South Philadelphia High School for Girls - Portal Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

Page 68 text:

A fiffv 1

Page 67 text:

I v Cs flll-Hll'1'I'

Page 69 text:

BETWEE TWO WIIRLD AUTUMN of I9-LO! Beautiful France that had dreamed too long behind the Maginot l.ine lay crushed and bleeding. and the United States. draping itself in an outgrown. some- what frayed cloak of isolationism waited half fearful that she would be drawn into the con- flict . . . half fearful that she wouldn'tl As little 10A's going to the New York VVorld's Fair with our school party. we did not hear thc crashing of our world against the rocks. Vvas there an abyss ahead of us? lve did not think too much about itl It was a bright. sunny day, and amidst gay. young hilarity we were going to the Fair. Much of that day has receded into the dim recesses of consciousness. a kaledioscopic umble of glistening white buildings, miles of walking on weary feet, hot dogs and a ferris wheel . . .Y But we do remember the General Motors Fu- turama ride through the world of tomorrow. Comfortably ensconced in slowly moving chairs, we listened to beautiful explanatory narrative with a background of lovely music. as we viewed a world, perfect beyond all dreams. VVe recall, too. the sad-eyed girl who sold us the beads in the Czecho-slovakian building . . . the symphony of water. light, and sound on the Lagoon of Nations. We did not know it theng the wonder- ful World's Fair had placed a period on the world we knew. It was the end of an eral But there were more trips to come. field trips that made textbook material come alive . . . our laboratory for American history, VVilliam Penn's greene countrie townef' So it was with a feeling of pride in our city that we, thc IIA history classes, boarded the buses and started off to tour historical Philadelphia - Mount Pleasant, Letitia Street House, Belmont, Cedar Grove. Sweet Brier. Strawberry Mansion. the Parkway museum-we saw them all. We inspected fragile old china, explored fas- cinating gardens, studied period furniture and architecture. and learned more about Philadel- phia than all the history textbooks could hold. Remember thc snapshots we took that featured the biggest lunches. the oozing tomatoes, the crumbling cookies! Our copious notes we plucked gently from the spring. but when we struggled to decipher them. we decided that it was not what we had jotted down that gives one a sense of the past in its relation to the pres- entg what we had absorbed in the vital places teeming with o11r nation's youth made us feel thc pulse of America and better comprehend our heritage. For us. the forty specials who were given the privilege of an enriched course in English and history, there were many more trips. We learned to know the many-mooded Vvissahickon Valley. Swedenborgian Church . . . study in slow perfection. When Valley Forge was white and pink with dogwood, we trod the paths of our first President, and visited the landmarks of the Revolution. And Hnally, at Pastorius Park, in the beautiful open air theatre, we gave portions of Cyrano de Bergerac and Romeo and Juliet as part of a June IIB picnic. So many fascinating expeditions . . . such good fellow- ship . . . such fun! June, 194-2 . . . and our country had been at war for five months. We had grown up, taken on our responsibilities as citizens of the United States and of the world. We had learned to appreciate tangible as well as intangible values of civilization . . . they shall not perish from the earth. Si.rfy-five