Waltham High School - Mirror Yearbook (Waltham, MA)

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N THE MIRROR wife unto him. A young man who sat beside me on the bench assured me that he had, and interrupted himself to say excitedly, See, there 's his wife now !' ' pointing to a woman who sat directly behind Tracey, who was now demonstrating to his first born, Tracey Junior, the correct way to throw a good, swift spitball. The woman turned out to be Ruth. Andrews, who was now quite considerably meatier than the last time I had seen her. She had started out to be quite a dramatist, but I sup- pose the only scene she ever put on now was the usual married-Iife- Saturday-night-pay-night scene, After waiting half an hour for the opposing team to appear, I be- came impatient and deserted the ranks along with a couple who had been sitting directly in front of me. I recognized Vera. Chose, but her escort was a stranger to me. I spoke to Vera and she introduced the stranger as her husband, Kenneth Perry. Ken had become so sensible-looking that I had had a hard time to place him. Vera proudly told me that Ken was now a sailor. To lead a sailor's life had been his fond am- bition from High School days on, I sadly wondered if the next time I met Vera, she would be only the girl he left behind him, knowing sailors as I do. Vwlell. they went toward the grate and l 'iiOW.ll'fl the Tent, as it was now two-forty-live and the circus was to start at three. Paul Greeley was ticket-seller here. He gave the wrong change three times before I finally entered the place. I got a good seat before the middle ring. I had arrived a.t a propitious moment, for just now the brass band entered and struck up simultaneously Can unusual occur- rencel, The Gang's All Here. As the show commenced, I began to have serious doubts about that. The band leader was a pompous-looking man, manfully weilding a ba.ton. It later turned out to be Alexander Chaipina-n, wearing his regime-ntals, Cbeing now a right royal member of the Sons of King Georgeb, and strutting in grand style. Behind him straggled the band In-oper. among the ineinhers of which I saw Eff:-.12 Cohen, whom I recognized by his structural outline, which was as gigan- tic as ever ,Lester Olson, carrying the rear end of the bass druni, and Frank Martowski, who came along to turn music. They made a grand entrance. After them came the performng ponies, with Corinne Taylor Ca bit too big for her steedl, Annie Williamson tslightly boredj, and Doris De Venne Cstill smilingl, as bare-back riders. They did the usual stunts without mishap till they got to the human pyramid, which they made on the backs of the ponies. Doris, underneath, took a fit of giggling, tottered and suddenly, gracefully, collapsed with the other two-thirds not so gracefully, but even more suddenly on top of her. Well, anyhow, after they had finally departed, their ring was taken by a. strong man. But just here my attention was called to the second ring in which a quartet of trapeze performers were showing their stuff. I had an awful

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' f BETTY WRCE Class Vice-President 1927

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THE MIRROR g . 19 time making the girls out, but finally came to the conclusion that the one now hanging by her teeth from a horizontal bar was Shirley Abbot, while the one suspended at full length from her heels was Marion Waugh. The second set on the other bar was comprised of Frances La Palme, gyrating now somewhere between her bar and Marion's ex- tended right arm, while close on her heels came Claire Davis. Heaven alone knows where she intended to fit. These four made up the famous f'Up in the Air Quartet. In the third ring, the program announced Madame Gravite herself in a daring balancing slack wire perform- ance. I was curious to learn whom Charley had chosen for this act. But my last guess should have been my first. When I beheld her bal- anced neatly on the middle of the wire, I held my breath and prayed for the favor of the gods. It was Stella Roesger! And apparently I.wasn't the only one concerned, for directly before me I noticed Pat Ryan and Eddie Burke, betting Eddy pro and Pat con, whether or not the wire would hold for Stella's final trip. As fate would have it, Pat won, for on her last voyage across, the dear girl saw me and in the process of gaily waving, to me, lost her balance and fell! She caught, with her right hand, onto the wire and hung there for a moment or two. At the right minute exactly, four young men rushed out, bearing between them a large life net to which Stella entrusted herself and was thus brought safely to terra iirma. I learned later that these gallant rescuers were: Tommy Guy, Don Ward, Teddy Fo-gham and Felix Giaroliho, who had been lately ordained-not bishops-but firemen, and were so proud of their responsible position that they continually carried the life net around with them. I doubted this, but was glad that they had had it with them at that moment. And so ended Stella 's little act. Her place was taken by the band who played a selection or two and then the trained elephants were led in. They were three in number. The first one bore Victor Wa-ss, an African explorer now and the one who had brought the elephants back especially for our show, the second, Salvatore Floriclia, and the third and last carried Vinton Farnsworth. They were dressed as Indian UM Princes UID. After they had carried through their heavy part in the program, they removed themselves and my attention reverted once more to the strong man in the first ring. He had a pair of double- jointed tumblers with him now. They were going through all kinds of antics, but I finally discovered the Herculean chap was Dana Parks, and the two human knots with him were Thomas Childs and George Dyar. I knew that Dana had very little time lately to engage in tum- bling, his favorite sport, because he was a careworn husband and father now, and had to keep his nose pretty close to the grindstone, which, I presume accounts for the ruddy beak the poor fellow carried. Tommy and Pussy were on the stage now as the Two Tumbling Tramps and were making a huge success of tramping.