Thelma Thompson arrived on the MAD campus in the fall of '49 to teach English and journalism. She served as department chairman, faculty club president, and school correspondent to community newspapers. When she retired at Bicentennial time, she wrote a history of our high school, and it was printed at the school print shop.
Alice
 

Alice Lindsey Browne
W'52
mrsbarefoot@hawaiiantel.net

PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR OUR

MAD ALL-CLASS REUNION

ABOARD THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER  USS MIDWAY MUSEUM

OCTOBER 1 -2, 2010

(Editor?s Note:   I had to split what was originally planned for this installment, due to length. So next week we will hear about the teachers? bobbing their hair.  Also, this was the year my mother graduated from MHS, and I am including her senior picture, scanned from her copy of the 1924 Monrovian.)

As written by Thelma Thompson, former MAD faculty member:
1923-1924
?It was the year of decision for Monrovia High girls,  1923-1924.  By more than the necessary 2/3 majority they voted to adopt a uniform consisting of a white middy and a blue skirt.
Not to be outdone were the boys.  In a September issue of the Wild Cat (yes, still spelled as two words) the local taylor, Ira D. Smythe by name, advertised that the ?prevailing styles for high school men will be similar to those worn by the Prince of Wales,? and to encourage them to wear tailor-made clothes, he offered suits from $40 to $60.
In October a Wild Cat story exclaimed, ?Auto mechanics building is at last completed?is a veritable sun parlor?absolutely earthquake proof.?  It cost $2.50 to be a student body member, and the student-set detention rules were strict:  congregating in the halls, 45 to 90 minutes; smoking, 45 minutes up;  swearing, 45 to 135 minutes; fighting, 45 to 235 minutes; whistling in halls, 45 to 135 minutes; defacing school property, restoration plus 45 to 225 minutes.
This is the year that Lurene Tuttle was elected queen of the Arcadia Exposition, that students called themselves shieks and shebas, that Mrs. Potts? girls? glee adopted a uniform of white linen dress, black bow at the neck, black belt, black shoes and stockings.
An issue of The Business Educator commended Monrovia High pupils for their resourcefulness in composing sentences for penmanship exercises.  Two were ?Aphrodite annually asked for Apollo?s apology,? and ?Zachariah Zuffenbach zoned Aululand zealously.? A half pound of sodium exploded in C. E. Cowen?s chemistry laboratory, but the fire was quickly confined.  Musical hits were ?Heavy Sugar Papa? and ?Tell Me Egyptian Moon.?
The annual was ?dedicated to Miss Grace Osborne, a friend of girls, and George K. Hester, a regular fellow.? It was the first yearbook to be published by the Associated Student Body instead of by the juniors.