Wells River High School - Chatterbox Yearbook (Wells River, VT)

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Clark used to hobble around on crutches like that? Arvilla, I said, That's 1 ed! He said that he had come into town with his wife and ten kids to do the monthly shopping. He lived on a farm out of Wells River. His leg — Oh yes, he was kicked by one ol his cows while trying to milk it. Ted also told us proudly that he was the U. S. Checker Champion of 1965. This remark reminded me of his old daily noontime pastime with Walter Bone at W. R. H. S. I guess all that practice paid off for he even beat Walter in the contest! We said good-bye to Ted and continued on our walk down the main street. By this time we decided that our hair needed a wave so we started looking lor a beauty shop. Soon we spied an attractive one — the sign said MADEMOISELLE ROBERT'S BEAUTY SALON. Sandy, another old schoolmate! This was wonderful. We hurried quickly into the shop and asked for Mademoiselle Roberts. We couldn t believe our eyes when Sandy appeared for she was a platinum blonde! Had she been married? Yes, three times. Number one had been an oil tycoon from Texas and num- ber two, an uranium mine owner from Alaska. Husband number three, whom she had just recently divorced because she was interested in a millionaire banker, was a hotel chain owner from Florida. Variety is the spice of life,” she said. Yes, Harriet and I left Sandy’s Beauty Salon thinking only what a glorious trip this was, even though I wasn't getting much rest. As we walked along and chatted about our old friends, the aroma of baked foods came from around the corner. Harriett, as usual, was thinking of her stomach, and with a persistent tug at my sweater, we went inside. When we opened the door we were surprised to see one of our ex-teachers, Miss Legare. She told us the bakery had been her prize possession for three years now. Yes, she had made so much money she was wearing diamond-trimmed glasses, and 1 noticed an extra large-sized diamond on her finger. When we asked about her ring, we were told she was marrying Sandy's number one — the oil tycoon from Texas. We left Miss Legare's bakery shop only to turn a corner and run smack into a rather short man carrying a load of books. When we picked him up from the sidewalk and began to apologize we realized we were talking to none other than our old high school principal, Mr. Sloat. I started at once to grab the books from the sidewalk, road, lawn, and even the gutter when I noticed the name of them. Each book was alike and it sure reminded me of my high school days. The title read: MODERN ALGEBRA by R. SLOAT. It seems Mr. Sloat had found a much easier way of solving problems such as 3x plus 4y equals 24. He had become famous overnight and his books were selling right and left. We had a real student-to-teacher talk and were also given a free copy of MODERN ALGEBRA with the autograph of the famous writer. When we left Mr. Sloat, he was signing autographs, one after another, and we could hardly see him above the crowd. We crossed the street to a green park, decorated with flowers, and shrubbery. In the middle, was erected a large and most beautiful statue of a famous lady. We walked to the monument to read the inscription and thought we were seeing things. We were surprised to read: THIS MONUMENT HAS BEEN ERECTED IN MEMORY OF OUR FAMOUS NURSE ANN SHERWIN, WHO FOUNDED THE SERUM FOR CURING IN-GROWN TOE NAILS. SHE HAS SAVED THE LIVES OF MANY OF OUR TOWNS PEOPLE AND HAS ESTABLISHED OUR MODERN HOSPITAL ON 52nd AVENUE. We were so anxious to see our old school chum that we imme- diately took a taxi to 52nd Avenue and sure enough we saw a beautiful modern hospital. It was built on a very high hill just about where the old cross used to be back in 1957. The inside of the building was decorated with pictures and statues of Ann. When we talked to her, we discovered she was the head of the hospital and has an August wedding planned. She sure had fallen flat for one of the new interns who had come from Hol- land. She had plans for going over there after the wedding to finish her career. Harriett and I left the hospital in a most humorous mood, and decided to take in something for recreation — we had no idea what it would be! Once we were back in 27

