Some thoughts on our 40th Reunion.
Picture this. Larry is at the local Indian casino playing poker, so I’ve got my Saturday afternoon to myself. I turn on the History channel and start straightening up the living room, gathering up and throwing away last week’s Sunday Times, playing with the cats. I plop myself on the couch, open my Sudoku book and start entering numbers. Izzy and Ella are now pushing away the book, vying for my lap. And then it hits. I am glued to the TV. I am overwhelmed by long-forgotten feelings: I am proud, disgusted, uplifted, shocked, enthralled, depressed, excited, and devastated. I am watching Tom Brokaw’s “1968.”
1968, the year we graduated from Wells. The year Martin Luther King was assassinated, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, George Wallace, almost assassinated. The Viet Nam War, student protests, civil rights protests, Black power, women’s liberation (they were too afraid to call themselves by the “f” word- feminists- not only were they burning their bras, their girdles too and yet they look so thin!); Richard Nixon elected President of the United States! Guess what feeling that memory evoked…
I realize how much has changed in 40 years when I think that we have a woman and a black man running for President. We never would have imagined that we would be facing an energy crisis, global warming, an illegal immigration crisis, or that a woman our age (Rhea’s and mine anyway) could actually be elected to be President of our country. Did we know what a jihadist was?
And yet…we still find nooses hanging from trees. We continue to be intolerant of those with different sexual orientations, accents, religions, and colors. Instead of civil rights, we now speak of human rights (what’s the difference, we ask). Instead of the Viet Nam war, it’s the Iraq war.
I think how much Wells has changed. When my mother graduated in 1933 (the beginning of the end of the Great Depression), Wells was a college for rich, white, gentile young women. By 1968, there were now young Jewish women, women on scholarship, and a few women of color (maybe 5 at most)! (And I’m proud to remind you that the class of 1968 was the largest class to ever graduate from Wells and that we were the Centennial class.)
Today some 30% of the students are non-white. A great majority of the students have scholarships and receive student aid; they work and incur massive amounts of debt to go to Wells College. Heaven forbid, young men have been admitted as students.
And yet… the Sycamore is still there. We will never witness nooses from her branches! Our beloved campus, having survived some years of benign neglect, is still there and thriving- witness the new Science facility. Our historic Aurora Inn has literally been brought back from the dead and elegantly refurbished. (It was there on the TV that Mills and I watched and cheered as LBJ announced he would not run nor accept the Democratic nomination for President. It was there we watched the angry aftermath of the Martin Luther King assassination. It was there that a black underclassman told me she couldn’t be my friend anymore.) The lake…no description necessary: it has never failed us. Traditions: odd/even, Henry’s Eight, the songs. The tranquility and intellectual commitment of a small college, where you know that no matter what is happening in the outside world, you can feel safe and part of a close community. Small classes, getting to know your professors, being encouraged to think and question. I’ve been quite close to the College over the past 10 years and I know that none of that has changed.
I would like to propose that for our 40th Reunion, we spend some time reflecting on 1968, what has transcended in 40 years- both in the world at large and at Wells. It would be wonderful if we could get a DVD of Brokaw’s program (Mills, can you do it?), play it, and have a discussion… with other classes invited to attend.
Perhaps instead of a skit we could talk about 1968- with humor, sorrow, and whatever other emotions are there. A kind of take on the Vagina Monologues- we could call it the 1968 Monologues, or some clever name that one of you more clever than I could think up. (Mills, Rhea, Wetzel, Kathie, Joanie?)
And if nothing else, see that program. Looking forward to Reunion 2008 and seeing all of you.
Note from Carroll: As your administrator I have copied and pasted a note Tica sent a few of us before the holidays because I thought it was so interesting and relevant to reunion planning. I know she is swamped right now (tax season) and I am guessing that she will be pleased that I have done this. cww
ps before I publish this: A few days ago through an email message, Tica warmly encouraged me go to ahead and post this for all to consider.
