Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Lessons the Teacher Never Taught You (Aeolian)


 
Greek Mythology: Aeolian

 

How many Garrett Railroaders (and GHS teachers) have gone to their graves wondering but not knowing what Aeolian means? Worse yet, how many thought they knew, but were wrong?! 

 

 
I have thought, for approximately fifty years, that the word Aeolian must mean a scholastic “year book,” but my research indicates that only Garrett High School calls its yearbooks Aeolians. To the rest of the world, Aeolian refers to things related to Aeolus, the Greek God (or King) of the winds; or to an ancient Greek tribe said to be descended from Aeolus, and which occupied Aeolis and Lesbos, in central Greece, around 1100 BC.
 




This finding surprised me, so I asked per Facebook: Does anyone know, by whose fancy were Garrett’s high school yearbooks called Aeolians, and who, throughout the years, knew that the term was fanciful and not generic? And then what about the Aeolian volume numbers, printed as Roman numerals on the title page:  
 
1970    LII        (#52)
1969    LXI       (#61)
1968    LXV      (#65)
1967    XLIV     (#44)  
 
While possibly one of these four Roman numbers is correct, at least three of the four must be in error!
 
The most informative response was from a Faye Myers, who directed me to the Class of 1956 50th Anniversary memorial Aeolian, which I found and scanned in the Garrett Public Library:
 
 

very nice explanation
from the class of ‘56 –
 
Thank you so much!
 




 

 


 
And what of the Roman numerals”? A few people on Facebook noted similar anomalies, but no one had any explanation whatsoever. I like to imagine an amusing time/space/culture warp:
 
 
It’s just what happens when 20th century high school kids from rural northeast Indiana use Roman numerals to index the volumes of a publication named after Greeks who lived more than three thousand years ago...
 
 
 
So now you know yet another


Lesson the Teacher Never Taught You!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The next GHS “Lessons the Teacher Never Taught You” will center on Greek vocabulary (callipygian), but let’s save that for warmer weather...


Stephen Rowe welcomes correspondence of all sort at StephenRowe.OriGraphics@yahoo.com (watch for the period between Rowe and OriGraphics), and can be found be found on Facebook by typing ArtMissionary  (all one word) into its “Search for people” form.

 

 

1 comment:

  1. Very interesting. I will have to pass this on to my children who were all Garrett grads and who all have the yearbooks from when they attended Garrett High School. .

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