St Catherines School - Quair Yearbook (Richmond, VA)

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As we were five years ago. In the front row you will find Meri, Jackie and Beth, in .second row, Kay, Archer, Carolyn and t Shirley, Joan and Joyce, last row, Julie, Tinka, Barbara, Janet and Dorothy. Patsy Moncure and Doris Richards were in the class but not in the picture. Polly, third row, Jean, lVlary Ann, Hz'sr01j1 gf tfze Cfasx gf 1Vz'neteefz Fgfy S we look back through the years we see clearly that the Corps of Nineteen-Fifty has always been an impressive group-or shall we say an aggres- sive one? In spite of the conscientious efforts of the Generals to regiment us, we have always had original and determined ideas of our own. In Kindergarten we were eight strong-and we mean strong. Why not? We had with us Mary Ann, Julie, Beth, Kay, Doris, Archer, Meri and Joyce, a troop of eight marching our way triumphantly and militantly through life and between tables, to the strains of Em's inspiring music. We may have been trailing clouds of glory , at that stage, but we managed to trail a lot of other things too. Being an unusual class we did unusual things, even then. As an illustration we might cite the occasion when we borrowed clay from the art room for our own purposes, and then, acting on impulse as was characteristic, went on to the complete demolishment of the Seniors' precious models. This feat of vandalism had no malice aforethought, be it understood. We were merely actuated by youthful exuberance and sheer love of seeing-and hearing-things smash. Needless to say our performance was not looked upon favorably by the grown-ups. Joyce and Mary Ann, who were discovered to be the culprits, were immediately sent to the guardhouse Qalizzs, the cornerj to repent. We were clever actresses even then, learned to emote effec- tively when expedient. Meri carried off chief honors in this respect because her tear ducts could always be counted on to flow freely. She used to be rewarded, we recall, by a coke, each day she 11idn'Z cry in school. What devils we were! No wonder it took the combined forces of Mrs. Grant and our beloved Em to hold us down. VVhen we were promoted to the First Grade our ears became tuned to the constant ringing of Miss Brown's bell, Susie, We must have been a trial but we admit Miss Brown did probably knock a good many bats out of our juvenile belfries, made us almost civilized at times. We were lucky enough to have several reinforcements to our ranks. Jackie, Joanie, Shirley, and Tinka were rapidly assimilated into the initial Corps. VVe recall that Joanie, our Florida belle, was so excited over her first glimpse of snow that winter that she fell and broke a milk bottle. We were not concerned over the broken glass. Breaking things was everyday experience to us, but we did regret the loss of l26l the milk. That was the year when the Giant Stride made its appearance on the playground and was exceedingly popular. Not less so when Joyce created a crisis when in one ol' her athletic moods she was downed by one of the chains. No serious damage but a lot of drama, which we loved. Even this early the local press recognized our importance. We made the society page, with a picture showing us in pecu- liarly hideous Hallowe'en masks. In the spring we hit upon the ingenious idea of decorating our sand box with llowers, which involved a tragic clepredation on poor Miss Stauffer's gardens, but satisfied our budding esthetic senses. We naturally believed ourselves exceedingly sophisticated by June. But actually we were innocent enough to long for the time when we should carry books like our superiors and pursue that fascinating avocation called Home Work!!! How times change! The only new recruit next year was Polly and since we already knew her she was instantly one of the gang. We recall that year chiefly because a deep snow covered the beautiful Virginia Riviera. We were delighted to test our powers of endurance in arctic conditions, gaily donning our snowsuits and galoshes and boots and uti- lized that well known ingenuity of ours in constructing an igloo. lfVe were acquainted with Eskimo lore by then. Frank Lloyd Wright had nothing on us. We would prob- ably have willingly tested blubber as food had any been available at the moment in our zeal for realism plus ro- mance. We were deeply stirred by tales of children in Europe who were cold from necessity not choice, and the Red Cross, via the League, enlisted our services in knitting, thrusting long needles into our diminutive hands. Under Julie's enthusiastic captaincy we industriously labored on tiny squares which collectively were supposed to constitute an afghan eventually. We took our charity, as well as our sports, very seriously. Incidentally we struggled with our permanent enemies, the three PCS and were looking forward to the promotion to the Third Bungalow in September. As we were settled and feeling very important in our new desks as Third Graders we were glad to welcome Camilla to our numbers. Since our battle with the afore- said three Pi's had not been too spectacularly successful and our memories were as inclined to melt as our igloo we were put under the expert guiding hand of that miraculous edu- cator, Mrs. Durrett. Class work had been nothing like this

