Ursuline Academy - Servian Yearbook (New Orleans, LA)

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Editor's Note: Speech delivered on Ring Night. For almost four years, with the help of our parents, our teachers, and our friends, we have been striving to attain a certain goal. The Ursuline ring marks the near completion of this task, for it is the symbol of the culmination of our efforts. It is the compact of many wonderful memories, many proud moments, and the fulfillment of a glorious dream. In the inexperience of our youth, it represents the epitome of success. But perhaps in a few years, we will more clearly realize that to those who know us now, it is another step in the development of the child into the woman. But with every honor comes a responsibility. With this ceremony comes the greatest responsibility we have ever been asked to undertake, for the wearer of this ring must endeavor to exemplify at all times, the courage and purity of St. Ursula, the knowledge of St. Angela, and the sound principles and teachings of her Ursuline mothers. But most important of all, since we here at Ursuline are children of Our Lady of Prompt Succor, the ring must distinguish a girl who proves herself worthy of this title, and who, in the eyes of our Heavenly Mother, strives always to be a True follower of Jesus Christ. And now that the long awaited moment has drawn near, and our cherished hopes are about to be realized, we ask of you, who have helped fulfill them, a prayer to our Heavenly Father, so that having merited this reward we might continue to be deserving of this honor. . . . Ann Guenther '62 IT Right now you are probably saying to yourself, It is a very odd title for a composition. I wonder why she entitled it 'It '? And now you are as confused as I was when I finished planning this composition. Why did I choose to name this composition It ? Because that's what it's about - It ? But let's stop a while and examine this word and see if we can't clear things up a bit. When we look at this tiny word, we see it is composed of an I and a T, We know from out study of grammar that it can be a subject pronoun and an object pronoun. We know that it is the most common pronoun in use today. And this is the main reason I chose to write about it - because we use this word hundreds of times a day and thousands of times a week, but can anyone tell me just what does this tiny word mean? Oh, I know it takes the place of a noun, but just what does it mean when it's used to mean something that isn't a noun? Such as It is necessary to be careful while driving, or 'It behooves you to study, or even, You're gonna catch it if you don't behave yourself. What is it ? Can mean what is that thing? of what is the matter ? or ever so many other things. But all this does not tell me what it means. What is It? What does it mean? Somebody please help me before I go mad trying to figure Q out! H E L P! -1- Nedra Pezold '62 YOUTH IN GOVERNMENT DAY 11961 Mayor Schiro had declared November 13th - 19th as Government Appreciation Week. On Tuesday I had both the privilege and pleasure of representing Ursuline in a special Youth in Government Day program, sponsored by the members fthe Optimist Tb in New Orleans. The program consisted of thirty-three re- presentatives from the various public and private schools in the city. The day began at 8:30 Tuesday morn- ing when we met in the council chamber of City Hall. The first activity was the appointment of the different offices in city government. This was done by picking names from a hat. The first name would be mayor for a day, the second councilman-at-large, and right on down the line until we had all been assigned to the duties of some particular office. Mine was the second name chosen. I was councilman-at-large, to take the place of the city official, Councilman Hickey. After all the names had been picked, our first job was to run our own mock council meeting . The real city councilmen stood behind our chairs and prompted us as when to make motions, push buttons for voting, etc. This was all ex- tremely exciting, especially the fact that we could introduce any new subject for discussion that we thought would help improve the city's government. After this meeting adjourned, we were taken on a tour of City Hall and were able to go to the office of the particular official whose duties we were taking. I was taken to the joint office of Councilman Hickey and Councilman Comiskey. Here we met the secretaries of both men who showed us around the office and explained the various transactions going on that particular day. We saw the city budget and other reports submitted to the administration. For the next hour, we were free to do whateverwe wanted. I think that the most interesting part of the day was our being present at an actual council meeting, conducted, of course, by the real city officials. After this we were taken to the Gold Room of the Roosevelt Hotel where we were honored at a luncheon. Among the guests present were Monsignor Caillouet, Mayor Schiro, the officers and members of the Optimist Club, and the guest speaker, Father Doyle, Dean of Loyola University. After the meal, Mayor Schiro pre- sented each participant in Youth in Government Day within a gold key to the city, a certificate of merit, :min engraved pen and pencil set. This brought a most enjoy- able and educational day to an end. Francine Cicero '62 SPRING AND SONG Sweetly singing, The meadow lark flies o'er the fields, And the wild flowers sharpen and brighten their colors As she tells them it is spring. Judy Fife, '64

