West Lafayette High School - Scarlet and Gray Yearbook (West Lafayette, IN)

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flmm' Looking hack over our young lives, we realize that growing up has been a memorable experi- ence, and one that has passed all too quickly. We have come a long way together since we first started to schoolfand yet, those happy and carefree days of childhood seem to have been only a short while ago. That was the time when we lived only in the present, for our past was too unimportant and our future too vast. It was good to be alive, and the world was a grand place in which to live. Then war came and we saw history being made before our very eyes. Bringing hack fond memories is one of the joys of life, so now let us review the highlights of our school years together. lt was twelve years ago, in 1934, that we first met at Morton School, little dreaming of the things in store for us. Uur first year was spent in kindergarten, playing games and learning to express ourselves, to cooperate with each other, and to obey our teachers. In the first grade we really began our education. We were taught to keep our desk drawers neat and orderly and also to be quiet and attentive when the teacher was talking. The next few years were filled to the brim with readin', writin', and irithmetie, the convoca- tions given each week by a different class, Valentine boxes, Christmas and Hallowe'en parties, dancing classes, spelling bees, recess periods of blackman, soccer, or games of "erasure tag" indoors on rainy days. How grown-up we felt when we entered the fifth grade upstairs and the teacher thought it was no longer necessary to peer at our teeth each morning to see if we had brushed them! We passed into the sixth grade, and for the first time were the 'abig shots". The important events that year were a Christmas cantata and a Colonial Day program, and then promotion to the 7B, leaving Morton School behind. Starting in at Junior High made us feel we were really growing up, even though we were underelassmen once again. Departmental work was something new for us, now our class periods were each one hour long and we had a different teacher for each subject. At Junior High, too, there were clubs to join and activities in which we could take part. As eighth graders, our class went to Indianapolis in chartered buses to see our state legislature in action. About this time, too, current events suddenly became important to us-for our country was at war. We were full-fledged freshmen when the next year rolled around. We kept our books in lockers instead of desks, and began to study algebra, biology, and foreign languages. We went on biology field trips and made collections of butterflies, hugs, and plants, and had our first taste of labora- tory work. Even though we were the old-timers of the school, we still got a big bang out of sliding down the chutes during fire drills. The next year couldn't come too soon, for then at last we entered Senior High. The confusion and bewilderment of the first few days soon wore off and we gradually settled into the routine of our new life. We'll never forget the rush for our school paper, the Scarlette, our Junior play, Wllhe Nutt Family", unending cafeteria lines, the football banquets following our successful seasons, the fun of attending the out-of-town games and the superior feeling when our small crowd cheered the team to victory, doing chem experiments and wondering what would happen next, the cluttered floors after the exchange of name cards, the privileges that went with a pair of senior cords, then ending our high school career with a gala week that had a touch of sadness -it was our last one together, and even then we were missing some of the boys who had left for military service. While we have studied history, most of us have secretly dreamed of being present at some of those important events, and seeing with our own eyes the things that others centuries later would read about, remember, and consider important. That dream has come true. With the end of the most devastating war of all times have come new hopes for a better world, and new fears, for the introduction of a new era-the atomic age-has left us in a state of bewilderment and unrest. It is significant that peace should come at the beginning of our senior year, for we shall he the leaders of tomorrow, and the future of the world will rest upon our shoulders. Now that the time has come to graduate, some of us are reluctant to leave, and others are eager to be on their way, but every one of us will carry forever with us the memories of a happy time well-spent. Page 26

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I H! Q' nj 2 X' :ZZ ? Y its w i? NSE ,4- jf 1 A Z Q' Z ? Z Z N txkgf rX '-T f -iss? 'iff , X9 G' " " R 1- ' 7, . - V , - as 'fx - . A Q, 'N Lg' - r ' if r 1 I , , V '07 V I -, ' N HQ 5' - "ow C ri g , X ,, , F X t' Z , A ,' f xxx X . - Y X, F To at at V T ' If X S 7 I xx X ,Y V L .xii ' rs tr x A 416, 'iii Eu ' - ..- , , K i ? Freshmen, sophomores, juniors- and now, seniors about to graduate! Wal', bombs, rations, accelerated programs, and now-peace! We, the CLASS of '46, have been through it all, and what happiness it brought when V-E Day and V-J Day preceded our senior year! It was like coming out of the shadows into the light. For awhile we felt the lessening of tension of war years, but soon we realized that we must gird ourselves to help win a greater victory- a permanent peace for the world of tomorrow. Each year has seen us grow in stature and in power to think and to speak intelligentlyg each year has brought its serious moments tempered with the sweet- ness of gaietyg eaeh year will bring remembered joys of our days at old West Side. 6 Page 2

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Ugiicefm, Bill Creson ......., ..,..,....,..... P resident Jim Mayer ...... ........,. V ice President . Doris Kern ,....... ............. S ecretary Dick Hass .............,.,.. ,....,.. T reasurer Miss Ruth Sinks .,,....,... ........ S ponsor COMMITTEES Ways and Means Invitations Dow Caldwell y Valeria'Gamhle Fern Honeywell Dick Freeman Don Bloodgood Martha Mennen John Feinler Caps and Gowns Name Cards Dorothy Oyler Gwen Elkin John Payne Anne Warren Jessie Struhel Alice Curtis GALA WEEK Jim Mayer Tom Gildersleeve Eleanor George Royal Shideler Joan Wiselogel Bob Boonstra Joan Sparks P527