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A , . ey' .Wyatt -NVQ. 5 in, mf ',,,,l '14 -,J 'Ly 4 ' -izfff' M Af-. , A v ,f I V ' Q 1 i 1 ' ., f lf A - .1 ff' Y GL- I ' if ' ., ..1 ' . 4 Lv P' ,f . J, 5 95' . ' uf 1122, 54' , ,ff A c. .Jil il' Y I, ' - if lu f 'J : . in lu, -.Y ig .,- 1 2,3 I l 144-f h4.f Q , fi' jf,-:J I V .4 ., 'fr' v ,f NY: '- it v I 'Q' J!!! Q 05.195 J ly ,L ,,, if ,J f I I- Wi. I bf' ' ca Y J CONSTANCE VVILLIFORD , M I 5305! 26 EAST MAIN' S'I'IlliIi'l' A U R LVLL PLYIVIOIITH, NOIITI-I CAROLINA ffl One Year Special Proiecls Cm1'11x1i1,t.eu, '50, lVIusic Appreciation, '50, Tflllllflg of llze Sl1r1rw, 'fl-9. From Norlh Carolina our Connie hrzilnzl, And all will agree she has not failed To llflll good fricmls in her quiel way. Goofl luck lo lml' wllereuer sho .s'll'r1y.' Miss EDITH IVI. CRAIG Om' las! Senior-but also our Hrs!-Hrst in all our hearts. M lestw . .X INIARION STRAIN YANTIS SHEHIDAN Roan LAKE BLUFF, ILLINOIS Two Years League, ex-ogicio, '50, Head, Special School Problems, '50, Library Com., '49, Glee Club, '49, Discussion Group, '50, Tam- ing of the Shrew, '49, Junior-Senior Ban- quet, '4-9. Ma1'io1z from the Mill-West hails, To keep us big-eyed with big city tales. She has oorlles of humor and lots of poise- This peach, excuse spelling-from I llinoisf e Q Now you've seen them, Seniors all! Some be short and some be tall, Some have curls and some have not, But one and all, they're a mighty fine lot. The tint of their eyes may be brown or gray, But their hearts are true blue every day. Coming from North, South, East, or West, Mixed well together they make the best. May the Fates be kind and grant the 'lgiftiel' Of all good things for Nineteen Fifty! l25I I-,U VJ' wr ff' ly

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hitherto. There are disadvantages in growing up. We were introduced to multiplication tables and divisions of words into syllables which was supposed to improve our spelling. VVe say supposed deliberately. Some of us are still remark- ably original in that line as well as in others. At long last came the long anticipated Home VVork in capitals. A doubt- ful blessing it seemed to some of us. The real delight lay in our Rest Period when we trooped up to our cots and lost ourselves in the adventures of the Bobbsy Twins. Our romantic souls reached the climax of satisfaction when our beloved Miss Watkins became Mrs. Leake, a denouement which intrigued us greatly. To our regret we had no new members to boast of the next year. But we progressed. Home Work attained such proportions that we had to buy book bags to keep our volumes and other paraphernalia safe and in one place. We were notorious losers. Some of us still are, as it happens. We also graduated from our favorite Twins to the Orljmsey -some jump-but we made it and looked forward even more than ever to the Rest Period. We also magnanimously organized a Caterpillar Hospital in the woods and proved our interest in public service by forming a Fourth Grade T.V.A. when a leaky water fountain prompted us to con- struct a rival Boulder Dani. Nevertheless, before long our advancement in civilization took a slight backward step. When lightning, quite helpfully from our point of view, felled a tree behind McVey Hall the whole class reverted to the primitive. We converted ourselves into Joe Youngs as we swung gleefully from the branches and spiritedly issued the jungle pass-word-Waah-eeh-ah-eeh-aaah! We had been afraid we should lose Miss Murray when we transferred to Fifth Grade but in response-we fondly believe-to our own ardent demands she was still in charge, though our satisfaction was faintly dimmed by chagrin when we discovered we were t.o stay on in the Bungalow instead of being moved up to VVhitlock. We were thrilled hy the poise and personality of our new member from California, Patsy, and welcomed her enthusiastically. We suffered bereavement when our favorite buddy, Hoiman, de Toitle , succumbed to the grim reaper and passed beyond our ken-and laid him reverently to rest in a box in our prized flower garden. But as spring came around we revived our humane and nature-loving impulses and again turned our attention to our Caterpillar Hospital, a project that had to be sadly abandoned when we discovered that our patients had developed ptomaine or something after a dinner of seemingly harmless flowers. It was inevitable that at this stage some of us should evince the homing instinct. We grouped ourselves into families and pitched our domestic life in the woods. It was a long time before we finally were allowed to bivouac in VVhitlock but in our Sixth Grade year we achieved the goal, only to find to our disillusionment that our headquarters academically was still the same old bunga- low in spite of our advanced years. But we had good for- tune too. Palmer, Barbara, and Jean Frazier joined us. There were numerous flu epidemics that year as well as an occasional case of mumps available for catching and very few of our number escaped the sick bay. But we recovered and put on two notable dramatic performances, Make Him Smile and, Paul, before Agrippa. We were convinced-and still have not changed our minds-that our class was a natural for the bright lights and we even then had visions of arriving eventually on Broadway to the advantage of some box-office. After the drama urge died down we busied ourselves