Saint Marks School - Lion Yearbook (Southborough, MA)

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-H., -',- -1- 1 .I .mf V - 'C , ,,. store. The winter and mud season passed quietly into Spring, when our latent talents appeared. Matt was found paddling around the pond by Mr. Lawrence, on several of his highly prized logs. The explanation that a manual-training sub- marine lay at the bottom did not allay the righteous indignation of the hockey coach, who demanded immediate debarkation, and return of the timber. The form's musical talent reached its peak in Bob's inspiring manipulation of the triangle in the school orchestra. On the baseball field, we played on the clubs, but the nine took the opportunity to drub Groton thoroughly. Despite the fact that the townies burned the wood collected for the bonfire and stole the wheels from the victory wagon, we got more than enough wood for the fire and a spare set of wheels to carry the team: so the impending disaster was turned aside. Although we worked long and hard to provide two celebrations that year for the two victories, our only reward from the Sixth Form came in the shape of sixth form room for practically half the members of our form. When the famous washrag sermon came, we knew that the term was drawing to a close. The climax burst during exams when Becky presented one of the masters with a. poem exposing a long tale of woes from murderous mid- years to measureless make-ups, and ending with the impressive line, And rightly art thou called the 'Butcher.' Eventually we reached ourFourth Form year and stepped into the Upper School, where Dismal Willy joined us. Having attained a bulk with which they might do some good, Ben, Carrick, and 'Aurie went to work on the first Football Squad, while the rest of us tagged along on the second squad and club teams. In the final game for each squad, the first team was beaten by Groton, and the second by Milton. Slightly more fortunate in the hockey season, Pinky got his letter. Les faux pas-ed by forgetting to bring his skates to the Middlesex game. A basketball game with the Lyman School was the subject of much discussion. Since the much-beloved Mr. Murray had left for good at the end of the preceding year, under new guidance the Sacred Study classes enthusiastically turned toward regimented revolt, even adopt- ing a somewhat radical uniform. The other master who came that year, Mr. Eber- hart, was immediately attached to our A division, which he has taught ever since. Ra'b's electrical experiments continued so vigorously that the switch in Dormitory E was fixed so that the lights would not go out, much to Prefect McVickar's dis- may. After all the school fixits had worked on the offending switch for some time, Ra'b quietly repaired it while they were consulting outside. Since we were sep- arated into three habitats, Dormitory E, Dormitory F, and North corridor 3, it was natural that certain sectional disputes should arise, with the result that Maggie's door was often besieged or lashed fast from outside. Two articles particularly caught our attention that Spring, water-pistols and thirty-nine cent cameras. The latter were used to torment the camera-shy, and to distort the features of those who were caught. Water-pistol battles raged between assailants balanced on the alcove walls in E until Scoopie, in full flight, missed a corner and descended, breaking much furniture and his left wrist. A desire to sartorially outshine a member of the Sixth Form pressed by a strong Semetic influence caused Matt, rugman, Whittall to buy a coat whose hues caused great gnashing of teeth around the school. Meanwhile in Dormitory F, Larry the Leap spent his time taking Bob's bad checks in poker ses- sions with everything wild but twos and sevens. Pinky and Wad joined the Baseball Squad, but Hamlet did even better by getting his letter as a substitute in the Groton game. During the Third Team practice for the game against Milton, the Form had its first experience of mortal tragedy in the death of Bayard Tuckerman Kinnicutt, a cheerful companion, a valued friend, and a loyal St. Marker whom we shall not soon forget. Leaving another year behind, we underwent the final exams with sufficient success to assure our entrance into the Fifth Form. Like most Forms, it must be admitted that our new authority sat ill upon us for 17

