46
tA
IT was in September when we came to College as the class of 1941.
'4| was all we knew of ourselves: a number; a seven-come-eleven for the
four years which (we were told) lay ahead (for some). But we found out
other things because they took pictures of various members of the class
being Freshmen under Pembroke Arch with trashbaskets or in a Room
with hoops. And all that was Freshman week before we knew about hoops.
So we saw the College first through camera lenses and our round-
eyed gaze turned into a quick angle shot and so what if we have seen
things a little out of perspective—because, ever since—but that is history.
There was a heat wave Freshman week at any rate and it was much hotter
then than it has ever been since.
To get on with Freshman year which had scarcely begun for 144 of
us from the East, from the West, North and South and all the rest, before
we knew it, it was winter and Wyndham had become the garden spot of
the nation and nightingales sang in Berkley.
But then the people who went to picnics there and those who didn't
had to stop doing it for the Freshman Show. And our Freshman Show was
the best Freshman Show, which proves that you mustn't believe everything
you see in the papers. And with the Show came a great deal of Fun and
one-half the class never spoke to the other half afterwards which was a
real adjustment, as you only had half as many people to get along with.
But that didn't really discourage us and we couldn't sing anything but
the Class Song, which gave us a certain singleness of purpose.
