Seven Hills High School - Yearbook (Cincinnati, OH)

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Milestone High School Essay -First Prize LISTEN Listen? Can you hear it? Listen, not with your ears, but with your whole soul and imagination. Yes, your ears are too small, too inadequate to capture the entire character, the full opulence of personality in the music. Your ears are merely instruments which allow the music to lift you, carry you, to crush and mold you in its many moods. Listen! Open yourself wide. Let this music penetrate into your very veins and nerves, Feel the music, immortal in its opening strains. It floats as if resting on billowy mists that are gently stirred by a breeze. Then it changes to the role of wind and blows the leaves in a swirling game of tag. You can see it. You can feel it. But you are a bystander not for long. You, too, must enter into the game. You are a tiny particle of dust. The music rises away from its opening theme and catches you up with friendly fingers. Up, up you are swept, losing sight of the world and all that is mundane. Your senses are not your own. They belong only to the ethereal bars of music. You are free. The light. yet steady strains throw you about in a sphere studded with gleaming joys and freedom. Worry, sadness, and all unpleasantness is chased away. You are ineffably happy here in the playful, joyous power of music, Listen! lt grows bolder. lt struts, now nonchalant, now diflident, lt trills and ripples like tiny waves chasing themselves down the smooth, sandy stretch, each on millions of tinkling glass feet. It becomes loud suddenly. The ripples are grotesquely transformed into heaving breakers smashing wildly on cutting boulders. ln the turmoil of sound, you are cast from your God-like paradise. Lost, you are pursued by the monster, Faster, down, down you spin, thrilling and yet harassed by fear. Listen! You are once again yourself, The fear and falling are gone. You are suspended in a haven, once again with the world in sight below you and your studded heaven above you, You are overcome by drowsiness and comfort instilled by the music. Love and Beauty sail around you on silvery ships. They take you on board and you drift at random through a sea of sunset. But soon the sea is disturbed by stormy music. Your ships are tossed about and again you fall. The terrific roar of the symphony is almost unbearable, and yet it is awing and inspirational. lt hurls its planet-like weight after you. In its omnipotence you are but a slinking puppy, crouching from your master's rod. You are minute and lost, and in your feeling of weakness, the symphony seems to overpower your tiny form. lt exalts in its own richness and luster, leaping victoriously to its climax. Silence falls, silence like that unheard in the depths of a dense forest, asleep at night. But is the multi-mooded. glorious, and enchanting spell to be broken? No. Listen! You can hear it still. lt is music that lingers., always lingers, beautiful, like the golden resounding of a church bell: powerful, like the roar of a mighty locomotive after it has rounded the bend far clown the tracks. You can always hear it. lt can awe you, thrill you, invigorate and depress you. lt is always there. Listen! LoNsDALE GREEN, 46 page 79

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Ml.f9SfOH6 With these words, he presented her with a corsage box and a courtly bow, a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth, which sent Ann into gay laughter. Saying goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Clark, they drove to the Country Club in fairly good humor. Ann's lasted only as far as the steps, however, where the sound of people laughing and the soft playing of the orchestra reminded her that Sandy and Bonnie were in there, some- where, together. With this thought, the old jealousy and pain stabbed at her heart, and she went into the powder-room practically in tears. Later, dancing with Bill, she cheered up somewhat, as he proved to be a wonderful dancer. Though the rest of the boys cut in, Sandy refrained. This hurt her terribly, and Bill somehow seemed to know and understand. Having a good time? he asked gently. Oh, yes, a wonderful time! Everything's just fine! she replied, almost completely truthful. A'Don't worry about Sandy. Annie: he'll realize what Bonnie's like soon, and what a marvelous gal he's passing by, in you. ThanksY she whispered, huskily, and squeezed his hand. l'll try to be more convincing from now on. You know something, Ann? You can kid yourself into thinking that you're having fun by just laughing every now and then, but you can't fool me. 'Til you laugh from the bottom of your heart, I'll know you're not completely happy. So don't worry about keeping up pretenses with me: l've known you too long to be fooled. Just relax, and don't do or say anything you don't want to, 'cause l'll understand. After that, nothing more was mentioned on the subject of Sandy or how she felt about him, but it seemed to her that a weight had been lifted from her heart. and she forgot all her troubles in her new gaiety. Sandy cut in on her Hnally, his usual charming self, and Ann was surprised that she felt no delight or glory in dancing and talking to him, Instead, she watched Bill talking to a group of his friends, seeing the respect in their eyes for him. Realising what a fool she'd been, passing up something that was fine and true for the glamour of someone like Sandy, she waited expectantly for Bill to cut in on her, but Bill didn't move from his friends. Every now and then she caught his eyes follow- ing Sandy and herself around the dance floor and suddenly realised that he was trying to give her what he thought she preferred. Ann interrupted Sandy in something he was saying about football and excused herself. Bill saw her as she came toward him, and walked over to meet her. Taking her in his arms, he danced with her quietly to the music for a minute, and happiness and joy overwhelmed her. Looking up at him, she smiled gaily and said, 'ANow, Bill, I am completely happy: everything is as it should be. Bill, seeing her smile, laughed contentedly, and held her tighter. He could tell that she was not pretending, for her heart was laughing, too. DEBoRAH WILDER, '46 page 78

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Mz'IestOne i W fit IP 5 IN BEHALF OE THE STREET LIGHT When a young man whispers in a low tone: Ah, Light of my life, chances are that he is not talking about a street light. This only goes to show that the average young man doesn't appreciate to the fullest extent the advantages and assets of the street light. Universally, people ignore it, walk by it, completely unobservant of its services to the earth. And who can blame them? Certainly not I, for, as yet, lVl.G.lVl. hasn't produced a film portraying a handsome, poverty-stricken young inventor, in the person of Don Ameche, starving, slaving over his latest invention, the street light! Yes, until that day. the street light will continue to stand unnoticed: and its inventor, be he Greek, Roman. Egyptian, or cave man, will lie unrecognized in the recesses of the earth. As fruitless as this attempt may be, I shall try to point out to the reader some of the contributions which the street light has made toward the safety and beauty of any city, town, or hamlet in which it is employed. The most obvious use of the street light is that of guiding motorists and pedestrians after dark. Sometime during your past, long or short as it may be, you have undoubtedly heard these lines from the old nursery rhyme, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star : Then the traveller in the dark, Thanks you for your little spark: He could not tell which way to go If you did not twinkle so. Well, what would happen to the poor traveller on cloudy nights if it weren't for the street light? This is a rather far-fetched example, but surely you will agree with me that automobiles would be running on the sidewalks, and the late strollers would be falling over fire plugs if they depended entirely upon starlight without any help from the 'AGas and Electric Co. Just for experimentation and the sake of satisfying your curiosity, that is if your mind is temporarily in reverse. try driving a car through Rookwood Subdivision, without the use of headlights, on some night when the street lights are out. If they can't arrange to be out, try using a 'Abee-bee gun. After ending up in someone's fishpond or in the middle of a briar hedge Ctake your choice - it's your carl, page 80