Peggy H. was kind enough to lend me a precious artifact of Ridgeway High School’s history: a 1920 school yearbook titled “O-Ridg-O”. The book belonged to Ruby Enid Preston, a n RHS freshman, and she paid $2.00 for the black book with gold lettering. The yearbook staff was comprised of 8 seniors who wrote “In this, the second volume of the Ridgeway yearbook, we have tried to chronicle faithfully all those little events which make school life so dear to one’s memory.” They asked forgiveness if they offended anyone and hoped that the readers would like them and their book.
Nineteen seniors graduated from Ridgeway that year. Their flower was the Killarney Rose and their class motto was “With the ropes of the past, we ring the bells of the future.” While they were in high school, the United States fought in World War I and the world suffered through the Spanish influenza epidemic. Despite that, these young men and women looked forward to starting the next chapter of their lives.
The Seniors were featured prominently with their photos, activities and senior quotes. Personal favorite quotes were by Allene “Leen” Ellington who wrote “If I remain single, it isn’t my fault”, and by Glen “Bud” Bridges: “I love to sit on the fence and watch the snails whizzing by.” The rest of the yearbook was was pretty typical but there were jokes throughout the whole book, even in the ads, and recognition of accomplishments such as the speeds and error rates of of those taking typing classes (which were pretty impressive for using manual typewriters.) Interestingly, the freshmen were the only class to not have individual photos — they were depicted in two group shots instead.
