Washington Irving High School - Memoirs Yearbook (Clarksburg, WV)

Page 9 text:

never return. The graduating boys expect to take a train out them- selves before long. We have known little of what a peaceful world is like. Back in that building we have met many lasting friends and many enjoy- able acquaintances. With them we have shared many happy and joyful experiencesg with them we will move out and see what we can do with this sick old world. That building isn't just four walls, three floors, and a roof. It is work, sweat, laughter, assignments and more assignments, love affairs, friends, failures, happiness, success, knowledge. We went in as freshmenij we came out as seniors. We went in with little, we came out with much: we go on for more. It will be a long time before we forget the familiar halls and rooms and faces. They will always be a part of us, and we a part of them. We leave that building now, never to return. Much of what we did there will never go beyond the walls, but enough dreams and ambitions will

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K-1-m,,.,,,,, I i I as i . 'II-IIE SPIRIT UI? WASHINGTON IRVING In a narrow,branching valley, among many familiar landmarks and scenes, stands a red brick building on the side of a hill. i In that building we have just received a diploma stating that we have grad- uated from Washington Irving High School. We might well pause in our exodus and consider some of the things we have graduated from and some that we have graduated intciffi- In a sense we have closed another door behind us and have opened a much larger and greater one before us. We have done away with childish ways and have slipped into the mold of men and women. We have worked and studied to take our place in civilizationg our activities have included much learning, both in and out of school. ,On the dance floor, in church, and on the football field, as well as in the class-room, we have gained a fairly well-rounded education. While wading through Shakespeare and state government, we have had lots of fun and many happy hours of enjoyment, too many perhaps, considering the condition of the world about us. Thousands of miles away the war's bloody grip seems too distant to affect us very deeply. Actually we feel it far more than we show. At the railroad station we have seen our friends and relatives who do know what war is about. Some have bought a one-way ticket out and will

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2 ss ni 5 , 4 -is . 1' 5' i . Q 5 E ' -,H E f ' i 7 ,sis i, I Q Q A V 3 . , come out with its graduating seniors to keep America going for years to come. Before this book is much older, it is our fondest hope that the world will-not return to peace-but go on to a peace as serene and perma- nent as the hills that surround the red brick building on the hill. That building represents America at its best, an America that is always moving forward toward a free and better world. America is made up of many such buildings, without which freedom and democracy would sicken and die. A country is no greater than its high school graduates. That is the challenge, seniors of '45. A great America stands on the threshold: it is up to us to bring her in with all her glory and magnificence.