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

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The GRISTETTE graduate wearing their caps and gowns over their uniforms. The Soph Hop, the Junior Prom, and just a few of our clubs were other war casualties that next fall. We were forced to realize our responsibility to help keep things going more than ever and we ac- cepted it, grateful that there was some- thing we could do that we knew the boys who once were our classmates would ap- preciate. Girls were taking over most of the organizations now as well as making a good showing in basketball and hockey. We were Juniors in February and Dot Hanna was crowned Queen of our Winter Formal. We danced at the “Crystal Ball” w’hich the A. S. T. P. boys held — and we said goodbye to the Army at a “Goodbye G. I.” Dance in March. Davis and Roose- velt Halls were empty again and the “Jol- ly, Jolly Sixpence” song was sung wist- fully by only feminine voices. Scarcely had the Army left, however, when one hundred secretary trainees arrived to be trained for government work in Washing- ton and gave our girls some competition for the remaining men on campus. Soon we were in the midst of another summer and that June our sixth semester saw a burst of enthusiasm and college spirit that reminded us of our freshman days. TKE was reorganized into Tau Sigma Association as a substitute for fra- ternity life and, as a result, we saw an- other boys’ “Hell Week” . . . Phi Delta came to life . . . the dorm gave us a County Fair ... vie dances started again. Shirlie Lalime was our class director and mem- bers of our class were being elected to lead almost all clubs and organizations on campus. Mickey Fogel was elected Presi- dent of Women’s Student Government. Acceleration ended with the end of the summer semester. Before we knew it we were Seniors. Dot Hanna was the director for our sev- enth semester and Gail Graham, Shirlie Lalime, Mernie Blaine, Bea Browning, and Bob Scott had been tapped for member- ship into Sachems. We had a “Rhody Election Day” that semester w r ith cam- paign speeches, bonfires, buttons and “the works.” Tau Sigma, Beta Tau Omega, and Sigma Beta, the new boys’ organiza- tions, gave us a few formal dances and we had another Winter Formal . . . State was defeated in the Garden but received bids for two national tournaments ... we went to the Winter Concerts . . . and Phi Delta produced “The Late Christopher Bean” with Claire Callahan and Gail Gra- ham in prominent roles. Mernie Blaine, Bea Browning, Mickey Fogel, Mary Gar- iepy, Shirlie Lalime, and Bob Scott were among those elected to Who’s Who in American Universities and Colleges. In February were were “eighth semes- ter Seniors” and were beginning the end of our stay at Rhody. We elected Shirlie Lalime and Bob Scott as class directors and were all soon up to our ears in Grist- ette and Senior Week plans. The Grist- ette took most of our money but we still had a wonderful Senior Week. A Com- mencement Dance, a picnic, a breakfast, a Senior Dance, Class Day, and finally, on Sunday, June tenth, we were transformed in a few seconds into alumnae. In our three years at Rhody during the war emergency we tried, with the admin- istration and faculty, to hold the College together. We didn’t accept defeat as so many students in other colleges did but we kept things going as best we could. There has been no “closing of the doors” because, with all the problems of the world surrounding us, we somehow felt that it was our duty, as well as our privilege, to keep the continuity of the College and give it back to our boys as they left it. Those boys and the new classes that are entering in these more hopeful years will not have the job of opening a dusty house. Our house, as we pass it on to them, is well-ordered and on a firm foundation that not even war has shaken. --••if 23 }§►—