REMEMBER WHEN?

My Very First Day at Mount Holyoke...PROMPT #1

Prompt Number 2: 

Tell us about some of the most fun things

or happy times you remember about college.

Roommate a year ahead of me, no closet space left, top layer of bunk bed and non functioning radiators! Found lifelong friends Jane Stevenson and Lille Mejean

Ann Abbott McLean

In September 1951, I left New York City and headed for South Hadley, sight unseen, with my brother driving our family ‘49 Chevy, to begin freshman year at MHC. We went through the front gate and stopped to pick up materials relating to dorm assignment and other sundries from Mary Lyon Hall. After dropping me off, but staying the day helping me to settle in, my brother left for his senior year/first year of medical school at Dartmouth. It was comforting to know that he was not too far away. Before he left, he purchased a comfortable, floral decorated, slightly used, sofa chair as well as a standup lamp to outfit my room; these two items moved with me from dorm to dorm during the next four years.  

My room on the first floor of Porter was next door to Connie Demuzio. I think that Bernice Simon was also nearby. Rhoda Bierstedt and I became acquainted on that first day, a friendship that lasted until her recent death. I met others who lived on the upper floors, Nancy Finck, in particular, who became my best friend in college and after. Otherwise, the day was relatively uneventful except for unpacking and room preparation.  

. Settling in took most of the day until dinner when we all gathered in the dining room for the first time. I remember that our Porter junior group was very helpful, friendly, and supportive. For some reason, I also recall that Judy Segal was notified during the meal that she was the recipient of a phone call which brought “oohs and aahs” from some. – a “gentlemen caller” from Amherst, perhaps? Judy, do you remember that? After dinner, we gathered for the first time as a class at the music building for a welcoming talk by one of the administrators, (not sure who it was), where we were identified as the “ cream of the crop.” I believed that we were and still are. So began my wonderful voyage that has made such a difference in my life.

Diana Alexanian Jalelian

First day at MHC: I remember I felt I shouldn’t have picked my roommate ahead of time because I was anxious about who I might get, so I chose someone I just heard about from home! She never became a friend and I realized right off she wouldn’t!

Anne Austin Mazlish

I tried without success to bring back memories of my first day at Mt. Holyoke. Suddenly it came back to me. My first day was my birthday! My Dad was on a business trip overseas and promised to call me. The only phone available for personal calls was the pay phone in the back stairwell. I spent a couple of hours huddled by the phone, waiting for his call, which finally came through.

In those days, overseas calls had to be booked ahead of time and at the appointed hour, the operator would attempt -- not always successfully -- to place the connection. Even long-distance calls within the U.S. had to be placed through the operator.

I often think of those days when I pick up my phone and direct-dial the kids in Oregon, Canada and England!

By the way, after a tearful conversation with my Dad, I cheered up and started meeting my fellow Brigham residents. Several became close friends and still are today!

Sallie Barr Palmer

I remember going shopping for a bed spread and easy chair with my mother. Getting the chair to the fourth floor of Porter was not trivial. The closet in that room was almost as large as the room. That spoiled me for Lakeside (Torrey) the next three years-built in closet and dresser. 

Jane Barth

Afraid clearest recollection of first day was brown, beige, cream pajama striped wallpaper in Pearsons dorm room that was going to have to live with for an entire year.

But first cheerful Holyoke experience was hearing Tee Englander play Broadway show tunes for all to sing-along after dinner. She was such a talented girl and all her music from memory.

Libby Bergamini Lucas

I arrived by train from Washington D.C. that afternoon. I vaguely remember being met at the Springfield or Holyoke station and driven to Mount Holyoke. It was the first time I had seen the campus and I did not know anyone. It was all new! My roommate at Porter was Mary Anne Croft. She had already arrived and left a hockey stick leaning against the bunk bed.

Anne Cochran MacLeod

My mom, aunt and I walked into the assigned first floor room to see three very, very tense people- the freshman and her parents.

I soon saw the reason for all the tension.

Here was a spacious, sunlit room with an adjoining dark, grim excuse of a room. It certainly was the worst dorm room on the campus, possibly the worst dorm room in all the land. The space had a door. I do like my privacy. It was fine by me. I settled for it.

The five relaxed noticeably. I can still remember the expression on my very pregnant mother’s face as if to say ‘Alice is and has always been very easygoing.’ She was pleased. I was content. I would never, ever cause my mother, pregnant or not, any anxiety.

The dungeon barely had space for a cot, desk and chair and an excuse of a closet. The exterior window looked out at the darkest outdoors possible. Sun would never penetrate that window.

