Feb 27, 2023
Hi everyone, and Happy Mary Lyon’s Birthday –
Last night’s Zoom was great fun with 24 classmates participating. Barb/Liz/I put together the following Summary of Everyone’s Favorite Memories from Long Ago at MHC. Enjoy – and if you weren’t able to join us last night but would like to add a Memory of your own, please post one on the MHC61 Chat and we’ll add it to the list, which ultimately will reside on the class website.
Judy K
Judith Marshall Kennedy
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February 27, 2023: Mary Lyon’s Birthday celebration.
24 of us met by Zoom to celebrate Mary Lyon’s Birthday (February 28th) and to share “best memories” about our time at Holyoke.
Betsy Karch Wilson (who was visiting with Dottie Smith Mann in Florida): Remembered arriving freshman year at Pearsons with her parents and older brother who was attending Princeton. Judy Marshall Kennedy took one look at him, and asked him if HE was her new roommate! Another memory: she loved having the window wide open in her room in North Rocky senior year no matter the weather outside. One night Judy slept soundly, but in the morning awoke completely covered with snow.
Liz Hottel Barrett: She remembers fondly playing piano with Casey Stengel in the dorms, especially in Mead freshman year. Also smoking and playing bridge, and thanking Ruth Cooney Young who inspired her to lose her Boston accent.
Nancy “Ding”wall Platt: Has wonderful memories of singing with the V-8’s – every aspect of it: the rehearsals and trips that we took together. Liz, Kim, Dottie, and Rocki, all V-8’s, agreed heartily.
Kim Kimball Holmquist: She and Alice wrote out (on a long roll of wallpaper lining), “Procrastination is the Thief of Time” and posted it in their room. Also, on one occasion freshman year, Kim’s zipper wouldn’t close because her only gown no longer fit, due to freshman year expansion, which many of us had. Casey rigged up lacing to cross the gap that allowed her to wear the gown, but when she stepped forward to sing a solo, the choir behind her giggled!
Dottie Smith Mann: She doesn’t remember a lot of special things, but her most warm and genuine memory comes from senior year when Sally Gipson and she had a front bedroom in Pearsons and she loved the feeling of being in that room at night all warm and cozy with the snow blowing outside around the streetlights.
Ann Merchant Boesgaard: She has a lasting memory of a concert in Chapin by an ensemble group playing Schubert’s Octette, which remains a favorite of hers to this day. She also remembers seeing Sputnik from the Buckland roof which in part inspired her to major in Astronomy resulting in her award winning research and teaching career as the Chair of the Univ of Hawaii’s Dept of Astronomy.
Rocki Hill Hughes: Rocki remembered rehearsing with the V-8’s in the CI and how studying there was her refuge–especially sharing ice cream sundaes to help alleviate lovelorn depression.
Mary Ginn Weinland: had three windows in her dorm and was prancing around in her room stark naked. When she heard clapping and looked out and down, some guys were picking up their dates. She realized that she might as well have been in a store window.
Barb Freeman Douglass: Having recently moved for the winter season to a retirement community in Brunswick, ME, the home of Bowdoin College, she attended a concert there. Upon departing, the Bowdoin bells started to ring, which brought back strong memories of Mary Lyon’s bells and the beauty of the Holyoke campus.
Judy Marshall Kennedy: Smoking and the various campus places to do it was a big memory as it dictated where she could study and smoke at the same time! Endless smoking and bridge in the dorm “smokers” before and after every meal soon dominated freshman year. But, by senior year, she was studying harder and using the carrels and the “basement smoker” in the library to work. She remembers sitting on the floor of the spartan (just 2 wood chairs) library smoker leaning up against its stone foundation walls with cigarette in one hand and writing papers and doing book research on “Pilgrim’s Progress” with the other.
Elsa Anderson van Bergen: Transferred sophomore year and missed freshman bonding, but was immediately welcomed by a wonderful group of 1961 classmates which made her ever grateful she made the move. “In Wilder, Sue Higgins had a room next to the dining room, and five of us met there together at meal times. Those five became good lifelong friends.” The concerts at Chapin were also “wonderful” – grateful for so much culture infused into her life.
Marian Strong Moore: Remembers fondly the concert series with George Szell, Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, and that he said he wouldn’t return to campus if they didn’t replace the squeaky seats — they did! She also remembers her hair freezing on the way back to N Mandell after water ballet practice. She thinks it is wonderful that we can all still have such fun together.
