There was a heat wave in Boston in the summer of 1969. There was always a heat wave in the summer in Boston. It was literally the last summer of the 60s, but it was metaphorically the last summer of the 60s as well. We did not know that. Both Kennedy brothers had been assassinated; […]
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Listen to the Music
- Ephlats reunite to send a soothing message
- From Ian and Sylvia to Cream to Mountain starting in Lasell Gymnasium
- In the early morning rain: Ian & Sylvia Fall 1965
- Rock of Ages
- the babbel
- The sixties: the war in Vietnam and its music
- Uranus and the Five Moons
- We gotta get out of this place
Places
- Brooks House on Fraternity Row: Mystery Solved?
- Going Greek: remembering Charlie Nikita's A&W
- Please, Mister Postman, Look and See.....
- Snack Bar anyone?
- That's Park Street, not the Freshman Quad, not Park Avenue
- The Brothers of Brooks (Arthur Cambouris)
- The Green River
- The Satire Room (or Rahar's) -- Where the Booze Was
Pranks & Hijinks
- Bombs away!
- Fall 1964 and dateless in Williamstown: a Tom Bell story
- Getting there... to the Brave New World
- Performance art? Street theater? Library Theater? Happening?
- Scot and James December 2016
- Shame and Scandal in the Lower Reading Room (in 2 parts)
- Winning Gold at the Little Three Skateboard Championship
Sports
- David Rikert '67
- Demakis v Sawyer, Round 1
- Ephs dominate on Pratt Field, cap perfect season
- I dreamt of Pancho Demakis last night
- November 18, 1967: Williams 14, Amherst 10
- Remembering the College Ski Area (and a bike)
- Spiking the Stevens-donated ball at Wood House
- Williams 74, Harvard 59 (Dec 12, 1967, Lasell Gymnasium [audio broadcast])
- Winning Gold at the Little Three Skateboard Championship
There's something happening here
- Crossing the Border: The Williams-Bennington Experience in late 60s
- Father Knows Best
- Muhammad Ali memories
- Our War and Welcome to It
- Remembering our connection with Martin Luther King
- Rock of Ages
- Tales from the 60s (Part 1) -- The Last Roadtrip
- Tales from the 60s (Part 2) — Lincoln Park Chicago, August 1968
- Tales from the 60s (Part 3) - The Group W bench (Alice's Restaurant in memory and in practice)
- Tales from the 60s, part 4, approximately?
- the babbel
- The Bittersweet History of Black Students in the Purple Valley
- The Fraternity Debate -- 1868 to 1968!
- The sixties: the war in Vietnam and its music
- There's something happening here: a critical review of recent studies of the 60s
- We gotta get out of this place
- Williams in transition in the 60s: almost a frat boy
Winter Study - the very first
- David Rikert '67
- January 1968 and the Winter Study Program
- Lights out: snow surfing at Brodie Mountain
- More snow, please
- Remembering the College Ski Area (and a bike)
- Roatan January 1968
- When Winter Carnival was King
- Winter Carnival redux
Minutiae, Collectibles, and Eph-emera
- "Snuggled in the Warm Cleavage of the Peaceful Purple Valley…"
- A Night to Forget
- Bon Appétit!
- Check It Out!
- Commencement 1968—“God Save the Commonwealth of Masschusetts!”
- Communications
- Demakis v Sawyer, Round 1
- Did We Attend College on the Mohawk Trail?
- Flicks!
- Freshman Week 1964
- Freshman Week 1964
- Jack Sawyer, the Visionary President We Hardly Knew
- Operation Match
- Portraits fuming at poor hanging
- Silk Road Incident (Willie Williams)
- The Man behind “The Village Beautiful”
- The Red Balloon -- The Williams College Literary Magazine
- What? No Ephraim?
- You did WHAT? A survey of career choices we made
Browse away
Williams 74, Harvard 59 (Dec 12, 1967, Lasell Gymnasium [audio broadcast])
Listen as classmate David Snydman, aided by some energetic acoustics from Lasell gymnasium, takes us through a memorable basketball victory over Harvard. David entered medical practice after Williams, eschewing a brilliant future as a replacement for Johnny Most. Due to server side audio size restrictions, we’re offering an edited version of each half. Click on […]
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Communications
While today’s Ephs are said to exist in the Purple Bubble during their Williamstown years, they nevertheless live their undergraduate lives in the era of telecommunications miracles and global interconnectedness. In contrast, although we of the Class of 1968 thought we were living in an era of space age technology, the communications tools personally available to us were quite basic and limited. Students came to college usually equipped only with a radio, and perhaps a stereo phonograph (or, in some cases, a reel-to-reel tape recorder).
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Our War and Welcome to It
The Vietnam War — our war — always loomed just beyond the mountains. To serve or not to serve? Our choice — or pure chance in the draft lottery — still marks us. Ken Burns’ documentary “The Vietnam War” once again reminded us of those who lived and those who were lost, on both sides. […]
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Crossing the Border: The Williams-Bennington Experience in late 60s
What was it about Bennington College?
The 17-mile ride up to Bennington was transformative. But it was not always an easy journey for the Williams student of our day. One classmate, quoting James Joyce’s Ulysses, mentions understanding first-hand what Joyce meant by the “scotumtightening sea,” as he would sign in at the small guard’s office manned by stolid Vermonters whose tacit disapproval he interpreted as directed toward him, but was maybe aimed in a more general way toward the entire permissive and doubtless sinful lifestyle that lay beyond the gates.
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Getting there… to the Brave New World
The Brave, New World of Williams College by Lloyd S. Thomas In the late fall of 1963, a high school friend, who had gotten early acceptance at Yale, handed me a faded, well-thumbed, but still elegantly purple copy of the Williams College Bulletin that I still possess and treasure after more than 50 years; somehow […]
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The Red Balloon — The Williams College Literary Magazine
Read our interview with Red Balloon editor Scott Fields below. Before you do that, and to sort of set the stage, you might like to read our deceased classmate Bill Smith’s generous and sensitive review of a poetry night at the babbel featuring some Red Balloon poets. Bill’s review appeared in the May 2, 1967 edition […]
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