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Page 22 text:
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Mill trip Next stop - Broadway IN RETROSPECT The living of one ' s life is unique. At the instant when tumultuous conditions mold a life, an individual is not able to discern this marked influence on his later years. It is only through the process of retrospection that one can appraise the incidents of the past in the light of the future. And, fortunately for the human race, the process of retrospection makes gay times gayer, and times of strife seem almost innocuous. Gay times gayer, hard times softer . . . how does that apply to four years at L.T.I. ? Let ' s start from the begin- ning . . . It was one of those balmy September days in 1951 when the Class of 1955 first came upon Lowel Textile, as it was known in those days. In entrance, even as in graduation, there were many contrasting opinions about LTI. Those among us who were Ivy League and well traveled didn ' t like what they saw. Some of us were completely innocent of college, and didn ' t know what to expect in the physical appearance of a school. So what if it ' s yellow? . . . Little did both groups realize that during their matriculation at the Institute more new buildings would be erected and more improvements would be made than in any com- parable four year period. We were both awed and frightened by our new surroundings. In solemn ceremony, the Dean (who we were soon to know as the Clean Dean, for some obscure reason) robed in academic gowns, told us to look to the left, and to look to the right. His words didn ' t end with stand up, sit down, fight, fight, fight. Instead, he shocked us by saying that one of the men on either side of us would not be there at graduation time. To which we shouted, Who me? Yet he was right . . . alas poor roommates. It was in a gay, carefree, youthfully inexperienced attitude that we stormed the Bookstore. We were loaded up with enough material to give us mementoes of freshman days. Even as we are about to gradu- ate, we have some of our early purchases, unused. We were given the Red Book and the Blue Uniform, and we heard President Lydon ' s famous convocation speech advising us if we didn ' t like it here to go someplace else. Classes were from 8:30 to 4:30 plus four hours on Saturdays, to make up for the additional hours caused by the inclusion of ROTC in the curriculum. As members of the first Corps of Cadets at LTI, we found that those among us who could march became officers, and that those who couldn ' t became disgusted. One heavenly blessing was the rain almost every week during drill hours. The social year was started for the freshmen with a blind date dance held in conjunction with Lowell Teachers . . . Mmmmoan. Then the All-Tex Formal 18
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Page 23 text:
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was held, with Freddie Martin featured ... A Frosh Smoker had Swede Nelson as guest speaker. We saw LTI emerge as an outstanding power in a strange game called soccer. There was no football to cheer for, so we immediately were in need of a good interpreter . . . Viva Zapata!! . . . Our first enc ounter with industry came at the Open House, which highlighted Secretary of Commerce Sawyer. Many of us, clad in our ROTC blue, were strategically placed throughout the Institute to decorate the walls. Suddenly, it was Christmas time, and with some exams behind us, we tried not to look backward . . . The new year began with the first Military Ball, an im- mediate result of which was the sale of shoulder patch- es to the Corps at $1.25 apiece. A new organization, WLTI, was formed on campus . . . The Film Classics group continued to present fine motion pictures . . . The Text pessimistically foretold a bleak fraternity future, as men from the houses went back to the dorms . . . The new Paper-Leather Building was opened in March, and many of us began to sleep in classes held there as Hell Week raged in full fury. We voted to change the name of Lowell Textile to Lowell Tech, and we were quite startled to read that President Lydon was to campaign for governor. Naive as we were, the Pink Issue had taken us in. That April was a good one . . . There were three vacation periods, one occasioned by the Wool Bureau Convention here. The Tech Players presented, You Can ' t Take It With You, and after almost a full year of LTI, most of us were content not to try . . . Upstream Day capped the social year, as many beer bottles were uncapped by the rapidly learning Frosh . . . We were indeed rapidly learning, but perhaps the wrong things; for when finals were over, our ranks were depleted. Summer came- and- went all too quickly. When we were ready for our next year, we weren ' t the same group of innocent youths. We were proud and arro- gant sophomores, who knew everything about LTI; and we didn ' t hesitate to tell the first freshman we saw all about it. Things were somewhat different around LTI. The ROTC moved its offices, and added new officers . . . Physics Lab was now in the P-L Building . . . There were fraternity floors in the dorms, instead of having men suffer the disadvantages of their houses. O Pi celebrated its Fiftieth Anniversary . . . Prof. Merrill stepped down as head of the Cotton Depart- ment after many years of meritorious service . . . We found that things as sophomores were not what we ex- pected . . . Was it not? . . . Math ... to differentiate or integrate . . . Cotton ... to be sure . . . Physics . . . Philosophy . . . Organic . . . 1, 1, 2, 2, . . . are you sure Fermi started this way? . . . Lab reports . . . dung locks . . . We had an All Tech Smoker, and the Military Ball i ' Just married ' Now, just a pinch of salt 19
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