I imagined he had hit what he was aiming at, although it seemed to me he had used up a lot of ammunition to do it. Then a man drove up in one of those war-buggies they call jeeps. All the men piled into it, and they headed for my tree. They must be coming over to see me, I thought, but. as I am the bashful type, I decided it was time to leave. The next day ' s newspaper carried the story of an unknown sniper who was observing the maneuvers of the armed personnel at the Government Restricted Area of Hingham. Luckily, the story went on, Sergeant Boles was on his toes and this sniper was routed before he did any damage. I am still in deathly fear of a visit from the F. B. I. or the War Department. ARE WE SOFT? Rocco Foniri, ' 45 In many of the speeches of Hitler or Tojo, one or the other has said, The American people are soft; they can easily be defeated because of their people and government. Have you ever con- centrated on this subject? Would you say we are soft? Can we easily be defeated? These ques- tions are hard to answer. My opinion is that we aren ' t soft nor can we easily be defeated. Let me give you examples of Americans ' being soft. At Pearl Harbor, did we quit? At Bataan or Corregidor, were we easily defeated? At Coral Sea did we lose? At Midway did we cry? At Guadalcanal were the Marines soft? The Axis talked big then, but they wish they had never started a fight against the men like Mac- Arthur, Eisenhower, Montgomery — and countries like Poland, Greece, France, and even Holland. To those who have died for us we must pay tribute, for they fired bullets, and stopped them too. Those men fighting out there want only one thing. They want America to win this war. They want us to appreciate the values of democ- racy, life, and the four domestic and social free- doms. The Axis nations will fall because our men who landed at Ireland and at North Africa have only one thing in mind : we came, we will fight, and we will win victory. Victory will bs won by our fighting heroes because they are fight- ing to preserve freedom in God ' s almighty way. SENIOR CLASS NOTES {Continued jrom Page 5) John Billings, of the U. S. Army Air Force, who started his career as consulting engineer, lock- smith, and electrical genius at the approximate age of four. As a gesture of magnanimity, the Army and Navy have graciously allowed the re- maining members of this class of military and naval genius to finish their secondary education. A few typical reserve officers of the senior class are John Wilder. S. H. S. king of the slide rule, who plans on His Majesty ' s Royal Navy; Bob Hendrickson, five-place logarithm operator, who prefers the Coast Guard; Jerome Walsh, World War 1 strategist, who favors the Marines; and Pat Butler, the raconteur of the physics lab, who, strangely enough, likes the Army. All in all, the senior class of 1943 has proved itself the best endowed with all- ' round genius of any such class heretofore established. THE VALUE OF A LIBERAL EDUCATION TODAY {Continued jrom Page 12 How can we expect to win the next peace per- manently unless through men of this type? I do not speak of the chemist or the physicist iso- lated in his laboratory, nor the scholar hidden in his books, nor the idle, polished, college gradu- ate, but of a happy mean — a man versed in man ' s and nature ' s laws alike. If the educators of this country, and of the world, can realize the tre- mendous need for men of this caliber, the next generation will be infinitely better prepared to meet the problems of the post-war world. » Sign in a fruit store window: Fine apples. Buy now. Remember the early bird gets the worm. » A woman rushed into an elevator on the first floor and asked, Is this car going up? No, Madam, replied the operator, this is a cross-town car. » He: Let ' s get married. She: Good Lord! Who ' ll have us?