Summer Reading

 

Sometimes a TV show will spark an interest in reading the book that it was based upon. Such is the case with “Under the Dome,” a show which enters its second summer season tonight on CBS at 10/9c. Written by our own Maine author, Stephen King, it is one of my very favorite summer shows.

I’d like to talk about that book and TV show a little bit here as well as introduce you to some summer reading by Maine authors or authors who write about Maine. I’ll also have some comments about my own reading this summer. Warning. I have not read any of these books. I only mention them here in case you are looking for summer reading matter and would like to enjoy some “Maine” fare. If you have a review on any of these books, I’d be happy to post them here.



Under the Dome, the book, is a partial review of a novel King attempted to write first in 1972 under the same title and then a second time in 1982 as The Cannibals. As King says about the two works, they “were two very different attempts to utilize the same idea, which concerns itself with how people behave when they are cut off from the society they’ve always belonged to.”

If you’ve followed the story on TV with me you know that the small town of Chester’s Mill is abruptly and brutally separated from the rest of the world by an invisible barrier which suddenly covers the whole town. What happens to the townspeople from then on can only be imagined as unbearable.

King is writing the first episode of the new season. I saw a picture of him in TV Guide typing on a typewriter that is enclosed in a suitcase affair that must be at least 50 years old. I had one just like it at one time. I wonder with all his millions if he still writes this way and does he in fact have a computer at all.

King says in the TV Guide preview about the new season that it is “an entirely different direction from the book.” He relishes the idea of extending the creepy tale. “It was a tremendous opportunity to dig deeper into the characters and see where they came from.” Such is the workings of the mind of our dear Stephen King.

The Latest Book from Stephen King

  

If you’d like to read the latest book by our man, pick up this book, Mr. Mercedes.

Like Father, Like Son

 It seems that Stephen’s son, Owen, is also a writer. If you’d like to see if the apple doesn’t indeed fall far from the tree, pick up this book about a mass murderer.

Maine Writers and books placed in Maine

 

Sarah Graves writes the “Home Repair is Homicide” mysteries. She lives in Eastport with her husband and dog, Evelyn. Her latest book in this series is A Bat in the Belfry. The blurb online reads: “The storm of the century blows an ill wind into Eastport, and with it comes murder most foul. But a mystery woman whose motives are suspect arrives too; is she the help Jake needs or the final nail in her coffin?”

 

Vicki Doudera’s, latest book in the Darby Farr Mysteries, is Deal Killer. Her books are realty-inspired. In this book: “Murder comes to Manhattan when Realtor-turned sleuth, Darby Farr, arrives in the Big Apple and finds big trouble: her boyfriend Miles Porter’s a suspect in the brutal stabbing of a Russian businessman.”

Doudera moved to Maine with her husband in 1986. They renovated and opened a Victorian inn. As she was studying for her real estate license, she was inspired to write the Darby series. If you are thinking of moving to Maine you might want to check out her popular books: Moving to Maine and Where to Retire in Maine.

 

Karen Macinerney, an Austin author, writes the Gray Whale Inn mystery series. Her sixth book, Mother’s Day Out, is the first in the Margie Peterson mystery series which features Margie as a “stay-at-home-mom-turned-PI.”

She is herself a stay-at-home-mom who very often writes in her favorite coffeehouse. She is married, with two children, who all live with a house rabbit named Bunny.

 

Paul Doiron writes a mystery series featuring the character of Mike Bowditch, a Maine Warden. In the Bone Orchard, which won’t be available until July 15, “Mike Bowditch has left the Maine Warden Service and is working as a fishing guide in the North Woods. But when his mentor Sgt. Kathy Frost is forced to kill a troubled war veteran in an apparent case of ‘”suicide by cop,’” he begins having second thoughts about his decision.” Of course you know that Mike will become fully involved in that situation.

Doiron is an award-winning author. He is Editor Emeritus of Down East: The Magazine of Maine. He stepped down in 2013 to write full-time. A native of Maine, he has a degree in English from Yale as well as an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College. He is a former member of the Maine Arts Commission and a current member of the Maine Humanities Council. He is also a registered Maine Guide, specializing in fly fishing, and lives on a trout stream in coastal Maine.

