At the last breakfast a good friend and former high school classmate of my sister passed a plastic bag around the table to me. When I peeked in I saw a couple of old books. Diane Spaulding-McCarty normally sits next to me, but she was running a bit late and her usual seat was taken. She explained to me that they were old Southport High School yearbooks.
I decided that it might not be a good idea to remove them from the bag right then because they looked fragile.
Once I returned home I got the books out of the bag. They are from 1926 and 1927.
I am a member of the Perry Township/Southport Historical Society. We have a Facebook page and I thought it would be fun to share some of the information from these books.
The first item I posted was a photograph of Blanche Penrod. According the yearbook, 1927 was Miss Penrod’s first year of teaching. She retired in 1969 after 43 years at Southport. She taught biology and was the dean of girls. I’m fairly sure that any students who attended Southport during those years remembers Miss Penrod.
I had her for biology during my sophomore year, and it was my sixth-period class. Miss Penrod firmly believed that students learned nothing on Friday afternoons, so she let us watch funny movies every Friday.
We had several comments posted about her. I think she was fairly strict about clothing and behavior. I believe one stated that Miss Penrod was instrumental in having the Easter Sunrise Service at the high school for many years.
We then posted a page with pictures of 10 of the 34 seniors from 1926. On that page were some well-known names: Rosebrock, Hildebrand, Wheeler, Armstrong and Sutton.
Both of the yearbooks, known as the “Anchor,” did not contain any drawings of a Cardinal, which is now the school mascot. The pages are filled with drawings of sailing ships, lighthouses and oceans.
There are advertisements in the back of both books. We have also posted one of these pages on Facebook. Just reading these ads has connected names and places.
I remember my parents saying to other adults that our house on Madison Avenue was previously owned by Sam Holder. One of the ads on the page we posted was from the Longacre Garage. It was located between our house and Thompson Road. In 1927 it was owned and operated by Samuel Holder. He could walk to work.
There is an ad from the Southport Drug Store on that same page: Mark L. Smock, prop. It also listed the store’s phone number as phone No. 10.
My good friend and former classmate Nancy (Wilcox) Vittorio-Debaun’s uncle, A.E. Pitcher, was one of the 10 teachers listed in the 1927 book. I sent her a copy of that page.
I’m having a blast going through these books.