Long Island Collection staffers are working on digitizing East Hampton High School’s Bonac Beachcomber newspaper, along with a few other student publications. The project began with the earliest issues, and the staff enjoyed some laughs over the Nov. 19, 1947, issue, which covered the junior prom.
The romance-related song dedications are filled with inside jokes, but many are still understandable, like “Cuddle Up a Little Closer,” dedicated to Johnnie McGuirk, or “You’re Not So Easy to Forget,” intended for Florence Holub, or “Don’t Fence Me In,” for Eddie Ecker.
Coverage of the football season came with plenty of nicknames and more inside jokes. The team took second place in its county league, and an article offered a broad view of the skills displayed by the quarterback, “Brains” Richard Flach, “Gallopin’ Ghost” Conway, “Faithful” O’Rourke, Harry (Automatic) Ecker, and “Head Down” Walter Loris, who “was making yards while his brother was making noise.”
A modern perspective adds unintentional humor to the earnest effort to write about a school assembly showing shorthand and typing techniques, including a demonstration by a shorthand recordholder, Frank Donnelly. His assembly program is hard to imagine happening today, especially as adults increasingly try to get students away from computers and keyboards.
As for the junior prom, held five days before the issue came out, it raised $98.40, which would “definitely help the juniors get to Washington in 1949” for their senior class trip. Also reported was that Jane Bennett
attended the junior prom with the “7th and 8th grade pinup boy,” Bruce Collins. The two went on to marry, and 75 years later still live happily together in East Hampton.
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Andrea Meyer is the head of the Long Island Collection at the East Hampton Library.
