Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts - Mohawk Yearbook (North Adams, MA)

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All about you we have left the utilitarian taols for buildingestrong tools called books and teachersesmall, delicate tools called songs, memories and laughter. Use them all in your building. Today, looking back on those years we are so soon to leave behind there comes a strange pang of regret. We did not treasure enough the little friendly things about-ethe click of heels in the hall+the brisk hilarity of the Greylock hike or the sunny quiet of the library. There comes the thought that perhaps we have not always wielded our tools wisely but at lastesomehow our stairs have reached a height that enables us to step over the threshold into a new work shop. Freshmen and Sophomores, no longer will we be here in shining example. You in your turn will find that you can show the way to new underclassmen and we hope you'll find as much satis' faction watching them come in all the inconvenient doors as we did. To you, a little regretfully, we give over all rights to dictate, lead and exploit the new under' classmen and when you in turn reach the threshold may you take with you as happy a memory of them as we have of you. Eiizaxoii COIKIKIGAN, '36 RESPONSE Look down, oh sophisticated ladies, yes and smile too. The frivolous freshmen and silly sophsn are thumbing their way--trying to get a ride to the top. We are just beginning to realize that there are no escalatorsin this long climb. Each step must be carefully mounted and before mounting, there must be something on which to place our feet, something solid and secure, somef thing which will stand the test through the years. Tools are a means to an end, but we must know how to use these tools. At first the young carpenter awkwardly handles the implements of his profession, but after watching the master, he comes to know the use and beauty of them. For him it is now a joy to behold the created product of his own apprenticeship. So, we the underclassmen, have watched you fullffledged carpenters build and mount your stairs, and with your tools, and ours too, you have gained the goale the door at the top of the flight is open wide to you. I dream that, step by step, timber by timber, we too, will rear a stairway as successfully as you. We realize that the heights which you have reached were not attained in one glad bound, but slowly and tediously have you climbed the stairs. May we say with Whitman in his utter' ance of the manifesto of the new generation: a better, fresher, busier sphere, a wider untried domain awaits, demands you. W,lNIFlKED K. SMITH, '57 TRADITIONS AND IDEALS PAST Three years ago we found ourselves among a multitude of new countenances, and surrounded by new personalities. Around us were stately buildings, dignified, impressive. The college seemed to us as stable as the neverfchanging hills which rise in beauty around it. We had always known about the State Teachers College at North Adams, always considered it a permanent feature of the landscape, literally, and taken it for granted that it would always exist as one of the important centers for the spread of culture in western Massachusetts. Qlt seemed incredible that it might cease to functionj But soon after our arrival, suddenly there began ominous rumors, like the thunder of an approaching storm, that our beloved college might close, might cease to function. Could we remain unmoved in the face of this threat that we might be shut out of existence? We were not unmoved, and neither were the countless alumnae and friends who for years had loved and honored this school. Not only those who had lived here and to whom the college had become a second home, but those who had looked forward to coming here and who had been, as it were, traveling with this as their destination felt this threat of closing as a personal injury. 30

