University of Rhode Island - Renaissance / Grist Yearbook (Kingston, RI)

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History - i t ♦ In the world today history is being made at such a rapid pace, and the events have been so tremendous, that sometimes we lose sight of the fact that we, too, have been living in a historical sense. Our events have not made the front pages of newspapers but certainly we have written a page of history in the chapter of the College. Our page is mostly the story of a struggle to preserve the organizations and the spirit of the College during the war and to give back to the servicemen in our class, and in other classes, the same Rhody that they left. We did not want them to come back and have to blow away the dust of inactivity before they could start in where they left off. The Class of 1945 never really started. It just accumulated. Some of us were here a little early and didn’t accelerate; another came back after serving with the armeq forces, but most of us arrived in September of 1942 and are the product of a concentrated and accelerated college life which has meant many things besides vacations being few and far between. We were green that September almost three years ago, but we were very willing to learn and we still think our Freshman year was as wonderful as that of any pre- ceding class. Acceleration had started and our “freshman week” was cut short, but we had three full days of stag lines, teas, and making mistakes by ourselves. We learned our school songs; we wore our green ribbons and our frosh caps; we -4 21 )■ -

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8 Washburn and East Halls

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The GRISTETTE didn’t walk on the grass, and we found out who the Vigilantes were — even if some of us did it the hard way. The Davis Hall girls bunked in the lounge of Eleanor Roosevelt Hall while Davis was being re- decorated, and in a spirit of fun nicknamed their temporary headquarters “The Bar- racks” and proceeded to have a fine time while they were there. That first Saturday we cheered at the Brown-State game, not realizing, then, that it was the last we were to see for the duration. We had a football team and a band that year — we even danced in Octo- ber to Sam Donahue at the Soph Hop, and in November to Mai Hallett at the Aggie Ball. Agatha Jones and Anna Bills were cheerleaders and Gail Graham, Marcia Cady, and Fran Stickley were Queen can- didates for the Aggie Ball. Even then we were making ourselves known. We joined the Glee Club, Phi Delta, the debating societies, Home Ec Club ; we did the small jobs for the Beacon ; we went out for football and track and basketball and hockey and softball. We didn’t know what class we were going to graduate as, but, for tradition’s sake, we put our “Frosh 46” on the quadrangle walk. Event followed event that first year. And in the meantime the streetlights had gone out, students and faculty were keep- ing a twenty-four hour watch on the roof of Washburn Hall. We elected our first and only complete set of class officers. Doug Graham was our President; Marite Delaney, Vice-President; Marcia Cady, Secretary; William Briggs, Treasurer; Herbie Kauffman, Social Chairman, and Dr. Robert Stallman was our class adviser. We presented the “Frosh Frolic” — we danced again at our first Military Ball — rushing came and some of us joined fra- ternities and sororities. Janet Datson and Elsie Anderson walked off with the first prize for their nursery rhyme skit at our Stunt Night. That winter we packed Rod- man Hall at every game and soon we were calling Coach Keaney “The Mente” as if we’d been around for years. We watched State’s first graduation with snow on the ground — the Beacon was -cut to almost half its size. In December we danced at the last Junior Prom in the Biltmore. On February third all courses began on an accelerated program. We were now T called “second semester freshmen” be- cause a new freshman class had entered. This date really marked the beginning ot the end of our class unity in the strictest sense of the word, although our classmates really didn’t start to fall behind until the next summer. The war was brought closer that sum- mer semester by the arrival of two hun- dred and fifty Army Trainees who moved into Eleanor Roosevelt Hall. We listened to their “Jolly, Jolly, Sixpence” and “Hup- 2-3-4” going to and from classes ; our girls danced with them at the “Union,” which was formerly Beta Phi fraternity, and we turned our Cafeteria over to their use. The civilian boys, regardless of fraternity affiliation, moved into TKE, Alpha Tau, Lambda Chi, and Beta Psi. Delta Alpha, S. A. E., Theta Chi, Phi Mu, and P. I. K. became the habitats of dorm girls and freshmen, and soon it no longer looked unusual to see girls going in and out of fraternity houses at all hours. All stu- dents used the individual housing units as dining rooms. We donated blood — there were air raid drills — and we watched the number of blue and gold stars grow on our service flag in Edwards Auditorium. Semester representatives now replaced class officers and we elected Bob Shea as our third semester director and Doctor Wilson as our adviser. That summer we still found time for the Pier; we took life saving courses at Thirty Acres ; we played softball and tennis ; classes progressed and our tans deepened at the same time. That summer we learned football was to be a war casualty. In the September gradua- tion we watched twenty-two senior men -4 22 jfr-