Directly across from the exterior window - through which

-light-would-never-pass was a large, second interior window, designed to let light penetrate the noisy corridor and creaky stairs to the three floors above. In the history of Brigham Hall, the oldest building on the campus, even the suggestion of light ever passed through that window.

Oh! Did I mention that the only entrance to the basement directly below my room was the hub of operations for this massive building? There was major noise 24/7. A continuous parade of off-loading trucks, garbage haulers, vendor deliveries, people going back and forth, taking a break... You get the idea.

The room was the pits.

I believe my suite-mate is named Dee Lewandowski. She practiced her accordion Sunday afternoons.

Alice Czyz

It was a beautiful day. Some of us were at Pearsons and I was on the top floor. I was surprised not to have a roommate. We ate in the dining room and some of the girls were waiting tables. 

 One night someone snuck out of the dorm to meet her boyfriend and had another gal arranged to let her back in. Since that violated the honor code she and the other gal were sent home. She was on a scholarship. I recently asked if they still had the honor code and was told yes. I think that was good but the Junior I was talking to thought it was silly. My children all have been raised with the honor code. I like to think they are honest because of Holyoke.

There was a Japanese gal on the first floor who would not stop sobbing because she thought everyone hated her because she was Japanese and this was just after WWII. I assured her that my father has had the time of his life on his battleship in the Pacific. I decided she was really homesick.

I met my big sister named Joy. she had a lovely smile. Soon after we had Mountain Day. It was great fun and good exercise. 

Ellen Dobbie Full

Wow! How did my roommate Barbara Selig (the best) and I luck out with a corner room with a view? Love it here. 

  Lois Gaeta

My memory of first day at MHC is unpacking my mom’s Station Wagon, “the cracker box” at Porter and not sleeping as I heard he chimes strike every hour.

Ellie Graham Claus

Pinpointing that moment in time will surely result in some "creative writing" as my reservoir of memories becomes more difficult to access. But begin I shall by reminding myself I was only 17 when I jumped in the car with my parents to make that " very long drive" from Philadelphia to South Hadley after Labor Day in 1951. To a place I had never seen and where no one I knew was attending ??? It was a glorious fall day as we arrived and we were pointed toward Brigham Hall where I was to spend the next 205 days ( I note that number as it is in great contrast to today when the freshman arrive and spend 155 days on campus !!) Found my temp double......ye gads, a room with bunk beds, 2 desks, 1 closet and an armoire in the hall.. My Dad noted that it seemed quite sparse for the price he was paying for tuition. My roommate and I found immediately that we had been partnered because we were both products of independent schools, each had an older brother, and we seemed to have put a lot of the same stuff on our forms. Turns out that all worked very well.

My biggest memory, though not my proudest, was that not but a few minutes after I had said good-by to my parents, I headed to the smoker to try my first cigarette!! I had promised my parents I would not smoke or drink while in high school and while I honored that request, I could hardly wait to try my new found freedom as witnessed by my being old enough to smoke. Really ??? The surprise of the day was that I had barely been in the smoker when my Dad appeared at the bells desk as he had forgotten something ( none of which I remember ) but my embarrassment at my impulsive behavior was self evident.

Dig though I may, that about sums up the details in my memory bank for that day. Not sure what that all says about me and so it goes. I gave up smoking when I left MHC and got married so the bad habit quickly disappeared only to rear its ugly head 20 years later when I returned to graduate school. Clearly higher-ed and cigarettes were partnered in my mind.

PS I did not smoke for long during my 40's but struggled mightily to give up the habit.

   Deb Hazzard Nash

JR, in A Dangerous Thing, my book about education, I talked about the fact that I can remember every detail of my sister’s first day of college at Vassar, four and a half years earlier, and nothing at all about my own first day. There are other aspects of college I recall in detail, but strangely that’s not one of them.

Betty Krasne

I was pleased to be in Pearsons - and I don't know where Mary Alana

Baker was (she was the only classmate I knew.) We had gone to Sidwell

Friends in DC for grades 7-9, until my parents sent me to the Public

High School "because they thought I was getting a bit "high-hat"!)

My 3rd floor single was just across from the "john" -- so I got to

see classmates going to & fro - but I didn't know anyone.

Fortunately, delightful Carolyn Jacobson (from NYC) had a single next

door - so we quickly became a pair. On the other side of my room were

the fire-doors - and then Joan McGuire and Janet Galley. So I got

some education about Texas and Westchester (which didn't seem at all

like Washington!). It was a friendly and warm group, thank God, as I

was a somewhat shy and quite insecure Freshman!!!! 

