Notes
Nonprofit
from
Organization U.S. POST AGE PAID
Cardigan
Canaan, N.H. Permit No. 1
Cardigan Mountain School Canaan, New Hampshire 03741
Issue No. 3
November 1973
Classrooms are cooler, storm windows are almost always closed, and we're all more careful not to turn on 1 ights unless it's necessary. Living with 150 active teen-age boys is an experience calculated to warm not only the cockles of the heart - so how can we be cold with so many shining sons around us. The so-called energy crisis has made us much more aware of the amounts of energy of all forms we consume. Our supplier has been unable to fill our gasoline storage tank for about a month. Everytime a school vehicle leaves campus now, the driver is armed with credit cards and instructions to bring it back with a full tank. We're 1 imiting medical and shopping trips to once a week, and faculty are sharing rides everytime they go out. It all lends an air of excitement to our 1 ives as if we really needed any more - and we are confident that with careful utilization of the resources available to us, we will survive this crisis too. More ingenuity in planning, buying and preparation of our meals is required of Chef Clancy in order to maintain a balanced and nutritious menu within reasonable cost. We're seeing some new items on the dinner table and this is fun and interesting. Baked stuffed pork chops were featured at our Fall Sports Banquet just before the Thanksgiving recess. This is not the traditional menu for this traditional affair - but they certainly looked good and were a treat much enjoyed. The real feast was to rejoice with a varsity soccer team finishing their season with an 11-3 record and varsity football with an 8-3 season. Two excellent teams who displayed a lot of skill, enthusiasm and good sportsmanship worked hard to earn these records. Varsity soccer coaches voted to divide the Most Valuable Player award between veteran goalie Tom Rice and a one-term student from Guatemala - Willy Springm~hl. Varsity football's fine record was aided by their Most Valuable Players - Tony Santilli {known chiefly for his prowess as a hockey goalie) and Dave Bedinger - an 8th grade boy from South Carolina in his first year at Cardigan. So many boys wanted to play soccer this Fall that two reserve teams were formed. What backup material for next year's varsity! The Drama Club swung into operation early this Fall and mounted their first one-act play 11 Heads He Burns 11 on October 20th - just before Long Weekend. A second play was already in rehersal and provided entertainment Sunday night before Thanksgiving. Called 11 Crime Conscious 11 it was a suspense thriller in which the villain almost got away with the perfect crime, but was foiled at the last minute by trusty Sheriff Haskins. Don't miss their next show on Parent's Weekend, February 2, 1974. An event of noteon campus this month was the retirement of Mrs. Rachel Hill after 17½ years of faithful service on our housekeeping staff. For the past 10 years, Rachel was on duty at the Headmaster's House where she was frequently called upon to take care of all the Wakely children at various times while their parents were occupied with school affairs. In her own quiet way, she has earned a lasting place in Cardigan's history. Hobgoblins have crawled back into their holes until next All Saint's Eve, but they were out in force on our campus this year. Little ones and big ones and fat ones and skinny ones - they all came to dinner on October 30th. The biggest was the Headmaster as a Mexican Indian, and the smallest was Nicole Peck as Little Bo Peep -sheep. We had ghosts, a mendicant beggar in a loin cloth traveling by wheelbarrow, one poor fellow with his head and face all bandaged, a white-whiskered sailor dressed for the worst in yellow oilskins and complete with corncob pipe; a red-nosed representative of the Boston mafia; girls in bikinis and one lovely looking doll in a white skirt; a Mandarin pricne and a balloon merchant complete with balloons and a tank of helium. Mr. Shelton fooled no one by dressing
as an angel complete with halo and harp; we all knew there had to be something good behind that rough exterior he affects as Captain of Work Detail. There were over two dozen entries in the annual Pumpkin Contest. Afte.r dinner, wi th watery moonlight for atmosphere, they were 1 ighted and displayed on the Clark-Morgan steps. Leaving those 1 ighted Jack-a-Lanterns to keep watch over the campus, we followed the leader to the auditorium to see a real Halloween spook movie complete with ghosts and vampires. Dorm parties ended the festivities and helped us settle down for a good night's sleep. (Yes, homework was cancelled this night.) In between interim grades and comments and the official First Term Reports just mailed, we try to have some fun too. What better time than the night before Thanksgiving vacation for a carnival! The covered sports area took on a Coney Island atmosphere with hawkers urging us to 11 step right up and try your skill 11 at putting out a candle with a water pistol at six feet, walking a narrow course while looking through the wrong end of binoculars and the ever-present roulette wheel. The most elaborate booth was run in the dark! Illuminated only by a pulsing strobe light and deafened by appropriate music, two contestants straddled a log suspended just too high for feet to touch ground and battled each other with pillows. It's hard to describe the unreal atmosphere created by the intermittent flashes of 1 ight which seemed to suspend all action in slow motion. The School Council planned and ran the carnival to raise money for the Library. What prompted this great support of things 1 iterary? What else but a deficit! Believing that the Library is here for students to use, it is open seven days a week , 24 hours a day. Since our 1 ibrarian and her assistant don't care to be on duty all those hours, it is unattended afternoons and evenings - but remains open. Books can be checked out on the honor system at any time. Sometimes books are removed without honor, and sometimes books are lost or damaged and the boy responsible fails to come forward. A complete i nventory is taken at the close of the school year - and the School Council accepted the responsibility for raising $209 to cover the cost of replacing books missing last June. Proceeds from the carnival were more than sufficient to turn this amount over to the Librarian. Seniors, who should be enjoying their last year at Cardigan, seem to spend a lot of time in the Fall trying to get out of here . Helping and encouraging them are Directors of Admissions from many senior prep schools who send catalogues by the sackful and come visiting with smiles and colored slides to te l l why their schools are the ideal next step after Cardigan. By the start of the Christmas holidays a total of thirty-nine senior schools will have had representatives here endeavoring to influence our seniors in their direction. This 1 ist includes all the schools which have been most popular with Cardigan's recent graduates, such as Deerfield, Hotchkiss, Holderness, Williston, Kent and Gould, to name a few. Quick and sundry notes: The Senior Class elected the i r officers: President, Jon Bixby; Vice-President, Jody Coll ins; Treasurer, Scott Weiser; and Class Advisor, Mr. Finkbeiner. A photo contest this month uncovered some interesting pictures taken by students and faculty. We're planning another one for display during Parent's Weekend. Mr. Fahrner spent part of his Thanksgiving recess attending the annual meeting of the National Council of Teachers of English . Mr. Crowell just returned from a conference on Outdoor education and school camping; Mr. Abendroth and Mrs. McNeish attended a sem i nar for Reading teachers; Mr. Anderson went to a meeting on Testing; and Mr. Heath and Mr. Cant] in have been at several clinics for ski jumping and racing coaches - we hope they have spent an appropriate time praying for snow. The Annual Fund continues strong with a total of $27,301 in gifts and pledges to date. In addition, two items on the 11 Cardigan Needs 11 1 ist have been supplied - new drapes for the Chapel, and a snowmobile for packing cross-country trails. Thanks for your faith and sup po rt. 1
Notes from Cardigan 11 is published monthly by the Cardigan Mountain School . Third class postage paid at Canaan, N.H. 03741. '