Wells High School - Crimson and Gray Yearbook (Southbridge, MA)

Page 16 text:

LITERATURE F. I. D. IT IS Monday morning in Lake City; the clock in the Fire Department 1 is striking six. Only a few of the twenty-five men who sleep there are dressing. Among them is Ser- geant Trenton. He quickly dresses and is the first to go downstairs. The sight which his eyes beheld was puzzling. He pinched himself to see if he were still asleep. No! he was awake. He ran quickly upstairs and sum- moned the rest of the men. Some had just awakened and the rest were roughly awak- ened by Sergeant Trenton. Chief Blake asked, What ' s the matter? What ' s the matter? Say, do you know that every single piece of apparatus in this build- ing is gone? answered Trenton. W-W-What do you mean? Just what I said, came the answer. Come and see for yourself, Trenton said, as he went down the stairs. In one minute, everyone was downstairs. Chief Blake ' s eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he saw the empty building. He and Sergeant Trenton searched the building and in a back room they found Officer Dugan who had been on duty that night. He had been knocked unconscious by a blow on the cranium. On his chest was pinned a note which read as follows: Fire when under con- trol is the servant of man but it will be loose soon. It was signed with three fatal letters, F. 1. D. Officer Dugan was quickly revived and all he knew about what had happened was that about three o ' clock in the morning he heard a footstep, and was about to turn around when he was hit on the head. By this time the police had arrived, and as Lake City had two fire stations, the other sta- tion was called and they answered, Seven bells and all ' s well. Tick-tick-tick— The news was telegraphed to every state. Every policeman in every state was on the lookout for wandering fire trucks. By eight o ' clock these cries could be heard all over the streets in many cities. Extra-Extree— Lake City Fire Dept. has ap- paratus stolen from under their own noses. Extree-Extra. Meanwhile Chief Blake, as red as a ripe to- mato, is answering questions shot at him by Gus Lance, Chief Detective of the Lake City Police Dept. Now let us see what the rest of the firemen are doing. Pat Dodd, who is considered the comedian of the Fire Dept., is all a-twitter. He is an amateur detective and is engaged to Rose Belton, whose hobby is asking ques- tions. At this moment he is offering solu- tions of the robbery to his friends. By this time part of the Station 2 appar- atus has been sent over to be used until the stolen property is found. All the firemen were asking for action: action by the police, action by the Chief, any sort of action. Lit-

Page 15 text:

NOVEMBER 1933 my way once more. Their hospitality was given me because Mrs. Hollowell has had two sons on the rozd in the past, and she believed that some kind lady would do the same for them. From Canandaigua I rode through Syra- cuse, Utica, and on to Albany where I stopped for lunch. As I was walking along the bridge toward Renssalaer, a car stopped and the man driving asked if I was going his way. Since that was the first time anybody on the road had invited me to ride, I was rather suspicious. But it happened that this was another Samaritan in the form of a news- paper man who owned the Rensselear paper He brought me to his office where I made my- self comfortable with three chairs and two overcoats. Next morning he woke me up at eight o ' clock, bought me a good breakfast, and offered me a job as truck driver which I declined. Leaving Albany I went through Pittsfield, over the Ladder to Springfield. I arrived in Southbridge at three, Wednesday, after cover- ing 2600 miles, in sixteen days, through eight states, and spending less than the last figure in dollars. Paul Benoit ' 34. TO THE WORLD ' S FAIR ON $4.26 Everyone asks how I liked the World ' s Fair. The Fair was great. Half of my thoughts, however, go back to the kind people who gave me rides; some of these rides were long with much to see and nothing to worry about, while others were very short. They were a help but, meantime, I might have missed a good ride. Cherry ' s stories of the Fair started me, so on August 28 I started from our famous town at 8 o ' clock with two World War veterans who were very interesting and very good sports. We arrived at Albany at one o ' clock. I walked through the city and stood on a corner where I thought would be a good place for getting a ride. The lights had just changed. The gentleman in the third car, a Buick, gave me about a thirty-five mile ride. This gentleman ' s son had gone to the Pa- cific coast in the same gentleman-like style and he considered the experience valuable as an education. I got as far as Sangerfield, N. Y. that day, about three hundred miles— not bad! But I slept in a barn that night and awoke with the cold about five-thirty. The next couple of nights were more comfortable, for I dropped in on relatives, before I hit the Honeymoon Trail to Niagara Falls. There, two college fellows from Colorado, going back to college, picked me up. We dropped in to see Niagara Falls and went on down to Erie that night. I could have had a ride all the way to the Fair but I had to wait for mail. It was disappointing to think I missed a 600 mile ride. The next day, however, I got a 280 mile lift out of Erie from a man with a load of machinery going to Columbus, Ohio. It wasn ' t a very comfortable ride because he had about five tons of machinery on the truck. Everytime we came to a corner I thought we were going off the road we were going so fast, but we got to Bucyrus safely. It cost me 65 cents to eat and sleep in Bucyrus, about 320 miles from Chicago. The whole 320 miles I covered with one driver in a day during which we picked up a brother and sister who were hitch-hiking to the Fair. On Saturday, then, we arrived and enjoyed the day along with 300,000 other people. The boys who had picked me up palled with me while we were at the Fair. After spending almost five hours at the Travel and Transport Building I was glad to get to sleep. My bed was the rumble seat of the boys ' car. It was just like a spring mattress but I had to stick my feet out and every-one going by made sly remarks. Otherwise I had a com- fortable night. I stayed at the Fair till Labor Day, and left the boys about eleven o ' clock Monday night, after thanking them for the wonderful time I (Continued on Page 16)