A Midwife’s Tale

 

Thanks to my favorite Maine magazine, Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors, for introducing me to this intriguing book in the latest issue of the magazine.

A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, written by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990.

“Drawing on the diaries of a midwife and healer in eighteenth-century Maine, this intimate history illuminates the medical practices, household economies, religious rivalries, and sexual mores of the New England frontier.”

You can read parts of the book at www.dohistory.org. I found the read fascinating. Ulrich deserves high praise for her translation of this handwritten diary. There are also several videos on YouTube about Martha and her diary.

Visit the Reading Corner

If you love history, the Reading Corner on Main Street in Rockland has several suggestions for your summer reading about the founding of our country. Check out their website.

Jenifer LeClair Book Signing

Minnesota author, Jenifer LeClair, will be signing copies of her Windjammer Mystery series books at the Reading Corner on August 19 from 2:00-3:30 pm. Drop by if you are up that way.

My Summer Reading

I always have two or three books and several magazines going at one time. I go back and forth in a desperate attempt to catch up on everything. I do a lot of my reading while I eat or when I’m at one of my many doctors’ offices while I’m waiting.

I’ve been about a year trying to finish two paper backs by one of my favorite mystery writers, Sue Grafton. I just finished Top Secret, Twenty One, the 21^st book in the Janet Evanovich mystery series featuring Stephanie Plum, the bounty hunter. I may have to bypass Sue Grafton once again to read the book just out called The Cuckoo’s Calling, by Robert Galbraith, a/k/a J.K. Rowling. In between all this I try to keep up with my magazines, TV Guide, the AARP magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and Maine, Boats, Homes & Harbor. I just finished reading MBHH and enjoyed it as usual. I read every page in that magazine including the ads, especially the ones for those beautiful yachts. I’m not currently reading any Maine-oriented materials except for MBHH.

I hope you have found some avenues to explore for your summer reading enjoyment. As always I will suggest my own book, The South End, which is available online and at the Reading Corner and Hello Hello Books. Happy reading and thanks for listening to this author.

 

Hey, Check This Out

June 28

If you are in Maine right now, here’s a fun thing to do this Saturday. My friend, Robin Robinson will give free wagon rides with her Clydesdales. She has a carriage business called, Nostalgic Limo Horse & Carriage Service. Check it out if you’d like to have a beautiful carriage for your wedding or other event. Here’s a picture of two of her handsome boys.

 

 

The forecast looks AMAZING for this Saturday so make your last-minute travel plans ASAP.

The Festival is this Saturday and it will be the can’t-miss event to kick off your summer.  Live Music, Whoopie Pies, Vendors, Rides, Contests, the list is seemingly endless.  So drive up ta Dovah, enjoy the scenic ride from any direction, and enjoy this slice of Maine with all of us!!

DIRECTIONS: You can’t git  he-yah from they-ah… just kidding. 

From I-95 you can either take route 15 from Bangor or Route 7 from Newport. The festival is going to be right in the middle of Dover-Foxcroft, so you can’t miss it.

 

First Apartment…First Independence

As I look forward to returning to my beloved State of Maine at last, I thought I’d look back at where I have come from in regards to my living situations over the years. Many college graduates are out looking for apartments as I speak and are as anxious as I was to be independent at last.

The apartment described below was not my first living arrangement as a young person living in Hartford, Connecticut. This was however, the first time I had ventured out to have my own apartment sans roommates. Before this apartment, I lived with five other women in a rented house. They were all teachers, whereas I had given up that profession, and were on to other things. One of them was getting married; one traveling to Japan to teach; and the others had their own plans. So, that living arrangement was broken up.

The apartment I chose to move into wasn’t far from the house we rented. I had one big room; a small kitchen; a small bathroom with a shower; and a sleeping porch. The stove was a small gas four-burner that didn’t always work when you wanted it to. I was not used to gas stoves and sometimes had trouble lighting it. It had to be relit every time you used it. It’s a wonder I didn’t blow up the place. I usually ended up cooking on an electric hot plate and using one of those counter stove/toaster combos to cook other stuff. It was before the age of microwaves.

