Vermont Academy - Wildcat Yearbook (Saxtons River, VT)

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On the morning of September 18, 1934, the beginnings of the Class of 1938 met for the first time in the English room. Of those nine boys present then, seven are graduating this year, but our class has grown to forty-two. The original members occupied the top floor of Jones Hall, the only part of that building then used by stu- dents. The Leavitts and Topsy were on the ground floor and the rest of the school lived in Alumni Hall. We have seen the school grow to crowd the Leavitts out of Jones, just as next year it will crowd the infirmary out of Sturtevant House and into remodeled Proctor Home. The Leavitts moved into their fine new house last year just after Christ- mas vacation. Ours is the class that came in with Mr. Leavitt and the new regime. It will prob- ably be a long time before any students can boast that they have been here as long as the teachers. We have seen many changes about the school and many of these are due to clubs and organizations formed by the boys. Some of the clubs we started were the Glee Club, the Dramatic Club, the Outing Club, and the Camera Club. The Life magazine was continued. The Glee Club has taken many fine trips and they have sung over station W. N. B. X. in Springfield, Vermont, every year. The boys who went on the Boston trip last year are still taiking about it. We have heard their fine singing at vespers and other school functions. They have increased from the original twelve to twenty4eight. Redlon, Hanks, Schmidt and Frey have made a great quartet. The Dramatic Club has put on many fine performances. The combined efforts of Mr. Harris and the club have recently culminated in an excellent presentation of T he Petrified Forest. We all admire the great ability of Robert Taylor Curtis. The Life magazine has, as we have said, continued. It won third prize in 1937, and second prize in 1938, in the contest sponsored by the Columbia Press Association for private schools. s The Outing Club was started with Mr. Parker as adviser. The first year the club built a cabin on a nearby hillside. Since then they have been responsible forldesigning and building the kitchen, fireplace, and the well at the cabin, and cutting ski trails about the campus. The Outing Club has helped with the four successful Mountain Days We have had. Vermont Weather is changeable and uncertain, but in snow or in the hot sun the steaks always tasted good. Last fall General Browder and his cohorts started a Rifle Club and constructed both an indoor and outdoor range. The noise of their artillery on the battlefield in the basement of Jones Hall is proof of their activities. The school swing band consisting of Messrs. Parker, Elston, Bitgood, and Redlon, has been heard blasting forth at some of the basketball games and during evening meeting several times. The first floor of Alumni Hall started an All Night Club. Coach Dunn claimed that he could wake up and hear them most any time of night. The Coach needs his sleep even if the boys don't, and while they may not have totally disbanded, their night life has been considerably subdued. Two other fine and worthy organizations, which carry much prestige, and to which one should not be late, are the Bird and Fish leagues. The Fish League plays tag foot- ball in the muck and slime of the football field after the last scheduled game. The Birds play a combination of hockey, football, and basketball on the basketball court. Un- skilled labor predominates in both leagues. The first year the football team lacked experience and their main asset was a fight- ing spirit. They lost heavily to several teams but were successful in beating K. U. A. by thirty-one points. The second year the team was rather heavy in comparison with other years. They defeated K. U. A. nine to nothing. For our junior year we trailed them by six points at the end of the first half, but through a wonderful second half comeback and a spectacular intercepted pass and touchdown by Bob Blood, we won thirteen to six. Although this is the first year we have been defeated by Kimball Union, this year's team was probably the best. The first year the Ski Team was aided by Amos Little and Merrill Barber who have since done well in competitive skiing. The last two years .the Ski Team has spent most of their time looking for snow. In the spring of our second year a track team was started for the first time. Coach

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ONWWP AR INTNALL TINGLEY, JR. - ud is a weariness of the fle . N C ud. H Is . ' Sailing. ,f R : 28 Jenny's e, Barrington, R. I. A. VITIES: . V. F ball 145, Track Manager 145, ra c Club 145, Business Manager, Life 1 Bo 145, Advertising Manager Outing ub 145. AFTER GRADUATI : Babson Institute. Bud i good business man as his work on the Life and the Dramatlc ub testifies. We hear he does a good deal of studying on a en covered table in the Rec Room. IRVING UPSON TOWNSEND Although the last, not least. NICKNAME: Irv, Fog, HOBBY: Swing. ADDRESS: 181 Nehoiden Road, Waban, Mass. ACTIVITIES! J. V. Football 11, 2, 3, 45, Skiing 11, 2, 311, 45, Tennis 11, 25, Life Board 115, Riiie Club 145. AFTER GRADUATION: Middlebury. At times Irv may seem to be day-dreaming, but his marks and popularity prove otherwise. Irv lives chieily for the broadcasts of Benny Goodman's band. I Varsity letter. ,gJ4,fL if'7'f'1-1 f jZ7f'.v ' S-LQVQL 2 -- f-f 4?

