Brown University - Liber Brunensis Yearbook (Providence, RI)

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criminal in associating names and ideas. We were never amazed by what came hot off its wires. Take the unprecedented civic convocation for in- stance. Apparently people figured that since the university had never done this sort of thing before, there must be some catch to it, and that something big was to be announced. President Woriston's retirement, we understood, was the popular favorite at 5-2 if two announcements were made it was even money to place, but plans for a freshman quadrangle were never out of the running and went oft at about 4-1. We didn't take too much stock in all this, because it didn't seem likely that the president of a prominent Cambridge institution would be invited to Providence to play second fiddle in the violin section, while the lanfare and publicity was deliberately aimed in another di ion. As thinegs turned out, both Wriston and the new quad were still running while the completely unexpected happenedthings went off exactly as planned in the papers. This all shows that things aren't what they seem to be always, but then you can never count on that, either. Abandon your grapevines, before you go down with the ship!

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the students, but where are shots showing the give and take that went on between them. There seem to be no pictures of the transfer of ideas that passed in classes, in activities, and on the campus as a whole. You can't picture that. But isn't that the most important thing about college? The Workman, George, Van Nostrand or Ducasse that gave his lectures spoke to us in associations of experiences or ideas, and we slaved away at the end of the semester till three packs of cigarettes and many kilowatt hours later we turned in a term paper with our own two bits in it. Others were able to learn from Prof. Adams that two bits and two bits are four bits and then went on to abstract mathematics. Of course we wanted our i pEvser o two bits to add up to a C or higher, but then many of the professors didn't add the same way we did. It's all a matter of associations. You asso- ciate gut with C and no work, you link grind with much work, and so on. Finally it came to the point where you associated yourself with the character in a book, a formula, or history and actually learned something. Even more important, you associated yourself with Man, and even some- times with won The result was idealism and marriage. There is no end to where this kind of thought will lead one. Usually in circles, I think, so let's not chase the academic tail. But wait, this all brings to mind the rumors circuit, or the campus grapevine, which was the biggest

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12 In some way memory is a grapevine though, and the reflection blues sometimes get very blue. All the thoughts that were pleasant sometime give way to the minor tragedies that make up this life. Willie was one of these. He died as he lived. Tt was Thanksgiving Day. Two minutes to go in the Colgate game. Colgate on the one yard line. On the parapet of section G a ficure could be seen waying an assortment of pennants. Suddenly he disappeared. Like the ripple spreading outward from the plop a stone has made in a quiet pool, the stands rose to their feet. The game stopped. Enter the ambulance and stretcher, exit Willie. The game went on as belore, for no one knew until the next day that photo by Prov. Journal Willie had died. It was the last game of the season. It was Willie's last game too, and he sel- dom missed one. We can still picture him in a W. C. Field'slike comedy with the Pinkerton men who weren't fooling at all. They tried to evict him from the game, but we wouldn't let them. He was that well liked and a tradition almost. Was the year really like this? I wonder. As you think back over it certain impressions stand out. They move in and out of focus and depend en- tirely upon your mood. No two people receive the same impressions, but all are bound to be touched by certain aspects of life that leave their imprint on the memory.