For furniture I had a red patterned drop down couch which was very uncomfortable but served the purpose. I decided to sleep on the enclosed porch eventually in a small iron bed I’d taken with me from the house. The porch had neither heat nor insulation, so I used a space heater to keep warm in the winter. I bought a huge roll-up curtain to hang over the windows.

I think I had one comfortable chair to sit in and the most unusual thing I had was a bar my brother Harlan made for me. It had velvet paint on the inside of it. Why I thought I needed I bar, I don’t know as I have never been much of a drinker. In any event, that bar was never stocked with any liquor that I remember. I do remember that I put the litter box behind it, so that it would be hidden. I also had a coffee table that was made out of an old wooden lobster trap along with a lamp or two.

The apartment was one of two in a big house that had been split down the middle and made into two living spaces. The fireplace backed into both places. Neither fireplace worked. My neighbor was a young woman who had five cats and we were friendly towards each other. I loved this apartment and was happy that at last I could do what I wanted to in my own place. I especially liked the fact that the used bike I’d found to buy was great for going down the street to the drug store or the other way to a big park at the end of the street. Sometimes I’d put my mackerel tabby cat, Sylvester, in the basket and off we’d go to spend some time in the sunshine.

It was the 70s and the flower generation was finally coming out of their drug-induced existence and realizing that perhaps living on a commune for the rest of their lives was not such a good idea. They drifted back into the corporate world; got married; had kids; and worked to pay the mortgage; car payments; and their school loans like everyone else.

At my age, I was never part of that scene. While the “flower children” were running around protesting the war, I was already working to make a living. I came from a small town to live in the big city and seek out those opportunities that may be presented to me. My mindset was to work hard and make something of myself if possible. My Yankee background; family upbringing; and the principle of stick-to-it-ness came to the fore.

I ended up working in that nether world called the “night shift.” It was rare that I saw the light of day, especially when I ended up working the lobster shift, midnight to eight in the morning. The apartment was on a high-traffic street that served as a throughway to get to other sections of the residential district. I went to work in the dark and tried to block out the sun and the traffic noises out on the sleeping porch so that I could sleep during the day. During the school year I also had to shoo the kids out of the hallway when they tried to come in from the cold to wait for the school bus. There was no lock on that front door.  I ended up living like a vampire who sleeps in a casket every day.

During that period of employment I had the weekends off so I tried to at least live an ordinary existence from Saturday morning to Monday at midnight when I returned to work. I wasn’t always successful, but I at least tried to maintain a few relationships.

I didn’t always work the night shift while I lived in Connecticut. During one period of actual day work I was able to join a community chorus and belong to a theater group, The Mark Twain Maskers. Both experiences were a lot of fun.

I also belonged to a singles club who planned trips together. I was able to go skiing in Vermont with this group as well as visit the World’s Fair in Montreal and travel to Puerto Rico. The club held a “members only” dance about once a month. I met a lot of nice people.

It was during this period of my life in Hartford that I met two men with exactly the same name. Their first name was Dave. I won’t give you the last name in case either one of them will someday read this story. Why do I worry about that fact? Because neither one knew of the other’s existence. I determined they were not related to each other early on. Their last name was not all that ordinary either. I dated both of them at the same time. How did this scenario happen? How did I get myself into such a situation? I don’t think I even know or remember the answer to those two questions. In any event, I enjoyed spending time with both of them and can’t say I preferred the company of one over the other. They were both fun to be with and they both treated me with the utmost respect. Funny thing is—they were very much alike.

You never know what experiences you will have when you start out in life as an independent person. Living here in Georgia for the last 16 years with Nanci, who has become a good and loyal friend, has been wonderful. We’ve been through some good times, some thin times, some hard times, but through it all we’ve held each other up when necessary. We both look forward to living the next chapter in our lives together up in Maine.

Thanks for listening.

