NOTE: This was written by a Williamston High School student, David Pierce Beatty and we think it reveals a most remarkable insight into a situation which is the only thing he has ever known. It is published without editing.

-The Editor, The Williamston Enterprise (Williamston, Michigan) 1952.

A Short Way Off.

For around fifty modest seniors here in Williamston the end of a grand and glorious era is near at hand. In just a few more fleeting weeks the class of “52” will be but a page of history. The page will be stamped with a seal of the grand old sanctuary of Williamston High and the names written there will be a living memorial to a great generation of young people.

This courageous class of young people about to step out into a new atomic age that is but eight years old has never seen a peaceful, settled year since its birth in the early Thirtys. As the members of “52” came into this world the fangs of depression had torn deeply into the flesh of human happiness and welfare. The teeth marks of this great disaster left huge scars which were healed while we were just learning to walk and talk. 

It was while we were yet pulling pig-tails and playing drop the handkerchief that the bloodiest and most terrifying of all wars was in the making. And while we were learning our multiplication tables we heard Gabreal Heater tell of Pearl Harbor and DHDay, the Battle of the Bulge, Dunkirk and the Capture of the Phillippines. How well we remember that New Years Day when McArthur took Manila. How many ,there were in this great class whose throats at Churchill’s “Blood, Sweat and Tears”. How many there are whose brothers and uncles and dads never came back. Each and every one remembers the inch by inch fight to V-J Day.

This is the kind of a world we were born into and raised up in. This is not the complete story of “52” though. With the promises of peace everywhere at hand we entered high school at the time of one of the greatest political upsets in our national history, the election of 1948. While the boys started growing whiskers and the girls started wearing lipstick, unemployment raged and FFA members sold 32 cent hogs. Russia exploded an atomic bomb and somebody started a war in Korea. Of course Truman would have it all cleaned up over there by Christmas of “51” then the Yanks started cleaning house which certainly meant a cut in Defense plants if victory should come, so naturally McArthur got canned. 

Well here we are with graduation a short way off and were ready to start making a living with income tax so high you can’t afford to stay single and if you get married you can’t make ends meet. That’s what the big boys tell us and they should know. 

That has been our life in these United States. We’re not complaining because we don’t do that. But the fact still remains that we never have seen a year of what is known as ordinary times. And while many of life’s joys and sorrows may be but a short way off, it can not be said we are but little children. But in the greater sense we are happy, courageous, and law abiding citizens ready and willing to do our share for our class, our community and our Country. It is our sincerest and fondest hope that the citizens of this community will understand this great class’s hopes, desires and ambitions and that you will back us in our hopes for Peace and Happiness.

By Dave Pierce Beatty Senior Class. Reporter.