Notes
Nonprofit Orpniution
from
U.S. POST AGE PAID
Cardigan
Canaan, N.H. Permit No. 1
Cardigan Mountain School Canaan, New Hampshire 03741
Issue No.
7
May - June 1973
May is clean-up month. Suddenly everyone realizes that there are only a few weeks of school l eft and many things still to be done. Classroom activity takes on an increased pace to finish the book or the section and start reviewing for finals. The Athletic Dept. tries to fit in make-up games for all those that were cancelled or rained out during the past eight months. The Drama Club is concurrently fitting in rehearsals for two plays for Grandparent's Day so as not to conflict with lacrosse or baseball games and sailing meets and study halls and conference periods. And every day. the sun shined, every boy had to ask his roommate, all his friends in his dorm, his dorm master, all his friends on the way to breakfast and the master at the breakfast table the same question: 11 This is going to be Headmaster's Day, isn't it? 11 Sometimes they asked this even on rainy mornings - and on cloudy ones - and on foggy ones. This year, however, the circus came first. May wouldn't be complete for our Headmaster without his annual trip to the circus. We suspect he may still nurture a secret ambition to run off with the gypsies and become a 1 ion tamer. His enthusiasm is very contagious, however; we had to hire two big busses to take 71 boys and 16 faculty to the Boston Garden. They left with a roar about 4:30 one afternoon clutching bag lunches and returned in the dark of night, full of popcorn and hot dogs, tired and happy. Our second annual Grandparent's Day was a happy occasion. Mr. Wakely told them, Boys are always glad to have you here because you don't ask them about grades - you just enjoy being here with them. 11 And they did. The boys were fine hosts (of course) and their grandparents were relaxed and delighted to spend a day seeing the School. Two oneact plays by the Drama Club provided the occasion for us to show off the 11 new 11 auditorium. Earlier this year, the School Council voted to provide carpeting from the proceeds of their snack bar operation. We then undertook a long overdue re-wiring of the 1 ights, and this led to a new accoustical ceiling. A surprise was a new curtain for the stage which Mr. Rearick managed to squeeze out of a tight budget . All was completed and installed for the performances. A new projection booth and revitalized sound system make the Saturday night movies very professional. This particular re-modeling job was very satisfactory and worthwhile and will be enjoyed by all. 11
Other work completed recently includes painting the dining room and panel] ing the upper hallways in Clark-Morgan. Earlier this year we replated the enlarger and print-dryer in our darkroom. When these new pieces of equipment arrived, they emphasized the shabby look of the darkroom, so it was re-designed and new counters were built. The results have been most gratifying. The boys who use the darkroom are using it a lot more and doing very fine quality work. They have done all the photo processing for pictures go in g into the Blaze this year whereas much of this formerly had to be sent outside. Perhaps even more important is our ability to process film quickly. This relieves problems of meeting dead] ines and it also means that we see the pictures very quickly and are often able to retake shots that didn't come out as well as expected. This year's Senior informals for the Blaze were all taken by students and processed in our darkroom. We bope you•J~ agree that the results are excellent. One of the most interesting and surpr1s1ng results of this project wasn't seen until the Senior Banquet just before Commencement. Senior Class President Peter Perry told Seniors and their parents that he wanted to introduce the members of the class not in their formal banquet attire, but as he knew them from day to day around school. He then projected color slides of each Senior showing them engaged in various afternoon activities around campus. these pictures were taken earlier the same day, and two boys labored industriously to process and mount these s lide s for showing at the banquet. No way could this have been done except with our own facilities. It certainly was a very timely and intere st ing presentation. Green and White Day - our annual all-school field and track day - was delayed until lat e in May by unsettled weather. It was a nice, informal, outdoor fun day climaxed by a gigantic game of 11 capture the flag 11 after dinner. We all knew the next day had to be back to classes because two consecutive days off at this busy catching-up time would be unheard of. Our Headmaster is full of surprises, however, and when another warm sunny day dawned, he exercised his prerogative and declared Headmaster's Day. This is a day when no one has to do anything - each boy is free to use the day as the inclination strikes him. Some go back to bed; most don't make their beds; there is swimming and boating and loafing and tennis and tether ball and loafing and bicycling and hiking and relaxing. This year, Carol Shelton and some of her friends had o rganized a scavenger hunt for any boys or groups of boys who were interested. The 1 ist of items or facts to be gathered ran to two full pages;
