St Helena Extension School - Saint Yearbook (Norfolk, VA)

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By Jack Horner Saint Helena was born into something old and something new. The something old was inherited from William and Mary. Name perhaps, perhaps prestige. The something new was in the students. Youth, vigor, the will and courage to be imaginative. It is, perhaps in the new that the romance of the school lies. Un- fettered by protocol, unbound by restricting tradition, a society was built, tailored to the taste, not of the dead past but of the enjoyable present. Built is a poor word to use with reference to the creation of the society of Saint Helena. Like Topsy, it “just growed.” It began to grow even before the first student walked through the gate in September of ’46, and it exhibited healthy life until the gate was finally locked in ’48. It was a progressive creation augmented each day by a lot of little things. It was working long and hard with no reward or recognition, complimenting the good, complaining of the bad, accepting the in- evitable and the unchangeable. It was bull-sessioning late at night in the study rooms, arguing in the classrooms, laughing in the canteen, eating in the dining hall. It was the footballs of autumn, snowballs of winter, and baseballs of spring. It was pinochle, poker and bridge. It was the noise of the gym, the quiet of the library. It was groping sleepily to eight o’clocks, it was cutting classes. It was a million things: library fines, dissected frogs, navy lockers, chow-mein, sunburned bodies, the smell of the fertilizer plant. And it was studying, cribbing, cramming, coaching for reading, writing, arithmetic and the rest, morning noon and night; wishing, wanting, praying to pass. But always it was studying. It was quizzes and exams. It was disappointment and satisfaction. It was college men with boyish hearts, and it was All-American. It was the little things, almost unnoticed. But it was the big things, too. It was dances, campaigns, club meetings. It was dates, dates to recall, to remember in the years to come: C 104 ]

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t946-47 September 21 Registration. For all a new life. For many a new home. September 25 Convocation. The pomp and ceremony of academic tradition. The faculty in cap and gown. The past, the present, the future. October 25 First dance. A gay informality that was to become a standard. November 4 Inaugural meeting of the Great Books Club. For the literati, Plato. November 6 First issue of SHE published. A student’s newspaper, named, com- posed and censored by the students. November 27 Publication of the first Dean’s List. Academic recognition. For some, joy; for others, sorrow. January 8 Initial basketball game. By E. C. T. C. a defeat. The first of many. January 25-30. . . .Final Semester Examinations. Midnight oil and cram classes, blood, sweat and fears. An opulence of posted grades. A promise to do better. February i Berkley Civic Dance. From the people of Berkley, low lights, music, and hangovers. February 7 Beauty contest launched. A wife, a girl, a whistle, a sigh. A heart that beat a little faster. February 19 First play. The warm glow of the footlights, the cold criticism of the audience. March 15 Spring formal. A governor, a queen, a best girl, an orchestra. A hand- kerchief marked with red, an empty flask. April 21 Elections. A candidate, a cheap cigar, a handclasp, an office filled. May 24-29 Examinations. Again, again, again. May 29 Summer vacation. For the weary, rest. September 18 Registration. Old faces, new courses. October 7 Political Campaign. Screaming banners, leaflets dropped by plane. OcoBER 15 Election. An officer elected, a quiet regained. November 12 Open House. To the public, an invited view. December 14 Christmas vacation. A time to forget. February 24-29. . .Examinations. A time to remember. April 24 Annual Formal Dance. A stiff white shirt, the clink of glasses, cheek-to- cheek dancing, a wilted corsage, a tired, aching body. June 3 Final Examinations. For some a degree, for others a transfer. For all a farewell. June 6 Summer vacation. The end of something, the beginning of something. For the future, the eternal question. [ 105 ]