 Mary Lou Judd Carpenter

My fuzzy recall of the first day at MHC: walking up 3 flights of stairs to my top floor room and meeting a total stranger with whom this bedroom would be shared, for the next 9 months. Feeling an upbeat anticipation for an oncoming experience of being more on my own than the prior habit of living at home with my family. I felt ready and eager to start.

  I had experienced four years of a rigorous education at The Thomas School for Girls; daily commute there, not a boarder. Four years of both Latin and French under my belt, and college-level texts for History classes, both European and American. So the curriculum I had chosen for Freshman year did not cause me anxiety. Basically, I recall my state of mind was like a well-prepared runner springing from her starting blocks.

Felt no negativity in the farewell hugs with my mom and dad as they departed...after all, they were only returning to Connecticut.

So here you have it...what comes to mind on this topic.

Polly Laszlo Brody

Miss Newhall knew all the student names. We landed in Safford, middle of the campus, lots of activity. Juniors welcoming, and helping trunks and parents. Certainly busy, busy. By nighttime, exhausted, but we had new friends. We had arrived!

Nan Leech Mohr

Confusion, do I have the right things sent from Oklahoma to furnish my single room? NO! Pleased to have a single as I am a light sleeper! Thrilled at seeing the mature trees and vintage architecture around the campus, so different from where I come from! Also thrilled to think the intellectual atmosphere is heady, no boys to put their hands up FIRST to answer the teacher's questions. IT IS UP to US gals! 

Wendy Loye Hall 

I remember that it was a nice fall day when my mother and I drove to So. Hadley from south east MA. Learning the school songs from our juniors in the dorm and meeting Nancy Nutting. We had the 2 singles on the second floor stairway outside the fire doors in Brigham.

Jan (McIntosh) Carreau 

Remembering: First day at MHC, September 1951……arriving early…..my father taking my picture standing on the balcony above Hooker Auditorium. (I never set foot up there again in four years)…..hiking up four floors in Porter…..waiting, waiting, waiting to meet my roommate arriving from Boston (what took her so long??). Then…she came, and Phyllis Walsh and I hit it off right away, as did our parents….would they never leave?..so we could get on with it!

Prequel/Sequel:

My parents and I arrived the night before and stayed at the Lord Jeff. I remember hearing the laughter of Amherst students walking by under my window, and idly thinking…”one of them could be my one true love.” Less than two months later, I met Rich Gray, Amherst ’53 Beta, on a blind date. The Beta house was two doors away from the Lord Jeff…..the rest, as they say…..well, it’s still going on...

  Barbara Mulvehill Gray

My first day at Mt. Holyoke was great! My roommate was Peggy Henry, who had been my best friend in Woodbury NJ until I was 10 years old. My family moved to north New Jersey, and we hadn’t seen each other until that day. What a joy it was to have a best friend to share these new experiences.

Thank you, Wink. What fun to remember. 

 Love, Pam Moody Harkins

Janet Scott and I started to get acquainted in our nice double at the end of the hall. Pearsons, second floor. No Skpe, Zoom or Instagram in 1951. Even long distance calls were an event. So Janet and I had exchanged a couple of letters about buying matching bedspreads. That's all.

Our mothers bustled about, intent on getting us settled, while our fathers tried to be helpful.  

And then there was my grandmother, a force to be reckoned with, who had insisted on accompanying us. I was so embarrassed. Whose grandmother comes to the first day of college with them? I was a decent student from a small town public high school. Nothing special. I had my wool shorts and a camel's hair coat. I desperately wanted to fit in. And here was my grandmother bragging about me to anyone who would listen.

But I survived. I wore my Bermudas and my coat. I fit in! 

Janet and I became close friends. We roomed together only freshman year but our friendship lasted for many years after we graduated. I last saw Janet at our 50th reunion but writing this has made me promise myself that I will try to contact her.  

Roomies are such an important part of our lives.

Sue Nutter Keller

  What I remember about my first day at Mount Holyoke was the excitement and the apprehension and being overwhelmed by the fact that my roommate was pinned! I thought she was so sophisticated, and I felt like a bumpkin. 

I also remember that I didn't know anyone at MHC which was kind of scary, and I remember thinking that my parents were more upset at leaving me than I was at seeing them go, which was unexpected. 

 Pat O'Keeffe Brodt

After my 3 years in an Arkansas public school, I looked forward to being in the academic setting of college. My whole family who had not vacationed together during that time, piled into the 1945 Chevy to make the trip with all friendship stops along the way.

  At one Episcopal church we learned that Bobbee Arnold was beginning a ministry to Episcopal students in South Hadley. Music to my ears for I had been the only Episcopal teenage girl in our small Southern church.

