Friday, July 17, 2009

A Blast from the Past

I was going through some stuff of mine and found my great grandpa's senior yearbook from 1931!.





He sure was a handsome guy! It's neat to be able to see a little bit of myself in this picture of my Great Grandpa Gray.

Looking through the yearbook I noticed that everyone had a nickname and a quote. My grandpa's nickname was "Rony" (probably pronounced Ronnie). His quote reads, "My tongue within my lips I rein: for who talks much must talk in vain." I like his quote because it describes him perfectly. Grandpa always was a quiet and reserved man. I only found one other picture of him in the yearbook. He was on the Apple Judging Team.

There are so many "strange" things all throughout the book. First, I noticed that none of the men smiled for their pictures. About half of the women did, but not a single man smiled for his picture.

I also noticed that popularity was an issue even in the 30s. Two of their mock elections say "Most Popular Girl (among girls)/(among boys)" and "Most Popular Boy (among girls)/(among boys)." (Because it's just SO important to make that distinction. *she says in a sarcastic tone*) Some of the funny ones included: Class Shark, Class Sheik, Class Gum Chewer, Class Roughneck, Best Girl/Boy Dancer.

Just a few other oddities:

They dedicated the yearbook to their PARENTS! Wow! You'd never see that happen these days.

The valedictorian and salutatorian's speeches are typed up in the yearbook.

They had an agriculture teacher!

It seems every female in the 30s was born with extremely wavy hair.

They put the custodian's picture on the first page.

The drama club was called The Dramatic Club.

They included a calendar of events recording the highlights from each day from September 1 - December 19. Quite interesting the things they put on the calendar.
A few excerpts worth reading:
Sept. 8 - First fire drill. Two frosh hurt in rush for the door.
Sept. 10 - We all rented a locker today. All those that had a $1.00.
Sept. 22 - The fair is over and our money is gone.
Sept. 23 - The seniors are makig a wonderful attempt to become dignified.
Sept. 30 - Someone borrowed 100 pads of theme paper.
Oct. 1 - Investigation concerning lost paper.
Oct. 7 - Wayne Burdick takes a nap the seventh period every day.
Oct. 15 - Noret Flood got excused to go hunting.
Oct. 28 - Ogden Amstutz left school.
Oct. 29 - They're still talking about that lost paper.
Dec. 10 - Mr. Snow quieted assembly with a whistle. This is an original idea.

It really is a neat piece of history; and to think that it is my Great Grandfather's history!

2 comments:

Alanna said...

Hey Meg...sorry I hadn't commented sooner, but I loved this post! I love old things and history and it was really neat reading about your Great Grandpa.

Megobuddy said...

Aw, thanks Alanna! I was beginning to wonder if this was just a really boring post. :P

Glad you liked it!