A Window into My Father’s Senior Year
Among my parents’ papers, I found my father’s senior autograph book from his graduation at St. Joseph’s High School in June 1939. The small brown book contains signatures, handwritten messages, and well wishes from classmates and teachers as they prepare to leave school and begin the next stage of their lives. What interested me most, however, were the pages my father completed about himself.
For the first time, I learned that Roger Watson served as vice president of the Class of 1939. It was something I had never heard mentioned, yet it offers another glimpse into the young man he was before adulthood brought military service, marriage, and family responsibilities. I also discovered that he was a member of the Holy Name Society, a Catholic organization that encouraged young men to deepen their faith and live according to Christian values. Looking back over his life, it seems to have been an early reflection of the principles that remained important to him.
The page titled “My Favorites” provides another look into his interests as an eighteen-year-old. His favorite teacher was Sister Celeste, the same Sister Celeste whom he later traveled to Michigan to visit after graduation. Their continued friendship suggests that she was an important influence during his school years.
His favorite subject was drawing, a lifelong interest that never left him. In the years after graduation, he explored correspondence courses in cartooning and commercial art, and throughout his life he continued to sketch, collect cartoons, and appreciate illustration. His favorite sports were baseball and basketball, two games he continued to follow for many years.
One entry reflects the world around him in 1939. His favorite book was Gone with the Wind. Margaret Mitchell’s novel had become one of the country’s best-selling books after its publication in 1936, and the motion picture premiered later in 1939. Whether he was referring to the novel or looking forward to seeing the film, it clearly made a lasting impression on him during his senior year.
His favorite song was “The Dipsy Doodle,” a popular swing tune recorded by Larry Clinton in 1937 and frequently played on the radio during the late 1930s. It is a reminder of the music that filled the air during his high school years and provides another connection to the world he knew as a teenager.
This little autograph book revealed details about my father that I had never known. They are not major events or milestones, but rather the ordinary pieces of everyday life that help us understand a person more fully. Through these pages, I met Roger Watson as an eighteen-year-old: a class officer, a faithful student, an aspiring artist, an athlete, and a young man preparing to leave the familiar world of St. Joseph’s High School. As I continue exploring my parents’ papers, I am reminded that the smallest keepsakes often become the richest sources of family history. They preserve not only names and dates, but the interests, friendships, and values that shaped a life.
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