Your History is in Your Yearbook-

Part II, The Cauldron of 1959

 

 

We finish our examination of Rockland High School/Rockland District High School’s yearbook, the Cauldron from the years of 1927, my mother’s yearbook; and the Cauldron from 1959, my yearbook. I see my own personal history at that time as seen through the pages of my yearbook as well as the world at large at that time. What did the teenagers of 1959, 32 years later than my mother’s graduating class of 1927 care about? How was their world different? Where would they go, what would they experience after graduation day?

The teenagers of 1927 were between wars. Although the Class of 1959 was not in high school during the Korean conflict, we were certainly aware of it. It ended in 1953 and we entered high school a mere three years later. The Vietnam conflict, or war, began in 1955 and ended in 1975, a space of 20 long years compared to the four years or so of World War II. There were actually fathers and sons who participated in that war. No wonder we got tired of it and expressed our opinions loudly about wanting out.

In 1955 Americans were basically consultants. That changed of course. In high school at that time, as sophomores, we were not even aware of Vietnam. Most of us could probably not even tell you where it was. However, some of my classmates were to become very involved in that war later on. Remember--it had only been 14 years since the end of World War II in 1959. As we looked at that fact in the years to come it seemed to us as though we had just morphed from one war to the next. We were doubtful that the world would ever be at total peace. So far that world condition goes on, unfortunately.

Now that I’ve given you a picture of where the world was in 1959, we go to the Cauldron of that year. In the 32 years since my mother’s Cauldron, some things remained the same and some things were very different as far as the book is concerned. Please keep in mind that my copy of the 1959 book is one I was able to acquire from the internet as my original book was lost in the flood. I told you that sad story before, therefore, my report may be slightly different than the books my classmates have.

The 1927 Cauldron began with 16 pages of ads. The 1959 Cauldron put its ads at the end of the book. The 1959 book unlike the 1927 book is hard cover; perfect bound (no staples); no ads on the back covers; with artwork throughout of our school mascot, the Rockland Tiger, created by our classmate, Holman Davis. It is clear that as the years progressed, the Cauldron became an art piece as well as a report of the events of that year.

 

The cover of the ’59 book shows the first tiger art work done by Holman. The colors are maroon and white, our class colors. The ’27 book uses the black and orange school colors in a circle on the front and even shows a cauldron. The mascot at that time was a bulldog rather than a tiger, however. Our school colors continued to be orange and black though.

First Page

The 1959 first page is a picture of the front door of the high school on Lincoln Street.

 

The type under the picture is; “We the editorial staff of this, the 1959 volume of the CAULDRON have endeavored to portray the many aspects of one year at Rockland High School. We will show you, through words and pictures, our academic, our athletic, and our social attainments—and our occasional failures.”

 

The Dedication

 

Both books have dedications. Whereas the ’27 book dedicated their book to one of their teachers, Charles Phillips, we of the class of ’59 chose to dedicate our book to a long-time employee at RHS, our custodian, Oliver Wendell Holmes, obviously named for the famous Supreme Court Judge. He was always a friend to all of us at the school. The words under his picture read:

“To Oliver Wendell Holmes, custodian of Rockland High School for twenty-five years, kindly and judicious friend to all, this issue of the CAULDRON is lovingly and respectfully dedicated.”

And rightly so, I may add.

 

The Memoriam

The ’59 book also has a special memoriam to our classmate, Eddie Crane, who died in an accident at age 16 while working at his father’s store, Senter Cranes, on Main Street. His memoriam reads:

“In loving memory of Edward Page Crane this page is dedicated by his classmates.”

The Faculty

Unlike the ’27 book, the ’59 book shows a picture of the teaching staff opposite the Dedication page in the front of the book. I count 36 teachers plus our principal, Hamilton Boothby and secretary, Irene Adolphsen. Kenneth MacDougal was Vice-Principal and was also a science teacher.

Sections of the Book

 

 

 

The ’27 had an actual Table of Contents. Our book, however, was divided into sections with a cover page done by Holman for each section. This is the Activities cover page. The Sections were in order: Seniors, Sports, Activities

All things Senior are presented in the front of the book for the ’59 book. There are pages for the Cauldron Board, the National Honor Society, and Dirigo State, which involved honorary nominations for some students to participate in the government process at our state Capitol in Augusta.

