After having learned the basics of woodworking from my father and grandfather, I took it up as a hobby. I started to think of doing it professionally when I took some woodworking courses and found that I had some ability and could produce better work than some of the instructors. After a number of my […]
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A Night to Forget
When I contracted for a round-trip ride to/from Poughkeepsie with a fellow student driver (who was not from our class, and who shall remain nameless), I did not contemplate that it might culminate in a near-death experience. No, it wasn’t the date at Vassar, but the ride back in the depths of winter. The first […]
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Father Knows Best
The traditional social system we entered in 1964 sounds medieval to today’s young, but at the time it still generally reflected the rules parents expected single-sex educational institutions to establish and administer for their supposedly grownup children. In loco parentis ruled. As freshmen, although we were addressed in the classroom with the grownup title of […]
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Going Greek: remembering Charlie Nikita’s A&W
Today’s students may not be aware that we were presented with no choice of entrée at mealtimes for four long years: either we had to eat the meal chosen by the college foodservice or else hit the snack bar. Fortunately for hungry students, the A&W chain sold hamburgers and fries as well as root beer, […]
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What? No Ephraim?
Surprise! More than one fifth of our class possesses one of just four different names (and their variants)! This is based on a scan of The Eph Williams Handbook (aka the “look book”, as it was known at the area women’s colleges) for the Class of 1968. The breakdown: At least 25 of us are, […]
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Please, Mister Postman, Look and See…..
Prior to the advent of the modern electronic era, the arrival of the day’s mail always generated palpable expectations in the denizens of any institutional residential setting, whether it be summer camp, the military, or college. As a matter of expense, pay phones provided by the AT&T monopoly were not dialed up regularly by […]
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Check It Out!
As soon as we set foot on campus, we received sound advice from the Williamstown National Bank, located on Spring Street. Its advertisement in the Eph Williams Handbook read: “To the Class of 1968: WHY NOT OPEN A CHECKING ACCOUNT NOW?” The advantages were listed: “1. No danger of stolen cash 2. Establishment of credit […]
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