Warren High School - Hilltop Yearbook (Warren, MA)

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if B Q, '-1 , if , 4 THE HIELTOP 15 general demand are free to move about, following the sun, their professions, or just plain fancy. Some who do not have independent incomes travel where there are crops to be harvested or other work to be done in the fields and earn money for their expenses in this way, moving on to the next place when the work there is finished. Some salesmen who have taken to using part of a trailer for a showroom and the other part for living quarters have found that they make more sales when the goods are right before the prospective customer than they do from a catalogue. Travel is a great educator and many people, realizing this, have taken to trail- ers as a means of broadening their educa- tion and knowledge of the land in which they live. They feel the urge to travel, to gain knowledge of their country by see- ing the real thing rather than by reading about it from books. Some people in poor health have found travelling in a trailer a means of restoring their health. Middle- aged couples with independent incomes find this a means of spending their middle- age enjoyably. The house-wife, instead of spending a good part of the day doing housework, spends at the most an hour a day besides the preparation of the meals. One of the reasons why people are taking to trailers is that of the lack of taxes to pay. As I have said, there are no real estate taxes to pay and, as yet, little or no taxes on trailers. But if the prophecy of Roger Babson that within twenty years one-half of the population of the United States will be living in trailers comes true, what will happen to our taxes? The population problem is now being speculated upon to a great extent. Probably before long, laws will be made either in the separate state legislatures or the national legislature governing the taxation of trailers and trailerites. But one form of tax the trailerite does pay and pay plenty of is the gasoline tax. Unsanitary conditions breed disease and sickness. An epidemic of some serious disease in a trailer camp might be fatal to a great many. All those who were not sick would be in quarantine and would not be able to leave. We have public health laws in regard to sanitation in towns and cities. If trailers become much more numerous, either these laws would have to be made to apply to trailer camps, or spe- cial laws would have to be made just for trailer camps.. The managers or owners or both would have to see to it that these laws were strictly enforced to drive away any danger of disease. The owners of some of the larger trailer camps have recognized this need and danger and have installed sewage facilities which eliminate this problem of sewage and garbage- disposal. Book learning is not the only kind of education, nor is travel. There are some things which one learns by travelling which he will never learn in books and vice versa. There is a happy medium with the right amount of school and travel. But if one is a rover, where are one's chil- dren to go to school? A trailerite doesn't like to stay in one place long enough for a young person to go to school the whole ten months. Is a child whose parents don't pay taxes in a certain town to be allowed to go to school there? Some towns and cities object to having children who live in trailers go to school in that place be- cause of that very reason: they don't pay taxes in that place. The children must be educated. It all seems to come back to the problem of taxation which will have to be solved by legislation. Who will be able to vote at elections is a problem which will confront the country. Where will voters register? A residence of a certain length of time in a state and town or city is required before one can register. The trailerite is likely to be here today and gone tomorrow. He prob- ably would not want to stay in one place long enough to be able to fill all the qual- ifications. He might lose interest in the welfare of his country to the extent that he might no longer care who was Presi- dent and what he stood for. He might think that one person was as good as an- other and that his vote wouldn't make any difference anyway, so why bother. He might be tempted to leave it to the man back home. This isn't the way to feel, but if voting meant giving up personal liber- ties and wishes that meant a lot to him, I think that the voting would be the one which would lose out. In a trailer camp there are people from all walks of life, people of all kinds: and among them are even petty thieves. There

