Our Granddaughter Class

History of Forming Our ‘Granddaughter’ Class:

WithGranddaughterClassat50thMay 25, 2017, the saga continues:

Dana Feldshuh Whyte recently sent the ORIGINAL text describing the antics of the Class of 1960 as they welcomed the Class of 2010 into the alumnae fold, and anointed them “Granddaughters” of the Class of 1960 at their graduation.  Unfortunately, it was a VERY large file that the website didn’t want to take in entirety, so it had to be broken into two smaller files. Read about it by clicking on the links below.

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From 2008 (old website):

As you may know, our class has taken on the exciting project of forging a connection between our class and the Class of 2010, the current sophomores on campus. Why are we doing this? This class and our class will be celebrating significant events in our lives on the same May weekend in 2010. The members of 2010 will be graduating and we will be returning to campus for our 50th Reunion. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know some of these graduating seniors as friends and not just as some fresh-faced young women parading by us? In addition, we realize that there is so much we can learn from each other over the next three years and beyond…

The first step we took was hosting a dinner at Willetts-Hallowell on September 4th for the 2010 Class Board. Dana Feldshuh Whyte, Joan Corcoran Steiger, and Nancy Zone Bloom presented some ideas for a connection to these lovely young women and they seemed very excited.   They in turn offered suggestions. Our brainstorming resulted in some of the following ideas:

  • Joining together to do volunteer work (sophomore class-sponsored blood drives this year; Alumnae in Action sponsored by the Alumnae Association)
  • Coming together at events sponsored for or by the Class of 2010 (see description below about our attendance at the recent “More for Sophomores” event, the Sophomore Ring Ceremony this coming spring, Junior Show, a reception for 2010 at out class mini-reunion next October)
  • Connecting the two classes via email or letters (connections based on our careers/their possible career choices, our geographic location/their home away from school, our major at college/their intended major)

The next meeting with our new “little sisters” was “More for Sophomores” on Sunday, September 16th. Our class was invited to share in this three-hour program for 2010. There was a panel for the class on careers and college majors followed by the opportunity to visit tables sponsored by various offices and organizations on campus. 1960 was asked to greet the sophomores (about 300 were there) at a table and we ended up being the most popular table of all!  Our table was covered with memorabilia such as our freshman handbook, our yearbook, copies of pages from our rule book, and an actual blue gym suit and class blazer. We even offered wonderful little gifts to the class. The students went wild. They couldn’t get enough of our stories about the late 50’s. To the class’ credit, they also asked many serious questions about our experiences at MHC.

Classmates who participated were: Heidi Keller Moon, Cece Frack Scott, Sadie Dalmas Jonsberg, Susan Moore, Pat Goss MacLain, Joan Corcoran Steiger, Dana Feldshuh Whyte, Nancy Zone Bloom, Gemma Carboneau Baker, Nan Jones Clarke, and Sheila Porter Lirtzman.


In mid-February 2008 a small committee of our classmates and some students from the Class of 2010 became “elfs” who delivered RED bags of treats to each of the 593 members of the sophomore (2010) class.

The bags contained a “Chef Jeff” chocolate chip cookie, a letter “from your Great Big Sisters from the Class of 1960”, a brief poem (by Emily Dickinson), a history of the Odyssey (and Romeo Grenier), a biography of Emily D., and a red and blue friendship bracelet.

Here Is a Copy of the Letter Each Member of the Class of 2010 Received on Elfing Day on that unforgettable night:

Your Great Big Sisters from the Class of 1960 come to you in the depths of winter. We had more snow back then but the wind still whistled and the slush piled up and our hair was wet and our feet were wet and the buildings were too warm. We hung out in Wilbur* or Glessie’s* or the College Inn* or in OUR secret study places in the stacks or the nooks and crannies of Clapp*. We watched the snow fall through long narrow windows and some of us even found our way to the towers of the main buildings. Yes, they were unlocked!

