Westerly High School - Westlyan Yearbook (Westerly, RI)

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The Senior Year Book—1932 19 A sumptuous villa in France appears before me, and, strolling leisurely in the surrounding gardens, are Margaret Keenan and her husband, Count Giabbagoff. Fanny Burdick, Tillie Levcowich, and Margaret Brindle are found searching frantically for the lost leading lady of their Redding-Machio flea circus, for which they are world famous. A brightly painted sign tells me what has become of two of our number. “Madame Virginia Murray’s Beauty Parlor—We Specialize in Reducing—Madamoiselle Rhoda Hicks, Applier of Cosmetics.” We remember how adept Rhoda once was in the art of rouge application. It is perfectly evident that Anna Sisson has succeeded her mother in the real estate business, and she seems to be doing remarkably well with it. With the aid of her two assistants, Fanny Brucker and Marion Brundage, she has just sold, for an exorbitant price, an acre of land at Charlestown which, at high tide, is ten feet under water. Anna always was a good saleswoman. A brightly polished ice wagon slowly makes its way to the foreground. Victor Gervasini and Edward Saddow have taken over tKe Gervasini Ice Company, and are making a great success of it, in spite of all the electric refrigerators. Laura Walker, playing the solo cornet, ig accompanied by a more tuneful than ever Westerly Band, among whose members are Eleanor Williamson, Mary Clarke, vigorously tooting a flute, and Dick Coduri, enthusiastically beating the drums. It does not surprise me to find that Walter Browning has been officially proclaimed the laziest man and the slowest talker in the world. Edwin Knerr has established a prospering Home for Old and Crippled Cats, wThere neither he nor his assistants, Gustav Siller and Thomas Webster, can stir a step in any direction without cries of affection from the adoring inmates. Robert Mudge has departed for Switzerland, where he lives in blissful solitude on the highest and most isolated mountain peak, away from the eyes of hero-worshipping ladies. His peace is sometimes a little disturbed by the clear yodeling of Grace and Emma Sunderland, wdio have become two of the most efficient guides among the Alps. Bless my telescope! What is this? Two of my former classmates have taken advantage of Boom Bridge Naval Academy’s having at last opened its doors to women. Both Rhoda Pengelley and Dorothy McKay hold the rank of second lieutenant, the highest rank granted there.

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18 The Senior Year Book—1932 eccentric movements of the strange beast is John Murano, the gym instructor. Proceeding to the beauty parlor in the liner, I perceive Arthur Sisson, who specializes in permanent waving. We always suspected he knew a great deal about that art. This liner might well be called the “Westerly,” it boasts so many employees from our old town, for coming down the deck with the deck-scrubbing gang. I see Clyde Kenyon, in addition to the other classmates already mentioned. Many of my old fellow-students seem to have departed for the city—I have just noticed two people industriously cleaning windows on the 250th story of a new skyscraper in New York, and who do they prove to be but Carol Chester and Barbara Celestino! A man with a sad face is walking away from an insurance agent, who seems to be John Shibilio. The reason for Fred Stanley’s discomfiture is the insurance policy which Johnny has just talked him into taking out on his dry goods store. A race track appears, and dashing around the bend at a terrific speed come running Ruth Kennedy and Virginia Roffo. Cheering is heard from all sides as Ruth wins by ten yards, making her women’s sprinting champion in the Olympics. An unearthly howling comes to my ears, and I discover that Leo Dotolo is exercising his lungs in preparation for defending his title as Champion Hog-Caller of Smithers-ville County. We all remember the mighty powers of Leo’s voice. How very strange! Here I see, at the Roosevelt Airport, a large crowd who are craning their necks for all they are worth, in order to follow the thrilling twists and turns of an airplane piloted by Dorothy Crandall. She, with the aid of her surprisingly efficient co-pilot, Verna Dawley, has become the most daring stunt flyer in America. Ever in demand at the leading men’s clubs in the country is Joe Rose’s famous book, entitled “Why I Am Always Popular With the Ladies.” We well remember his publisher, Natale Felicetti. Again I hear a voice, this time that of an angry girl, saying, “Hey, whaddayou think you’re doing?” It appears that a taxi has just passed a big Mack truck, operated by Beatrice Chiaradio, and Beatrice is extremely annoyed with the taxi driver, who proves to be none other than Ida Pan-ciera.

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20 The Senior Year Book—1932 Standing on a pile of soap boxes, which are balanced by Edna Crandall, and surrounded by an admiring audience, stands Mae Fowkes, lecturing about the advisability of sending fur coats to the starving natives in South America. Another of our number has entered the literary field. Betty Thompson’s book, “The Correct Thing to Do Under Any Circumstances,” has been made famous through her efforts and those of her editor, Mary Low. I am greatly surprised to see that Mary Lynch, Mary Clancy, and Athelina Capalbo have become professional mourners. How some of these people we know have changed! Running the largest merry-go-round at Coney Island I find Naomi Gardiner, and selling lolly-pops I see Marion Kirby. That is hardly a surprise, however, for I remember how well she once liked them. The scene again changes, and this time I am in Africa, where Joe Markoff and Jack Mudge are ardent big game hunters. Their luck has been very good lately, their last catch being a rat eight inches long and an African hummingbird. Well, here is a third in our class to become a writer. Maurice Itchkawich is a celebrated poet, and his poetry readings are so much in demand in ladies’ social circles that it has been necessary for him to hire Jimmie Iacoi as his secretary and'manager. It seems that gigolos are as important to society as ever, and Julius LaPietra and Louis Trebisacci have filled two of the positions in that field. Remembering Higinio Vega’s constant criticism of the dresses we girls used to wear back in 1932, I am pleased to see that he has become as influential a costume designer in Paris as Lucien Lelong. Among his many very attractive manikins are Nellie Kizeik, Mildred Kirby, and Barbara Sherman. The most modern nd most completely equipped dairy in the State of Rhode Island is run by Mary Savy and her valuable partner, Teresa Maini. John Trebisacci has, after many years of hard work, obtained the degree Master of Science, and is now earnestly searching for the still Missing Link. Two others who have taken to the field of science are Theresa Matarese and Loraine Toolin. They have earned a great deal of note and admiration through their Matarese-Toolin Theory, said to be more complicated than that of Einstein, which was so famous in 1932, and to have quite overshadowed it.