Page 17 text:

NOVEMBER 1933 11 tie did they know what was to happen by evening. Nine o ' clock and a telephone call at Fire Station 1 came with it. The call said that there was a fire in an empty tenement house on Benton Street. Fire Stations 1 and 2 were called there. No one was at Station 1 where two trucks had been left. The building was in flames; the blaze could be seen from the distance. The houses near- by were endangered by the flames. Firemen were running to and fro. After a three-hour battle, the fire was quelled. When the fire- men of Station 1 returned another surprise awaited them. The hoods of both trucks were open, both motors wrecked, and all the tires punctured. Every piece of hose was cut. A note on one of the trucks read, The worst is yet to come, and again it was signed F. I. D. (Continued in the next issue.) Frank Locki ' 36. OLD MOSE While home from a trip he may be seen on or near a wharf shelling clams. To see Mose at this point is as much entertainment to me as an interesting movie. Mose is dressed in a sou ' wester, a fisherman ' s hat, and high rub- ber boots. He sits on a box crossed legged, a basket of clams and a pile of shells on either side. Mose is a happy man, happier when there is a youngster near to whom he can spill some yarn, greatly exaggerated, filled with ex- citing stories about rescues at sea, daring ad- ventures of his captain, but, to my surprise, never about superstition. On asking Mose about a sailor ' s supersti- tion, he dropped his work, crossed his hands, muttered something, and for the first time looked up without smiling. To talk about a sailor ' s superstition, he told me, is a very wrong deed. Among the curses which come aboard ship, the woman is feared the most. A woman or a black cat aboard ship, t ells Mose, surely means the ship will sink before it reaches home. Mose, who was over fifty, told me that he had never been swimming and that most of the fishermen could not swim. I was greatly surprised to think that a man living near the water should not go swimming. Mose, after his basket of clams had been shelled, enjoyed himself playing checkers. Old Mose is a wizard at checkers and admires any youngster who can beat him, but scorns any older person who defeats him. Mose lives very simply and alone, and very seldom eats fish although he gets his living catching them. Winston Dorrell ' 35 YE OLDE FASHIONED LOVE TALE TT WAS rather late in the afternoon when ■ - Tommy Burke came striding along, swing- ing his books around his head. He was headed home, but by no means was he taking a short cut. In a few minutes, he was talk- ing to Dick Bolton, manager of the village general store. Bolton had started the store on his own finances and, through consider- able adjustments and improvements, the store was the most popular one of the village. Dick was a young man of twenty-two years, he was tall and broad-shouldered. He had light wavy hair, and was the idol of many feminine admirers, although he belonged only to the school-mistress, Gladys Keech. He and Gladys were engaged and were planning to be married as soon as school finished for the year. But right now Bolton was interested in what this bright-eyed little boy was telling him. Tommy said that there had been a visitor at the school that afternoon. T ' was a man, who said he earned from New York City an ' was lookin ' for the hotel an ' when Miss Keech tol ' him where it was he said he ' d wait an ' let her show him, so he sat down an ' then Miss Keech made us recite for ' im an ' she ask ' d me to spell a word an ' I had to stay after school an ' that ' s why I ' m late. After this speech, Tommy took a deep, long