with making a Year Book for our project, We were happy to have had Mrs. Durrett for a repeat perfor- mance and felt sad at leaving her, though we were some- what cheered when she gave us each an autograph book as a final renlembrance. At last we arrived and took over Cas we considered. itj, the Middle School Study Hall. We also added .lanet Swann, Carolyn, and Dorothy to our roster. fSee picture at head of this history if you can bear to be reminded of what we looked like then.j We were no longer vitally interested in dumb animals by then and turned our attention to male bipeds. Several of us wore dents in our elbows as we leaned precariously and hopefully on the window ledges of Miss Thruston's classroom, awaiting the daily quota of a fleet of gallant St. Christopbetds cyclists on reconnoitering missions. f27l Only too often however we could also cast an apprehensive collective eye on Miss Lena, on the horizon, arriving with her best quarter deck manner, ready to disperse any invad- ing forces. That was a very cold winter and our enthusiasm for the Eskimo life waned when the furnace went on strike. However, we were equal to the emergency and donned coats, ear muffs, gloves, mittens, which later accouterment proved useful as an excuse for illegible handwriting. We welcomed the arrival of spring but were not so overjoyed when it brought with it an invading host of termites, as well as the usual robins and daffodils. Miss Hood's Medieval History Class was the scene of many jousts with these winged pests. By June we felt very grown up indeed, were well aware of the allure of lipstick and even considered how we would look in stockings. When next September came we were, after a manner, heads of the Middle School and were definitely aware of our high position, as V. I. P.'s. VVe were still bent on being unusual, even to the point of radicalism. We had three new girls, two of them distinctly, like the rest of us, on the rebel side, Erwin and Jean Gillespie, with Rosie, our charming little conservative to effect a balance. In true French Revo- lution spirit CAuI armes, citoyennesfj we took to using water pistols-a demoralizing weapon second only to the atom bomb as a disruptive of normalcy. We learned to be highly expert at long range and staged a successful if brief Reign of Terror. Teachers fell to peering cautiously around corners before advancing and were constantly alerted to ferret out the ringleaders of this underground unit, who were as skilled in evasion as in execution. However, even this activity ran itself out in time and we concentrated on acquiring a hit the dirt technique. VVe were prompt in making our dives when planes roared overhead but equally adept in acquiring splinters in our knees from the Whitlock floors. Miss Chreitsberg, who had her own subtle brand of ingenuity also, strove to restrict our wild escapades and turn our esprit du corps to more constructive channels. She suggested that we organize as a Green Ring group, modelled on the idea of the Blue Ring of which we had heard vague rumors from the Upper School. The purpose of the Green Ring was to raise the standard of behavior in the Middle School. VVe can't imagine why anybody should have thought it needed it. Can you? Sad to relate, the Green Ring, though well intentioned, did not conspicuously bring to a close the number of uaccidentaln slamming of desk tops, extraordi- narily extended spasms of coughing, and the peculiarly regular dropping of those big, heavy red English books on the quarter hour. Somehow we did make some progress in education as well as ingenuity and achieved distinction, again in the field of drama, by our production of David Copperfield. VVe rather hated to leave the happy hunting ground of the Middle School but were elated at the thought that next year we would be actually in the Upper School- a long time dream. Accustomed to being top dogs we found it difficult to adjust ourselves to the notion that we were the least of the least as freshmen. We were dazed by the number of rules and regulations and even more stunned by the experience of rushing to classrooms in strange places at the alarm of a bell, a sort of stampede very different from our tranquil and leisurely procedure in the other Schools. Happily we were reenforced in numbers which spelled quality as well as quantity. Our major additions were specifically, Cynthia, Tweet , Bert, Nfattie, and our own little Quiz Kid, Polly. Intermingled with tl1e mass of chaos which is our chief memory of our Nines year are some bright spots, such as the thrill of the Gold and White games and particularly, the Senior Dance. We were hesitant about attending for fear our usual go-ahead spirit might be daunted in the presence of so many older girls, more accustomed to such functions than we were. But we soon recovered from any unprecedented shyness we might have had and found the ordeal of breaking tall, dark, handsome strangers was not so grim as we had feared. We did rather well for ourselves as a matter of fact. One of the chief memories of the year for the Boarders was the occasion when some of the clan thought it appropriate to celebrate, Thanksgiving with a small and exclusive party, after Mrs. Studebaker's bed time. They dragged their mattresses down to the four girls' room so as not to disturb other sleepers. But they reckoned with-