YOU hang out in Kendade and in Blanchard or Computer Centers…none of which existed during our time. The Towers are locked. Our cars did not get stuck in the snow because cars were not allowed on Campus. We did not have computers. The only appliances allowed in our rooms were radios or record players. There was a black and white TV set in the living room of the dorm. There were smoking lounges. Every meal was served in every dorm. The College scheduled our exams. We had 8AM classes and Saturday classes. Our room doors were never locked but the dorm doors were barricaded at 10PM and we (or most of us) were inside at Milk and Crackers. We had the same academic anxieties that you all share and Mary Lyon chimed every quarter of an hour just as it does today.
 
We are thinking of you. We lived through the snow and the 16 hour days. You will too!
_________________________________________________________
*footnotes:
Wilbur—a soda fountain in the basement of Mary Woolley
Glessie’s—a pharmacy/soda shop in the Center run by Romeo Grenier who conceived of and opened the Odyssey Book Store—an urban legend you all MIGHT want to learn about.
College Inn (CI)—a comfortable hang out in the Center. There were actually empty spaces in Clapp where we could hide and study.

 

From 2010 (old website):

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Elfing  February, 2010

Preparations mirrored those of the first Elfing Event in 2008. This time, however, Security had been notified that older women carrying large trash bags might be seen entering dorms on February 11th, and that they should not be questioned. The perpetrators were said to have chortled their way through a final symbolic delivery in Dickinson House, stopping to hang their last bag on President Creighton’s front door.  This did not go unnoticed; she contacted them with thanks and reflections, as have a number of students. A senior was overheard attempting to explain this Elfing/Grandmother Project to her parents, amused that her particular sand toy was a lizard as her special interest is Paleontology. Students were very moved by the poem and want to read more by Mary Jo Salter. Several were spotted reading the card with demographics in the bathroom.  One student wondered how she could Elf the Class of 1960.The response from the sophomores was warm and appreciative. (See example below of a Thank You note from a member of the Class of 2010).

Thank you note from member of Class of 2010
Hello!
Thank you so much for the elfing bag! I was up really late that night
studying for an exam and finishing a paper. I was so tired and just about
to fall apart, when I saw the bag. Knowing that the class of ’60 was
thinking of us, and that you guys had made it through MHC successfully,
really put things in perspective and made me feel reassured and cared
about. Thank you so much for the bag… it really meant a lot to me.

Another “Elfing Buzz” rippled around the Mount Holyoke Campus on February 12th as members of the Class of 2010 were seen comparing the “Sand Animal” key chains and sea shells that they found in red bags hanging on their dormitory doors.

The bags, dropped in the dead of night, also contained a Chef Jeff cookie, Valentine wishes, a card containing our respective demographics and a poem by Mary Jo Salter entitled, “A Phone Call to the Future.

This project was described by Dana Whyte in an email which was too funny not to be shared with everyone.

Recap of the Elfing Project from Dana Whyte
February 2008
This last weekend (Feb 16-17) saw the culmination of an ELFING project for 593 members of the class of 2010. Do the math; this is our 50-year class.
 
I deal with “warm fuzzies” and “campus logistics” and preparations for this began over 2 months ago when I attempted to obtain cards for dorm access. Ah for the olden days of unlocked dorms and rooms! For those interested in access, check with Residential Life for approval for a limited number of hours and people…it will still take awhile. The updated list of sophomores grouped by dormitories and room numbers was not available until a few days prior to this event and without it, we would have been toast. “We” had a total Mount Holyoke Immersion weekend and I can truthfully say that cultural events were not involved. I am just surfacing with multiple body aches and pains and a head buzzing with the juggling of logistics. The cookies had been picked up. Just back into the loading dock at Blanchard and try loading 600 Chef Jeff cookies, transporting them and securing them in a room safe from dogs. The woman asked if I needed a herd of cows to go with the chocolate chip cookies. I told her I had an Australian Cattle Herder.
 
Thousands of red plastic bags had been acquired. The bracelets had taken up space in our basement for months…acquired wholesale because of the numbers. Someone asked ‘from where?” I say that Curtis has his sources and won’t share the information. The basement is filled with just such “valuable prizes.”
 