Sue Wheatley Carr: Fond memories of adventures with Casey Stengel. “Sophomore year in North Mandelle, a bunch of us decided to climb the water tower behind the Mandelles. Afterwards we ran over and decided to “swing on the birches” which Bunny Richards taught us to do by hanging on overhand and throwing our legs out to the sky as the tree or branch bent over and touched the ground – supposedly at least! When it was Casey’s turn, her large tree stopped 15 feet from the ground – she was frightened, but all the rest of us could do was laugh at her hanging up there helpless.” (No word on how they got her down.)
Susannah Harris Wilson: was full of stories about her MHC connections during and since college, starting with her junior year at St Andrews in Scotland, when visiting friends from Lit Crit (Mary Lou, Ellen, Carol Pallo) visited, and they all decided to hitchhike down to London, meeting many a friendly trucker on the way. Later teaching in Lehore, Pakistan, she reunited with Primila whom some of us knew in college; they still see each other often in Oxford where Susannah now lives. She also told a fun story about being able to get her stolen passport replaced because of a MHC connection. (Mentioning she had recently submitted an article to the Quarterly after our recent reunion about her many amazing international connections with MHC, she never received a response about it from the Editor, nor was it published. We urged her to re-submit it, reminding her that that was a somewhat disorganized time for the Alum Assoc, so hopefully we can all read it in a future edition of the Quarterly.)
Sandy Svihovic Hewitt: Liz Walcott’s roommate for four years. When they were in Buckland, they didn’t always want to go out the front door, so they discovered a way to sneak in-and-out unnoticed through a back window in Abbey. No one ever caught them.
Babbie Baldwin Miller: loved V-8’s, her favorite thing in college. We were lucky because there were so many ’61-ers in it Senior year, she remembers looking down on couples kissing good night on the porch at the end of the night from upstairs in Mead. She also loved the dorm song contest, especially “It’s always Spring around the Sewer”.
JoAnn Mayer Orlinsky: She was on the waitlist for MHC, and spent the whole first semester convinced that she was going to flunk out! She was greatly relieved when she passed her freshman year. MHC opened her eyes to so many meaningful things. Milk and graham crackers for instance! Getting to know Liz Topham, a very funny person. Also, going out to the quad to see Sputnik.
Frannie Blair: Good thoughts about all the classics professors she had and how they took an interest in her. For one class, she and others studied at a professor’s house, who served them tea while they talked. On one of those occasions, they found the professor’s drunk husband out cold on the floor when they arrived, but the professor just instructed them to “just step over him” and get on with their studies. “He’s fine and will get over it,” the professors said, so they did, and he did.
Barbara Hartt Hise: Favorite and not so favorite professors, she remembers one French professor who scared the heck out of her! Also, remembers running around in shorts and knee highs during the winter. Loved Father’s Weekend and going to NYC for the Glee Club concert. Bobbi Koop was her roommate – they were sun worshippers and sunned on the dorm roof. In Pearsons, they sunned on the lawn. Their motto: “It’s better to be red than white.”
Nony Moore Barr: Junior year she studied at the University of Edinburgh, and loved it. Sherry Welles Urner was her roommate – wonderful times. Freshman year at Buckland was wonderful, too, and she remembers sitting in the stairwell of Buckland with others until late in the evening, and having some marvelous open conversations about everything.
Ellen Fetter Gille: Joined us for just a minute from Merida, Mexico, where she is vacationing. She had to leave our Zoom quickly, but it was great fun to see and hear her.
Nancy Birge: Remembers spending hours in the library carrels. Used to go in the math section deliberately so she wouldn’t be distracted by the reference books! Exchange professor from Bennett College was her first African-American teacher. Loved the big copper beech by the side of the Art Building, and gracious living. She also remembers a particularly gracious upperclassman who had a wonderful influence on her.
Gail Morris Dillon: Said it was nice to see everybody. As school she had many good friends, and she especially loved the labs, dissecting things. They dissected cats from the infamous Cat House near lower lake, with hearts still beating! Liz added that she and Bunny once cooked frogs’ legs from the lab frogs.
Carol Pallo Morton: Was present for a few minutes at the beginning of the Zoom, but disappeared at some point, never to return. May have been a bad internet connection, as she now lives in Scotland.