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4. Yi 17:2 . .3 , 3 14 'PHE VILLTOP s f cept as a sort of cart in which to carry baggage while travellingg but when the depression came and with it the loss of homes and jobs, the trailer came into its own. People found they could live more cheaply in trailers and they were not long in taking advantage of this fact. Now the trailer has become a mode of life, and people are living more easily and much more economically than they did in houses. They are having a chance to see the coun- try at their leisure and at a minimum cost. Let us follow the Scott family for a day to see how a trailer family lives. Mr. and Mrs. Scott and Betty and Jack, aged seven- teen and nineteen respectively, rise when they feel like it. While Mrs. Scott is pre- paring breakfast, Betty puts the blankets and sheets away and rearranges the berths for the day. Mrs. Scott prepares breakfast over a three-burner gasoline stove, taking utensils and foodstuffs from cabinets over and under the stove and the metal sink, which is right beside the stove. She has the convenience of both hot and cold water. Fresh milk for breakfast has been left at the door earlier and she brings this in and puts it in the ice-box until breakfast. Betty has set the table between the two lower berths and the bedroom is changed into a dinette with places for four. The trailer has a sliding partition between the little kitchenette and the bed- room which permits privacy. The kitchen- ette is in the middle of the trailerg and there is a curtain between the kitchenette and the other end, in which there is a davenport bed with storage space under- neath it. Part of the davenport slides out to make a double bed at night. There are toilet facilities with a shower and a wash- basin across from the stove and sink. Be- side the toilet near the davenport is a dresser, while on the other side is a tank of water and the water heater. This is in a special compartment and beside the compartment is another dresser. On the inside of the bathroom door is a mirror. There is a compartment for the ironing board and broom near the hot water com- partment. Between the stove and the door is a heater for warmth during the winter. Outside signs of life have gradually been growing louder, and the sound of people calling to their neighbors and the sound of doors slamming announces that the camp is awakening. Doubtless some have been up for many hours fishing in the pond two or three miles away. Jack and Betty do the breakfast dishes while Mrs. Scott busies herself with other duties. The dusting and sweeping take a very few minutes, and afterwards Jack and Betty are free to find some of their friends their own age and play shuffleboard, tennis, horseshoes, or any other entertainment the trailer camp affords. Mr. Scott has taken the car and gone fishing, and while Jack and Betty are off with their friends, Mrs. Scott takes her mending out under the shade of the tree. She sews for a while until a neighbor joins her, and then they talk until it is time to prepare lunch. Betty and Jack come back while she is pre- paring lunch, but Mr. Scott does not re- turn in time. After lunch the three don their bathing suits and go down to the nearby beach. Mr. Scott comes back in the middle of the afternoon with enough fish for dinner. After dinner there is dan- cing and bridge and other amusements with which to pass the time away, or the trailerites can spend a quiet evening in their own trailer with guests in or just themselves. There are electric lights in their trailer, so they would not have to go out because of the lack of electricity. When it is time to go to bed, the berths are made up and the davenport is pulled out and made up. The shades are drawn, and they go to bed in comparative privacy. The life of a trailerite is advantageous for many reasons. It is rather cheap when compared with the ordinary expenses of the average household. So far there are little or no taxes on trailers. There are no real estate taxes and the trailer license is from two to twenty dollars, depending on the size of the trailer and the state in which it is licensed. The original cost of buying a trailer is less than that of even a modest dwelling, and the upkeep is low. In the trailer camps a minimum charge by the week entitles one to lights and electric heat, toilet facilities, all entertain- ment, including Shuffleboard and horse- shoes, dances, card-club sessions, music, and news from the outdoor loud-speaker hooked up to the camp radio. Retired couples or those whose professions are in

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16 THE HILLTOP is not much to encourage the big crime leaders to come there, for trailerites do not carry valuables with them or in their trailers. They carry their money in letters of credit or travelers' checks which are not good except to themselves. Besides, no criminal wants a trailer on behind when he is making a getaway. If half of the people take up these roll- ing homes, many people whose livelihoods depend on the travelling public other than those who live in trailers may be forced out of businessg they may even be forced to live in trailers themselves. Before the people who stay home can be reconciled to the increase in the number of trailers, the problems of taxation, education, voting, sanitation, and crime must be settled. These undesirable features of the trailer and the trailer camp will probably gradually clear up in the future to the satisfaction of all. Bernice Carter '38 JUPITER'S PROPHESY T0 VENUS Virgil's Aeneid: Book I Jupiter, king of gods and of men, With smiling mien to his daughter went And prophesied thus to soothe her when She'd turned to him for encouragement: Spare your fears, my Cytherea Your people's fate remains constant And you will see your dreams well met, For I now disclose the fates' intent. The promised walls of Lavinia you'll view. When noble Aeneas is borne to you The savage tribes in war he'll subdue And set up homes and customs, too, To rule in Latium, Where in three years A son is born to bear his trials. Through three hundred long revolving years The dynasty will still prevail 'Til a Trojan priestess of royal blood Under the race of Trojan Hector Bears twin offspring in brotherhood. These children of Mars, god of war, Are tenderly raised by a she-wolf untame. Just one of these strange young lads will Later call the Romans by his name And give them boundless land and power So even Juno, though she fears, Will change her plans to help me guard The toga'd race and Roman peers. A time will come as years glide by When Romans rise and begin to vie To seize famed Mycene and savage Danai Ere a glorious hero known to the sky Shall be born of a family well derived. In time this man, Caesar, in truth Will come to the skies summoned by thee Laden with gifts and Orient loot. But even before his time shall be The land becomes peaceful with love for the hearth. Venerable Faith and Vesta divine will rule And Remus and Romulus the laws will bring forth While impious Fury sits high on his throne Behind the iron gates of War, closed indeed, Just waiting with long and horrible shouts For the furious time to be felt when he's freed. Millicent Page '38 SHADOWS The town clock in the distance slowly boomed twelve, accompanied by the muf- fled chime-strokes from somewhere with- in the dim interior of a certain house on a narrow, little-used street, once the center of the fashionable residential section, but now dark and deserted. It was a large, antique mansion, surrounded by shrub- bery and set apart from its neighbors by a row of huge, grimly sentinel-like cedar trees. On this particular night the moon, drifting through the starry sky like a huge silver discus of the gods, gave a ghostly, uncertain cast to the shrubbery and cedars, and made them appear to be huge, indistinct couchant monsters, about to spring upon any intruder. Suddenly a heavily muffled figure came into view, slipping soundlessly through the shrubbery, apparently fearless of the evil, monstrous forms which gathered threat- ingly about him. Silently the mysterious figure glided across the grounds, moving as though wearing the winged sandals of Mercury, so light and airy were his move- ments. Upon reaching the steps leading up to the porch, the ghostly figure glided up them, and was swallowed up in the jet- black pall of shadow which enclosed the porch and seemed to be trying to smother any intruder who dared to enter this do- main of darkness. Even the prying little moonbeams tried in vain to pierce the hid- den realm of mystery which the darkness guarded so jealously.