Lawrence House, now the Episcopal Center was our first stop in South Hadley. We met Bobbee and some of the Episcopal students who had had a workshop to refurbish the house for the work during the summer. One of them, an upper classman Dottie Archibald, lamented that I had not known and joined them. That fellowship would undergird my college career and make me fell in touch with my roots.

Afterwards we drove on to Brigham, where my things were taken up to my room under the eaves. It was cosily snug and in later years I would realize that I was one of few in my class who had not have a roommate even in a ‘temporary’ double. Nor indeed did I have any college roommate except for the fall months of my sophomore year. In that sense I was still a loner. 

But I was also a waiter. I think we began serving tables that first night and the servers had a special group feeling. It was at their table, eating before we worked that night I met Myra Mullins. She immediately claimed our kinship as fellow Southerners on scholarships and she introduced the idea that geographical distribution led to our acceptance so Holyoke could boast a class representing all 50 states. 

  The kinship with Myra was one I would actively pursue and treasure the rest of her days.

Win Pettus Losa

My very first memory of MHC is being dropped off by my parents to register my arrival Only problem was that I had to consult the papers in hand to give them my name. Then on to Porter to meet roommate Margie Melamed. After that I found the smoker where I spent a great deal of time that year. The weirdest thing to me was Helen Jacobs lobbying for song leader. Did we have a song? 

Judie Segal Drexler

Mount Holyoke was recommended to me by my high school guidance counselor who was a Mount Holyoke graduate. My parents did not go to college and thought that since I was an only child I should have a single room. That was a big mistake.

In addition, my room was down an alcove with only 1 room across from mine. The Assistant Dean of Admission was in that room. This made it very difficult to meet my classmates and was the worst way to start my freshman year. Many of our classmates knew other students in either our class or upper classes but I knew no one. I eventually met some classmates with whom I was very friendly . However, after college I never lived near them. In the beginning I stayed in touch. After marriage, children and living in different states, I lost contact. My life was busy with my family and our friends.

Barbara Suchman Kasman and I spoke on the phone recently and I was going to drive us to reunion. Of course, that is not happening.

Bernice Simon Wolk

I remember feeling very liberated, extremely excited, and so glad to be a part of the huge group that gathered at the Convocation that day. I was surprised to meet up with a friend from a camp I had attended a few years back. I think that was the day I decided to call myself Swindy! There were several friends from Columbia H.S. in our class, and it was quite a fantastic reunion.

Margaret Swindells Sciacqua

My dorm was Brigham. My first memory is meeting my roomie and we were looking at that bare room. Margot popped up with the idea to paint a rug on the floor. Subsequently we did--- and we had to remove it when the year was over!!

Ann “Tommy” Tomlinson Edmondson

I remember a gaggle of boys from Amherst, following us around, while checking our pictures in the little freshman handbook. 

Judy Vernon

The only thing I really remember about my first day at MHC was being disappointed because I was in Pearson’s Annex and it was so small! Only 16 girls. I think my parents were also disappointed . I grew to enjoy the girls a lot and the location near the C.I. which caused me to gain 20 pounds freshman year. I spent the summer on a diet!

Joan Willenbrok Leonard

My freshman (firstly?) roommate, Nancy Young Duncan, and I were assigned to 45 Pearsons, a room with a view toward College Street through a double window directly over the roof of the entrance to the building. 

 There we were, meeting for the first time and with no thoughts of climbing through the windows and sunning ourselves on that roof. But someone had the thought: her mother, who said, “DON’T CLIMB OUT ON THAT ROOF!” We didn’t.

Jan Williams Libby

Do I remember my first day at Mount Holyoke? You betcha I do! I probably remember it so well because I had never seen Mount Holyoke until that day. In fact, I had never seen any college until that day! And I didn’t live in Kansas, but rather in Scarsdale, NY which at the time was about a four-hour drive from South Hadley. 

When we managed to find the correct entrance—at first we turned on Morgan St. and went up the hill toward Mandelle—we were directed to Mary Lyon Hall to find out where to go next. I was surprised that the buildings seemed so old. 

Waiting in line I met Nancy Drum who was also just checking in. I can actually remember thinking I was meeting my very first classmate on this memorable day. Strangely enough Nancy and I didn’t ever cross paths again either in a class or a dorm. Ships passing in the night.

I was to be in Safford Hall, a stone’s throw from where we were. I inquired about a few of my 11 classmates from Scarsdale High School and found they were all in a place called Pearsons. What was wrong with me I wondered. Why wasn’t I there with them?