Here is where the history of individual classmates comes in. Besides our individual pictures and a list of our activities for our four-year high school career, we also have two very special pages that I still see posted on Facebook from time to time.

One is a full page simply called “The Class” on which every one of the seniors signed his or her name. As I look at these names I think of some story or other connected with a bunch of them. I also see those who have left us over the years. I bet you every remaining classmate can tell you exactly where they signed this page. I lot of history here.

The other page is called “Seniors’ Baby Pictures.” This is self-explanatory. In my picture I am about three-years-old with a tiny hat of some kind on my head and holding the knit teddy bear which my grandmother made for me. The faces on this page also take me back. I went through all the grades in school with some of them as well as four years of high school. I will see this page from time to time on Facebook.

 

This is my picture in the yearbook. Notice the pageboy haircut. I counted at least 15 pageboys or a variation of the same out of the 42 girls pictured. It was a popular cut of the day and many of us began growing our hair long enough in our junior year so we would have hair long enough to train into a pageboy in our senior yearbook picture. It was a popular cut of many of the movie stars at the time, including June Allyson, my favorite actress of the time.

You can certainly see the popular cuts of the day, including the boys in these pictures and the fact that the pictures were all so formal with the boys all dressed in suits. Some of these boys wouldn’t be caught dead in a suit ordinarily. Remember it was the time of the so-called “Greasers.” That term always tickles me as we never heard that term at RHS when I went to school. It was a name given to us later on. Some of the boys had some “wicked” DAs though. Many of you will know what DA means.

You can see the history of each student throughout their high school years as listed with their pictures. Comments were also made about each one, a carry-over from the ’27 book.

The words with my picture say: “…(a nickname I won’t mention here.) “One good, hearty laugh is a bombshell exploding in the right place.” Commercial Course. Washington Club, 1-4; Basketball 1-4; Commercial Service Club, 1-4; Decorations Committee—Junior Prom, 3; Art Committee Kippy Karnival Ball, 3; Field Hockey, 1-3 (don’t think that’s exactly true); Kippy Karnival Entertainment, 3-4; Band 2-4; Cauldron Board, 4, Typist; Mixed Chorus 1-4; F.H.A. 1-4.

The Washington Club was a club we used to raise money for our class trip to New York City and Washington D.C. in the spring of our Senior year. When I think of that trip the memory that comes to me is of our stay in NYC when some of the boys snuck off to see a ticker-tape parade for Fidel Castro down 5^th Avenue. They were told not to even think about it, but away they went. What a story they had to tell their grandchildren in the years to come as a result though. History. always the history.

F.H.A. stands for Future Homemakers of America. Yeah, right. The only reason many of us joined that club was because they had a club picnic at Sandy Shores every year and we got a day off from school for it.

So if you read the activities that accompany each picture in the book you can see the history of that person for the four years he was at RHS. My only regret is that I don’t have all the comments my classmates wrote in my book because the original one was lost in the flood. Those comments also display a history of their own.

Who’s Who

In the ’59 book there is a two-page spread which proposes the ideal senior boy and girl respectively. The characteristics described are right on for the most part and gives you an idea of how a senior stood with his classmates and the personality they had. The Best of the Best is also listed.

Literary

Both books have a literary section. In the ’59 book it is in the Senior section and only Seniors’ work is presented. Some subjects discussed were The Security that our government provides for us; the pros and cons of “going steady;” the return of a dead soldier from WWII to his family; a Rockland Tigers’ Evening written by Pat Wade and Prill Newbert, both of whom have left us now. The poem tells a story that borders on juvenile delinquency, a big concern with parents at that time; a look into the possible futures of some of the classmates. It’s fun to look back and see if some of the predictions actually came true. A story about someone’s Ford; Advice to Under Classmates; What High School Has Meant to Me. These were the concerns and comments on the daily lives of the class of 1959.

