South Side High School - Totem Yearbook (Fort Wayne, IN)

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manner and even a South Side student should have his day. Besides, why not copy the idea? For in these days, when everyone tries to be original, to be unoriginal is sometimes most original. Cur average student, then, is roused early in the morning by the jangling of the alarm clock or more surely and more permanently by the penetrating voice of his mother fone can turn an alarm clock olfl. This getting-up business is no mean achieve- ment, in fact, many of us feel that after we have once won this agonizing struggle, we have accomp- lished enough for one day. There may be some up- and-out-of-bed-instantly students but they are prob- ably just as numerous as the ten-hours-of-sleep-every- night students, that is to say, they are a rare species. Still in a mental fog, our student manages to get dressed and washed and stumble downstairs, where he sits down to a hurried breakfast. After perhaps professing total disinterest in his cereal even if it is crispy, crunchy, delicious, etcfl, he may chew a piece of toast and drink some orange juice and some cof- fee or milk. At any time during this meal or after it, he may cry out, lVligosh, look what time it isll' and leave for school. Arriving at school, he seeks out his comrades to while away the time before home room period begins. The conversation may be light or most serious and important when the questions for some assignment are yet to be answered. When home room period begins, his teacher con- scientiously quiets him along with the others, point- ing to a wooden box on the wall. From this loud- speaker, he soon hears the radiomnipotent voice of Mr. Snider who says in the best Jimmy Wallington manner, Good morningf, l-le listens quietly and courteously to the announcements that follow and those of the teacher and perhaps even a home room program-now long extinct in some home rooms, but, to tell the awful truth, he is not yet really awake but in a kind of home room semi-slumber. His body and senses are partly awake but his mind is asleep. fwhich reminds us of the fellow who said to one of those dazed freshmen, You're really quite a remark- able boy. In fact, youlre the only person I've ever heard of who has walked in his sleep for fourteen years. j Some students manage to get in some desperate last-minute studying during home room period, but most of us would rather Hunk than at- tempt such a task at that time in the morning. When the bell rings, our average student walks through the halls to his first period task. Let no one think that this walking through the halls is unimpor- tant or easy. Walking to and from classes is a major school activity. If you take the trouble to figure it out, you will undoubtedly find that during his four years at South Side the average student spends blank hours walking blank miles in the halls. fYou Fill in the figures, I donlt enjoy arithmetic any more than you do., The average student soon finds that walking through the halls unscathed is a skill necessary for survival and well worthwhile cultivating. He dis- covers that certain definite types of hall walkers com- plicate it. There is the fellow known as the frus- trated footballer, who wanted to play football but did not quite make the team, and so he does his line- plunging and broken-field running in the halls. I-le zig-zags swiftly and beautifully in and out of the lineg but then, of course, he occasionally zigs where he should have zagged. There is also the sweep, one Your announcer, R. Nelson Snider The dignified Latin Club puts on a dignified costume play of the Romans , .The world's fair when one sits down to such fine fare at the XVorld's Fair Banquet. The gang in front of the Calhoun entrance at noon ,,,. Remember the Christmas decorations that the Inter-Club Congress put in the Greeley Room . Cowboy Burl Friddle swings his pardner, Erma Dochterman, while the rest of the teachers look on in envy at the senior funfest. P-T. A. mcmbers play bridge, danced, and generally enjoyed themselves at the winter frolic.

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Master craftsmen in the making in Mr. Henry Chappell's advanced drawing class Now the cameraman would turn to wood turningg Nlr. Bex here teaches this fascinating craft In the study hall these students resent the interruption of the photographergmaybe Learning to type with more than one finger A few aspiring journalists perspiring for The Times and The Totem Irish and I-larkcy, our linotype operators, struggle with the verbosity of the student scribes. students and talking or watching the various activi- ties going on. Other improvements were: stairways, not inclines, at the south end of the building to connect the two stories, Mr. Null's office, where the Voorhees room used to be, the Voorhees room changed to the typing roomg the enlarged Times room and press room equipped with a mammoth new press, the new glass- enclosed Totem office, a room within a room, in the Times roomg the visual education office in the former Totem hole,'g the new public address system throughout the entire school with the broadcasting studio and switchboard in Mr. Snider's office. In this improved building, the largest group of students ever enrolled at South Side have just com- pleted another lively year. The football season, al- though we hate to acknowledge the fact, was not, so far as scores are concerned, a complete success. Al- though we did lose out in the tournament, the basketball season was actually a very successful oneg we were the only major school in the state which had gone through her regular basketball schedule un- defeated and we reigned with Frankfort as co-favor- ite according to state-wide opiniong and that is not exactly failure. The track team this season staged a splendid comeback by winning the first meets in two years. The Junior prom, the Senior one-act plays, the G. A. A. revue, the Senior fun-fest, and Senior dance were all memorable events. Five of Mrs. Reike's public speakers became elig- ible to compete in the national contest by winning in state competition. South Side's Latin contestants swept the county and district contests and Violet Steinbauer won first place in the state contest. The Times continued its almost monotonous first place winning in state and national contests. Bruce Brad- bury won high honors in Quill and Scroll contests. Many South Siders took part in radio programs and contributed articles to the News-Seiitinelis Youth's Passing Show page. The senior plav, with Margaret Gross, Kitty Clin- ard, and Bill Newhard handling very competently the leading roles, was another finished production under Miss Margery Suter. Margaret played the part of a domineering mother who, with good intentions, tried to force certain careers on her daughter, played by Kitty, and her son, played by Bill, who both even- tually did what they wanted to, of course. Again this year, South Side was the first school to put over some new ideas. The survey by the Red Cross of our school for possible organization in case of disaster was the first such survey made of any high school in the United States. Mr. Wilbtirn Wil- son saw his brainchild, the Indiana Student Forum, grow into a chattering youngster QNO refiection on the discussions of this group by the unhappy choice of that word uchatteringw, is intended or should be impliedj . Such an excellent organization for encour- aging young people to learn and think about vital questions can well be copied by other states. Those are some of the high spots of the past yearg but something more is needed to give a true picture of 1938-39 at South Side. We must say more not about the spectacular but about the usual, the every- day happenings, the common life at school--the things that the average student of us did for had done to himj on an ordinary day. Perhaps you have already detected that we are slowly but inevitably coming to something which might be called, A Day in the Life of a South Side Studentug but be tolerant, for, after all, it is a com- mon plan and not a bad one either. Policemen, poli- ticians, chorus girls, debutantes, and prizefighters have all been written about in the day-of-the-life-of

