Somerville High School - Radiator Yearbook (Somerville, MA)

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Graduating With Honor 1940 GIRLS AHERN, ELEANOR R. BAGDIGIAN, DOROTHY M. BARLEY, ADELA M. BLOOMER, GERALDINE E. BRYANT, WINIFRED A. BUONOPANE, CHRISTINA R. BURNETT, MARION T. CAGLIUSO, MARY J. CARO, GERTRUDE A. CASHMAN, VIRGINIA E. CAVAZZI, JENNIE COSTAS, HELEN CROSS, PATRICIA A. DeINNOCENTIS, IRMA R. DiLORENZO, LEAH G. DiLORENZO, PRISCILLA R. DRATCH, MARY DUSHUTTLE, DOROTHY L. FOX, DOROTHY H. GEROTHEOU, ALICE E. GUGLIETTA, ELIZABETH GURNEY, MARY B. JACOBS, HELEN F. JAY, VIRGINIA KACOYANIS, MARY J. KANE, ELEANOR A. KELLEY, GRACE H. KENISTON, HELEN A. KNIPES, RUTH C. KNOX, ELVIA KOSTAS, ETHEL LIMA, ROSE M. MocCALLUM, VIRGINIA R. MAHONEY, MARY E. MARTIN, MARY E. McCAFFERY, ANN F. MILLER, MAUDE G. MORAN, RITA B. NUNZIATO, EDITH M. O'HARA, MARY E. ROSENBERG, DOLORES J. RYAN, MARGARET L. SKYRME, JUSTINE P. TALMO, JOSEPHINE G. TROTTER, WINIFRED 0. TSOTSI, CATHERINE WARFALOSKY, SOPHIA M. ZAMBELLO, MARIANNA ZOUVARTIAN, SARA E. BOYS ABRAHAMIAN, MARTIN AHEARN, JOHN P. ATHENS, THEODORE AVILA, ANTHONY M. BOTELHO, JEREMIAH J. CARLSON, ROY E. H. COULOURIOTES, JOHN DEUKMEJIAN, GEORGE K. DiMILLA, SALVATORE J. DWYER, ARTHUR J. FIAMINGO, JOSEPH L. GINSBURG, HARVEY H. HODGDON, EARL B. JOYCE, MICHAEL J. KALOYANIDES, BASIL KESSLER, IRVING LANG, ALBERT MAGUIRE, FRANCIS J. MARCEL, GEORGE L. MARTELLUCCI, PAUL S. MARTINEAU, DENNIS J. MARTINI, ERNEST McCABE, EDWARD F. PRENTISS, RICHARD M. RAPHAEL, THOMAS REIMER, CHARLES B. SPINOSA, COSMO STANLEY. HOMER M. SWENSON, LENNART A. TSOTSI, LOUIS G. WELCH, WALTER J.

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Senior Class History 1 In nineteen thirty-seven, on o worm Sep- tember doy. We goily entered S. H. $., and lo, to our dismay We found our doys were so complex, school life gave us concern! New studies, teochers, rooms and nomes, we thought we'd never learn. From third floor East to ground floor West, whichever woy we turned. The juniors loughed, the seniors scorned, we sophomores were spurned! 2 As doys went by we goined more friends, and soon were lost no more; And though we searched, we couldn't find that elevator door. In early Spring we were of oge to hold our first election; Louise ond Dot, plus John and Vin—we'd mode o good selection. These four were leaders true enough—oil sophomores to admire; They helped to moke our class become the teachers fond desire. 3 At the Soph'more Hop we all come out ; it served os our debut. Our first offoir, o great success, we cheered the Red and Blue. We cast oside our shyness, ond we ban- ished al! our fears; We came to be a happy group—the gay and bright first-years. From then 'till June we tried our best to moke ourselves well known In ev'ry sport and school offoir—to students fine we'd grown. 4 Vocation time and then the fall, ond back we were to work. As Juniors now we knew thot we must not be found to shirk. Election came agoin this year for all who paid their dues, Now Signe took Dot Fox's place—Rosetti, too, was news. Agoin we were united with the purpose to excel; And it's a fact, in every woy, the Junior Class did well. 5 The Players' Club and football squod, the boseball team ond trock. With bosketball and hockey gomes, the Juniors did ottroct. The Portia ond the Webster donee were both o lot of fun. But neither one could e'er surpass the Junior Night to come. Beneath soft lights the jitterbugs to music running wild All jived, ond jumped, and twirled, and bumped, or waltzed to music mild. 6 September, nineteen thirty-nine, began our final year. A larger graduating class had ne'er before been here. Election of class officers—o tense, exciting duty— With Vin and Dot, Louise and Jo combin- ing broins ond beouty. And then came pictures, pins ond rings, ond next our ploy, Stoge Door. Such busy deys thot who could say thot school life wos o bore? 7 Our goy Closs Doy and Senior Prom were long anticipated. Committees planned two glorious times— for June the 7th we woited. The morning sow the ivy planted, in fu- ture years to twine; The evening saw the gym transformed into a ploce divine. And Laughter for the night was King, os classmates gaily mingled; The music made our glad hearts donee. The old walls fairly tingled! 8 Lost scene of all. It is the time of solemn graduation. In cops and gowns ond foces bright, we sit in still formation. With minds intent and eager hearts, and acting so sedate Eoch waits his turn, his prize to get, and then to celebrate! All hail the Closs of 1940! What fun school life has been! And now we join the outside world—our places there to win. Carolyn Rice. Christine Buonopane. 41

