A nice gift from one museum to another
Ronan's Garden of the Rockies Museum donated a copy of the 1929 Polson High School Year Book to the Polson-Flathead Historical Museum recently. The gift is from the memorabilia of Class of 1930 class member William (Bill) Mahoney.
Inspection of the contents reveals a marked contrast of customs from 1928-29 to the present. A few examples:
Senior class portraits showed some mighty serious looking seniors — not a tooth showing! Group photos found a few people smiling, but not many.
The football team looked pretty serious, too. The team played a four-game schedule ending with a 2-2 win-loss record. They opened the season against Kalispell and lost 18-0. But then the Polson boys won two straight — downing the Galloping Horsemen from Plains 19-6 and shutting out Loyola 26-0. Had they taken a team picture then, there might have been happier looks. However, the Whitefish Bulldogs, outweighing Polson 20 to 30 pounds per man, trounced the local lads 55-0.
Basketball was better, though. Polson boys took second place in the Northwestern Montana Basketball District tournament. They beat Columbia Falls and Browning only to lose in the championship game to — you guessed it — Whitefish.
The girls' basketball team sported some smiles in the team picture. They played a six game schedule and finished with a 1-5 win-loss record, but the win was over Ronan 38-17. Ronan had the last word, however, defeating Polson 22-17. Other scores found Polson dropping games to St. Ignatius twice, 53-18 and 16-10, to Plains 33-21, and to Thompson Falls 20-14.
Track and field athletes from Polson were disappointed, but some significant individual performances were noted. Daryl Proud took second place in the half-mile and mile events in the district meet and Fred Keenan was first in shot put, discus and broad jump and second in high jump. In the state meet Keenan missed first place in the shot put by a half-inch.
School choirs were called glee clubs. Everyone had a "ripping time" at the school carnival. Students competed in the county fair in October. The junior prom was proclaimed the social event of the year — it was held in the Masonic Hall, which was upstairs in what is now the Tribal Natural Resources Building.
Some 60 boys participated in the Ag Club (shop and agriculture). The senior class party was at Lake Mary Ronan.
The seniors put on a three-act class play, "Cyclone Sally." And the junior class play was "The Zarel-Gump Wedding."
Humor was different in those days:
"Did you hear why Curly had a profile picture taken?"
"How's that?"
"Only had to have one side of his suit pressed."
"Are all the teachers in Polson High School bookworms?"
"No, the geometry teacher isn't."
"How's that?"
"He's an angle worm."
Stockings seem to be hereditary — they run in the best of families.
The humor section closed with this poem:
They were standing in the parlor
And the lights were burning low
When her old man hollered downstairs,
"Tell that guy it's time to go."
Then he bent to kiss the maiden
On her lips so round and fair,
The maiden raised upon her toes,
And paused while standing there.
"Oh, my God," she cried, "You've stabbed me,
"Your beard is like a saw."
But he staggered back and fainted
'cause she "et" her onions raw.
Not all graduates left the area. A lot of family names are familiar. Among them are Caffrey, Jennison, Johnson, Larson, McAllister, Mock, Scott, Sloan, Boettcher, Gipe, Erickson, Gregg, Knutson, Garbe, Symington, Grenier, Jensen, McAlear, Seifert, Herreid, Meuli, Simonsen, Sorensen, Sorenson, Uhde, Wining, Beavers, Farrell, Forman, French, Myers, Meyers, Shrider, McClain, Vincent and many more.