The young men and women in this May 3, 1938 photo of a Palmyra High School class trip to Mt. Vernon belong to that generation that grew up during the deprivation of the Great Depression.
As these mostly 17 and 18-year-old seniors moved closer to the end of their high school careers, Action Comics #1, dated June 1938, featured the first appearance of Superman—and sold for a dime. (A mint copy of Action Comics No. 1 sold for $3,207,852 on an eBay auction in 2014.)
However, faraway events already in motion would soon crush their innocence and abruptly thrust these youngsters into adulthood.
Around the world the seeds of World War II had already been sown some time before.
The causes of the war – the rise of Hitler and Mussolini, Japanese territorial expansion, and Germany’s military aggression – coalesced as America, still mired in the Great Depression, tried to stay neutral from the European conflict.
Pearl Harbor was still 3-1/2 years away.
The PHS Class of ’38 came of age in the United States during World War II, and its graduates would either fight in the war or strive on the home front to help win it.
Television journalist and author Tom Brokaw first coined the term “The Greatest Generation” to describe those who came of age during the Great Depression and the Second World War and went on to build modern America. The people in this photo and in the Honor Roll at right were among that Greatest Generation.
Who do you know in this eight decade old photo? -JMc
Addition, 10/20/2020: Here is another photo of a PHS Class of 1949 trip to Washington, DC. Can you find anyone you know? PHOTO COURTESY OF ED GILMORE
Class of ’49 graduation photo PHOTO COURTESY OF ED GILMORE