Almost one hundred years ago, on Friday, May 26, 1916, WHS graduated a class of five men and eight women. A postcard photo taken during the 1912 – 1913 school year, when that graduating class would have been freshmen, shows the entire WHS student population of fifty-five students. In ten days, on May 28th, Westby High School will graduate seventy-seven students – thirty nine men and thirty eight women from a student body total of 349 students. How things have changed in one hundred years!
October 25thof their school year, the 1916 Seniors had a half-day off school to take pictures. It was the first of several they would have off to work on the SkiAnnual. One hundred twenty six pages were filled with poems, pictures and a diary of daily observances. It seems that would be a good club to join because they could skip classes and they did, all thirteen of them. However, appearing in that yearbook were lists of students’ faults, a few ambitions and even a saying attributed to one member of the Class of 1916 that would be “politically incorrect” if they were printed in the yearbook of today. So maybe things have changed a little. Today’s annual is still about the same number of pages but the pages are almost twice as big as those 100 years ago.
Every class member was involved in one or more of the music programs. Page 88 of the 1916 Ski declares that music “is as essential to our souls as food is to our bodies.” Girls’ Glee Club, Boys’ Glee Club, Minstrels, Orchestra and Girls’ Quartette were offered and were all well-attended at that time. They were part of the foundation for the excellent music programs that continue at WHS. Today, almost 70% of the WHS student body participates in at least one of the music programs. The drama department in 1916 was equally strong with 100% participation from the senior class in their play “The Professor,” with help from three more undergraduates.
The girls’ basketball team won three of its four games that year while the boys’ won seven out of thirteen. The February 4thschool diary entry reads “Our boys won the game with Viroqua, score being 25 – 18. At last Westby has succeeded in defeating its greatest rival, Viroqua.” Did I say some things never change?
As a bit of trivia, anyone who remembers him will not be surprised to learn that Lincoln Neprud was the only student from the Class of 1916 who was ever a cheerleader and never a member of the Literary Society.
Clothing styles of the day were very conservative and formal by today’s standards. Male student wore suits to school in 1916. Their shirts had wide, high collars and vests were worn under their suit jackets. Women wore long sleeves on dresses, ¾ length skirts or longer, and very often they wore huge bows in their hair.
In 1916, the Senior class colors were cardinal and pearl gray, the American Beauty red rose was the class flower and their motto was “Life is what you make it.” This class of thirteen students went on the next year to try to “make it.” In 1917, ten of these alumni were continuing their education at a college of some kind, one was employed, one had become a Mrs., and one young man was farming. How wonderful for Westby’s future to have such ambitious young people.
The 2016 Class of Westby High School will soon graduate on May 28th. Their class colors are red and gray, just like 1916, with the addition of the color black just for a little drama. Their class flower is also a rose, this one white with a silver ribbon, and today’s class motto is “People who think they are crazy enough to change the world are the ones who do,” a quote from Steve Jobs. Sounds a lot like “Life is what YOU make it.” Congratulations Westby High School Class of 2016!
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