West High School - EOS Yearbook (Aurora, IL)

Page 8 text:

As we, the class of 1945 of West High School, leave to embark upon our life careers or go on for more finishing touches to our education, we can take with us only two tangible objects, a diploma and the yearbook, a memory of high school days. We have chosen that this memory also remind us of our real task, to build for the postwar future. ln a sense, every senior in the country who graduates this year is in the unique position of belonging to the first group of Americans to finish high school in a peaceful world. Man's eternal frustration has ended, at least temporarily. Our task is going to be difficult. Survival of forthcoming economic turnovers will be difficult in itself, but we have more to do. We must preserve the peace and meet the myriad problems which will come to every person with an understanding perspective. Survival will call for high spirit and above all, excellent training. This book is in part dedi- cated to the fact that we have received that training scho- lastically and through extra-curricular activity. In it we are tracing the history of the building of the class of 1946 for the postwar future. First we could only visualize the finished product and draw up plans for the actual building. As freshmen we had previously tasted only the elementary essentials of literacy. With the help of the faculty and school facilities and the ardent interest of our parents the actual construction be- gan. As sophomores we thought we had learned everything there was to know, so rapid was the construction process. However, as juniors and seniors we were made to realize how little even the wisest men know, and thus the tremen- dous task ahead became clear to us. Here on the succeeding pages is the record of our high school preparation. First there was . . . PAGE 4

Page 7 text:

Dedication We Hue class of I946 dedicafe our yearbook ro Mrs. Gerfrude SCOTT Smirh, whose confri- bufions 'ro Wes+ High have been momenrous and innumerable, bu+ which, unforfunarely, will end wifb ber well-earned refiremenf affer many years of service. PAGE 3

Page 9 text:

Before you are the raw materials, the underclassmen. Each of them must share with us the task of building lasting peace while attempting to survive in a turmoil of armistice-brought confusion. They can only visualize the completed product. Part of this vision must take in the faculty who have been educated to the task of further building. They have guided us vocationally, educationally, and recreationally. Perhaps they are the sculptors which mold the raw ma- terials to fit the visualized pattern. The combination of these factors brings about the actual . . .