Windsor Locks High School - Herald Yearbook (Windsor Locks, CT)

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THE HIGH SCHOOL HERALD 27 products of our own thoughts and ideas, not by what our companions have given us, nor by what we have copied from our ancestors as a custom or tradition. Triumph comes as the reward of effort:— If you find your task is hard. Try, try again; Time will bring you your reward, Try, try again. All that other folks can do. Why, with patience, should not you ? Only keep this rule in view: Try, trust, triumph. Frances O’Connell, ’34. VALLES. Happiness. What is happiness? Happiness is a state of mind. So many people have the wrong idea as to what things in life are essential to attain it. Many seek to gain it through success; some, through power; some, through wealth; and others, through fame. But have not these formulas been tried? Have not men struggled and fought for something which they thought would bring happiness and having reached their goal found that the fight wasn’t worth the effort, found that in their vain at¬ tempts they have only lost it on the way, found that it isn’t the big things which make for happiness but the many little things which are—Life. Can this be what has happened to America? Can we have been fighting for something that we thought would yield big returns and found that we had gained nothing? With this thought in mind let us look back over America’s past. It was God’s favored among nations. To it He en¬ dowed beauty. He took bits of beauty from all parts of the world to make America. He gave us wealth. Forests teeming with life; a ground filled with the most precious of metals. Then He took the intellect, the culture, and the finest qualities of every nation, poured them into one mold and made Americans. God must have smiled when He made America. But something was wrong—with us, in fact with the whole world. We forgot God; we forgot the finer things in life; our sense of valdes be¬ came distorted. Money became everything. We started to fight. People amassed wealth until it became an obsession. They fought and b ed each other for worldly gains. It became a case of the survival of the fittest in the mad scramble of the business world. Men lost their identities. It wasn’t what are you? What are you here for? But how much money have you? It became a case of “living up to the Jones.” If your neighbor had a house, a radio, and a car; you had to have a house, a radio, and a car. If he played bridge on Sunday eveings, you had to play bridge on Sunday evenings. Nobody had any will or thought of hib own. We became smug, thoughtless. Then something happened. The ten¬ sion. in the business world broke and then came the crash of 29 upon which

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26 THE HIGH SCHOOL HERALD them to improve their conditions when times are good and aid them to be¬ come independent and not permanently dependent on charitable organiza¬ tions. It is our duty as citizens to see that these groups have a fair chance to earn a decent living. We realize that much of the success of a nation depends upon the standards and living conditions of its working class. Therefore let us not think ourselves superior to any one else just because we happen, to have more advantages, more education, or more wealth; for as Abraham Lincoln said, “God must have loved the common people, for he made so many of them.” Rose Giacopassi, ’34. ESSAY ON CLASS MOTTO “Try, Trust, Triumph” Effort is the only means by which anything really worth while can come to us. Envy and imitation are false conceptions of the way to real success. Sooner or later every person must realize this, for no one can possibly know and understand the work for which he is best fitted until! he has tried. After trying we find interest in a particular path of life, eager¬ ness to do certain things, and happiness in the knowledge that we can do ' something and do it well. Once we have found our desired wor ' k, we can oe happy in no other; for one cannot put forth his best ability in a field which holds no interest for him—he is like a man searching in a foreign land. When we find our life work, it is again our duty to try. We mupt ignore the opposition of others and learn even the smallest details of the task we have chosen. We should form our own opinions, and having formed these opinions, the task nearest at hand is to adhere to them. We must try today and every day. and when we cease to try, our life will be over, though we may still move about. After we have tried to the fullest extent of our ability we must then trust, for it is the man of faith, and hence of courage, who ip the master of circumstances, and who makes his power felt in the world. If we have done our best work in the path of our choice, we can confidently trust that our efforts will not be m vain. If we have stood upon our own two feet, used our own ideas sincerely, surely the outcome will coincide with our long sought desire. The best example of self-reliance is Emerson’s description of a child: “Infancy conforms to nobody; all conform to it, so that one child often exerts a mysterious power over a group of adults who play with it.” We must try while we have youth, for with our youth, we have power, dreams, ambitions, ideals and trust in the future. Each one of us, by trying and having tried, by trusting, must tri¬ umph. We are best known by what we do of our own accord, by the

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28 THE HIGH SCHOOL HERALD whose heels closely followed the depression. Business and finance were reduced to a chaotic heap from which we are still trying to pick up the pieces. The Deepression. Had it really a direct cauce or was it just the result of the accumulation of all America’s little mistakes in thought and deed. What scars will it leave upon the world? Time alone will tell. Ajid yet is not there a possibility that this so-called depression may be a bless¬ ing in disguise? Perhaps it is just what we needed to shake us out of the self-complacency we had fallen into. It has been a hard teacher. Many people have suffered and suffered much. We have paid much and still are paying for America’s mistake. But the greatest test is yet to come. Will America as a whole be better because of the experience? Have w r e learned our lesson? Have we regained our sense of values? A conception finer and truer than ever before? We have the best to hope for. Experience, ’though a hard teacher, is sometimes the best. Our generation has been, burned. Won’t that make us a little more careful about going near the fire again? We know w r hat America has been through and still is going through. The brunt of the burden, the responsibility of putting America back on the top of the heap has fallen on us. Shall we rise to the occasion, pick up the pieces and bring about through the depression the birth of a new nation ? We can do it. We must do it, and we will do it! The youth of America has been called. It will answer the challenge. The spirit of the past will come to the fore to establish and return true value to the ideals and hopes of America so that this nation of the people, by the people, will not perish from the earth.” Mary Bottasso, ’34. VALEDICTORY. PEACE THROUGH CULTURE. The world wants peace now more than it has ever wanted anything else. Peace is necessary for our existence. But what is the w r orld doing to procure and preserve peace? The League of Nations, the International Court of Arbitrations, Disarmament plans and Peace conferences have been established for the purpose of maintaining good will among nations. But will these organizations be successful in preventing a clash if an argument should rise between two hostile nations? They have proved themselves of little material aid in several uprisings that have taken place in the last decade. Why do people not realize that there will never be perpetual peace on earth while there are misunderstandings on account of race and nation¬ ality? American childrep grow up with the idea that there is no better language or country than their own. They know little concerning foreign people and consequently they look upon them with hostility. These same children, after they have matured, do not understand why two nations should argue. They merely know that their own country is the better and