Somerville High School - Radiator Yearbook (Somerville, MA)

Page 22 text:

H A D I A T O H Y E A H B O O K 19 2 0 April May May 16 23 June 1 June 1 Sept. 19 Oct. 8 Oct. 9 Sept. 22 Oct. 29 Nov. 1 Nov. 2 Nov. Dec. 6 Jan. Jan. 18 March 4 Feb. March 26 April 5 April 25 April 28 May 10 May 17 May 24 May 28 May 29 June 11 June 13 June 15 June 20 ('lass ('al Midar Continued Junior issue of Radiator was a credit to class of '29. Many Juniors were inaugurated into the National Honor Society. Class Day! Due to the rain, it was held indoors. However, it was a good day for the “Junior Blues.” The building is finally emptied to be turned over to the contractors for reconstruction. School closed for the summer. Earlier than usual too, and nobody sorry. SENIOR YEAR — 1928-1929 Back to school after the longest vacation we’ve ever had, and with the dignity of our seniority implanted in our minds, we immediately begin to set an example to the rest of the school. The (dec Club and Girls’ Athletic Association have the first meetings of the year, with large attendance at each. A great day for the women. First meetings of the orchestra and Webster Debating Society.Sumner Spalding, president The football season opens as a credit to S.H.S. and ends as a champ team. Rah! Rah! Second National Honor Society Meeting at which John Hayes was elected president. Girls are entertained in gymnasium by a display of what the well dressed young woman will wear when she partaketh of exercise. Miss Burke and Mr. I Ierman give talks on physical culture. Many Somerville High School boys play in Dc Molay Band in De Molay parade. Big time had by all at second meeting of Webster Debating Society. John Hayes elected class president with the perennial group of co-workers. We missed the customary Christmas Cantata; its omission due to the recon- struction of the hall. However, this did not detract from the joys of the Christmas vacation. Gym classes start at last. Everybody’s happy! First Poetry Club Meeting of the Year showed that the Senior Class hadn’t lost any of its love for this fine art. The Class of ’29 with the Juniors assembled in the new hall to hear Herbert I Ioover inaugurated as president but all in vain. Senior Play Committee elected. At last it is our turn to pul on the big event of the year, the Class Play. Senior Play Tryouts. Much fun was had by all, especially the Committee. Thirty-six Seniors were inaugurated in the National Honor Society. A very impressive and solemn occasion. Senior Play, “A Pair of Sixes,” the best play ever put on in the Somerville I ligh School — (we think Roger Masked was a fine butler.) The Class Day, Senior Night, and Class Gift Committees are elected. School closes for the last vacation we have before graduation. The Seniors had a jovial time at the Sophs’ afternoon dance. Junior Night. The Seniors, of course, were a distinguished part of the audience. The Senior Dance in the gym was a great success. This took the place of the dancing we omitted after the Senior Play. The Annual Orchestra Concert took place in the hall. The orchestra ‘‘did itself proud.” Memorial Day Exercises in the hall. Class Day. At last we arc the ones to whom this, our last class day, means so much. Senior Night! The last time the class assembles socially before graduation. We make the most of it. The Year Book is out, a credit to the Class of ’29. Graduation! At last the goal toward which we have been aiming for so many years is reached, and it is not without many regrets that we turn from our old school life to whatever else the future may have in store for us. 18

Page 21 text:

19 2 9 R A I) I A TO R Y E A R H O O K Sept. 9 Sept. 13 Oct. 14 Nov. 2 Nov. 22 Nov. 20 Dec. 10 Dec. 24 Jan. 5 Jan. 6 Feb. 17 March 14 March 21 June 10 June 7 June 22 Sept. 9 Sept. 10 Oct. 13 Oct. 29 Oct. 25 Nov. 23 Dec. 22 Feb. 2 Feb. 3 Feb. 17 Feb. 28 April 14 April 27 CLASS CALENDAR SOPHOMORE YEAR — 1920-1927 We Sophomores sidled shyly into Somerville I ligh School and were overcome by the masses of haughty Juniors and Seniors and by the strange vastness of the building. We met the “Big Traffic Mans” for the first time and endeared ourselves to the entire Traffic Squad. We are terrified by Mr. Pearson’s voice. Radiator out. What a high class and awe inspiring magazine! If they would only leave out all jokes pertaining to Sophomores! We become acquainted with the Webster Debating Society. Reconciled at last to the high class service in the school lunch room. Spaghetti again! Our first “Big” football game. Somerville 26, Rindge 13. You bet it’s Thanksgiving! Juniors and Seniors are beginning to forget that Sophomores are little more than scum. All excited about hanging up our stockings and the beginning of the vacation. (We’re just fooling. We knew all the time there wasn’t any Santa Claus.) Back to school after the vacation in which we played with our new toys. Bursting with our New Year's Resolutions! The New Year’s Resolution broken for the first time. Oh well! There’s another year coming. Witnessed our first Senior Play, “A Full House.” Aren’t those Seniors wonderful! John I laves and Co. elected as class officers. Excitement intense. First class meeting. From now on we’re going to “show” the rest of the school. Sophomore Dance. What if it was in the afternoon. Juniors and Seniors didn't have to come. Our first Class Day. The Sophomore battalion made an impressive sight. Last but not least, by any means. Summer vacation begins. JUNIOR YEAR— 1927-1928 We enter school as dignified Juniors, having acquired just the necessary touch of sophistication during the summer. Isn’t it funny, but we feet superior to those little Sophs too! Three flights of stairs aren’t so good! Let’s give the Sophs the third floor. We’ve got some football team, composed mostly of Juniors, too. We knew that the Juniors were the right sort! Work on the new school has begun at last! We elected John Rondina and Co. Somerville continues its victories and defeats Rindge. You bet we were thank- ful! Report cards. Beastly annoyance! The Players’ Club and Glee Club presented a very worthy Christmas Cantata, in which the Juniore were well represented. Christmas vacation, yes; but rest? No. Donald Cochran awarded cup by Mr. Yiano for being the most valuable football player on Somerville team. Saw our first National Honor Society Inauguration. Something for us to work for. Sophomore Dance. The Senior Play, The New Poor,” was largely attended. A Junior boy. John Hayes, took second place at the State Indoor Track Meet, Somerville took second place. A good time was had by ail at the Orchestra Concert Junior Night at last! And what a time! Decorations, entertainment, and. everything was great. 17

