A Banner Year

A couple weeks back I went to an estate sale at an old farmhouse in Jefferson County.  I wasn't expecting much as rural folk tend to have fewer frivoulous items and this was not an exception.  However, while looking through some books, I came across a a couple yearbooks from the 1940's.  I'm always baffled how a family can let items like these go.  People ask me why I would want someone else's yearbook.  First of all, at a quarter, I don't have much to lose.  But also, I think I want them because somebody else didn't.    I become keeper of someone else's memories.  I just realized something.  My home has become the Island of Misfit Memories.   Memories cast off by others, gathered, sheltered and seeking a new home.  And I now have a new category for my posts!

The book I chose to profile is the 1945 edition.  The book is from Kulpmont High School in Kulpmont, Pennsylvania or more appropriately, the newly (in 1945) rechristened Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial High School.

Within the first few pages, I came across and was struck by this:



Frank Surzinski had a sister(?) who was a senior in this graduating class.

The war was getting ready to wrap up, but many of the boys in this graduating class would still be heading into service, not college.

Note the annotations reflecting killed, missing or prisoner of war:



Most of the boys on this page don't look a bit concerned about it though.  Well, maybe Walter Kaminsky was a little.  There are a lot of "skis" and "skys" in the book.  Kulpmont must have a large Russian and Polish community.

I love these vintage football poses:

The High School band.  I didn't know the megaphone was an instrument.



The Radio and Stamp Clubs.  I wonder if the Radio Club was a listening or a technical group:



 Predictions of what would become of their fellow classmates:

I love their prediction for Ronald Haas:

 

For the kids in the audience, a Pultritude Scout is a young man who scopes out the fairer sex, usually in a lascivious manner. What do you think?  Guilty as charged?

 

You can't argue with the tune they chose as a cover to the class song:

I had no idea Smoke Gets in Your Eyes was older than The Platters' version, but found that it actually dates to 1933.

And now a word from your sponsor:

If you grew up in the 60's or 70's, you'll recognize the publisher from comic book ads promising "Cash Profits and Free Prizes!":

Grit is a Pennsylvania publishing house, local to our Kulpmont High.  They are still in print today, although they've become a glossy magazine.