At this time of year it is usually hard to tear rural their people away from work for community meetings. But there is one function which never fails to fill the hall. That is the eighth grade graduation. Last night the 10 rural schools of our township held their joint exercises at Sunrise community hall. The house was packed to overflowing. Friends and neighbors and proud parents entered into the jolly, festive spirit of the children's program of songs, drills, dialogues and pantomimes. Then came the solemn time, so momentous to the graduates, when the superintendent of schools publicly commended them for their achievements and presented them with diplomas in recognition of the fact that they had successfully finished one of the first great tasks of their lives.
Other pupils who had won commendation by perfect attendance, extra reading and other endeavors, were presented with suitable awards were and certificates, and the meeting closed on a note of good fellowship, mutual affection and respect. Home and school end community for the time were united in a common bond, the desire for the welfare and progress of the children.
Within a few days countless communities will gather on the hillsides and prairies of America in another sort of fellowship, just as effective. Instead of looking to the present and the future, they will pause a little while in memory of the past. On Memorial day we will be bound together in recognition of our human heritage of sorrow and inevitable parting. And in remembering the courage and nobility and fortitude of those who have gone before, we will gain strength and faith to go into the future.
Whether happy or sad, emotional contact with our kind, above the level of the commonplace, is wholesome and uplifting. By such contacts our souls expand. -Hope.