R. Webster declared that the assembled students should
put the matter to a vote. All in favor of such an
alliance say I, the students were told. The call for
affirmative votes resulted in a wave of quiet. But the
call for negative votes resulted in a loud chorus of
‘ayes’as the students voiced their sentiments against
the entanglement proposition."
- The Cumberland Evening Times.
(The outcome might have been different if the contest had been after the following
September when Britain was actually at war with Germany!)
For the next round a week later, our negative team traveled to Frostburg,
twelve miles distant, and defeated Beall High School’s affirmative team. I was
awarded the medal for best speaker on my team. David’s affirmative won against
Barton (Maryland) High School and he, too, won the medal. Finally came the
“debate-off" between the two schools (Allegany and Bruce, at Westernport,
Maryland) whose affirmative and negative teams had both won their respective
debates. Somehow it was decided that only the Allegany negative and the Bruce
affirmative needed to fight it out. By April 6, I was weary of the contest, or maybe I
had become complacent. I stumbled a little in my speech. I was not at my best and
was grateful for my three capable team mates, Bill, Alice and John. Nevertheless, we
won! Our victory entitled Allegany to possession of the Gunter Debate banner at least
for one year. Our victory was all the sweeter because Bruce had been holding the
banner for the three previous years. It was a relief to have those grueling speaking
contests behind me. But what a valuable training ground they had been!
With debate out of the way, a new experience was about to unfold: play acting.
I had not been in a dramatic play since the passion play a few years earlier. Now
Barney Wickard offered me a minor, but important, role in the annual senior class play.
Casting well-known seniors, with or without proven acting ability, was his way of
promoting the play. “Strangers at Home" by Charles Divine, an earlier Broadway
production, was touted as the “delightful, homey story" of a family whose members are
“virtually driven from home by the mother, in the name of accommodating tourists."
I was to portray Stuart Mason, “a well bred young man who falls in love with"
Kay, the romantic lead (so read the local newspaper article, which also carried my
picture). I would need to provide my own costumes - three different summer dress-
up outfits, none of which I already owned. My mother’s budget would suffer, but she
came through somehow, as always.
On April 11, at the second rehearsal, I was doing a scene with Kay, played by
Ann H., in which I was to try to kiss her. I started laughing and Barney pulled his
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