Just Some Quick Thoughts

Hello All! I trust you are home safely and adjusting to whatever is normal for you. I find myself exhausted, but energized and hopeful because of our time this weekend at our 40th reunion. It was wonderful to be on campus with you and to see you again. 44 years is so long ago, but 1964 is when we met and started our studies together. How is that possible? And how did the weekend go so quickly?

I know many of you have pictures of lovely moments during our days together. I hope some of you will share a few here. And I hope those who could not come will have a look too; so many of our classmates were missed and remembered fondly. I am proud of our turnout and our contribution to Wells. Many collaborated to make the weekend successful and Rhea and I could not have done it without Wendy, Joanie and Kathy, Pam and  Jen, the Development Office staff, Janice Gavan, and our classmates.

We encourage those of you who came to campus to candidly evaluate the reunion using the form provided in your packet and send it to the Alumnae Affairs office. They will use your views for future planning.

Warm regards to everyone in the class of 1968!

Reasons to Attend Your 40th Reunion at Wells

25 March 2008

Greetings from your Class of ’68 reunion chairs. We’ve had a little trouble getting it together ourselves — using email to make phone dates that were confounded by the vagaries of our lives. But here we are, ready to go, and to do whatever we can to encourage you to join us in —

OUR 40^TH REUNION

(We know. You think we’re talking about some other class. But this really does mean all of US.)

Reunion weekend is May 29 – June 1

Those of you who have been with us for other reunions will remember the unique combination of revisiting the past while making and renewing connections firmly in the present. Those of you who wanted to be there and were not able to: here’s your chance. And for those of you who can’t quite wrap your minds around making the trip to Aurora, here are some points to consider:

• Feeling swamped? Time away could do you a world of good. And Aurora is exquisite in May.

• We laugh a lot when we get together, and laughter has aerobic benefits.

• You will be fed really good food all weekend and not have to wash a single dish.

• The networking possibilities are considerable.

• Almost everyone you see will smile at you.

• Don’t worry about remembering names; we wear name tags.

• No one cares if you’ve gained weight.

• Pajama parties are not just for ‘tweens.

• Everyone is as curious about you as you are about the rest of us.

• No one else is perfect, either.

• We need each other.

• A serious note: One of the most moving aspects of the reunion experience is finding deep support and acceptance among Wells friends and acquaintances. We can both vouch for how often this has happened. Besides being a lot of fun, reunion can be transformative.

• You should experience for yourselves the positive energy at the college — and the positive energy of our classmates.

We’re setting up a contact tree so that each of you will be contacted by someone you know, encouraging you to be there for all or part of the weekend. Also, we have leaped into the 21^st century and have a class blog. The address is: http://wellscollege1968.wordpress.com/. You can go to that address and read and comment on the posts; if you want to post messages yourself you need to contact Carroll (see below), who is the blog administrator. She will provide you with easy instructions for registering as a user. Photos are encouraged on the blog, so please contribute your favorite current or historical pictures.

Hope to see hordes of you! — we’d love to break our 25^th reunion record of 75 attendees. Please call or write with any questions or concerns. See you soon.

Rhea & Carroll

Rhea Hirshman • 132 Lenox Street • New Haven, CT 06513 • 203.466.6263 (h + o) • rheahirshman@mac.com

Carroll Wetzel Wilkinson • 131 Hoffman Avenue • Morgantown, WV 26505 • 304.598.0042 (h)
304.293.0308 (o) • cwilkins@wvu.edu

Wells College Alumnae Office • 315.364.3221 • alumnae@wells.edu • www.wells.edu (click on Alumnae Association link for updated Reunion info)

A request: Please send both of us your updated contact info, including email addresses. Also please send contact info for classmates who may have been out of touch. Thanks.

Can We Unify Our Approach To Improve Our Reunion Turnout?

Various people are making wonderful contributions to the goal of a great turnout for our 40th reunion. But I am starting to think that the time is passing quickly and there are great many people we have not reached as yet. Is there some way that all of us who are trying to connect can unify our approach and become a little more strategic?