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ADDRESS OF WELCOME President Eldridge, members of the faculty, parents, classmates, and friends: The class of nineteen hundred and thirtyfsix greets you all and welcomes you this afternoon to the exercises of its own great day. Within two days we shall have reached the goal toward which we have been striving for three long, yet seemingly short years. Some of us are now to enter upon the greater field of life which lies stretched out before us, we must renounce the actuality of our college privileges and pleasures only to hold them with the firmer grasp of our memories as we assume those graver burdens which surround us as we leave the threshold of this college so dear to us. We regret most keenly now that many duties have been ill performed and that great opporf tunities have gone unheeded into the irrevocable past. But the hours of the present are golden and the recollection of the happy days that we have spent together will ever brighten our pathf way, as we press with confident and hopeful promise into the future. To the President, to you sir, on behalf of the graduating class, let me offer our congratulaf tions on the growth and continuing influence of our college. Members of the faculty, we tremble as we leave you, for here we have relied upon your wisdom and your guidance. We have felt too your genuine sympathy and say Farewell with sincere regret. From you, our parents and our friends, we depart with emotions of special regret. With deepest gratitude may we express our appreciation for our privilege in attending this college. Seniors, we can wish nothing greater for you than that every new achievement bring you joy and happiness. To the underclassman, we leave the college in your care. You are to enjoy the opportunities we have enjoyed. We commend to you the interests we have cherished, knowing your loyalty is no less than ours. Classmates, the time is now at hand when it is necessary for us as a class to part. The future holds no delusive promises to us for that time when we shall be traveling our individual paths of life but always it will contain pleasant memories of a past happily spent together. So it is with this spirit, half of regret, half of conhdence, we say Hail and Farewell . DOROTHBA L. HOFFMAN, '36 ADDRESS TO THE UNDERCLASSMEN Looking down from the heights of sophistication becoming only to the high rank of an upper' classman, I smile, a small, crooked, undecided smile which doesn't seem quite sure whether its corners will turn up or down. For three years we, who are soon to graduate, have looked upon all underclassmen with a wary eye of superiority. Upon your defenseless heads we have heaped one indignity after another from the enforced wearing of tellftale yellow freshman caps down to gleefully watching you sweep the postfoffice steps with toothbrushes. You are made, it seemed, to carry our books, mail our letters and form the greater part of the clean up committee after a party. Today, looking down from the top of this long stairway we have built through three years of work, we can see you standing there, some of you who have already built your first steps ud toward the end of the way. Seeing you standing there. we who have carved, hammered and nailed our steps together can see so many things. We can see plainly, as we look backwards all the easy, lurking shallow which cause boards to be hewn crookedly, all the places where nails should have gone that are empty and sharp jagged edges that catch hurried, unheeding feet. These, yet, are not what we remember best or see most clearly for there are shining, glowing lights at each turn in the long stairway, there are softly carved stories of joy on each tread and everywhere, velvet curtains of friendship to hide the shabby places. From the top, sending its guiding light down to the very lowest step, is the thin golden shaft light of duty leading our feet up, up into attainment. 29

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Could we save that which meant so much to us? We were determined to make an attempt. By means of individual and collective efforts, small when taken separately but powerful when combined, the alumnae and supporters of this school won their battle, and the college found itself again standing firm and secure. As we look back on this crisis, we see that little did we realize what our school really meant to us until we were forced to fight for its existence. So it is that wherever we go and whatever we do in life, those things which signify most to us are those which we struggle for. That is why our education means so much to us, because we have struggled three years for it. This unusual experience of saving the school, and the traditional experiences of forming friendships and sharing in many happy social events, and great lasting friendships have made our past in this school deeply appreciated and precious and one which is and will be the source of life' long memories. Perhaps this poem by Hamlin Garland can express for us something of our joy in the symf bolical heights in our environment: The mountains are a silent folk: They stand afarfalone, And clouds that kiss their brows at night Hear neither sigh nor groan. Each bears him in his ordered place As soldiers do, and bold and high They fold their forests round their feet And bolster up the sky. EVELYN SMITH, '36 PRESENT Three years of our work have been accomplished, what our future was three years ago is now our present. Our ideals were high, our reach exceeded our grasp, but little by little we climbed to the height we have now attained. Yet, we are still at the opening of an unpaved road. The barriers at this opening are about to be taken down and we are entering a new world made possible by our parents, citizens of Massachusetts and the faculty of our college. Our college means much to us, for we have toiled together toward one goal, that of making ourselves ready for our chosen profession, that work of guiding minds and hands, the teaching of little children. Every task we have undertaken has memories dear to us. Our college has become almost a sacred edifice. We have memories about her that are so deeply linked with pleasant associations we shall never allow them to escape from us. She was established as a normal school by our earlier citizens but has now grown into a degree granting institution. Yearly she grows, and now to meet new demands a junior High course is being set up to interest those girls especially interested in training in the upper grades. This will undoubtedly mean a larger enrollment. The high aims of our Alma Mater are constantly kept before us. We want them high and we build on what was given to us by our founders. We want success and we keep the same ideals before us which brought satisfaction to those who led the way. We are the builders of today. Let us make our constructions strong, pure, dependable, and be ready to face what life has to offer. As we are gathered here today let us keep this creed in mind: There is a destiny that makes us brothers, None goes his way alone, All that we send into the lives of others Comes hack into our own. -- Markham ELLA MAB KARREY, '36 FUTURE Heaven is not gained at a single boundg But we build the ladder by which we rise From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, And we mount to its summit round by round. How truly significant this is to us, teachers of the future. By constant and faithful work we hope finally to reach the pinnacle of success-not success for our own material gain, but for the betterment educationally and morally of the children entrusted to our care. Ours is a long and unending task, one which invites discouragement, one which beckons to despair many times, but 31