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rn- Dunn, who has coached everything except skiing and basketball, was in charge. Mr. Malcolm has since taken it over and this year's team is very good. The Hockey Team, which was the best since the sport started four years ago, lost only two games. We have had a fairly good Basketball Team every year. This winter they did well against college freshman teams and defeated Cushing and K. U. A. Flood and fire struck during our second year. Luckily Mr. Leavitt had a pre- monition and let school out a week early for spring vacation. Otherwise we would have been stranded for three days by the high waters of the Connecticut. Those who woke that memorable spring night to the cries of fire will not soon forget that terrific inferno of the old barn burning. The night before the Carnival in our third year, the school witnessed another conflagration just off the hill. In our second year we had in our midst that famous scientist, Rollo Sears. He and his formidable deathray kept Mr. Tripp in constant fear of being blown to bits. There have been numerous noteworthy days in our stay here-many we will not forget, the spring afternoon in '35 when Mr. Leavitt told us the school had received a 31,000 check and a half holiday was declared, the night of housewarming when Mr. Tillinghast made one of his famous speeches and Ed. Tebbutt lit the first fire in the new hearth, February 2, 1937-the snowless winter-when the Gods in charge of snow bequeathed us some and Mr. Leavitt declared a snow holiday, the first day of school when we heard all to bed and one minute again or for the first time, Homecoming Day, the days of the Christmas parties, the days vacations began, the night this winter when the Basketball Team defeated Cushing in two over-time periods twenty- nine to twenty-eight, the days we received replies from Dartmouth and other colleges in regard to admission, the night of the spring dance, the night Mr. Malcolm couldn't get the movie machine working right , the night Gene Redlon wrote Coach Dunn From Old Wesleyan. We have also heard some lectures we will remember for a long time: Dr. Eddie O'Brien's at the football banquet, Bradford Washburn's thrilling account of his ascent of Mt. Lucania, Commander MacMillan's talk on the Arctic, the sports talk by Mr. Coty with his moving pictures. Some of the strange occurrences have been: Mr. Harris' losing his shoes while out with the Outing Club boys, the time the Alumni Hall boys collected the radiator tax in Jones Hall, the day Fritz Downs and Bob Smith were in a train wreck, when Mr. Holbrook's chemistry experiments didn't function the orthodox way. We have had four Carnivals, the first two with snow, but the second two lacked it. Except for a slight scarcity of snow, this year's Carnival was a big success with a tea dance in the afternoon and the Big Apple featured during the evening dance. At last we organized just before spring vacation. Louis Graves was elected Presi- dent, Bill Curtis Vice-President, Stan Kogut Secretary, and Gene Redlon Treasurer. Besides senior activities there was considerable thinking, planning, and hoping about our next year's plans. Many colleges were favored with our applications. After vacation bat and racquet swingers and future track stars commenced their activities. As we look back upon our first year and compare it with this year we see a great difference. There has been a great improvement in quality and quantity. Those were the days when we had silent picture shows here. The film sometimes broke and at the end of the show it was usually all over the floor. In our Junior year we found the school the proud possessor of a fine moving picture machine with sound attachment. Since then we have seen many fine pictures. Some of the other additions and improvements to the school are: new library books, the waiting room in the dining hall, the baseball batting cage, the new truck, and the hockey boards. We realized our days here were limited when we started work on the different senior committees. We all had a good time on the Class Outing. There was much trying on of caps and gowns and marching practice. Exams-Commencement Alumni lun- cheon-and we leave Vermont, but we take with us many fond memories of the school, the beautiful campus, and friends. We are not leaving for good. We shall be back again to visit the school we love so well and live over again our good times here.