The Three K’s

Besides all the clubs, sports, and other activities presented in the ’59 book, there is a three page section dedicated to what we called the Three K’s, which meant Kanteen, Kurtis Kampaign, and Kippy Karnival. These were the three main ways of raising funds for the school. The Kanteen was run in the school gym during class out times. The Kurtis Kampaign was actually spelled with C’s instead of K’s. and was our annual magazine drive. It always included prizes for the persons who brought in the most subscriptions. I was terrible at it and never won anything. I did better selling Girl Scout Cookies. Kippy Karnial was a three-day event that charged admission fees to a special entertainment show; special events or activities put on by each class at the high school; a fair type affair where you could play games of skill in the gym for prizes. There was also a ball at which a Kippy Karnival Queen was named as a result of voting for a senior girl who was nominated. Our Queen was Dot Childs.

Minstrel Show

I had forgotten that my senior year at Kippy Karnival included a minstrel show with black face. Such shows were common in the community and at the schools at that time. It was before the days of the Civil Rights Movement. We thought nothing of it. These shows wouldn’t be produced today. Such was the time in our history.

I know that at some point Kippy Karnival was discontinued for lack of interest and other reasons. I believe it was reinstated later on. I don’t know if it continues today or not, but I remember how much fun we had every year when KK time came around.

Today’s History

These days, kids are working more than we did then. If they want to go on to college they often have to keep their noses to the grindstone. I have a lot of sympathy for the kids of today in that respect. Your high school years should be a time of memory-making and living your own personal high school history. It should be a fun time to remember and reminisce about later on at your class reunions and when you get together with your classmates from time to time as the years after high school whiz by you.

I hope you have good memories of your high school experience. I will always remember fondly my years at Rockland High School.

Thanks for listening.

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grand Opening of

Two South End Museums

 

Dual Grand Openings

Sail, Power & Steam Museum and

The Coastal Children’s Museum

June 14 and 15

For More Information call

701-7626 or 7627

 

 

Your History is in Your Yearbook

If you peruse your yearbook, it is very likely that you will find your own personal history as well as the history of the world at that moment in time. If you have the advantage of retrospect and are looking at a yearbook that was published say before World War II, you will see how naïve the world was and how teenagers like teenagers everywhere and in every era are focused on their own goals and aspirations and of just having fun with their fellow students.

In this story I will examine two such yearbooks of two different generations; my mother’s generation in 1927; and my own generation in 1959. In the space of 32 years the world was turned upside down; first with the Depression and then with World War II. My own generation continued with their own wars: The Korean War and the Vietnam War, neither of which were ever declared an actual war.

My generation of the 50s did not realize nor appreciate at the time we were all  in high school of the sacrifices our parents had made and the downright bravery that generation went through so that we could enjoy the 50s in relative peace and prosperity.

My old high school, Rockland High School, produced a yearbook called “The Cauldron” every spring. I don’t know when the book started but I do know it existed in 1927, the year my mother, Evangeline Winchenbaugh graduated from RHS, because I have that book. I have examined the 1927 “Cauldron” before, but here I would like to compare it to my own “Cauldron” of 1959. What was important to teenagers in 1927 and what did they care about in 1959? What were their worlds like? How did they differ? Let’s find out.

 

 

The Cauldron of 1927 has heavy paper covers and is stapled. It has 22 pages of ads in the front and back of the book and also the Inside Back Cover and the Outside Back Cover. The IBC has ads for Rockland and Rockport Lime Corp. and St. Clair & Allen, a candy store. The OBC has a full page ad for The North National Bank. There are 56 pages of school content. You will see many names that look familiar to you.

The Table of Contents which I will discuss one by one has:

Dedication; Editorials; Literary; Jokes; Sports; Poems; Social Notes; Senior Department; Exchanges; Alumni

Dedication:

 

Charles Phillips

 “We, the Editorial Board, respectfully dedicate this edition of the Cauldron, to our Chemistry instructor, Mr. Charles Phillip, who has faithfully and loyally stood by us through thick and thin.”

