School Days: Poop-deck Pappy Pyle? ~ 52 Ancestors #15

Someone in my family probably has my dad's high school yearbook, but I can see it at Ancestry's U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-2016 database. He attended Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts, from 1937 to 1942.

The school used and still uses the British educational notations, Forms III, IV, V, and VI, though they now also refer to freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. (Form I and II, also known as seventh and eighth grades, were dropped many years ago.)

The 1942 yearbook includes a history of the class which covers over four pages of the yearbook. Near the end of the "Sixth Form History" was this paragraph.

With no other Pyles in the class, Poop-deck Pappy Pyle must refer to Dad!  (If one of my brothers knows what the story is behind this nickname, please share with me!)

Time for you all to find your high school yearbooks and look at those inside jokes. Perhaps share them with your family because years from now, no one will know what they mean.

However, Dad looks rather serious in his senior picture.

Dad's school activities were primarily athletic. He played soccer (which appeared to be a minor sport compared with football; there was no team photo), hockey and baseball.

Although "Sergeant, Battalion '42" is listed as an activity, there is no other mention of it in the yearbook except in the Sixth Form History.

The following team photos do not include names of the students so I have noted my dad with a star.

Hockey (note the ice skates and hockey gloves)

Baseball (note the leaves on the trees and the baseball gloves).
I know that one of my brothers still has Dad's old baseball glove; he treasured it!

I have previously shared a photo of my dad's entry in his (1949) college yearbook; after attending Princeton for one year and then serving in the Army Air Corps during the war, he attended the Babson Institute (now Babson College), in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

This week's theme is School Days.