Class of 1945 History

Senior Class of 1945

It was a bright September morning in 1934 and school had begun again. Many of the older boys and girls were tickled pink, but just outside the school house there was an awful lot of unnecessary crying and screaming. This was all coming from the new students, some of whom had just celebrated their sixth birthday and were hanging on their mothers’ coattails for dear life. Those whose mothers couldn’t come were hanging around their larger brothers and sisters and those who didn’t have either were scared stiff. So started the morning and when the bell rang for us to go inside, we didn’t know whether to run or cry again.

After many minutes of confusion the teachers, mothers, and older students finally got us inside the school room. So started our career of learning.

We learned a great deal in the first grade and enjoyed our "Bob and Nancy" book immensely. On March 31 of our first year we heard some of the older children talking about playing an "April Fool" joke on their teacher the next day by playing hookie. Well, April first came and when Miss Stout came in after lunch, she had no students. We were afraid to leave school because of the tall tales we had heard. We consoled ourselves by hiding in the coat room. After much pretended worry Miss Stout found us and away to the office we went. By the end of that first year we all liked school so well that we cried when time came to go home.

The next year Miss Idyl was our teacher and we all but worshipped her because she played the piano and was out of the room quite often. Several funny little things happened that year that would be too funny to relate to the public.

As is usual students came and went but most of those who started together were still all here.

In the third grade Miss Emma Lee was our teacher and though we thought we could never love any other teacher except Miss Stout and Miss Idyl, we soon found ourselves as much in love with her as we were the others. In our third year several of us moved away but moved back before the year was over. It was the year we learned t work analysis problems in arithmetic and did we feel big. That was also the year that Mr. Cooley almost got us for kissing in the woodpile.

The fourth grade was great fun but it kept two teachers busy teaching us all the things we were learning. The teachers were Miss Emma Lee and Miss Idyl. This was a full year of glory for they had any number of plays that year and we were in them all.

The next year, our fifth, we just knew that there would never be another teacher for us but Miss Idyl and Miss Emma Lee. Miss Idyl taught most of the subjects but Miss Emma Lee came in for a few. To tell the truth we thought they were great. Our classmates were still coming and going. A few moved each year; either here or away. I remember Nova Carter moved away that year.

The sixth grade sorta’ scared us because we were going to have a new teacher not only new to us but new to the school, so you can see we couldn’t ask around and find out how strict she was, though we soon found out. This also was the year our class was increased by half. Rock Creek school consolidated with us that year and you never saw so many kids. Our class was so large and so intelligent that it took Miss Nabors, Miss Idyl, Mr. Chambers, Mr. Simpson, and Miss Emma Lee to cram information into us and Mrs. Wells as study hall teacher to make it stay. This, too, was the year we welcomed Betty Kirkindoll to our ranks. Oh, don’t ever think we weren’t mean. We were so mean, in fact, that we got whippings with pokers because there was no paddle handy. Goodness! what fun! Oh, yeah, this was also the year we saw our beloved woodpile start rising slowly into a gymnasium.

Well, our final year in grade school finally came. We had grown, yes, but when we heard the things that was told about how hard the seventh grade would be we all admitted we were still babies. When the time came we went sorrowfully in and found, to our great pleasure, that you could get by with anything but murder in Mr. Simpson’s classes. This was just what a class like ours had wished for, and oh my, did we take advantage of it. We spent part of this year going to school in a church house because they were reconditioning the school building. Mr. Cook taught us geography part of the year. This we liked because even the good girls were not good in his class. He was forever threatening to ram his fist down one of our throats. Miss Wilson taught us music for a while also.

It was this year that boys and girls felt that they were a great deal bigger than they were and so they quit school. This happened to our class. Many moved away and many others left never to darken the door of learning again.

When graduation time came we were all thrilled to the top. You see we were going to graduate in formals. The first class to do it in years so why shouldn’t we be in a frenzy.

You have heard of us talk of our brightness, well, you should have heard Mrs. Cupps story when we were Freshmen. She didn’t know that human beings could be so dumb. Neither did we. After we got over initiation and all the other frightening things that happen to Freshmen, we did o.k. Where books were concerned, we were dumb but just say "social". Yes, we did our two cents in everything. Our sponsor that first year was Mrs. Cupp.

As Soph’s we went places only none of us knew where, but you can bet some of us were there if anything happened - especially trouble. Mrs. Chance was our sponsor and showed us a good time.

Our Junior year was a dilly. We always had the reputation of doing things right; well, we did everything right that year - except what we did wrong. Mrs. Ashford was our sponsor, and we did things. We sponsored a negro minstrel to pay for the Junior-Senior Banquet which was the most beautiful one ever given any Senior class. Everyone said so. Of course, we went around with our chests out all summer afterwards, but people seemed to understand.

Thus our story is brought to the present year and a wonderful one. Things are working like a machine to our advantage. We have already made more money than any Senior class in the history of Maud High, and the year is only a little over half gone. Of course, we’ve had our ups and downs with a few of our classmates dropping out and such, but still we are a very large Senior Class. Miss Murphy is our sponsor and no Senior Class every had a sweeter and more considerate one. We all realize how fortunate we are and thank her kindly. We also thank our parents and teachers for guiding us safely in our first big goal in life.

So ends the saga of our eleven years of work and fun. Out of the thirty-five that started to school, only eight of the original class remains. Little did we realize in 1934 that each day, hour, minute, and second we were making history to be read by so many people.