Editorials

Editorials written by the Editorial staff include the subjects of School Spirit, one of which calls for a dedication to studies as well as to sports. There is also a piece about the new “Boys Band” and a call for a Dramatics Club. In 1959 there was a Thespian Club which we will discuss later.

Literary

Stories written by students. Included is a story about a club in New York and the flappers. How A.L., ’28 had any idea about such a club is a question as he describes it very well. Another story is called “The Episode of the Roadster,” by Margaret Hellier, a senior; and one called “Abraham Lincoln, the Greatest of Americans,” By H.G.G. also a senior. Abraham Lincoln pops up in a few places in this issue of the Cauldron. Remember, he had only been dead for 62 years at that time.

Sports

The only team pictures in this book are of the Boys’ Baseball team, the Boys’ Basketball team; and the Girls’ Basketball team. The only team for girls was basketball. No Title 9 then. There were also Boys teams for Football and Track. We only have a report of the year in Football and none for the Track team at all. The school colors are mentioned as orange and black which they still were in 1959; but they were known as Bulldogs, not Tigers.

Poems

Poems include “The Woman Hater,” also about the flappers of that time. Not complimentary at all. There is also “In Tribute,” another Abraham Lincoln piece.

There was also an essay contest about him. In 1927 Donald Merriam won the “large bronze medal” given by the Springfield Watch Company. I wonder if this company was in Springfield, Illinois, where Lincoln practiced law. Honorable mention was given to Margaret Hellier and Parker Young.

Social Notes

This section reports on the special events of the year. It is only a written report. Junior and Senior Proms were called “Socials” at that time. There was also a Halloween Masquerade Ball” in October. I don’t see any reference to Kippy Karnival so that event must have come later in RHS history.

There are references to the Boys’ and Girls’ Glee Clubs and the School Orchestra. Also no pictures.

One of the Debating Team topics of that year was: “Resolved that the Philippines should have independence within five years.” They were off by 14 years. The teenagers of 1927 had no inkling of the new Great War to come. The Philippine people suffered greatly during that war. During the Bataan Death March in WWII, 60,000-80,000 Philippine and American prisoners of war were marched, many to their deaths. 10,000 Pilipino people and about 600 Americans died on that march from Mariveles, Bataan to San Fernando, Pampanga. Survivors of the march were loaded onto a box train and brought to Camp O’Donnell in Capas, Tariac.

The Philippines gained their independence from America in 1946 after the war. They surely deserved it.

Mention was also made of the Senior Class Play, “The Whole Town’s Talking.”

The play evidently was based on the movie of 1926, only a year previous, which was a silent adventure comedy, based on a play by Anita Loos and John Emerson. It starred Edward Everett Horton, Virginia Lee Corbin and Trixie Friganza. It was remade in 1936, which I assumed was a “talkie,” and starred Edward G. Robinson. I know you have to have permission to use scripts like this. I wonder if and how they got the rights to do this one so close to the year it actually came out.

This book doesn’t have many pictures at all. Besides the three sports pictures and the one of Charles Phillips, the only other pictures were of the Editorial Board of the Cauldron; the class play cast; and the Debating Club. I guess the people who taught them were not important enough to include in their book that year. I love that I have pictures of all my teachers at RHS and have referred to those pictures several times when I’m writing about that era.

Senior Department

This section has jokes and gossip about the graduating seniors. One item of gossip included the fact that the class heartbreaker, Donald Merriam, reportedly saw two girls home, Evelyn Perry and Margaret Hellier.

Another piece of gossip was the story that several girls had formed a “Club” whose main purposes were: to eat, gossip, and attend movies. They also vowed to help other girls who were unlucky in love. At one point 12 of them came to school with bandages on their faces because of a truth and consequences game at one of their Club meetings. Sounds like they wanted to be the “it girls” of the day. It also rings true for girls who would be called bullies today or members of a clique.