At Safford we were met by our terrific Safford Juniors who helped lug all my stuff up to the second floor to my new room. When I found the very small room I also found it only had one bed. Where was my roommate? What! I didn’t have one! Once again…what’s wrong with me? Were they really trying to isolate me?

My room was at the end of the hall between the bathroom and the fire doors, but at least there were two rooms across the hall. Maybe I could find some friends there. Oh no…Juniors lived in those two rooms. They wouldn’t want to hang out with a new Freshman. Things seemed to be going downhill…

Then I heard Wink! Lo and behold my good summer camp buddy, Betsey Pratt, was coming down the hall. It turned out her beautiful extra-large, sunny double room was just beyond the fire doors. Phew...at least I would have one friend.

Once the bed was made my small cell looked much better. Years later I would also make sure the first thing we did when our kids arrived at college was make the bed. It does wonders!

Soon it was dinner time and we were introduced to our napkins in their slots. How unique! I can remember exactly where I was sitting in the dining room and I can actually remember what we had for dinner. Ham with that raison sauce, sweet potatoes and spinach. At the time ham and spinach were not my favorites and I had never eaten sweet potatoes so the meal made an impression. It must have since it is now seventy years later.

 Hmmm. Somehow this was not how I had imagined my first day at college.

Joan Winkel Ripley

     This is what our schedule looked like way back when...

It was Tuesday, September 18, 1951. Our instructions were to register in Mary Lyon Hall. The first regular meal served would be dinner Tuesday evening.

The following program has been arranged to acquaint new students with Mount Holyoke College, its traditions equipment, methods of work, and community life. Attendance at the appointments beginning with the assembly in the auditorium of Pratt Music Hall at eight o’clock Tuesday evening is expected of all members of the Class of 1955. Promptness is necessary.

TUESDAY, September 18 

3:30-5:00 Informal reception. All new students and their families are invited to meet President and Mrs. Ham and other administrative officers. Mary Woolley Hall

6:20Dinner in residence halls

8:00Assembly Address by President Ham. Pratt Music Hall

(Interestingly enough not one of us wrote about the reception nor the Assembly Address. I myself have no recollection of either. Wink)

And We're Off and Running...

The anticipation of MOUNTAIN DAY as much as the reality. 

In my freshman year, I was blessed and cursed with being directly above the noisy Brigham basement service entrance/exit. I may have been the first student to know that Mountain Day had arrived. Food delivery was too early and very unusual.

I loved weekends away at the cabin. I have two vivid memories of it. The first is being on the second story, reached by a wobbly ladder in a large opening in the wooden floor. One morning, as I was in the lower bunk, I saw a girl jump down from the upper bunk, unmindful of the gaping hole. By the grace of God, she landed an inch or so from the yawning abyss. Her face blanched at the realization of the enormity of the alarming alternative. It took a long time for each of us to compose ourselves. Not a good way to start the day: we both learned to pause, reflect, before acting that A.M.

The second memory also occurred at the cabin. We were exchanging recipes. A student of Jewish/Roman descent confided that the secret to a good tomato sauce was the addition of mustard. She was right. Since then and for well over 60 years I have added mustard to my tomato sauce. Each time I think of her and that cabin.

Alice Czyz

​Oh silly things like twin Judy Cooper receiving the award for the best posture. We all got dressed up in white gowns and I think we put golden crowns on our heads and circled around her. Perhaps we were chanting, I don’t remember the details.

 Remember sledding on kitchen trays. I remember doing a canoe race with my natural deceased friend Ann Cole. I remember campus in the autumn.

 Joan Haskill Vicinus

One of my favorite memories was a weekend at the charming mountain cabin MHC owned (sadly it has since burned down). Fiancé David brought nine friends from MIT and I rounded up nine MHC classmates to make an even 20. We roasted hotdogs in the fireplace with all the fixings and marshmallows for smores, accompanied by non-alcoholic beverages. The guys slept downstairs and the gals slept upstairs. I don’t remember what we did for breakfast but it all was super fun and memorable.

  Xox Marilyn (Jacobson) Nasatir 👏😄

Junior and Senior year berthed at North Rocky…large, lovely room with a double window overlooking the interior campus, shared with my wonderful roomie, Dorrit Werner. We had many a laugh over personality quirks exhibited by various professors we were encountering.

My Junior year was invested in courses I truly enjoyed: reading the philosophers from Plato to Kierkegaard; taking advanced history classes with Peter Viereck; solidly succeeding in my major, Political Science. I was delighting in the ferment of intellectual challenge and expansion.

