Stoneham High School - Wildlife Yearbook (Stoneham, MA)

Page 24 text:

Class History AN OPEN LETTER At this reunion on the tenth anniversary of our graduation, Connie Shaw suggested that I read a letter 1 wrote to her in 1950, since it re- calls many of the highlights of our four years in high school. You probably will recall many more as 1 read the letter. 556 East Fortieth Street New York City, New York June 15, 1950 Dear Connie : Look at the date on this letter ! Do you real- ize that six years ago tonight we graduated? It dawned on me as I was glancing over one of my old diaries. A conglomeration of hilarious and memorable events came back to me in a whirl. Remember the May Dance when you were crowned queen and Frank Martin king? Weren’t those dances a scream ? Our efforts to appear grown up only succeeded in making us seem more silly. It seems to me Barbara Magrath was presi- dent and Joanna Waite vice-president when we were freshmen. And wasn’t Hermione Stoum- belis secretary? Apparently there was a short- age of men even then. The Dramatic Club put on “Smilin’ Through,” remember? It was lovely. In the fall, Miss King presented her last A. A. Show, “The Frolics of 1940.” Into this production she put the same zest and spirit she had put into her others. Weren’t Ruth Grant, June Karlson, and Buddy Landers in it? While we were freshmen, the Blue and White Club was organized and we had our first winter carnival. Everything was complete from the sports program to the gala carnival ball. Speaking of sports, remember the blizzard just before the Thanksgiving Day game ? The players, along with Bill Miller and “Doc”, shoveled until late that night to clear the field. Their real school spirit was rewarded by the heartv cheers of the spectators who watched the game from snow- banks and icy bleachers. Didn’t it seem great as sophomores to be able to enter into the senior high activities? In sports our classmates took part in many of the victories we reaped. Wasn’t the Thanksgiving Day game wonderful? Who could forget that one touch- down making the score 6 to 0, and we the under- dog team, too! Well, it shows what adrenaline can do. How did you like the snake dance in the square? It was quite the thing, wasn’t it? Some of our talented football and hockey play- ers also began to blossom as sophomores. “Captain Applejack” was produced that year by the Dramatic Club with our own Joyce Hale in one of the leads as Poppy Faire. Boy! Weren’t those young pirates, Johnny Clemens and Ray Sorenson, dashing? There were two other important events on the calendar for our sophomore year, the winter carnival with its varied sports program climaxed by the crowning of the king and queen at the ball, and the girls ' basketball tournament. Although the juniors beat us 17 to 14, we felt proud that we had come closer than any other sophomores to winning the game. You should have had geometry with us that year. When we took our tests after schcol, Mr. Davis’ room sounded more like the cafeteria. The crunch — crunch — crunch — of potato chips could be heard much more often than the scratching of pencils. 1 wonder why? Did you hear about the fund we started for our yawn- ing nightbirds? In the A. A. Show “41 Fiesta” the football squad should really have taken a bow. They executed their ballet number with the most dainty grace. Our orchestra came into the limelight that year for sure. Under Mr. Tapley’s direction they made an almost professional presentation at the Town Hall. Several of the members, Bill Clemens especially, contributed to its success. It was so late in the spring when our class caught up with itself and elected its officers that it was decided to let them serve the next year, too. Bill Clemens, Ralph Truesdale, Jean Andrews, Donald Murphy, and Grace Chase made up the slate. Our junior year was an eventful one, wasn’t it? The A. A. fall show and dance, called the “Victory Promenade,” proved to be another good time, which set the year off to a good stall We were rightfully proud of the football team on which many of our class played. We won three games, tied two, and lost two. The most outstanding game to me was our defeat by Win- chester. Yes, it was a defeat; but it was a victory, too! Losing in the last fifteen seconds, when we had outplayed them all through the game, was heartbreaking. Hiking over in a body we were confident of our team ; coming back we were even more so. We knew they had what it takes, and, from what the newspapers said, others thought so, too. Don’t you think that it was the most memorable event in our history? Do I need to tell you, Connie, how victorious we juniors were in the girls’ basketball tourna- ment? Our snappy entrance stole the show for us from the beginning, didn’t it? My! How those scores climbed whenever Pat Morrell or Twinkle MacLennan supported by fine team work, got the ball.