Page 23 text:

19 2 9 R A D I A T O R Y E A R ROOK CLASS ORATION IDEALS —THE NEED OF THE DAY The man of ideals is as the hand of God among his fellow creatures, creating an inspiration for better things and an uplifting influence in the lives of men. We live in an age of standardization. The wonderful progress of science has, at the very same time it has accomplished unmeasured good, effected an evil condition, that of stand- ardization, not only of machines and institutions, but also of men. A man is measured not by his personality, not by his aims, nor his ideals, but for his value in dollars and cents as a cog in a vast machine. Despite the high standards of education, despite the nice training of youth for independ- ent thinking, blind following of a leader is another evil of our complicated civilization. Witness, for example, the effect of the newspaper on the public today. The opinions of the press are taken without question. In other words, the convictions of one man, the editor, become the convictions of a large community. Modern life is like a swift tide drawing all men along with it. their own personal ideals and ambitions forgotten. It is the tendency of the world today to ridicule and hold up to scorn the idealist and so it is that the young man filled with the aspiration of his school and college days, when he faces the indifferent attitude of the world, all too often loses his ideals and becomes as the rest of men, a part of the machine. High moral courage is demanded if one would stand against the tide, and few arc able to do it. Yet looking back over history we find that every step in the advance of civilization has been due to men of vision. The history of civilization is the history of the rise and fall of nations. Each nation which has won a place in history has had high ideals — governmental, social, religious, or economic: but the loss of these has in every case spelt ruin. I low high the standards of Greece and Rome and how soon they fell when these had been lost! How laudable the purposes of our Pilgrim fathers, the founders, and of our statesmen, the builders of our nation! And with what courage they held to them, though the thunder of war oft shook the very foundation of the structure they were rearing! The ideals of yesterday arc the realities of today; the ideals of today will be the realities of tomorrow. There was a time when freedom of speech was a mere fantasy; what is it today? A reality. There was a time when Democracy existed only in the minds of dreamers; what is it today? The accepted policy of all the world. There was a time when religious freedom existed only in Utopia; what is its status today? In every civilized nation the unquestioned right of every human being. Civilization has been attained only by a succession of ideals. Yet in the nations of the past, as today, men of vision were not appreciated until the fruits of their labors were reaped. Because Socrates, in ancient Athens, clung to his ideals, the betterment of youth and the teaching of the truth, he was forced to drink the cup of hemlock. Then long after he had gone, the wisdom of his teachings was realized, and the name of Socrates was eulogized by his countrymen. Recall Cato, the Censor of Rome, who devoted the whole of his long life to one end — the moral betterment of his fellow citizens. And what was his reward? In his lifetime only scorn; after death, eulogy. As Greece had its Socrates and Rome its Cato, so had America its Abraham Lincoln and its Woodrow Wilson. In the darkest days of the great Civil War, Lincoln, a true helmsman, guided the ship of state with his dream of a perfect union, like a star, ever before him. At last, when the smoke of battle had cleared away, and right had conquered, his ideal was realized and the World whispered the name of Lincoln in reverent awe. Woodrow Wilson’s advanced theories of world peace and the League of Nations, the ultimate ideals of a lifetime of public service, met only the derision of his countrymen. The very people whose honor he preserved intact during the Great War, who owe him an unpayable debt, broke his heart by their disdain toward his plans. The day is yet to come when his ideals will become realities, but when the millennium is reached Americans will realize that Woodrow Wilson was not selfish, but magnanimous; not a man of the nation, but of the world; not a man of the day, but of the Ages. 19 J