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around the airport, I saw a rich looking couple waiting by the runway for their plane, probably. The woman was dressed in a black satin suit, mink coat and was wearing diamonds galore. Beside her on a leash were two big, black French poodles. The man was smartly dressed also. I pointed the couple out to Arvilla as they looked familiar, but I couldn't seem to place them. Oh,” said Arvilla, It's Mr. and Mrs. Spear!” We immediately ran over to the couple and sure enough it was. They told us that Mrs. Spear had won $1,000,000 on The Current Event’s Quiz and that she and Mr. Spear were going on their long awaited trip to Europe for four years. We talked for about ten minutes and then their plane arrived. We said good-bye and wished them an exciting trip. No sooner than we had seen the Spears off than a bright red taxi cab zoomed up in front of us and came to an abrupt screeching stop, nearly knocking us over. Iaxi, ladies?” said a dreamy voice, as the taxi driver leaped out of the cab. Why, it was Bob Murphy, an old class mate of ours back in W. R. H. S. We quickly got into the cab, and asked him to take us to our hotel. As we rode along, Bob told us that he and his wife, Sally, and their two sons had just recently moved to Wells River for the summer. He had previously graduated from U. V. M. and was earning enough money to go to Princeton in the fall and get a masters degree. What a driver! I don't see how he could manage to talk and drive at the same time for he went like he was trying to break a speed record — through red lights, around policemen, and in and out of traffic. We managed to reach the hotel safely, however, and paid Bob, and with shaky knees walked into the hotel. In the hotel lobby as we were registering, I noticed a woman who looked familiar. She was wearing a black tailored suit and coat and a large broadbrimmed hat and dark glasses — obviously she didn’t want to be recognized. I knew I should know the woman, but I couldn’t get a good enough look at her with the dark glasses and hat that she wore. Finally it hit me — why yes! It was Mali Homeister, another W. R. H. S. classmate of mine. Arvilla and I immediately got up and went over and said, Hi Hamster, her favorite nickname in high school. Then came a jam session that lasted for hours. She explained that she was traveling incognito for she didn’t wish to be bothered with any autograph hounds. She had become a world renowned author after writing her two famous books, INCIDENT IN A DOWNBEAT SOUTH RYEGATE SALOON and MY ADVENTURES AND FRIENDS IN THE GANGSTER UNDERWORLD. We talked until supper time, and then went up to our rooms. As it was time for supper, Arvilla and I washed up, and decided to go out for sup- per. We thought that we’d go to the Happy Hour where we always used to hang out as kids. We went to where it USED to be — what a change!! It had been enlarged nearly ten times, and the front was gold covered. We were ushered to one of the front tables and sat down and ordered. The floor show was just starting and it featured none other than Tcenie Kaiser or Tessie,” THE GIRL WITH THE GOLDEN VOICE. Teenie had become a famous singer and she told us, as we talked after her grand per- formance, that she had been offered a part in the movie, SHAKY SLEEVES co-starring Elvis Presley. Lucky girl! A talent scout had discovered her at the famous Happy Hour” while she was waiting on tables and singing for her father, who owned it. As Arvilla and I left the Happy Hour, we decided it was time to go to bed. The day had been so full of exciting events. We were so tired that we fell asleep in no time at all, and woke up bright and early the next morning, ready to see the sights. The first thing we decided to do was to take a look at old W. R. H. S. FI WAS GONE!! On the site where it used to stand was one of the most modern schools I’d ever seen. It was breathtaking, believe me. It was what both Arvilla and I had dreamed we might attend some day, but never did. As we left the new school and started walking downstreet, we noticed a man on crutches coming from the opposite direction. Arvilla said to me, Remember how Ted 26

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the busy section of the city we saw big banners hanging across the street. BASEBALL STADIUM OPENING TODAY, they read — that's just what we wanted. We hadn't seen a baseball game since Wells River boys had played Groton back in our senior year. As we proceeded to the game, 1 noticed extra-large posters with the picture of a player on ir. We figured it must be a star player, and sure enough, it was none other than Walter Bone. We got excellent seats, even though the stadium was packed. It was the South Ryegate team playing the Red Sox and people from far and near came to see it. Walter was thought of as a new Babe Ruth and he sure packed a wallop with the bat. He had four home runs through the game and w'as walked at least three times. Harriett and I didn't know the modern rules to the game, but we screamed enough at Walter, and the umpire too. We were determined to see Walter after the game so after a little disguising, to look like something that would belong in the dugout, we picked our way through to the locker room. We spoke to Walter, but he only drew out a pencil to sign an autograph, and mumbled something about how did we get in there. We started to take our hats off, and once again become known. Walter almost fainted there and explained that no women were allowed in the locker room. He took us to the hall, and for some time, we had a long talk about old school days. We left the game exhausted, and wanted to go back to our room and turn in, but realized this was our last night here, and we hadn't yet taken in any form of movie or stage show. Across from the hotel, there was a large lighted building with the sign opera on it. Operas didn't appeal to us at this moment, but we still agreed to take in this evening's show. We seated ourselves in the second balcony, and peered through opera glasses to locate the tiny figures. The lights turned red, then green, and a lovely lady floated to the stage to clear her vocal cords. Her long, draped robe and dyed hair made her look divine. She started at an extra high pitch, and went up and down the scale two or three times before she started her real song. Harriett began to giggle and said, ''Arvilla, you'll never guess who that is.” I looked real close and discovered it was Mrs. Gibson, our high school English teacher. After the show, we went to the dressing room to hear of her exciting adventures. We left our singing English teacher and return- ed to our hotel for a very short night's sleep. The next morning, we returned to our airplane and flew back home. I guess we were so excited from the trip and had so much to think about, that we were silent most of the way home. We both agreed that our trip had been some adventure, and maybe in the future, when we retire from our prosperous mines in Alaska, we, too, can settle back in our old home-town. Harriett Pudvah '57 Arvilla Boyce '57 28