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Oration DEMOCRACY WORKS Am.d the turmoil occasioned by the rovoges of o wor which seems so distant ond re- mote from our peaceful shores, ond so controry to the peaceful ottitude thot pervades this audience, we who are about to moke thot transition from girlhood to womanhood, or from boyhood to manhood, and being here very much envied and to be envied os citizens of the greotest Democracy in the world, the United Stotes of America, should be thankful we live in a country where Democracy exists, ond should use every precaution to safeguard it from any other form of government. As I stond here this evening, rejoicing with my fellow graduates and parents, events are happening in Europe thot ore terrorizing the world. The tenocles of wor ore slowly em- bracing entire Europe, leaving in its wake, illness, diseose, orphans, starvation, ond the ter- rible scourge of death. What is the reoson for this chaos thot has engulfed Europe? The reoson can be thus summed up by pointing our finger on the diseosed route thot threatens the entire world; in other words, the totalitarian or dictatorship form of govern- ment. This form of government is rapidly spreading over the continent, coming under the classification of Communism, Nozism, and Fascism, for dictatorship is a government of men, not of lows. The will, meaning the mood, the temper, the hcolth, the nervous system of the Fuehrer, Ducc, Commissar or Czar, is the controlling factor of all institutions, including the courts. If such dictatorships bring security, it is the security of the borracks ond joils. They develope feor, hatred, collective perversions, and war. Either they bring a civilization so ab- ject that people become willing slaves, or they open up o sco of bloodshed. Todoy there are in Germany fresh groves where rest the ashes of those whom the Cotholic people regord as martyrs—although nothing is permitted to be revealed os to how they met their end. The home of the Jew hos been confiscated, his home which to him has always been his castle, hos been token owoy from him without due process of low, a right safeguarded to us by the Constitution of the United Stotes. Compare the turbulent conditions in Europe with our stotes in the United Stotes. In our country the government belongs to the people, instead of the people belonging to the government. In olmost every respect our standard of living in 1940, after a decade of eco- nomic storm and stress, is still the highest in the world. No other nation, least of all dictator notions, Italy, Germany, Russia, comes anywhere near equaling the high standards exempli- fied here. This improvement hasn't come along by letting well enough alone, but by a con- stant struggle ogoinst vested interests. For struggle and compromise have been typical of American democracy. This democracy has capacities for adventure not motched by any totalitarian stotc, nor is it bound by any rules, except to respond to the wish of the people. Democracy gives the individual o sense of power and dignity and mokes the people respon- sible for their own destiny. I would not surrender democracy even temporarily for any promise of a better world. Now, since we ore oil a port of the government, is it not only logical and sensible that we exercise our rights of taking port in the government. We should hold the highest admira- tion for whot our forefathers suffered ond died, namely, democracy; therefore, we should use every precaution to preserve thot democracy. In a few yeors, fellow classmates, you and I— all of us, will be full-fledged citizens, carrying with it the right to vote. This is more than a right, it is a public duty to be per- formed faithfully ond conscientiously. To maintoin democracy as the ideal form of government we must elect only honest ond trustworthy individuals o represent us. We must watch the cunning politician, who seeks only to benefit himself rother than the country. We will not see any great militory fortifications extending between our country and Canada, or between our country and Mexico. Our rivers ore not being used for wor man- euvers, but for peaceful transportation, and the irrigation of the dry and desert lands. The mountains ore not being crowned with guns, but with trails ond lodges for mountain climbers. We should thank God thot we live in America where the children con run and play without the feor of the trumpet's coll to bloody battle. Men can speak os they wish, with- out the fear of prison bars. Let us be grateful we live in o land for removed from war or the dangers of war. We should thank God that we live in the United States of America, whose democratic govern- ment is still of the people, by the people, ond for the people. Let us be thankful we live in a land where freedom of speech, religious tolerance, free education and equol opportunity for oil, where oil these liberties are unquestioned ond firmly established. If we ore tempted to complain obout our lot in life, we should reflect on the sufferings of the war torn world m Europe todoy. The one consoling thought we should keep uppermost in our minds is, how fortunate we ore that we live in the United Stotes of America. , Neatly, the situation is summed up in the words of Mr. Justice Brandeis: Those who won our independence believed thot the final end of the State was to moke men free to de vclope their faculties, and that in its government the deliberate forces should prevo.l over the arbitrary. They valued liberty both os on end ond as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of hoppiness, ond courage to be the secret of liberty. They believed that freedom to think os you will ond to speak as you think ore means .nd.spensoblc to the discovery and spread of political truth, thot without free speech and assembly, discussion would be futile; thot with them, discussion affords ordinarily adequate protection against the dissemination of noxious doctrine; thot the greotest mcnoce to freedom .s an inert people that public discus- sion is a political duty; ond this should be a fundamental principle of the American Government. Charles Lucjorw-