40th Reunion, Alumnae Association Annual Meeting, May 17, 2014
by Carole LaMond, Class President
Forty years ago, I stood in the balcony of this auditorium with my mother, fresh from participation in the laurel chain and the parade, and we watched as row upon row filled with women in white, the rows punctuated by splashes of red, green, yellow and blue. The faces in those rows showed the range of years, from the youngest soon-to-be graduates in the class of 1974 to the single class of 1909 alumna celebrating her 70th reunion.I looked over at my mother, and saw tears in her eyes.
“You are a part of all this,” she said, and at 22 I understood, but not with the depth I do today, what my mother was telling me.
Now, I understand that what we alumnae share is much more than the individual histories of our classes – more than my 1970s memories of the vote to remain a single sex institution or the lowering of the drinking age to 18, more than the Vietnam War protests at Westover Air Force Base, more than 15-cent ice cream cones at Wilbur, Lanz nightgowns buttoned in the front, or buses that broke down on the Notch, more than the huge social changes that were launching women into careers my mother never dreamed were more than an anomaly for a woman and nigh unheard of for a woman of color, more than all of the college traditions we experienced – it is a sisterhood we share. A sisterhood that bridges the classes and ages of alumnae, a bond that comes from sharing four years in this special place, at a time in our lives when we were still becoming who we would be, a time when we were shedding the definitions of who we were made by our families or high schools, a time when we were falling in – and out – of love, or acknowledging that who we loved might not fit the accepted norms, a time when we were beginning to see all of the possibilities – but not without some trepidation – that our Mount Holyoke education could help us discover.
Experiencing those four years of sisterhood has enabled many of us – and in my class in particular with our many mini reunions – to welcome new friends into our individual circles of college friends and to continue to strengthen the special bonds that were forged more than 40 years ago on this campus. Those bonds are even stronger and more special when we gather at Mount Holyoke every five years for Reunion and join with the love and wisdom of the generations of women who have come before, and after, my graduation year of 1974.
The welcome theme for my class’s arrival on campus in September of 1970 – and later the title of our Junior Show – was “We’re Glad You’re Here.”
So, to the classes of 1944, 1964, 1974, 1989, 1994, 2004, 2012 and the Frances Perkins alumnae……..I’m glad you’re here, and I am proud to count all of you as my alumnae sisters!