 It also lists the “parts” received by the seniors who took part in the graduation ceremony:

Donald Merriam…Valedictory

May Johnson…Salutatory

Randall Marshall…Oration

Peter Pellicane…Address to Underclassmen

Ethel Quinn…Essay

Palmer Pease…Prophecy

Frances Orne…History

Samuel Smalley…Presentation of Gifts to the Girls

Virginia Bisbee…Presentation of Gifts to the Boys

Richard Bird…Class Marshal

Edna Gregory… Class Ode

It doesn’t look like they had a major speaker at all, but kept the ceremony a class event only. I think it’s nice that they gave gifts to each other, boys and girls. I wonder what Prophecy by Palmer Pease consisted of and what history Frances Orne presented to the audience. Was it the history of the class or what? The Class Ode became our Class Motto in 1959 which I believe was “The Past is Gone, the Future is our Own.”

Pictures of the 76 members of the senior class in the book are:

Lempi Anderson, Elizabeth Annis, Madeline Bubier, Bessie Blackwood, Leland Blackington, Bradford Burgess, Virginia Bisbee, Richard Bird, Myer Benovitch, Donald Cameron, Christine Curtis, Beulah Cole, Ruth Crouse, Catherine Critch, Albertina Creighton, Marian Clark, Raymond Cross, Arlene Chaples, Annie Dunn, William Davis, Wendell Emery, Walter Ellis, John Flanagan, Maybelle Fales, Cedric French, Kendall Greene, Marion Greene, Evelyn Green, Helen Glidden, Edna Gregory, Ida Harper, Hattie Hupper, Malcolm Hoxie, Elizabeth Hamlin, Margaret Hellier, Alice Hodgkins, Estelle Hall, Mervin Harriman, May Johnston, Ruth Koster, Frank Knight, Wilbur Kennedy, Oiva Lempi, Helen LaCrosse, Claribel Lowe, Florence Legage, Robert McCarty, Alice Merrick, Ruth Mealey, Peter Pellicane, Delia Parsons, Palmer Pease, Ethel Quinn, Ethel Rackliff, Evelyn Simmons, Ruth Stearns, Virginia Snow, Mary Sylvestr, Samuel Smalley, Sydney Segal, Ethel Thomas, Luther Wotton, Robert Wallis, Frances Winchenbach, Evangeline Winchenbaugh (they spelled it wrong in the book as Winchenbach), Parker Young, Linola Young.

 

The senior graduation pictures are placed in the back of the book rather than in the front as in my Cauldron of 1959.

 

My mother’s graduation picture in the book. The words read: “Wink” Commercial. “Wink’s always so faithful to her Harold, always generous, never narrow.” We have no idea who “Harold” was.

Some of these last names at least should be familiar to Rockland people. A lot of these family names still prevail today in the community.

The Exchange

A very strange section of this book. It basically reviews the papers and magazines of other schools. Why is the question?

Alumni

This subject catches up with the graduates of the past two years of 1925 and 1926. For 1925 they show my father Theodore working at the Courier-Gazette. Some of the graduates of these two classes ended up going to some prestigious schools like the N.E. Conservatory of Music, Bowdoin, Bates, Brown, Colby, and Harvard. There were a few “Normal School” students, which were three-year schools that trained teachers in those days. One woman in the class of 1925 was listed as being a resident of the Hebron Sanitarium. I wonder if that was a Sanitarium that treated and isolated Tuberculosis patients. Another woman was listed as deceased. She would only have been about 20 years old. Several members had moved out-of-state, two even as far away as the Bahamas.

The senior class members pictured in the 1927 Cauldron didn’t know at that time of the struggles and strife that lay ahead of them. Through it all they raised their families the best way they could; tried to be good citizens and contribute to their communities and to the war effort. They were the greatest generation of our modern history and we most likely will not see their ilk again.

I don’t think the Cauldron is published anymore since it was a Rockland High School and Rockland District High School publication and the newly named Oceanside High School serves several towns including Rockland. I hope they have started their own tradition with their own yearbook. It is a book we all should keep near and dear to us throughout our lifetime. It’s our link to a time in our lives we all cherish and reminds us of all the good times we had and of the lifetime friends we made while we walked the halls of Rockland High School.

The Cauldron of 1959…to be continued next week.

Thanks for listening.