Heidi Keller Moon, Kasha Duffield Kingsbury, Joan Steiger and Nancy Bloom and I
TIED (ouch!) the letter and reading material like a diploma and attached the red and blue “friendship” bracelet. These were stuffed into slippery red plastic bags along with a wrapped cookie. We grouped and re-grouped and counted and recounted and did quality control on bag contents (omygoshthereisnocookieinthisone! Etc), dividing them into large trash bags for 19 dorm drop-offs. YES, we had student helpers. We consider the current class board and a number of others to be our “MOC’s” (Moles on Campus). Gloria, the class president, met us at 6PM on Sunday and she called ahead as we approached each dorm, cars laden with and smelling like chocolate chip cookies. The appointed students met us and spirited off the goods and LISTS for surreptitious distribution in their dorm later
that evening. Nancy and I picked up those helpers who were not working within their own dorms at 11PM. (That is a STRETCH for me).
 
Nancy helped in Prospect and I helped in Pearsons and the Annex. Symbolically, Nancy and I “worked” Dickinson House together. Having found an entrance and a staircase, picture the two of us with our combined obsessions and compulsions and our paranoia about frightening someone (or being frightened). Students are just not accustomed to seeing older women carrying large trash bags, squinting to read small print on lists even aided by flashlights and glasses…checking the list, checking the room number, checking the name on the door, hanging the bag and checking it off. Since I can’t walk straight with glasses ON, I was staggering and appeared inebriated. They are far more accustomed
to seeing men on the floor than this unusual sight…and, of course, it was tough not to giggle!
 
We have had some fun feed-back from our “moles” and via email. One comment
was, “Why is the class of 1960 so nice?” “Oh, from our grandmother class. How nice.”
My own special “mole” (an international student from Nepal with whom I am friends) has said there was quite a buzz and that many bracelets had been seen on Campus. Now we all know that won’t last but it was fun to think about as we recuperated from a very late night. I was probably the only one who had a bit of a private meltdown but it went unseen.
We had a little crisis when we came up short of cookies but Blanchard rectified the
situation with a smile on a Sunday, no less. Have I forgotten to say that we had a few glasses of wine and a wonderful dinner at Food 101? And that I took BAGS to the mail room to be put in the mailboxes of those sophomores who live off-Campus? And that I returned the infamous “dorm access cards” assuring the folks that the students were no longer in danger from marauding members of the class of 1960?
 

(Dana, you are just TOO MUCH!!! Thank you from us all for representing us so valiantly!! AKW)


From 2012 (old website):

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Reunion in South Hadley with 2010 Granddaughter Class at Reunion Weekend May 2012

We could say that “we” are “opportunists” at heart.  Most of this Connection project has revolved around arranging to be present when members of the Class of 2010 were gathering for another reason.  We did it again!  During Commencement weekend in May, we held a Reception in South Rockefeller, greeting those who managed to leave work early enough to get to Campus for their second reunion before 7PM.  Come, they did!

We had sandwiches and cupcakes and drinks…and the inevitable red ELFING bags were hanging in plain sight as they entered South Rocky.  We entreated then to take their own bags as we no longer had access to their door knobs.  Stronger spirits became available from 5-7 and it was gratifying to hear the sound of happy chatter as around 100 in our “Granddaughter” class hung out in the living room.  We can only report isolated conversations as some inquired about their “grandmothers” or expressed gratitude for continued contact. Naturally, we received snippets of information about their lives, their relationships and their thoughts and their continuing love for Mount Holyoke College.  One, Emilie Heidel, will be coming back as she has been admitted to the pre-med program next fall.

Susan Moore, Sara Dalmas Jonsberg and Cece Frack Scott, carrying beautiful flowers to decorate the tables, joined Nancy and Dana at the dormitory as the welcoming committee.  Joan Steiger had helped us pack the Elfing bags the day before but was unable to be at the Reception.  The bags contained a Chef Jeff cookie, MHC post-it notes, a pen, some printed jargon and a tiny wooden angel from Louise’s Daughters.  After stuffing 600 bags twice during 2010’s student years, 140 seemed like nothing.

On Saturday morning, we proudly watched as they marched, noisily, 142 strong. (Dana Feldshuh Whyte comments)