Enduring no more utterly boring dates with drinking lads at Amherst. By Junior year, was traveling to the Yale Law School for weekends with the young man who was to become my husband. With him: football games, dining at fine eateries, and interesting, mature company. No more rot-gut Chianti in wicker baskets!

Each autumn and each spring, I truly loved the beautiful campus, whether traversing it at the brisk walk required to get to my next class in a different building, or simply taking in the foliage, and gracious expanses of lawn with their ornamental plantings.

Ice cream sundaes with my classmate buddies, at the famed CI.

Polly Laszlo Brody

The meals together in the dorm when we could talk, have fun and get to know each other. The Faculty Show. Taking the bus to some place in Holyoke to have pizza on a weekend - after Saturday classes!

Sylvia Lucas Johnson

Sneaking into the sculpture gallery one night with a small group of Art majors and clothing the sculptures. Playing “who am I”. to study for blue book exams. Sledding on borrowed cookie trays. 

Nancy Nutting Lane

Gazing at the landscapes around the campus. The huge trees, the two ponds in autumn and winter, sliding down the snowy hill on cafeteria trays! Hanging out with milk and crackers at 10 PM with my Safford buddies, then South Mandelle up on the hill, and gazing at the lakes anytime of the college year. 

Wendy Loye Hall

As an only child living with girls my own age was a whole new experience for me. I loved talking about clothes and boys, and maybe even classes, at all hours. The dates, the pinning and unpinning. Later on the engagement rings and wedding plans. Even the occasional wedding (shh!) 

 There were trips to the CI for ice cream cones. In Holyoke I had my first pizza ever. We discussed knitting projects, room and roommate choices. Chose courses and majors. 

 From important decisions to silly little ones there was always someone my age to talk it over with. That was very special to me. And fun!

Susan Nutter Keller

Since I only began learning how to have and be friends starting in 1959, I was very much a loner in college. I developed most of my college friendships through reunions! This did not keep me while in college from enjoying group sings, or meals at the servers’ tables, or Lawrence House Communions or when my dormmates ganged up on me to dress me for my Junior prom, the only dance I attended in college. I even enjoyed seeing our Junior show which I then realized other people had been working together on for weeks!

So my memorable good times were opportunities I got to do things where I felt creative.. Doing research when I studied the effects of protozoa in termites guts as my project in baby Biology. In walking through the sundial garden and being struck that my short story for English was written from the wrong point of view, and then cutting classes for 3 days to rewrite it. Or the opportunity I was given by Miss Green and the New Bureau to make my income job senior year writing daily for the Holyoke Transcript-Telegram.  

Now my annual letters from the receivers of the John & Elizabeth Lose Scholarship amaze me by how creative and useful their work is. I’m glad I also experienced that joy of that achievement while at Mount Holyoke.

Win Petus Losa

A quick reply----bridge games in the smoking room (heaven forbid, smoking!!!) Mountain Days, weekend dates, pinned, unpinned (not under the fun category), sneaking off to the Half-Way house, Junior Show, morning bird walks with Miss Boyd, crew, 

That's off the top of my head.

Ann Tommy Tomlinson Edmondson

Fun and Freshman Year were definitely tied together! I think because we had Freshman dorms with wonderful groups of Juniors to lead us and fun times were insured. I remember my Smith friends being so jealous of all of us at Mount Holyoke because we were having so much fun, and the environment over there was much more serious.

Safford was a blast. Any dorm with Shelly Haerter in it would be a blast. She was a kick and a half! If you have trouble remembering who she was she was the leader of The Elephant Walks.

At least once a month all of a sudden one would hear the refrain …One elephant went out to play and the massive conga line would immediately form and we would be invading Brigham and Porter and ending up on the grass outside of the Chapel singing our lungs out. That along with the group song, “Way up in the Sky…the Little Birds Fly” were crazy times! They provided endless skits and impromptu required attendance meetings all designed for our enjoyment!

There were, of course, times sledding down the hill outside of Porter on trays borrowed from the kitchen and it seemed endless times when we were bursting into song either singing Sisters, Sisters or participating in the Song Contest which Safford won with Stevie Sargent’s “Holyoke, Holyoke Colors Waving” which was a standout and which we would have been singing once again at our 65th Reunion. Oh well…we’ll have to wait for our 70th!

All in all although there was plenty of work, especially for Chem majors. There was also plenty of fun and happy times…the long deep discussions that seemed to go on all night, the fun of discovering something new and the unearthing of deep friendships that would last forever!

Joan Winkel Ripley

​ PROMPT #3  

 WHAT UNEXPECTED OCCURENCES DO YOU RECALL ENCOUNTERING WHILE AT MHC?