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mention that Ben and Ira vied mightily to see who should be kicked out. of meals the most often during the year. Most of us, by means of paper napkins, were placing inverted glasses full of water on the table, much to the displeasure of the maids whose methods of picking up these little reservoirs occasioned miniature floods. Meanwhile Ben was wrestling with whole milk pitchers, without the aid of napkins. ln the Spring, the whole School was surrounded by birds, including a family of persistent bob-whites in Dormitory B which made the study hall, in Mr. Brinley's charge, re-echo, and finally led to a Sunday morning visit from the Sixth Form. To study better the actions and reactions of birds and beasts, the Hatchet Club was formed with Sheep, Twitch, Pink, Baydie, and Chris paying particular attention to the development of the monkey. Our classes passed off with relative peace, except for the crashing of T-squares attendant on the mechanical drawing course. Mr. Reed's Latin class sounded like a prayer meeting because of our constant chant of Gerund, gerundive, or Mirabile dictu. When Wood, after carefully closing a window, leapt violently into space, knocking the arm off a chair, Mr. Brinley showed tinges of apoplexy. Mr. Thompsonls History class gained the added attraction of trying to produce a Latin play, a plan finally deserted in desperation by the irate instructor. The atavistic fury of the Nabob of Topsfield rose one day when he found his alcove literally filled with a whole dormitory's worth of trunks, a condition which he soon altered by hurling the offending impedimenta over the alcove wall. Cy, messenger of peace, was rewarded sixteen marks for fighting with Maggie. The only real riot of the year occurred during the Sixth Form Dance when. prefectless, we staged a battle-royal with side attractions of such proportion as to leave a lasting impression on the dormitory. Having successfully traversed the pit-falls of the exams at the end of our Second .Form year, we returned after summer vacation to find our number augmented by the appearance of Perry, Glover and Gillespie. One of our new classmates started his school life by marching across the quadrangle and demanding of bewildered Sixth Formers the whereabouts of the Register, Cy came back from the West bursting with tales of climbing the highest knife-edged peaks wearing sneakers: peaks and sneakers forming the nucleus of all his English compositions. Ten of us were relegated to the confines of dormitory D, where many dark plots hatched beneath the hot slate roof of the uppermost story. Once Mr. Braden, seeking to quell open rebellion, was greeted at his appearance by a galosh flying wide from its mark. Mr. Fernald came off more luckily another time when, picking his way through piles of snow on the floor, an icy pellet whistled past his head. The still of midnight was broken at one time by a blood-curdling scream which Ira emitted in an attempt to cow the clanging radiators. In Dorm C life was slightly less animated, and except for an interrupted expedition on hands and knees, Pinky behaved him- self remarkably well. The rest of the Form spent its waking night hours borrowing flashlights for indeterminate, but certainly illegal, uses. Enough for our indoor sports-The football season passed uneventfully for us, but we had the pleasure of seeing Groton beaten by the eleven for the first time since we had been in school. The celebration which followed the victory was a success in our eyes, because we worked for many moons collecting the wood for the bonfire. Even Scoopie helped for a while with his misguided hatchet. After the football season came the league soccer games in which Mr. Sawyer manfully risked life and shins, each game ending in a large heap of writhing bodies, moving homeward at a leisurely pace, motivated by the hidden master. In classes Becky continued to show her precocity, but Jenny managed to lead the formg it is rumored, by removing an all-important piece from Becky's slide rule. Mr. Hall, having sat on one, expounded in a few well-chosen words his ideas on putting thumbtacks on people's chairs. Our Bob, whose tortured Let go my nose! had become a war cry through the corridors, was accused of, but not caught, turning out the schoolroom lights at the fuse box by the old school- 16

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a short time, but after the first week of rushing the new kids, we settled down to enjoy t.he right of sending them on errands, which some of us had done as Privileged Fourth Formers. This year we were divided between the first and second squads, but the main thing about football was how, not where, we played. The first team was un- defeated and untied, breaking Middlesex's five-year run of victories and downing Groton, 33-6, the second squad was not scored on during the entire season under Les Wheeler's leadership. Since we were again separated between two corridors. it was not an unusual event to find the North 3 dwellers holding back the North 2 men in a battle raging at the top of the stairs. In the lull after the football season, a new society appeared, The Puritan Fathers, Club: for the purpose of hearing modern music. This club, attended by two members from the fioor below, carried on its clandestine meetings which started at midnight in the Fruit's room until Mr. Par- sons interrupted one of its musical seances on a search for a strayed member of his flock. The next day numerous consignments of twenty marks appeared on the fifth form slate list, from H to W. Hockey and skiing attracted our attention during the winter term, Pinky, Buck, and Nick playing on the hockey team, and many enthusiastic skiers exploring the thickets of Clear Hill, grossly misnamed. Newt surprised us by his versatility when he appeared in a peculiar Wig as the love interest of the school play, M rs. Hampstead-Leigh, a part which he acted excellently, in spite of costuming difficulties. When the sun came out again after the usual New England winter, the heat set Bob's brains asimmering. He appeared one morning with a large bandage adorning the back of his neck, a peculiarity which he explained by several unconvincing stories of broken light-bulbs, falling hair, and a sudden attack of boils. A subsequent investigation showed that even the shears of J ohn, the Barber, did a more beautiful job than a mirror, flashlight, and safety-razor, which created a moth-eaten effect. During Easter vacation, the famous Fifth Form Outing occurred, on which a goodly contingent of the class of '36 tried looking at what makes nocturnal New York go round. In the Spring, Warren, Les, and Bill played on a baseball team which made Groton wish it had never heard of St. Mark's. Little Jams had waxed mighty since his first unsuccessful attempts to cox a club crew, and found himself pulling the bow oar on the eight. The Mighty Atom was made Head Monitor, as all expected. Prize Day was soon upon us, and with rather a jolt the realization came that we were sixth formers, with only one more year at St. Mark's. Our last year! lt seemed hard to believe that after our long residence, the time of departure was really approaching. Shaking off the gloomy spectres of approaching college board exams, we turned our minds to the more immediate problem of organ- izing a football team. Under the leadership of Captain Wood, aided by the excellent playing of Pinky, Hank, and Carrick, the games against Dedham High and Noble and Greenough were won, but in the next game a strong Milton team was victorious. The Groton game brought another disappointment, even for the Tank, whose head occasionally appeared from the mud at left guard. Kister, at right guard, made a fine wall, probably because of the weight factor in his size seventeen shoes. Ira made steady gains, while Maddash Grace, pressed into service only a short time before the game, did a bit of effective track work. Gub-Gub, manager of everything in school since the In-Between-Times in our Fourth Form year, cheered on his bucket-boys from the sidelines. After the football season, soccer suddenly appeared. The intensive training for football turned out to be of no use whatsoever when, tired and winded, we dashed up and down the field in pursuit of the elusive ball. Captain King. at center half, proved useful in correcting the forwards' errors by well-aimed boots. Nick, in goal, remained wrapped in blankets while waiting for excitement, finding soccer boring after having played goalie in hockey the preceding year. This year, however, the hockey was more successful than the football. Captain Pink, sternly managed by the manager, Mr. Feep, putting up an undefeated team. The situation 18