Readers of this column have told me how much they like seeing names from the past, sometime they are relatives, other times old friends.
Because this is graduation week at Cardington-Lincoln High School, I found a Cardington High School newspaper, The Searchlight, dated May, 1944 and it is a wind up of the school year with an emphasis on the graduating seniors.
I learned from the paper that the very first FFA and FHA banquet was held that month and that has become a standard. There was also a tea fo the senior girls held at a teacher’s home.
The junior/senior banquet had been held in the cafeteria with preparations made by the mothers of the classmates. Sanford Roach was class president and giving toasts were Clydelle Thomas and Ned Earley. It was followed by a trumpet quartet, Walter Herron, Eugene Heimlich, Jack Hildebrand and Bob Liggett. The class history was given by Betty Burke and the class prophecy by Walter Smith. Lowell Patterson gave a reading on “To the Garden,” followed by a reading “To the Gardeners” by Maxine Renz.
The senior class will was read by Mary Sherman and her future husband, Ned Earley, played a piano solo, “ Rhapsody in Blue.” My comment: Ned was the best; he could play the piano like no one I’ve ever heard.
Following the dinner, the group moved to the auditorium, to view the movie, “Breaking the Ice,” followed by a dance, “for those who wanted to stay.” That was the junior senior banquet in 1944.
The paper has a column on the May Day program which had been held in doors because of rain. The queen was Alice Crum and the retiring queen was Maxine Renz. Attendants were Dorothy Sarcone, Mary Sherman, Flora Harris, Geneva Phillips, Marjorie George, Doris Mathias, Dorothy Stephens, Maxine Boger, Julie Reed, Joan Hall, Richard Koon, crown bearer and flower girls were Roberta Jean Long and Elaine Cahoon.
Dancing in the May Pole Dance were Phyllis Yake, Wayne Mateer, Jeanne Benson, Kenneth Heimlich, Doris Smith, Eugene Davis, Janice Hall, Kent Curlk Ann Cover, Dewery Yake, Audrey Barton, Henry Newcomer, Evalyn Patzer, James Hack, Kathryn Nybladh and William Hack.
Some of the Cardington businesses advertising in the paper were Cahoon’s George Frew, Hart Oil Co, Burt and Son, Jewelers, Zeb Russell, Koon’s Grocery, Stone’s Drug Store, Riverside Dairy, Bailey’s Confectionary, Peoples Food Shoppe and H. H. Curl.
That was 82 years ago.
Glancing at past Junes- 1962: Steve Maceyko purchased two lots located at 207 South Third Street in Cardington for $934; June 1972: The Downbeats, Cardington-Lincoln High School’s stage band, gave a concert in the Cardington Park on June 6; June, 1992: Denise Ackerman and Marty Perry, both of Cardington, were selected as finalists in the upcoming Miss Teen of Ohio Pageant.