Sorry for the delay.

One funny thing I remember from my college days is -- the TV set in the basement of Wilbur Hall. As far as I know, the only TV set on campus.

I was living in Abbey that year, just steps from Wilbur, so I could stay until the end of the 10 -11 programs and when the commercial came on, had just enough time to make it back to the dorm before the 11 pm curfew. My friend Liz Winship , who sometimes watched with me, lived in one of the Mandelles and she had to leave before the final 15 minutes. So naturally I had to fill her in the next day on what had happened.

We both took Plant Science, and spent most of our field trips straggling in the rear and discussing recent movies. So of course, this was the perfect time to bring her up to date on television finales! It, has to be said that, although I passed Plant Science, all I can remember to this day is the shape of an oak leaf, the shape of a maple leaf, and for some reason, the copper beech tree.

Sallie Palmer Barr

​In the library, in the stacks with a desk, books… all by myself.

Leaving campus, an hour or a weekend… requiring a signout card … who was the chaperone?

Mary Lyon chimes the last stroke… head inside the dorm’s or receive demerits.

One television in 1954… in Wilbur.

Remembering walking through snowdrifts from the library, so nice. 

MHC cherished memories and friendships are truly the treasures.  

We indeed could do anything!

Nan Leech Mohr

P.S. Classmates again, again and again… and still.  

I fell in love for the first time in my freshman year with a young man from Brazil who was still in prep school in Massschusetts! Is that enough of an unexpected occurrence which also made for a very happy memory both in college as well as outside of college! Is that enough for you Wink? 😊 

Anne Austin Mazlish

I returned to campus at the beginning of junior year having had a successful summer. I had met my husband to be, my two years at MHC had ended successfully, and I was looking forward to another good year living at Abbey with my closest friends.

 All was going very well until around February when excruciating intestinal attacks woke me up at night creating intense pain. They were most certainly unexpected. I went to see Dr. Patti who said that I was “run down” and should drink more milk. The attacks worsened.

 A trip home to the family doctor discovered Gall Stones-an ailment that usually occurred in females, forty years old, fair skinned, and fat. I only fell into one of those categories. Surgery was recommended which I could put off until the summer if I watched my diet very carefully, fat-free with no whole milk. I was able to do this giving up the frequent CI visit for ice cream after time at the library. Needless to say, I lost weight rapidly and the pain and attacks ended.

 I had surgery during the summer of ’54. Recovered quickly and returned to complete senior year without further complications. Re“unexpected occurrences,” this was certainly unparalleled for a nineteen-year-old college student.

Diana Alexanian Jalelian

My first week at Mount Holyoke was very interesting for me and my family. I was living in Pearson’s, a large freshman dorm and had a doppelganger.. 

Someone said to me, “I saw you in the choir tonight.”

A monitor to a class said, “What are you doing here? You took this class last year.”

All week I got comments like that. People had seen “me”, but it wasn’t me.

My parents came to visit and honked the horn when they saw “me”. My mom got out of the car and ran after “me” wanting to see who looked so much like her daughter that it fooled even her.

I found our who my doppelganger was, a member of the class or two above me, but haven’t followed to see if we still resemble each other.

Gay DeLong Goodhart

It was Phoebe Gannert. I am not sure if she was 53 or 54.

Hi!

I relate to support staff. It didn’t hurt that my room at Brigham overlooked the service portal to the basement.

One night, in the dark, dank cellar laundry room, I met a laundry worker. She had an unworldly ashen, blue-purple hue to her skin. Unnerving. She was well spoken. We never talked about her severe skin discoloration. Over time, she told me that she had worked many years for a Holyoke newspaper. I believe she had lead poisoning. The use of lead based pigments in printing ink was the practice then.

An article on the subject in AJPH, 1974, is titled “Lead Content of Printed Media (Warning:Spitballs May be Hazardous to your Health.” It is speculated that Van Gogh, Caravaggio and Goya had it, leading to neuropsychiatric disorders.

Lead poisoning is still a major environmental pollutant.

I like to think that MHC worked with her to give her a job she felt comfortable doing.

Alice Czyz

​Unexpected occurence? A better adjective would be devastating. Coming to Mount Holyoke as an almost-straight-A student I was shocked to see that I had received a 4 on my first paper in Baby Religion. I was sure Professor Tamblyn had made a mistake. He hadn't.

Sue Nutter Keller

I recall two really unexpected occurrences while at MHC. One took place a couple months into my freshman year, and was not a laughing matter. The second caused hoots of hilarity when I carried the tale of it back to my sister inhabitants at Sycamore (off-campus house) during my sophomore year. 