Page 23 text:

Graduation Address in these countries because each nation is proud of its heritage and deserves to perpetuate its own culture. Nevertheless, we do have an oppor- tunity in welcoming to our colleges and universi- ties, teaches and other leaders who may study here and take back to their homelands whatever of our philosophies and practices will be of value to them. We can help restore school build- ings, equip them with text books, laboratory apparatus and machines. In all our building let our foundations be tolerance and good will. Thus far we have considered opportunities in areas that may seem vague and distant. Let us now be more personal. Americans as well as Europeans have been scrambled. Our soldiers quartered in India, North Africa, and China are seeing, most of them for the first time, life and cultures very foreign to their own. For the most part this life is extremely simple; too often it is one of abject poverty. Pearl Ruck warns against the superficial understanding which these soldiers will glean from their limited contacts with peoples of these lands. Unable to understand the language, and being far removed from their customs, our boys may discourage efforts to- ward cooperation because they have judged people on too little evidence. We who read their letters and hear their first hand accounts will do well to bear in mind that a deeper and broader knowledge is needed than can be gained through a few months or even a year by soldiers stationed there. In our country boys from the East hive seen the rugged beauty of our western mountains, the great variety of western plains. Boys from the North have sensed the lasting bitterness among some southerners whose grandparents defended a lost cause in the Civil War. Boys throughout the nation have had their sympathies or re- pulsions deepened bv contact with our soldiers of various creeds, races, and colors. Most of these boys recognize in our democracy problems which press for solution. “There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the Hood, leads on to fortune.” Of one thing we can be cer- tain — the status quo can never be maintained. It is for us to determine whether we will ride the tide or whether we will, in an attempt to re- sist it, be dashed on the shore. It is for us to determine whether our faith in democracy is sufficiently secure to extend its r ' ghts and privileges. What is our answer to the colored soldiers who ask, “Shall we enjoy in the future the democracy for which we are fighting?” In this world-wide struggle of the common man for a leveling off of economic privilege; can we in America save the best in our economic tradition and yet not glorify its faults? The impact of war upon our educational system has been heavy. Great concern has rightly been expressed over the accelerated programs stripped of all but the bare essentials and heavily weigfited by science and mathematics to meet war demands. Yet this sudden change will force us to restud) ' our entire system; from this study should come valuable changes. The war on the other hand offers great edu- cational advantages through the training pro- grams in the armed services. Many boys have entered college who would never in normal times have been encouraged to continue their studies. With the immediate goal of ratings in view they have learned how to study effectively and have come to appreciate that qualities of industry are necessary for personal advancement. After the war there is a probability that the government will pay the expenses of young men and women who wish to continue their college careers. Pro- viding educational opportunities for those who really want them would be further evidence of the democratic process. Because of wartime necessity the dignity of labor is again being recognized. As debutantes and people trained for professions work as weld- ers and machine operators in war plants, the stigma sometimes »elt toward manual labor is re- moved. Through the victory gardening cam- paign many people are once more getting close to the soil and farming is looked upon as an im- portant and enjoyable occupation. Because of a shortage of domestic help many housewives are finding, in the necessity of doing their own housework, a certain pleasure that accompanies honest work. New scientific developments accelerated by war offer to many employment in the fields of plastics, electronics, aeronautics and synthetics. Scientists estimate that more than 200,000 products entirely new to man have come from the chemical laboratories in this one gener- ation ...” Production of these products on a large scale will absorb thousands of men and pro- vide new comforts for living. In speaking of the youth of the last war Josiah Royce, professor of philosophy at Harvard, said, “You have the honor of belonging to a gener- ation whose lips are touched with fire . . . “When you are old . . . however memory brings back this moment to your minds, let it be able to say : . . . this world in its crisis called for volunteers, for men of faith in life, of patience in service, of charity and of insight. 1 responded to the call however I could . . . 1 studied, I loved, I labored, unsparingly and hope- fully, to be worthy of my generation. RORERT TOWSE

Page 25 text:

