"Isn't It Strange?" EMU Student Life Cartoon, 1912

This cartoon in the 1912 "Aurora" yearbook shows the following scenes (clockwise from top left):

1. a green new arrival and a cool, confident college man
2. offbeat male hairstyles
3. football (looks like a rugby ball, doesn't it? But the school had no rugby team and in fact in the football team photo, you can see the ball is distinctly rounded, as in cartoon).
4. big senior boots for juniors to fill
5. an effete U-M dandy complete with cane, pipe, beanie, and bulldog.

1907 Aurora Editorial Staff

A portrait of the students who created the 1907 EMU "Aurora" yearbook. (Click for larger image).

Love and/or Sandwiches: from the 1906 "Aurora" EMU Yearbook

We were coming from the picnic,
A wand'ring over the land;
The moon was shining brightly,
I held her little--shawl.

Yes, I held her little shawl,
(How fast the evening flies!)
We spoke in tones of love,
I gazed into her--lunch basket.

I gazed into her lunch basket,
I wished I had a taste;
Here sat my loving charmer,
My arm around her--umbrella.

Embracing her umbrella,
This charming little miss,
Her eyes so full of mischief,
I slyly stole a--sandwich.

--Author unknown

Old Ypsi Yearbooks for Sale: Unique Local Gift, Maybe for You!

The Archives has a number of interesting old Ypsi High School and Normal College yearbooks for sale, just marked down to $5 each. You can own a piece of local history -- maybe even find one with a relative's name (several have student-name indexes)!

These yearbooks, although unprepossessing on the outside, are full of charming tidbits and amusing features. You can learn a lot of the tenor of the time they were from just by gazing through them and soaking up the hairstyles, the various societies and organizations, and the funny remarks.

They're also a little bittersweet. The yearbooks range from 1901 till around mid-century. In the 1901 yearbook DD perused today, the young women's faces express individual characters ranging from sprightly and ebullient to reflective and somber. It was a little sad to think that they have all passed on.

But there was also a gem of humor in an ageless student voice: the 1901 Senior Will. It's copied here so you can read it in full but some of the highlights include:

"Second. We give, devise and bequeath unto the said Sophomores the interesting and exceedingly simple (?) text books, namely Wells' Geometry and Lange's German. Together with these books, we give, devise, and bequesath the two sweet and amiable teachers, Miss Hardy and Miss Bacon."

"...To the Sigma Deltas we bequeath, in lieu of their staunch and ever ready friend Mr. John Bishop, his luxuriant hair, as he will not be allowed to possess such wealth in Ann Arbor."

"Blanche McCarthy gives, devises and bequeaths to the clown and "King" of the High School, the "mitten" which has so often been given and taken back again." [to "give him the mitten" was a slang term meaning to jilt an amorous gentleman, as in slapping his face with a mitten].

Readers of delicate sensibilities like Dusty D would be well advised to gently shield their eyes from Item the Last. I do hope the "r-word" contained therein refers to, of course, galoshes.