This blog has had 262 hits so far, according to the use statistics. This indicates to me that there is some interest in its content. Of course we cannot tell who those people are. Some may just be surfing the net for reunions in general terms. Nine people have taken a look since Susan’s post, and our best day ever was 2/6/08. That was the day I started posting the photos. That day we had over 40 visitors. We can only speculate what this means. I hope it means we are at least getting a few people to think about the experiences we shared in college and the opportunity our reunion presents.
I know that Joanie and Kathie have done lots of effective email communication for the Express class news, Pam at the Alumnae office needs Rhea and me to write a social letter that will go out this month through snail mail, and Wendy Hilty must be getting in touch with members of our class reagrding our class gift, though I have not heard from her as yet. Does anyone want to take up Susan’s challenge? Or are there other ideas for outreach to classmates? Maybe Rhea and I can pull it all together in the letter that goes out this month…but I know we are looking to tap the energy and imagination of classmates. Please let us know your thoughts here or at our email addresses.

Possible Strategies for Susan’s Ideas

The latest copy of the Wells directory lists those who are “lost.” I know Rhea and I tried to “find” people using various strategies for the 25th; we would certainly have new options now, fifteen years later. There are some people listed in the directory for whom we have an address, but contact has been difficult in the past. There are others with whom we have never made a successful connection.

Does anyone want to compile a list; divide up the names; start working on this project? Fifteen years ago,  remember I tried to find Sally Miller, Susan Andres, Marilyn DeSevo, Helen Hardy, Pam Bond, and Marla Mudar, among others. Sometimes you do find the person, but she does not want to be found. Or she feels so out of touch that it is awkward and counterproductive. Sometimes you inadvertently bump up against emotional issues about the past. Sometimes there are just dead ends and no trace at all. There are many reasons our classmates choose to stay distant or have moved on and away; do we want to use the blog to discuss the pro’s and con’s of handling this ?

Back for the 25th I felt it would be so neat to find a few women from our class who wanted to be found. I still feel that. It was so wonderful to find Derry for example.

Your views?

Message from Tica

Some thoughts on our 40^th 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 40^th 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.

  

What a Group!

Can anyone tell me where this photos was taken?

Are We Sure This is ‘68?

Got Mail?

Wanted: More Class Bloggers

Hello all-Just a quick note to report that eight class members are now set up to participate in our reunion blog. This is a good start and you’ll see that Barbie Kimberly joined us today. But if you look at the posts so far they are heavy on CWW reaching out. I want to hear/see more voices! If I can be of any help as you figure out how the site works, don’t hesitate to write me offline through email.
Please talk to other classmates and encourage them to sign up. I am truly hoping we can get some interesting discussion going as the weeks progress. More active participants will mean more lively conversations. I am hoping the blog can connect many of us virtually so once we get to campus, we can just keep those conversations going. There may even be some classmates who cannot join us for the reunion but who will participate virtually through this site.

New Contributors!

Hi All. Two new contributors from the class of 1968 have joined us: Lisa Goodridge and Joan Norris Daurio. Welcome classmates! Now that you are registered, I encourage you to log on and write a post. We want to hear from you in this space.

Other members of the class have written me but have not become active as yet. Please let me know if you want to join in the class conversation. Anyone in cyberspace can comment on these blog posts as you’ll see.  (There’s a clickable comment line at the end of every post.)

But only registered contributors can originate their own postings. Try it. If you have not done this before the only way to learn this form of social networking in cyberspace is to write an entry and publish it. Then wait to see whether someone comments on what you have written. If not, try another subject. And experiment with tags before you publish, if you care to. You’ll see the tags on the right…I have set up about ten of them so far. You can add additional tags when you bring up a new subject. Just type the category in the category box and click add. Then in future posts if you are developing a thought about that same subject, before you post you can check the box.

Spiders in search engines may find our tags and our blog may come up in someone’s web search. Some of this won’t matter, but wouldn’t it be neat if some other women’s college class of 1968 was also having a reunion and wanted to network with us? It would be a great example of the positive connecting power of the Internet.