Freshman event: I was notified that my freshman advisor (a faculty member who taught chemistry) wanted to see me. That was puzzling, as I was taking no classes in her discipline.

Upon arriving at her office she sat me down and soberly informed me that my roommate had asked her to alert me to comments she’d overheard, wherein classmates were criticizing me for “raising my hand too often to volunteer answers, ” during history classes with Peter Viereck. Without inquiring about anything that would elaborate on the matter, this advisor recommended that I should refrain from being “over-enthusiastic in my class participation!” This is a remembered, direct quote. I felt ashamed, but also shocked…never had enthusiasm been dampened in my schools prior to MHC. In fact, at the Thomas School for Girls (9-12 grades) all of us young females were encouraged to be involved and enthusiastic. Chastened by authority, I did keep my hand at my side for the rest of that history class semester.

Sophomore event: Both semesters this year I had courses with Peter Viereck. Living at Sycamores, I was handy to the home he shared with wife and two children. His wife asked me to babysit occasionally for them. The pocket money was appreciated, so I helped on a few weekends. One day, Mrs. Viereck asked me to unthaw some ground beef I would find in the freezer compartment of their icebox. I was on duty with their children that afternoon; she would return to prepare supper, but the meat should be thawed for her. Mid-afternoon, I opened the freezer, found a nice package wrapped in white butcher paper, assumed this was hamburger meat, and proceeded to unwrap it. When the last fold of white unwound, what did I find: two small, intact, alligators nestled snout to tail!! Wow! Hastily they were re-wrapped and returned to the freezer. I did find the package of ground beef on a second try.

 When she came home, Mrs. Viereck explained these little reptiles had been given--alive and well--as a Christmas gift to their son Alexis. However, he had unfortunately taken them into the upstairs bathtub, and thinking they were tropical animals, filled the tub with water as hot as it came from the faucet. They did not survive. BTW: parental oversight in that household was rather hit or miss.

Polly Laszlo Brody

Your question set me thinking, maybe not quite along the lines you had in mind, but the way I remember my early reaction to the MHC experience was that I was out of place. I recall being puzzled because on the one hand, my education and experience growing up Jewish in NYC, having attended a progressive school, made me feel out of place, excelling at things that hadn’t previously distinguished me, yet unequipped for some academic challenges.  

Betty Krasne

I was completely surprised when my father gave me the car he was about to turn in for a new one and couldn’t quite believe my good fortune. Wow…what a deal!!!

After returning to school with said car about six of us decided to play “grown-up” and go out to dinner at a (fancy) restaurant. We decided made a reservation at The River House down by the Connecticut River.

We dressed up in our best gracious living attire and off we went. Everything was great! The meal, the company and our spirits. We might even have had a cocktail with dinner as we were all legit by that time and our ID’s were real not fake.

Feeling very worldly and mature we headed out to the car and piled in for the trip home. Did I mentioned it had rained while we were at dinner? Well it had and quite heavily. We started up the long dirt road which led to the restaurant and suddenly our wheels were spinning. We were up to our hubcaps in pure mud. Now what? 

We had no cell phones. (Did anyone even dream we could have cell phones?) We weren’t that far from not being able to get back before curfew. Yipes…We’d have to go before JB. And we couldn’t get out of the car in our high heels and stockings. A dilemma! What now?

In the distance we hear the chug chug of a motor. What to our wondering eyes should appear but a farmer on his huge tractor coming home from the fields. We were saved! He immediately saw our problem and in a few minutes pulled us out and set us on our way. It must have been all those mandatory chapels we had to attend that saved us. So much for our grown-up night out.

Joan Winkel Ripley

P.S. Reading Sue Nutter’s response joggled my memory about a similar incident that threw me for a loop. The very first week of classes we were given a vocabulary test in English class. Having just signed the honor code I was following the letter of the law. The professor said, “Do not guess. We want you to answer only if you are certain of the meaning.” And that’s what I did.

The next time we met the tests were handed back in order of score…the highest first and the lowest last. Guess where I was? Dead last with a score of 37! I was shocked and thought I’m going to flunk out the very first week of college. Later I found that many did not quite follow the same instructions I had. What did that teach me? I’m not sure, but I did make it through four years!

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Mostly everything was unexpected in some way -- it was the first time I'd ever lived away from home But one of the most exciting discoveries I made was --- PIZZA. I had never had pizza, or even seen one, before some of my classmates introduced me to this exotic dish. And I still like it today!

Sallie Barr Palmer

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