many boys were intimidated thinking the reward could scarcely be worth the effort. But Scott Poole was pleased as first prize winner to receive a whole, chilled watermelon; Victor Nieves carried off a case of coke for second prize, and Fred Senese received a bunch of chits to be exchanged for goodies at the snack bar. Finals of the Spring spelling bee were started on Grandparent's Day but had to be finished the following week as it became evident that the last two boys were going to have a Jong, hard duel to the finish. Paul Chamberlain was ultimately the victor, winning for the second time this year. As the finale to their year's activities, the Drama Club presented the two one-act plays they did for the grandparents to the May meeting of the Canaan Players, which was held at the School. Performing for a live audience, themselves amateur actors, was for some boys the high spot of the seasdn. For a year-end celebration they went to Hanover to see three original one-act plays written by Dartmouth College students and presented in competition by the experimental theatre workshop. It was a most interesting group of plays. We were all thrilled as part of our Baccalaureate service May 27th to witness the baptism of Mr. and Mrs. Peck's charming little daughter, Nicole. She performed fabulously, smiling through her whole part of the service. One of the last functions at the end of the year is to elect school council members. Next year they will be: 7th grade - Hugh Covert, Calvin Garwood; 8th grade - Tris Coffin, Scott Powers, Mark Wallace; 9th grade - Jon Bixby, Jody Collins, John Petraglia, Charles Skillas. Faculty representatives are: Harold Finkbeiner and Duncan McNeish. We were proud to be represented at Dartmouth College 1 s 203rd Commencement by two of our faculty who received degrees of Master of Arts in Liberal Studies: R. Alden Burt and Robert B. Fahrner. Whether it's a form of relaxation or a way to work out frustrations we're not quite sure, but again this year Don Blunt, chairman of the Science Dept., competed in something called 11 The Great Race. 11 This took place on June 9th, and 1201 entrants raced from Watertown, Mass. to Marblehead. Any form of locomotion not motor powered is allowed. Most entrants this year traveled by canoe or bicycle, and Don was one of only six who took to their heels and ran. One of the objectives is just to finish the race. Don did this, but we have no information as to how his time compared with the canoeists and bicyclists. After many delays due to changes of site necessitated by geological conditions, we're encouraged to see progress on construction of Greenwood House. Designed to provide accomodations for a faculty family and eight boys, this is the first one in our plan to have four new dorm-houses on campus. The site has been staked out and cleared, the center I ines for the road have been marked by the surveyors, and foundation construction should be well underway by the end of June. Mr. and Mrs. Peck are looking forward to being the first occupants on or about September first. If you're interested, ask directions to the new house when you register your son in September. In the confusion that inevitably arises when 140 boys are packing up for the summer · at the same time, it is perhaps too much to hope that every boy will arrive home with all of his own belongings and without including a sock or a shirt or something belonging to a friend or roommate. A few items of more than usual value turned up on the missing I ist at the very end, and if perchance they arrived with your son's luggage, please send them back to the School and we'll see that they reach their owners: a 11 Head 11 tennis racquet and a Spaulding steel tennis racquet; two good cameras - one with a camera bag, and numerous records and cassette tapes. Less than two weeks till the start of the Summer Session! We're almost full now. Enrollment for September looks very good - both in number of boys and in quality. 1972-73 has been a fine year for Cardigan and the line-up of faculty and students leads us to believe that next year will be even better. As this is the final issue of these 11 Notes 11 this year, we'd I ike to hear from you about them. They were started as an experimental means to report some of the interesting things that happen at Cardigan while your sons are here - things they might forget to mention in their weekly letters. We really have no way of knowing whether or not you found this worthwhile, so please return the postcard enclosed with this issue to let us know whether to continue this next year. Meantime, it's been fun sharing our activities with you. Have a wonderful summer! Notes from Cardigan 11 is published monthly by Cardigan Mountain School. Second class postage paid at Canaan, N. H. 03741
11