Westdale Secondary School - Le Raconteur Yearbook (Hamilton, Ontario Canada)

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EDITCJRIALS IS WESTDALE SLIPPING ? Westdale slipping? Many will be shocked at the mere thought. Others, wiser and a little more cynical, will look knowing. Some may even laugh. Westdale the good, Westdale the mighty, West- dale the invincible! Personally l was raised on a myth of Westdale superiority almost as strong as the worship of many people for the Toronto Maple Leafs in hockey. lt seems l was almost weaned on tales of Westdale, the school that never lost a battle and never won a war. But nearly all of us, growing older and a little more experienced, submit to the temptation to long for the good old days . l-low easy it is to say that the present generation is sissy stuff com- pared with the Westdale heroes who really made the school famous. l know some people in the school who are strongly convinced that the old school will never be the same again. Rnd l often wonder just how right they are . . . ln the first place, however, we can't prove any- thing about the ancient glory of the school without accurate comparison of individual performances and of the general mood of the school. This is not easy, though, for there are few people around to tell us of the school days of ten and fifteen years ago, and even their memories are necessarily coloured by the things that have happened since then: nostalgia is so much sweeter than reality. tOur only historians, moreover, are the teachers, who seem much less interested in spinning tales of war and glory for dear old alma mater than they are in making sure their charges can recite to-morrow's lessoni. ln short, there is no sure way of comparing the school now with the school of ten years ago, which, strange as it seems, is be- fore the time of even the Honorable Sam Gardner, Esq. Thumbing through the records, for instance, may tell us who won the Senior Rugby Cham- pionship in 1936, but figures can't describe the tension of frenzied fans in the stadium. But just at a guess l'd say that things weren't a heck of a lot different from the same scene to-day. For it is people, after all, who make the school, and people, by and large, don't change much within fifteen years: people only think they do. When iirst we enter Westdale, clear-faced speci- mens from public school, we look with awe at the famous veieransvfootball stars and school politi- cians. Our innocence, in most cases, is short lived. Daily sight of halfbacks, of sprinters, of buglers, and of Triune presidents shows us that they're only humans, subject to the same limits as we are. Soon they're just Harry , Grinder , Bob , or just plain Doc to us. This familiarity with school figures isn't a bad thing, but the next step is worse. When things go wrong, and we don't find what we expect in the school, it is too easy to blame such things on the decline of Westdale . We complain loudly: Where are the real old heroes, the guts-and-thunder boys of my first-form days? Hll this year's big shots are just punks. Vifhy aren't there any men like the Kirkonnells any more? Or like H1 Yeates and lack Cox and Bud Lapp? Westdale lS slipping! Yet really this fading of early idols is merely the result of our growing a little older ourselves, and of seeing the present incumbents with their wor- ries and minus their halos. The heroes of old haven't really vanished, and they won't unless we of the rising generation fail our followers by let- ting ourselves go to waste. Piny one who can't find happiness in the school just refuses to be happy, because happiness is a power within our- selves. When we complain that there's nothing left in the old school any more, we merely forget that WE are becoming the heroes of Westdale. The administration may be better, or it may be worseg no one can say for sure. One thing we know is that colour and originality are still the ticket to fame, and the price of achievement is effort. Vifestclale is not slipping. WE are Westdale. -D.l.G. , THANKS, EVERYBODY When students receive this year's Le Bacon- teur they see only a sheaf of shiny paper bound with paste. They see very little in this new play- thing of the toil and heartacheeand heartburn!- of carrying the burden of Le Raconteuru through the school year, increasing it in size like a man with a snowball. But this was a huge task, and accordingly we, the editors, extend hearty thanks not only to the labourers on the staff proper-many of whom stepped into a wider breach when our teachers were called from their side by an occupational hazard-but the teachers themselves, who gave the magazine a start that it couldn't have done without. Special mention goes to Miss Margery Dixon, one-time sponsor of the advertising staff, and Mr. Dunkin, our erstwhile business manager. Moreover, bouquets are due to the foot-weary students of the ad staff, whose picture appears further on, and to all contributors of literary ma- terial. We thank also Plgro Bros. Fruit Co. for donation of the Literary Contest prizes, as well as a contributor who asked to remain anonymous. Pls well, we vote a BIG thank-you to Mr. Grant of Westdale, who volunteered to replace Mr. Dunkin when the latter was forced to retire. Finally, we wish to thank the entire student body for its support and its co-operation and we hope that Le Raconteur of '48 will bring as much pleasure, though not as much worry, to its readers as it has to its editors. l.E.C. and I.E.B. 11

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