Opening school doors in 1934

JERRY PERSON

All parents at one time or another have wondered just what are their

children learning in class at school.

This week, we’re going to answer that question, at least what our

students were learning at Huntington Beach High School in 1934. This

may seem like a long time ago, but there are still many around who

remember the happenings when their school held an open house for

parents on April 27, 1934.

On this particular evening, the school’s orchestra, under the

direction of Margaret Squires, was in rare form and proved it by

entertaining the parents in the school auditorium with the especially

difficult selection of Dvorak’s Slavonic Dance No. 8. As any student

who has played in an orchestra can attest, this piece is not an easy

one to play, but our orchestra brought it off magnificently.

This was followed by two more difficult musical numbers --

Tchaikovsky’s Barcarolle from “The Seasons” and Russian Dance by

Mussorgsky.

This act would be a hard one to follow, but the Girls Glee Club’s

offering of “Capri,” with the fine solo sung by Liduvina Guillan, and

the Boys’ Glee Club selection of “A Hunting We Will Go,” under the

direction of Ruth Harlow, did it to the pleasure of those present.

Next on stage came a one-act play for the parents entitled

“Lonesome Like,” which featured Raymond Stricklin. This play centered

on a mill worker (Stricklin) and the people around him in a small

town set in Northern England. Included in the cast were Dorothy

Quiggle, Janice Preston and William Seamans. Edna Condon directed

them in this endeavor.

When the play ended and the curtain fell, Principal McClelland G.

Jones stepped on stage to explain what treats were in store for the

parents that evening. The parents were then dismissed, able to freely

roam the school and the many classrooms.

In Robert Hager’s history classroom, the parents were tested on

their knowledge of current events. I’m sure they were glad to take

the results home with them before their kids could see their scores.

As the parents walked the hallowed halls, they passed by display

cases in the hall, filled dresses made by the girls in Pearl

Shrimplin’s sewing class.

Inside Jessie Hayden’s Americanization classroom were displays of

Mexican-style needlework, made by her adult class. In the journalism

classroom of Miss Moore, the parents were shown the ins and outs of

creating the school’s newspaper, the Hi Lights.

Mr. Meairs’ commercial classroom had an exhibit of his class’s

bookkeeping skills. In Miss Trafford’s art class, the parents were

shown how harmonizing colors could add to an atmosphere of beauty and

dignity.

Along the upstairs corridors, the biology department had a large

collection of cacti and succulents that drew praise from parents and

our town’s cactus expert, J. Sherman Denny. There were exhibits of

flowers, animals and reptiles, to the delight of the parents.

The students in Miss Bourhill’s homemaking class had prepared some

delicious homemade cookies for the guests. Even though the parents

were a bit skeptical about the five-cent breakfast, they found out

that her students could accomplish it.

Hey, a nickel was worth five cents in those days.

In Fred Brooks’ manual arts class, his students put on a display

of their fine work.

These are just a few classrooms that were visited, showing what

the students of Huntington High were learning in those days, and how

much credit we owe to those fine teachers that shaped the lives of

those young people.

So the next time your school is holding an open house, don’t just

sit at home surfing the Internet. Get up, start your car and drive

over and see for yourself just how much your youngster and their

friends are doing in our classrooms.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.