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MELISSA'S BIRTHDAY. It was November 13, her birthday. Melissa was home some time when the phone rang in the den loud and clear. She dashed into the room, turned on the light, and lowered the radio. By the time she found the telephone buried under a pile of cushions, it had stopped ringing. She put the phone on the coffee table and turned the radio back to its former volume, then pickedup a magazine and started to read. But in a few minutes she put the magazine down again. She couldn't keep her mind on reading. Here she was, stuck at home baby-sitting. It was her birthday, too. So what was she doing about it? Nothing. Her parents had gone to a party and had left her at home with her three small brothers. It was terrible. She had had to turn down three invitations to parties tonight just so she could baby-sit. She was brought back from her thoughts of how unlucky and unhappy she was by the recurrent ringing of the telephone. She stilled the radio and lifted the receiver. Hello, she said. No one answered. Hello ?. . . Hello?. . . Who's calling please ?. . . Is anyone there? Still there was no answer. Then Melissa heard some one hang up the other phone. Maybe it was a wrong number. She decided not to worry about it any further. Be- sides, she would rather just sit around and feel sorry for herself. A few minutes later the phone rang again. This time it was Melissa's mother. She was calling to find out if Melissa had put the children to bed and if everything was all right. Melissa told her that it was and trying to sound sincere, told her mother not to worry about anything but having fun at the party. Melissa hung up and decided to try to be brave and read again. This time Melissa was interrupted by a news bulletin on the radio. The music stopped and an announcer said: All residents of Jackson City are asked to be on the lookout for a mental patient who escaped this after- noon from the Jackson City Sanitorium. He is about six feet tall and weighs about one-hundred ninety pounds. He is believed to be armed and is dangerous. If he is seen, please notify the police or the hospital officials immediately. We now return to the program in progress. The music resumed. Melissa began to read again. But true to custom the phone was not going to remain quiet. Again it rang. Melissa answered. This time a deep masculine voice answered, Is this the Nelson residence? Melissa said that it was. May I speak to your father? He's not home right now. May I take a .... Then may I speak to your mother? She's not home either. Is there any message? Uh - - - No message. He hung up. Melissa froze but tried to con- centrate on her reading. About a half hour later, after staring at a tomato paste advertisement for most of the time, Melissa suddenly started. There was someone in the basement. She was sure that the sound she had heard was the squeaking of the basement door. Then suddenly there was a terrific crash. Someone had stumbled over the shuffleboard equipment in the dark. Whoever was down there was in the playroom. What should she do? Maybe it was just the dog. If her father had not chained him to his doghouse he could have come in through the little door made for him in the basement door. It was probably just Roscoe, she thought. Maybe I ought to put him outside. But as she rose from her chair she thought of the mysterious phone calls and of the news bulletin. What if it's not Roscoe? What if it's a person? What if it's that man? Then what shall I do ? There is nobody home but me. What if something were to happen? Then, summoning all her courage she crept to the top of the basement steps. ls anybody there ? She called. No answer. Then she heard Roscoe bark. She felt reassured. Then suddenly. . . she heard the footsteps. They seemed to be comingntoward the bottom of the steps. She reached for her brother's baseball bat in the broom closet where she had put it when she had cleaned the kitchen. If anyone had to protect the home it had to be she. Her brothers were her responsibility. Slowly she began to descend the steps. Her heart was in her mouth as each one creaked beneath her weight. The sound had never seemed to be so loud before. There seemed to be about three times as many steps as she had remembered. Her heart was beating furiously andthe noise of her heart- beat seemed to be reverberating through the whole house. Her head felt as if it were expanding and contracting and as if it would burst. Her knees were like water and she felt that they would not support her much longer. Her hands were clammy and the bat was slipping from her grasp. Her breathing was hard and forced. The footsteps in the playroom had stopped - - - at the foot of the stairs! She was almost at the bottom now. She reached the last step and said a quick, silent prayer, then stepped into the playroom. Suddenly she felt a very large hand on her shoulder. The bat slipped from her hands. She screamed hoarsely and blacked out. When she came to, she opened her eyes to see her father looking down at her. Lord, Melissa, I'm sorry we scared you. We planned this surprise party for your birthday, but we didn't plan to scare you like this. Then Melissa looked around. She saw all her friends. They had all been invited to her party. They had made the noises getting into the playroom. And she had nearly died of fright. She felt all right now and sat up. She was ready to celebrate her birthday. ' -- Margaret Gravois '64

