West Fulton High School - Wefuhian Yearbook (Atlanta, GA)

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Hester, - who was still navigating, and I started on a trek across the desert on which we landed. Before we had completed our walk, we saw a bright glow coming from what appeared to be a giant crater, similar to those on the Earth-moon. We approached the crater edge cautiously. We were startled beyond description. just below the surface level, a great glass bubble covered the whole opening of the crater, which was at least a hundred yards across. Through the glass, we saw below us a tropical paradise beyond all imagination. It was decked with a luxuri- ant robe of vegetation, giant ferns, cocoanut trees. and variegated tropical flowers. After overcoming our amazement, we finally realized that the thing to do was to find access into the glass-enclosed world. We started walking around the edge, and came upon a glass door that opened auto- matically, but due to some movement we made, it seemed. We passed through the door and sat down in an escalator-like con- veyor that quickly deposited us on the floor of the sphere. We were further amazed. We learned that the circumference of the crater opening wasn't the limitation of the world below. The trees and flowers stretched as far as we could see up under the ground. This part was lighted by an incandescent material that lined the ceiling. Assuming that we could remove' our hel- mets, we did so. The air was sweet and in- vigorating. We decided to sit down and rest before exploring. While sitting there, we saaw an object moving through the bush. It was a man. He stepped out into a clearing and came toward us. He greeted us cordially and introduced himself as Ronnie Lumpkin. When we inquired about the strange sur- roundings, he replied: With our period of study finished, we came here, and this is the result. Come, I must show you our beach. He led us off through the dense bush, and we emerged on the shore of a beautiful lake with a dazzling white beach. Lying at the edge of the wa-ter was Bill Stone, so that the water lazily rolled up to his waist and slid away. Lying in a hammock, sleeping, close by, was Murray Evans. Hugh O'Kelley could be seen on the far side of the beach with fishing pole in hand, napping. Charles Mar- tin was sleeping, babyishly, in his thatch hut. Ronnie, noticing me smiling at the le- thargy that had gripped everyone, said, There was an awful lot of work involved. We all laughed heartily, for the atmosphere of the place was conducive to joviality and pleasure. We imbided the richness of the restful re- sort for a fortnight. Before leaving, we promised that we wouldn't tell of our find- the influx of vacationers would be disastrous. At the top of the crater, we looked back for one last look and waved good-by. We boarded the ship and precipitated ourselves into the empty and cold space once more. I felt that I had enough information and ex- perience to begin my book now, so we headed back to Earth. We disembarked at midday. I said good-by to Hester and congratulated him for his ex- cellent navigation. I stretched myself and felt a satisfaction in being back on earth. The launching station wasn't busy at the moment, and I looked in the outer office of the briefing room just out of curiosity. The secretaries had been replaced by Beverly Hawks and Charlene Williams. Kenneth Johnston had accidentally wired Harris' dic- taphone to theirs, and he learned a few bad things about himself that he hadn't known before. Two others, Frances Livingston and Peggy Jo Mullins were added also. All my life I've wanted to be a beach- comber. By the time I was old enough to realize my desire, there were no far away isles to go to. Everything had become so civilized and cultivated that I decided I would have to go to another galaxy to find Pi jf 1 1,5 an ideal place for beachcombing. I finally sf. 'f' D decided upon this planet. As you saw above, K ,I the place was quite lifeless and barren, so 9 I went back to the earth and searchedout four others who had similar desires to mine. 'g , E , ' After extensive searching, I came up with In ! '.- - . . ' . . ' C L four: Hugh O'Kelley, Murray Evans, D- in, 7 , ..', Charles Martin, and Bill Stone. I explained 4 ,i'Ae .h Q to them the situation. He made a sweeping 9 ' ' ' ' ' .. 5 . . ' U in ' ' A , K TX gesture and continued, All this you see -2 , ' i'- ,-' i., if now had to be made. I stayed on Earth N 'i IQ another year. We all were studying different ta JM T-TSX 'X Q phases of science, preparing ourselves for our task. W'e studied zool0gY, botany, nu- clear physics, electronic engineering, irriga- tion, agriculture, and air conditioning, under the tutorship of Billy Ashcraft and Mari- anne Blume. After going through the processes at the Conditioning Center, I went to my apart- ment and slept till the middle of the next day. I felt completely rested and hungry when I woke. I went to the Two Sisters Restaurant to eat. The restaurant was re- puted to serve the finest food in the western hemisphere. The two sisters, Dora and Sarah Dutton, prepared the food themselves, al- though it was rumored that Grady Wallace, mayor, prepared the recipes to drum up tourist attention to his city. I went to a movie in the evening. Starring in the production were Deloris Mashburng Jerry Thompson, as Jungle Jerry, and An- geline Brown. The name of the movie was The Dark Ages, Part II-from September 1, 1947-May 28, 1959. It was written by Dick Stewart and Dennis Kelley. I hailed a taxicopter and went home. The taxi was piloted jointly by Russell Newsome and Phil Futrelle. I was ready to begin my book, to bring to fruition the goal of my life's work. I worked far into the night . . . I took off an hour before dawn. All my life I'd wanted to be a beachcomber, and besides, who would read any silly book that I should ever write? I dipped into the future as far as I could see, Depiefed a future cosmos as it appeared to me, SPRATLING