History Class “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” won much acclaim for the Dramatic Club. Bob Towse and many others in our class are to be congratulated on their parts in making it such a success. Do you remember “Conky” in the coat-room? It was disappointing not to have had a carnival ball to complete the big sports program in our junior year, but the B. C. Freshmen hockey game made up for it. In high spirits after clearing the rink of the snow that covered everything, we walloped them, winning 7 to 0. Besides, we were third in the league that year, winning six out of ten games. Some record, I’d say! As juniors, if we had voted on the subject of the year, I’m sure chemistry would have been near the top. Its influence was certainly widely spread at times. I quess Grace Chase won’t for- get in a hurry how to sweep a floor. You must recall our poised ushers, and Marilyn Crafts and Ralph Truesdale as marshals at the graduation of the class of 1943. I can clearly remember what a jolt it gave me when I realized that we became seniors with their graduation. It didn’t seem quite right not to have a class older than ourselves in the fall of 1943. Now we were to lead the school activities as well as to participate in them. In football the most note- worthy games were those with Lexington, Howe High, and Somerville Trade. While our sc ; res weren’t always tops throughout the season, our spirit was. Bill Lawson, Ernie Mingheila, and the Co-Captains, John Rotundi and Ernest Angelo, contributed their all to the games, didn t they? And the Stoneham cheerleaders outshone all others that year. Didn’t you and the others ever tire of yelling “Yes, Bob, Moriera, Yea, Yea, Bob Moriera?” Our senior class officers were elected early in the fall and when the returns had been made, Ralph Truesdale, Bob Donahoe, Marilyn Crafts, Donald Monson, and Lloyd Martin had come out on top. How grieved we were to hear one morning of the sudden death of Mr. Watson. We knew we had lost a kind friend upon whom we had come to depend. Soon afterwards we attended a memorial service for him, and as further recog- nition of his efforts the Parent-Teacher Asso- ciation renamed their scholarship the Howard W. Watson Memorial Scholarship. It was good to be able to turn to Mr. Nadeau at such a time and to know later that he would carry on as our principal. How I wish I had seen either the Medford or Melrose hockey games ! Our blue and white •certainly upset the league that season. Melrose never has got over that I to 0 victory, and as for Medford — what a lively beehive of angry players we stirred up when we tied them ! W’hat a carnival we had in “44” ! With the Home Front and our Blue and White Club work- ing together, it had to be a success. The hockey game, a varied sports program, and of course, the ball, with the crowning of our ever popular Marilyn Crafts and Ralph Truesdale were the highlights. That was some weekend, wasn’t it? Do 1 need to ask you if you remember our basketball team in our senior year? I can re- member the Melrose game very- clearly still. How angry they were that night was evident when we played them the next time. Our team put up a real fight, cheered on by our many Stoneham rooters who had hiked over to Melrose. Didn’t Martin, Murphy, MacLennan, Truesdale, and Angelo give our opponents a headache? Again we came out victorious from the girls’ basketball tournament. With such a swell team, we couldn’t help winning. I can remember Chase, MacLennan, Morrell, Crafts, Hawes, the Stoum- belis sisters, and you. In field hockey, too, the girls were a credit to the class, winning seven out of eight games. As seniors we beat Reading and tied Melrose. One more victory over Mel- rose that year and we would have had a war on our hands. The Dramatic Club didn’t get started until late that year, remember? They made a good start the next year, though, thanks to the ground work done by the 1944 members. In April the class honors were announced. It wasn’t surprising when Hermie and Themie Stoumbelis and Russell Parker were awarded tire MacDonald medals, for we knew all along of their contribution to our class. We were happy, too, that Bob Towse was to give the class address. My, what a sad bunch left the assembly hall, for we knew that in a short while we would graduate. How long we waited for our prom and ban quet, wishing for them to come, yet realizing that they would end all too soon. I wpnder if we didn ' t have lumps in our throats. How we laughed at those cute pictures Jean Rollins drew for the class history. Then it was June 15, 194d — the night of nights. Receiving our diplomas seemed to me like getting passports to our destinies. How bright those destinies looked to us ! I wonder if now many have realized theirs. This has been a long letter hasn’t it, Connie? Yet it seems so brief for reviewing four happy years in high school. Wouldn’t it be fun to have a class reunion? Maybe we will, who knows? As ever, MARION JENKINS