Time Capsule

The first issue of the Girls Catholic school newspaper, The Ricardian, named for Immaculate Conception’s Monsignor Richard Neagle, appeared in May 1933 featuring short stories, poetry, class wills and prophecies, as well as reports of activities. By the early ’40s and extending through the ’60s the newspaper became a joint venture, published Quarterly by the students of Girls Catholic and Malden Catholic. During that time, The Ricardian was a regular 1st-Place winner at the Columbia Press Convention. We present snippets of The Ricardian here to celebrate our history and to marvel at “the way we were”!

The boys and girls of Malden Catholic for the 2020-21 school year experienced a world in turmoil with normal routines upended by pandemic challenges. As traumatic as that year had been for them, it was not the first time MC/GC students faced world calamity with courage – as you will find in one of the items here from the February 1942 edition of The Ricardian, two months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

ON DECEMBER 7 (AUTHOR)

On December 7, 1941, the forces of the Rising Sun attacked without warning America’s far-flung outposts in the Pacific. On December 8, the feast day of the Queen of Peace, the United States of America declared war on the Empire of Japan. This declaration shocked the entire populace which believed that Japanese representatives in Washington were doing their utmost to bring about a peaceful settlement of the Far Eastern problems. In reality, though, this gesture by Kurusu and his henchmen cloaked the true intention of the Japanese government. Their unwarranted attack and destruction of American lives and property will be recorded in the annals of history as the most dastardly deed ever perpetrated by a foreign country - for even in war there is some code of honor. Undoubtedly, some high school students, reading about the war, have passed it off lightly, saying, “Well, this conflict, raging thousands of miles away in the vast Pacific, cannot affect me.” But they are wrong. The stark realization of the nearness of this war struck us as the entire student body attended Mass for our former classmate, Joseph Maloney, killed in action at Pearl Harbor, as it was thought. But a later cablegram announced his safety. Yes, indeed, their whole lives will be affected, for soon many of these youths will be leaving high school to face a world disrupted by a conflagration the magnitude of which is almost impossible to comprehend. They will become the nucleus of our vast army, navy, air force, and industrial might. Fortunately, we who leave M. C. H. S. will be better prepared to meet this turbulent world than other youths. For four full years we have been trained in the principles that there is something far more important than material greatness, that there is no such thing as an invincible, all-powerful dictator, that we are nothing but insignificant creatures on this battle-scarred earth. Since our moral fiber has been strengthened by this splendid training, we will not cower in fear or complain in times of disaster or pessimism, but we will go forward in battle trusting always in our God and in our Government. - Boys’ Editor (John Nicholson, 1942)

SIXTH ANNUAL PROM HELD IN LYNNFIELD

The Happy Valley Country Club, Lynnfield, was the festive scene of the boys' sixth annual Junior Prom. Over 75 couples danced to the syncopated rhythms of Bert Edward’s orchestra. Plaques of the Blessed Virgin Mary were presented to the young ladies as a memo of the occasion. Class president Howard Smith and Ruth Gilligan led the grand march. Another never-to-be-forgotten incident was the duet of “You Are My Sunshine” by Bill Cosgrove and John La Rossiere. Mr. and Mrs. John J. Kelly chaperoned the affair. The committee in charge of the Prom was John Spencer, John P. Hughes, Jr., Howard Smith, John Mallon, John La Rossiere, John Hurley, Thomas Menton, Thomas Borgan, Charles Kelly, assisted by Brothers Anton and Armand, C.F.X., as advisors.

THERE’S A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING: GALA SENIOR DANCE HELD IN MARYHALL

Shy lads met vivacious lassies; shy lassies met debonair lads. Where and when did this occur? Why, Friday night, Dec. 5, at Maryhall. All the Seniors joined forces to make

merry under the auspices of the Blessed Virgin, who was presented with a bouquet of roses by the Senior A Class president, Marie Dillon. Sodality Prefect, Rosemary Nicholson, and senior class president Bill Cosgrove led the Grand March. We were happy at the response of the senior students.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

No, I am not going to talk about the destruction in the Philippines nor the treachery in Japan, nor the battles on the Pacific – for a change I am going to talk about you and me, about what we are doing for the U.S., about what we should be doing, and about what we shall be doing. You think, perhaps, that we who are merely high school students cannot be of much benefit in matters of such overwhelming gravity. But you are wrong! It is because we ARE merely high school students that we Can be of much benefit. It is because we are YOUNG and UNWORLDLY that we can look at this thing not with suspicion and cynicism but with frankness and honesty. It is because we are ENERGETIC and ENTHUSIASTIC that we can fight and lose, and fight and lose, and still be willing to try again. Today, once more, a hideous evil, more enduring that time itself, more powerful than any law or principle of honor, stronger than the strongest mechanism of man has caught a weary world napping and is now fondling it in an embrace of culpable disaster. Such a time has entered our lives, yours and mine – and we are a part of it. We are members. We belong. To us remains only the task of proving our worth. This can be done by, first of all, respecting the wishes and demands of our government and by co-operating in every way with the officials of our city. One of the first and most effective ways in which we can accomplish this is by buying U.S. Defense Bonds and by contributing to the American Red Cross. Then, too, we shall endeavor to learn something about first aid and study the rules printed now in newspapers and magazines regarding precautionary methods in an air raid. But perhaps the most important means of assistance is a spirit of willingness to help, eagerness to learn and unselfishness to give. And that spirit we have! Yes, you and I may be merely high school students, but being that, we possess those enviable qualities of youth that are so vitally essential and so desperately needed today – the simple laugh, the indefatigable enthusiasm, the youthful American spirit that are yours and mine. - Girls’ Editor (Barbara Dewey, 1942)