Page 47 - 1940

the Lower School to "the gentlemen on my President; "Funnyman” Briggs, Vice-Pres­
left” ’way down in front of Study Hall, but ident; Sam Parsons, Secretary; and Hough­
the feeling of inferiority that belongs to a ton “Seabiscuit” Letts, financier and bank­
new First Former soon wore off under the er. Adrian Sanford and Jerry Myers repre­
weight of work which was piled on the first sented the class on the Student Activities
full day. Committee, completing the list of class of­
Several new faces greeted us as we gath­ ficers.
ered around “Jit’s” desk, among them be­ In non-athletics we were well represented
ing Jerry Myers, the dark-haired, modest with Bob Martin in the orchestra; Adrian
gentleman from Cranston; Bob Martin, the Sanford, Houghton Letts, and Sheldon
promising cornet player from Nathan Spicer in the Proscenium productions as
Bishop; and the inimitable, irresistible, both actors and stage crew; Charlie Briggs
identical twins, the Earle boys, whose idea Hurford Crossman, and George Tyler in the
of fun was to throw packages of five-for-a- Chess Club; Fletcher Burton and Pete
penny candy in the boys’ parlor, the corri­ Coffin in the Science Club.
dor, or the locker room in order to watch On the athletic field the class was well
the scramble. With these illustrious mem­ represented with Sanford and Oakes on the
bers added to the old gang, the class of '40 Middlers’ football; Myers, Burton, Dodds,
gave promise to many fine years. and Letts on the Bumblebees; Charlie
The only teacher we thoroughly knew the Scovil, "Charm” Marshall, and Burton on
first week was Pop Allen, whom we had had the track team. Mr. Whitford’s junior swim­
in the Lower School. He could still confuse ming team had a great many First-Form
us all, except Robert Jacobson, with stocks members, with Dunbar, Oakes, Martin,
and bonds, compound interest, and aliquot Bellows, and Sanford doing a good job.
parts of one hundred. To baffle us still more, The latter also made his debut in diving in
he introduced those puzzling green work­ the varsity encounter with St. George’s.
books. Mr. Jose kept us in fits because of Practical jokers had another good year,
the way he scribbled the last few letters of managing to set off an alarm clock in eve­
his explanation of Evangeline. Down in the ning study hour. Also, there was the plot to
laboratory the genial mastodon, Mr. Halk- have everyone wear black leather ties,
yard, held us spellbound with his intricate which were exhibited in great numbers dur­
experiments (they always came out in a ing the week that class pictures were taken.
marvelous fashion) and his stories. Besides However, the conspiracy was nipped before
conducting that interesting science course, the whole school could be “tied.”
he drove us through Greek and Roman Mike Dorizas, perennial visitor, returned
mythology until we were all acquainted to give a fine lecture on the European situ­
with Apollo, Athene, and Zeus. Smoothie ation. He gave an exhibition of his grap­
Spencer was the final taskmaster, whose pling prowess in the gym, where he defeated
job it was to instill in our tiny brain cells five or six Second and Third Formers at one
the memory of hie, haec, hoc, and amo, amas, time. After permitting them to bend his
amat. His class was the source of many a legs and to attempt to turn him over, he
good laugh. Who can forget the day that got up and shook the fellows off like drops
he, finding the atmosphere unbearably suf­ of water.
focating, opened all the windows, only to With the advent of spring came vacation,
find that the odor of Pierce Brereton’s feet, which no one regretted, the beginning of
which were outside their shoes, still re­ outdoor activities, and the last long grind
mained? until Commencement. Messrs. Myers and
The class elections found Charlie Scovil, Baldwin played good ball for the Middlers,