Winter Haven High School - Wha Hwa Hta See Yearbook (Winter Haven, FL)

Page 8 text:

4 hi lli lor By Pat Fuller 1939 Wa Hwa Hta See The mill grinds on and 1939's class of supposedly finished products now surreptitiously emerge with minds harboring the one thought that they arc now desirous to brush the wispy tendrils of prcp-School ivy from their back hair and fare forth into a Darwinian Survival-of-the-fittest-world with merely a scrap of paper saying that they finally made it,” and enough ambition to tackle anything in view. There they go—valedictorian, salutatorian. the class famous, the class obscure, you and you and me. Out to tread the treacherous way. the turn-pike with things that snap and snarl at you on every corner. Armed only with the accoutrements of learning and memories of four years. And will we be condemned for treason for saying that some of the memories lack that certain grandeur that class historians are wont to wax expansive over? Memories that have to do with quaking knees and stumbling feet? As freshmen we had our share of those. Scared, skinny, and self-conscious with feet, hands and heads tied together haphazardly, and studies that threw the fear of the powers that be into our quivering marrow. Flying blind through a dense fog with a chart full of x plus xy minus y's and hie. haec. hoes. New business and tough business—business that made us wonder whether we had been allotted all that was coming to us. although most of us did make it somehow. Then came greener pastures, the Elysium fields of sophomoredom: a sophomoric ego is a tremendous, wondrous thing. We were finally learning the angles. No more cringing into corners. Nonchalance was the order of the day. And there was. we were learning, a social side of school life that we hadn't been aware of as freshmen. Very important things you know, like dates and stuffl Anyway we planned a picnic for the seniors which was unanimously voted a wow and about which we are still bragging. Well, the Junior year wasn’t bad. but isn't it funny what a strange awkward looking bunch of kids those were in the freshman and sophomore class—just kids. They really aren't old enough to be away from their mothers. Isn't it funny?—And then there was. of course, the ever memorable Junior-Senior banquet which as always proved wholly unequaled. Of course, there were a couple of girls there that should have known a lot better. Not that their dresses were exactly like yours but they were enough alike for one to be able to tell that they had nastily remembered what one had told them about at sorority meeting. It seems that nothing is sacred to some people. And so now we re really graduating! There's something terribly traditional and sort of awe-inspiring and things about a cap and gown, isn’t there? But then we don’t suppose anybody will notice it if we wear this mortar-board at just a little bit more than the prescribed angle, do you? It's lots more becoming this way! So now we stand at the end of the long path of our most important year. We hold but a small diploma in our hands but our hearts are brimming with personally sacred memories—memories of life-long friends of hard spent but useful hours, and of silly, embarrassing moments which at the time seem horrible but are now endeared to us forever. Memories of a wonderfully, noisy, successful. athletic season, of a senior play that actually put Hollywood and Small Fry on the same level, and of all the other many activities which were equally wonderful. So here we stand—the Senior Class of 1939. and with quantities of star dust shining from our eyes we can only say. Wasn’t it all perfectly swell?”

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1939 Wa Hwa Hta See To li«‘ Nlmloiils From II r. L«|»s The second volume of the revived Wa Hwa Hta See is presented to the student body by the Senior class with the hope that it will bring to every member not only present joy and pride in Winter Haven High, but memories for the future when sons and daughters of present pupils will be publishing their own annuals. The Editor-in-Chief, Mary Igou. and her staff of collaborators have handed on undimmed the torch entrusted them by Editor-in-Chief Carolyn Janssen and the class of 1918. This book is a tribute to their efforts and the support of their classmates. The administration and the faculty of the school feel that the pioneer work of the class of 1918 and 1939 in publishing these yearbooks has established a precedent destined to result in an unbroken series of annuals to be published by each new graduating class through the years. This activity will do more than any other one thing to nurture the splendid spirit of old Haven High and hallow her honorable traditions. We have a school which has been consistently rated in the highest class by the State Department of Public Instruction and accredited by the Southern Association since 1935. Faculty and student body alike are proud of our school's standing, of the variety of vocational and academic courses offered, and of the vital and dynamic program of activities of every nature available to the students. The administration feels that the activity of the annual staff and the Senior class in publishing this yearbook fits most aptly into the democratic philosophy of the faculty for encouraging the widest participation, initiative, responsibility, and self-determination on the part of the student body in the life and activities of the school and community. We feel that this project will bring invaluable training and experience along with the pleasure and hard work. We commend the staff and the editor upon their fine work and congratulate the school upon its fine annual. At future dates each of you. upon turning these pages, will think with the old Roman Poet Haec olim meminisse juvabit.” J. M. LEPS