Watkins Glen High School - Senecan Oracle Yearbook (Watkins Glen, NY)

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THE PEPPER POT 5 tracts were let to different companies for the purpose of purchasing materials and other supplies. The first large project of the construction company was to pull down the old walls, blast out the foundations and carry away the remains of the old building. All of this took about a month to accomplish. In this task, the working machinery especially the steam shovel, created quite a bit of curiosity. After the ruins were carried away, the excavation was begun in preparation for laying the foundation of the new building. As fast as the excavating was done, the concrete was poured for the new walls. Under the direction of Mr. Oleson, the foreman, the work progressed swiftly as well as efficiently. After the foundations were laid, the granite for the base of the structure was put in place; then, the concrete for the first floor was poured and the bricklaying was begun. Thus the work has progressed until, at this writing, the three floors have been poured, with the brick walls up, the coping stones laid on top, the steel work for the gymnasium and auditorium up, with their brick walls rising rapidly. With good luck, we are assured that the roof will be on in two weeks. The work on the north wing was held up about a month due to the accident of the falling of a girder and the consequent twisting of the same. There is much to be completed before the building is ready for occupancy. Yet one can obtain a good idea of the way the whole will appear, on completion. The contracts for the inside equipment will be let sometime during the fore part of December. These will include the laboratory equipment, the cooking and sewing, drawing and music rooms equipment and the agriculture shop work tools and machines. In all this work, the students haye something very fine to which to look forward and they should all appreciate the fact that out of the ruins is rising one of the finest institutions of the land for the education of themselves and the making of our future citizens. J.T.B.’31

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4 THE PEPPER POT OUR HIGH SCHOOL—PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE It was a very gloomy and sad winter morning last January when we students of Watkins Glen High School awoke to the horrible realization that our School building, with all its contents, was a mass of smoking ruins. But, although the building was gone, our brains and energies still existed. Due to the efficiency and quickness of action on the part of our faculty and Board of Education, school was called the very next afternoon in the Glen Theater. Mr. Tooker, manager of the theater, very kindly let the high school use his building for a week. After that, more permanent quarters were engaged in the Cole-Royce Hall. Here the high school assembled for roll call and here the Regents examinations were held. Some classes met in th Odd Fellows Hall, the Crofnt house, the Methodist and Baptist churches, and the old Masonic Temple. In March the whole school moved into the new Masonic Temple where we still hold forth. During this time, steps were taken in preparation for the building of a new high school. During most of the spring, the ruins of the old school remained standing, the skeleton of an institution that had once been alive and active. When one walked by the ruins, especially on a moonlight night, the whole scene seemed like a hideous nightmare. The contract for making and drawing the plans for the new structure was awarded to Carl C. Ade, a noted architect of Rochester. The plans provide for every detail which a modern school building should have, to meet the requirements of the state law. These plans were shown to the public at a school meeting and met with general approval. On the twenty-second of May, the bond issue of $250,000 was voted almost unanimously, there being only seventeen votes cast against it. The next thing to be done was to let the contracts. This took quite a time. The contract for the general construction was awarded to the Rankin Construction Company of Rochester. Other con-

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6 THE PEPPER POT OUR RENDEZVOUS WITH PEACE It was during the dark ages of 1918 when we were staging our last fierce drive on the German lines. My comrades were falling fast around me, boys whom 1 had grown to love and respect. Three long years had I seen just this, until I too, longed to follow them. In the trenches that night I wondered how much longer this would go on; how much longer nations would hurl their might against each other, failing to understand the problems which they sought to solve in this fashion. As I lay thus pondering, while shells were whining over my head and bursting yonder with a dull boom. I heard the rustle of garments and a voice spoke low in my ear. “Some fair day, eleven years from now I shall call a rendezvous with Peace at your grave, when two great nations shall bow in humble reverence before your tomb, resolving to lay down their arms and guide a war stricken world to the throne of Peace.’’ That calm voice faded away amidst the din of bursting shells and I lay still, trying to imagine a peace seeking world. My reverie was halted abruptly at the sharp command of our captain. Within five minutes we wer to “go over the top”. At the end of five minutes we did “go over the top,” accompanied by the roar of artillery in the rear. Barely a second later I was conscious of p sharp pain in my chest, and then all was oblivion. Meanwhile. America laid to rest an unknown soldier in beautiful Arlington cemetery and there erected a shrine in grateful memory to all who died such a death. One bright day last fall I saw two men coming slowly with bowed heads, toward my tomb. One man, the one who carried a beautiful wreath, had gray hair, and the other lookecj a little younger but not less determined The grav-haired man placed the wreath on my tomb and the two men stood silently there for a moment. I knew then that this was the rendezvous with Peace which had been predicted back there in France, because the two men were Premier MacDonald and President Hoover My joy was complete, for I knew that there began a rendezvous with Peace in the presence of two great men; p