Saint Marks School - Lion Yearbook (Southborough, MA)

Page 14 text:

being emptied upon his new Panama from an open window in Dorm A. The upper school gnashed its teeth, and many cried out that paddling be renewed. The whis- per became a roarf You are the worst form in school!,' Our first sight of the Groton jerseys produced bitter memories, and the rest of the term Hashed by to vacation. Re- turning for the winter term, we found many outside activities curtailed, and necessity mothered a new field of interest for usfthe dormitory. Three months in HA had been sufficient to teach us the wiles of the prefects, but they still man- aged to outwit us at times. It was Nick the Stick who first discovered the sport that could be had atop the alcove parti- tions, and the Rough Riders were formed. Lights out at night became the signal for titanic aerial struggles, until hostilities were forcibly curtailed one night when Red took a 7-foot drop onto Lindsey's bed. Chris Tis awoke with a wild yell to bring the prefects on the run. Nights were quiet then, except for Benis rhythmic snor- ing, but he was eventually muffled and smothered by a barrage of linen. The winter term ended with the Stark Flood, precipitated by a fifth former's acrobaties on the sprinkler pipes outside HAH. The evening ritual of tooth brushing was enlivened by the steady flow of Water under the door. Enchanted, we applauded as the gathering stream found its way to the prefects' room, but the hour was saved as Mel in his galoshes stemmed the tide with numerous well-placed towels. Come springtime, nigger baby and eloister ball gave us little free time, and before we knew it, the baseball season was over. Groton eked out a slim victory, leaving us disgusted that all our wood- hauling had been in vain. Exams loomed large and frightening for us, but Prize Day came with the knowledge that no one had failedftoo badly. In the autumn we were mighty second formers, but it seemed that we were over- run by an unnecessarily weird collection of characters, and for weeks the fifteen additions were considered untouchables. Among those thrust upon us were Dudley the Dog-faced Boy, a strapping hunk of man called Doug, and Edwin Upton

Page 13 text:

TIIE MONITORS Rosenkrantz, Rand, Pendill, James Roosevelt, Taber Carter, Bradlee, Mr. Brewster, Chisolm, lloyt, W. Form History September, 194-0! The odds were three to two for Roosevelt over Willkie, Europe had just become Hitleris playground- and the original fourteen wandered in bewilderment down the halls and corri- dors which, for most of them, were to be a shelter for six long years. The school as a whole was unimpressed by '46g ap- parently we were just another bunch of fresh new kids, and we behaved as such for the first few days. There were the usual incidents which are constantly re- lated in form histories: we strode across the quadrangle, we gazed into the sixth form room, and we were very fresh-but it was a short time indeed before we were given to understand that sixth formers were SIR',, that their ground was hal- lowed, and their will was done on earth. Surprisingly little time elapsed before our small feet were firmly on the ground, and it was then that everyone began to sit up and take notice. The form became solidly unified under the bullying leader- ship of Pete, who was really Waltt-r. when he proclaimed himself president of the Council for the Betterment of the First Form. Infected now with the spirit of organization, '46 initiated a fervent cam- paign for notoriety. Everyone helped in his own way. School was rocked on its heels as George collected a comfortable forty-eight marks in four days. Slate readings took 011 a new interest, as everyone wondered if Tabe, who was by now permanently black with coal dust, could break his own record. lle frequently came close. Meanwvhile Dave, fascinated by the shiny yellow color of the sixth form's straw hats, yielded to temptation one evening. The head monitor, relaxing outside the sixth form room, was startled to find the contents of a bottle of Teel

Page 15 text:

Curtis called Buffy. Another claimed in nasal tones to be Saaandy,', but not much later he vanished from the scene, a victim of modern education. Our cosmopolitan set was complement- ed by such colorful personalities as Don the Cuban, Mickey from Rochester, and Schkulle, who proclaimed himself the feudal landlord of two-thirds of Illinois: not to mention L.W.C., a brute with two large protruding foreheads. Others never ceased to amaze us for the remainder of the year, such as the pie-faced wonder with the widow's peak who closely re- sembled a panda, and the lean and lanky yachtsman of the gravel voice. Most of the above mentioned were caged in Dorm A , but there were also in BU James the Mouse and Fred the Fifi. Never a bright form, at best, in the previous year, we were now startled by the scholastic achievement of Hunk, and especially Larry, who weekly set new classroom standards. We were a carefree group, overshadowed by the war only during occasional air raid trips to the potato cellar in the dead of night. The faculty of this period was a motley group and extremely unstable. The draft situation brought new faces to the mas- ters' study constantly. Hazy indeed are the recollections of English classes under names dimly remembered as Billman, Kuhn, and Smith. Science opened an entirely new field for all of us, and Mr. Coe's lectures held our undivided attention. The climax came after we had progressed from the bees and Howersg one day Larry, upon hearing the truth about it all, fainted dead away. Dormitory prowling after lights was very much the rage. We recall the night when the harassed prefect of B naively shouted from his doorway, Whoever was making all that racket come in heref' He was dumbfounded as a stream of pajama-clad youths, twenty-three in all, crowded into his room . . . Calisthenics kept us vigorous, and we shall always look back on the many happy hours that flitted by all too rapidly as we frolicked on Herk's obstacle course. The baseball season went its way, and