Colby College - Oracle Yearbook (Waterville, ME)

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SENIIIR CLASS HISTURY On a bright autun111 day i11 1941, the largest class ever to enter Colby arrived at the station to be whisked away by the S. C. A. for a week of freshman orientation activities. Some of the freshmen had come for four years of fun-par- ties, dances, picnics, football games and winter sports. Some had come with an earnest desire to achieve a good, liberal education-in the classroom, in the library, in the lecture halls- but most of the class of 1945 had come with eager expectations of combining both education and fun into four happy, prosperous and peace- ful years. The first few months proved to be all that any freshman could wa11t. Classroom work and lec- tures had started them on the road to an A.B. degree and social activities, in the form of gym dances, tea dances, fraternity and sorority par- ties and football games, abounded. Colby won the Maine State Football Championship and the class of 1945 made the front page of the Boston Herald. The former glory was the result of an excel- lent team and coach. The latter triumph was the result of the enterprise of the freshman men. The boys dug up a dust-covered rule which would grant them exemption from fresh- man rules finvolving bowing in front of Foss Hall and similar indignitiesl if they could cap- ture the sophomore class president and hold him from his classmates for forty-eight hours. The president of tl1e class of 1944 was taken for an unexpected but pleasant trip to Boston while his classmates furiously combed the New England states although really suspecting he had gone to Alaska. Upon the sophomore president's re- turn to Watewille the freshmen were granted exemption from onerous rules and everyone agreed that the class of 1945 was definitely a part of Colby. December seventh is a date which has become as thoroughly imprinted in American minds as the Fourth of July or Armistice Day. ,lust as this date changed the way of life for the nation so it changed the way of life for Colby. The Colby Glee Club was in Portland that Sunday singing Handel's 'fMessiah with the Bowdoin and Colby Junior College Glee Clubs when the announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor was made. The usual hilarious return of the Glee Club was that night subdued. For days afterward radios blared constantly even at meals 10 and in the gym. Colby's men began to leave the campus for the armed forces. From a happy little ivory tower, momentarily touched with hysteria, Colby changed to a college at war. Preparation for living became more important, and the frivolity of college life was relegated to a minor position. One of the few major social events of 1942 was Winter' Carnival, which took place with all its traditional excitement and glitter. Freshmen marveled at the snow sculpture, were delighted with the moccasin dance on the skating rink, and thoroughly enjoyed the formal which cli- maxed the week-end. Spring came and with it the fascinating news that the Fall of 191-2 would find the Wo1nen's Division living on the Mayflower Hill campus. Also of great student interest was Franklin John- sonis announcement that he was retiring from the presidency of Colby. Late in the Spring he introduced Dr. Julius S. Bixler of Harvard who was to be his successor. Wi,tl1 workmen busy on Mayflower Hill the freshmen left for Summer vacation. Some mem- bers of the class of 1945 returned, however, for Colby's first summer school, which was designed by the administration to enable students to com- plete their college career before induction into the armed services. It was a delightful Summer, with classes in the morning and the afternoons spent walking, picnieking, playing tennis or swimming at tl1e Outing Club. The highlight of the summer was the War Bond Caravan which brought Nancy Carroll, a genuine movie actress, to Wfaterville. Returning in the Fall, upperclass women were met at the station by a shiny new blue bus fmore recently known as Colby's Daily Mir- aclel and transported to the Hill. Whatever' misgivings the sophomore women had about the freshman girls being on the Old Campus within close proximity of the remaining men were dis- pelled by the sight of the wonderful new dor- mitories. Colby by this time had become a wartime col- lege in earnest. A streamlined academic pro- gram was set up while the administration an- nounced plans for a second summer school. Ex- tracurricular activities were cut to a minimtun -Powder and Wig, Colby At The Mike, the Outing Club fell by the boards. In a further effort to minimize extracurricular activities a