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URSULINE RING DAY What a day it has been, what a rare mood I'm ing why, it's almost like being in love. These lyrics express in a better way than I could have done the almost inexpressible feeling of joy and triumph on one of the most momentous days of my life - my receiving of the Ursuline ring. It was a day long anticipated and now that it had come it seemed so very unreal. Nevertheless it was a long and well planned day for all of us seniors. To begin the day well we all attended 11:30 a. m. Mass, which opened with the procession of white-clad seniors and, following this, the blessing of the rings. We recessed after holy mass and rushed home to dress for the luncheon at the Royal Orleans. I say we rushed home. Actually, itwas a little more than that because we had to be in the East Salon of the Hotel for 1:30 p. m. Surprisingly enough all made it pretty well on schedule and Francine Cicero, our class president, gave a short welcome to all and prayed the blessing before dinner. I know that everyone enjoyed the luncheon and as this was the first Ring Day luncheon to which the seniors' Mothers had been invited, we all felt doubly glad to have them with us. At about 3:30 P. M. we returned home to pre- pare for the very epitome of the day's joys and successes-- the reception of the ring. We had to report to school at 6:30 P. M. for individual and group pictures on stage, and at 8:00 P. M. the big moment. arrived. After ad- vancing onto the state in our white gowns, the delivery of the speeches, and the singing of the Ave Maria, the Senior Skips of '62 received their Ursuline rings and became, as it were, formally engaged to their Alma Mater. What a moment! What a day to dispel all former troubles and worries! Indeed, it was like being in love - in love with Ursuline, her name, her ideals, her practices, her devotions, in short, all that she ever has and ever shall stand for. EMBARRASSING SITUATION Whenever I think of the most embarrassing sit- uation in my life I think of the day I smuggled an ice cream cone into detention hall. Nothing much out of the ordinary had happened that day except that the principal, was displeased at the eighth grade for talking after the second bell. So we got detention right after lunch. Meanwhile I had completely forgotten about detention and bought an ice cream cone. Of course I hadn't taken two bites when it was time to go up- stairs. I should have given it away, but my yen for sweets got the better of me. By the time we were in the classroom there was only a little more left. Of course, mother would catch me, and she told me quite emphatically to get ricifit I couldn't bear to throw it away, so I took the command lit- erally in another way. I simply placed it carefully in an up- right position in my desk. But I had forgotten on thing - heat. As I sat there, breathing easily again, one girl giggled and pointed to the steady drip, drip, drip of the ice cream from the base of the cone to the floor. It wasn't long before more than half the class found out, and were they ever having fun! I just sat there, hoping and praying that Mother wouldn't notice. But I knew it was too good to last. Mother asked what was going on and walked straight to the trouble spot. At her exclamation I just sat and tried to look casually up at her which probably made Mother think I was really crazy. But Mother always was a patient and under- standing nun, and so, still staring at either me or the ice cream cone in mute disbelief, she quietly commanded that I finish the thing before the ants could. I obeyed embarrassed to the core, while my friends C?J giggled, and Mother looked at me sympathetically. You may ask, did you enjoy that ice-cream cone? Of course not! How could I with about thirty- eight pairs of eyes upon me? But I learned one good lesson from that experience: Never bite off more than you can chew in less time than you think you have , . . . Kathleen Vath '62 ME MORY Rustling through amber leaves, Wandering beneath a misty sky, Gliding through a crisp, chilling wind, Memory lingers at each interval of my path. Searching, yet finding only memory, Reality has disappeared. Hkvkik He stole softly away in the silence of the ebony night, Leaving an icy loneliness In place of his once-felt warmth. Yes, he is gone, and with him my hope, my trust, my love. And all that remains is a chilled heart, Warmed only by the burning desire of memory. By Kathleen C. Taylor Diane DeGruy