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.qi r t.'::. 1 , 0 N ia znafme izesu.1evmvum ff 'Nil . .Y-ill, .2 Y U' ,. ,i Vi. gnu ...IW i i Ihr Smittlg Simi- Eimvs vii '- A . l ,V ii Y illl G. A. Afers in their annual party . The parents swing it at the first annual Parent-Teacher frolic ., The Times does it again Last springs senior dance ...The mural in Miss Dochterman's room that recently received honor in a national magazine The parents sit one out during the parents' party Another view of the front entrance. of those lines of giddy girls who march arm-in-arm in battle formation down the halls and sweep every- thing before them. Then there are: the studious type, who creeps along with his nose in a book fre- quently flattening it fhis nosel against someone or the wall, the strolling talker, who seems always to be carrying on a conversation with two or more per- sons at opposite ends of the hall and, at the same time, bawls out others for not looking where they are going, and finally the type known as Lot,s wife, be- cause, of course, he is always looking back. If our average student has survived the perils of hall walking, he should arrive at his first period class within five minutes. There he gives clear, accurate answers to all questions on the assignment which he has very carefully prepared to recite-maybe. Since classwork is well known to most people, we will permit the rest of the morning of our student to go unobserved, pick him up at noon, watch him eat lunch at home or in the cafeteria, put him back in school for the afternoon, and then pick him up again after school. At this time, he either goes to some club meeting, participates in some school activity, loafs around at school or goes home-or a little of each. After an hour or less time, our average student has reached home and begun to read the newspaper, listen to the radio, or engage in some activity with his pals. Then he eats his evening meal and begins to think it is time to begin to start to get a little studying done perhaps. That does not mean that he dives imme- diately into his books but that he considers and care- fully weighs the question, To study, or not to study. However, in a few minutes, he does start and works diligently for-a few more minutes. Then perhaps he is becoming bored with studying. If there were only some means whereby he could study and be entertained at the same time. The solution to the problem? It is obvious. The radio. Cn goes the radio, and our student solemnly studies the Pythagorean theorem to the accompani- ment of Benny Goodmanis orchestra. Gradually the Pythagorean theorem begins to lose vividness and shape, its straight lines blur and swayg for a moment, the geometric figure seems inexplicably to be dancing in swingtimeg then it fades and is gone. Goodman has won. Cur average student now listens to the radio for a few minutes, but soon, with firm resolution, he turns it off and renews his studying. He is really getting some studying done, he feels, when he begins to be sleepy and glances at the clock. which tells him that he has a good excuse for not continuing his work. Ir has grown lateg it is time to go to bed, and he can do the remainder of his les- sons in his study period the next day. I lo-hum. So off to bed, and another day in the life of a South Side student closes. Looking back not on any particular day but on our four years at South Side is always pleasant, but an especially enlightening and affecting experience is looking through the old Totems of earlier years. As we turn their strange pages, unfamiliar faces stare out at us, scilred declarations on character, education, and life amaze us, quaint art-work and humor amuse us. The many writers' praises, appreciation, humor, sentiment, and ideas, thought to be original by each, run in the same vein however, despite their strange- ness to us. We realize then that a Totem is an ex- pression of a class understandable perhaps by its members but doubtless somewhat odd and fool- ish to other readersg yet this book-as they modestly explain in all year books-will not be altogether use- less if it helps to preserve for us a few backward glances. Wil l lil l D' i I , C - le E