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I spent an hour in the library. I left, not only because I was ready to go, but because I was asked to leave by the librarian after she asked me who my favorite writer was and I replied that he wasn't a Frenchman. Desiring some diversion, I took a heli- copter and went to the sports arena. The city had been reviving the game of football. No original equipment could be found, sc the players were wearing space helmets and magnetic shoes. The first thing that attracted my eyes as I came through the gate was one player hanging head-down from the goal post. His feet had attracted the metal of the post. It was Pat McCallum. The game had begun, and there was quite a bit of commotion on the field. It seems that Equen Smith was filing a complaint to the referee, Gerald McCravy. He claimed that Joe Maxwell had disconnected his oxy- gen supply tube during a tackle. Billy Bur- dett came up to the referee and said that Smith had caught his tube on the antenna of Roy Burdett's helmet. The argument was then settled and the game resumed, but not for long, for shortly thereafter, Elizabeth Echols ran on the field and tackled one of the opposition, and enabled the home team to score. Because the sports commissioner, Gene Boggs, couldn't remember any rules that applied to such a situation, the game was called a tie. The home team spectators thought that they had won because they were so busy waving pennants and shouting. As I was leaving, the clamor, the sten- torian eulogies to the heroes, and the gen- eral cacophony roared on. Walking out with me were Julian Ransom, Paul Bowling, Larry Harris, Max Pruitt, Larry Boatright, Louie Williams, Ralph Thompson, and Larry Tum- lin. They were complaining about the game being so short, and muttered something When we walked into about six years By the next morning I felt my visitation to Jupiter had been long enough, so I de- parted for Saturn. There was one place on Saturn that I wanted to visit. It was a colony of women. The colony had been es- tablished to see if women could even rule themselves. The colony was highly organ- ized, theoretically. I journeyed overland for a day before reaching the colony. I could have flown, but I wanted to observe the terrain. My guides, Everett Southern, and Dan King, and my companion for the visit, Tommy Hill, made the journey very informative through their thorough knowledge of the planet. the village, we were quite startled. In the midst of the vil- lage square was evidently the burning effigy of some woman. The women had set up bar- ricades with flour bags and were throwing biscuits at one another. The whole village seemed to be in turmoil. The president, Dianne Ivie, had issued an ultimatum that all the women were to wear the fashions designed by Peggy Higgins. The village re- volted violently. Tongues were wagging, feet were trodding, telephones were ringing, and biscuits were flying. The leaders in the revolution were Gay Nell Richardson, Char- lotte Parks, Wanda Morgan, Marilyn Hef- ner, Barbara Hodgins, and Betty Jo Town- A..,J F J 1 I CWLE O send. The advocates of the Ivie Party had solicited the mercenary services of the no- torious tongue-waggers, Pat Goldston, Suel- len Martin, Charlotte Mitchell, Helen Hu- man, and Mary Lee Redd. The devastating war raged on and on. There were summit meetings, cease-fire meetings, truce meetings, gossip meetings, and bridge meetings. Finally a committee composed of Marie Pittard, Doris Smith, Pat Argo, Jean Ashcraft, Margene Sinard, and their chairwoman, Peggy Morrison, sent a communique to the president that expressed their anticipation of the proclamation of a Declaration of Emancipation, for the women folk of Peaceful Paradise, fthe name of the colony.j The president called a special session of her cabinet, Patsy Bearden, Pat Cowan, Joyce Blaylock, Diane Davis, LaNell Coker, Carolyn Brown, and Clara Carson. The minutes of the meeting read some- thing like this: Date: July 4, 1974 Meeting: Special Session of the President's Cabinet The President of Peaceful Paradise called a meeting of her cabinet, resulting from a communique from the rebel forces. The communique demanded immediate ac- tion by the President in retracting the ultimatum requiring uniform obeisance to designated fashions. Failure to comply with said demands will result in. total an- nihilation of the President and her forces. The President after recapitulating on the animosity and antagonism that had arisen as a result of her plan for fashion control, proposed a renunciation of the ultimatum with one stipulation.: All women, no matter what their political preferences, must wear chartreuse hair. Peace fusing somewhat of a warped mean- ing of the wordj settled on the fair village of Peaceful Paradise. The continuous gossip- ing and calumniating continued. The major problems, of whom to ostracize next week and whom to accept, were taken up again. I left the village with a bolstered confi- dence in man. The ship glided on and on as if it was being pulled through the boundless universe by some great magnetic field. We passed on through our solar system, and floated for days and weeks through a cosmic sea, pass- ing meteors, asteroids, and planets, and being awed by the brilliant blazes of comets, whose streaming tails were strung along our path for hundreds of thousands of miles. We moved from our galaxy into a great void and into another galaxy. We chose a planet and landed. It was a barren and eerie land of purple shadows, arrid deserts and towering peaks, which were outlined by a somber grey sky that glowed with a pale red aurora along its horizon. We had hardly any expectation of finding life on the planet, and even less so after we realized that it was necessary to wear oxygen helmets. Before we would leave, however, we intended to survey the land thoroughly.

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W2 ...fate . . . MR. C. R. BROWN in Iflie year 0!AiA relfiremenlf. His loyalty and devotion to the students of West Fulton through the years have endeared him to us.