Colby College - Oracle Yearbook (Waterville, ME)

Page 13 text:

Frosh who casually stepped into the hall to see what was going on. The matter was brought to the attention of the Student Council which appointed an acting Sophomore president, who was promptly captured and rules were over. lUgly rumors were circulated about this capture. Some say the Soph president was anxious to go to Boston on a certain weekend and could find no other ride.l Some also say that we were the first class to have an organized revolt against Freshmen rules. Nevertheless, it certainly fit in with the atmosphere surrounding a class that would instigate and witness many firsts on the Colby campus. During the football season a mascot appeared by the curious name of Ybloc. Although he reported for duty as a White Mule, he was ominously greeted by whispers concerning his paternity and his nondescript grayish colors which blended well with the weather in which the games were usually played. Thereupon, he became a singularly unaffectionate animal and seemed rather bored by the whole procedure. That fall the library stacks were opened to the students. As Mr. Humphrey, librarian, put it, to give them lthe studentsl an opportunity to get acquainted with the material they are studying. Some students gave this statement a rather liberal interpretation and fraternity pins continued to change hands through the cold winter months-an activity that beforehand had been considered a seasonal business. We were the last class to see and give a freshman class play. No decree was forthcoming about this, it seems to have died a natural death. Seventeen members of the class participated in its last rites-otherwise known as George Washington Slept Here. The Faculty also put on a show that year called Notes of Derange- ment, which parodied student activities with a surprising degree of observation. But this show too has, unfortunately, been placed on the shelf. The Outing Club erected the ski tow that fall and many of our classmates were recruited to cut brush, haul dirt, and burn sacrifices to the Snow Gods. ln February, Charlie Barnett showed up at the Winter Carnival Ball held in the new fieldhouse. The attempt to set a precedent of big-game bands for Winter Carnival failed. Actually, the music of such lesser-knowns as Jack Edwards and Ted Herbert, who played for succeeding carnivals, was more danceable than that of Barnett. Few mourned the passing of big-name bands from the Colby Campus. We had our fling. After a minor political campaign in the spring ot forty-nine, Bruce MacPherson, Janet Leslie, Norma Berquist, and Don Silverman were elected as class officers. The problem of construction was ever present from freshman year on. Roads and buildings were in a state of half completion and being rudely awakened by a blast during an eight o'clock class became a matter of course. An interesting little item appeared in the Echo of May ll, 1949. Mayor Squire was quoted as saying that the city could not repair the roads leading to the college at the present time but would do it in the near future. You'd better wind your calendar, Mayor, I think it's slow. Finals came and went and with the malso went a few luckless classmates. We left the old campus for good with fond memories of the smell of the mill, the trains rumbling through the station at all hours of the night the snowball fights at Hedman, bull sessions at the Jeff, the Dead Rat, and Petes, and last but not least, the buildings themselves. How they stood up for so long will forever remain a mystery. You can't deny that they had a heap of character, they sure had time enough to develop it.

Page 12 text:

Gleu Under ordinary circumstances the history of one class differs from the history of another only in that names, characters, and events are slightly shuffled in the grooves of tradition that have been worn by those gone before. Needless to say, the Class of l952 did not step off the Maine Central Railroad's stream- lined coaches onto the sooty, fog-bound platform of the Waterville Station into ordinary circumstances. Across the tracks stood eight obviously tradition-bound and time-worn buildings, all a trifle the worse for wear. Down the street were venerable Foss Hall and five Cape Cod type frame houses, women's dormitories all where grandmother used to room when she went to Colby. They weren't an awe-inspiring sight-but neither were their contents. In fact-well, let it go, some people must have been impressed. Two factors started out individually. One was the veteran element in the class. It was neither as large as that in the preceding class nor as small as that in the following class, but it was there, in full glory and tales of yesteryears in defense of our glorious country. The vets tempered the class as a whole, made it older, tamer, more stabilized and, on the whole, were a completely healthy influence. Not that they were a stodgy old bunch given to a peaceful fireplace and pipe, but when they raised the roof they, at least, watched where the roof would fall. There were exceptions to this rule, needless to say. The second factor, was the Stedman Bus Company with Rocky, the driver, of the quick grin and the guaranteed used cars fame. That seven o'clock bus to break- fast a mile and eight-tenths away was no ioke. The Class of '52 endured the fumes, the roads, the jammed buses, and cold, windy corners with a griping that became a fixture of the class-a griping that came to a head three years later in the form of a new Student Government which provided an instrument through which con- structive gripes could be effectively brought to the attention of the powers that be. Enough things were left around to keep us continually complaining-such as snow and its removal, liquor and its removal, or homework and its presence. Freshman Week came and went, filling our heads with new names and organ- izations and emptying our wallets of the folding green only to replace it with a stack of flimsy cards reading This is to certify that .....,.......,...................................... is a member in good standing of ..................... Registration was a confusing blur of standing in line, and emerging with five courses-none of which you had originally intended to take, but all of which seemed to be required. The first day of classes was largely an individual matter-a brief sense of having arrived, a quiet expectation, a forced casualness, a fulfillment, a promise, a hope, and then it was over. Just about when we were beginning to feel like old hands at the game, the Sophomores decided to change matters by invoking a set of rules designed to return us to the degrading state of neophytes as befitted an incoming group of lowly Freshmen. Within a matter of hours, Ted Parker, who handled the Freshman situation with the zeal of a crusading minister, was hung in effigy from the scaf- folding of the Keyes Building and the battle was on. With the Freshmen in open revolt, the Sophomores barricaded Roberts Union to prevent the upstart Frosh from eating and, a few nights later, invaded Hedman Hall to kidnap a hapless

Page 14 text:

Freshman year seems to stand out as the year, perhaps because it was a new experience and we were more conscious of what was going on around us. From then on, time just seems to run together. Fall came after too brief a summer spent at jobs befitting our superior intelli- gence, and we returned to the ney Colby Campus, very much impressed with the fact that we were now officially in the know. The fact that we were pointedly ignored by the upper-classes seemed not to faze us in the least. We were hell bent on teaching the Class of '53 how to behave but, unfortu- nately, we carried our enthusiasm too far. A group of upperclassmen carried off a rebellious freshman from the dorms and after only five days of hazing the rules went, but not before a fruitless, though exciting chase, of President Mac to Boston and back. We weren't the only ones to be honored with new living quarters. Prexy moved to his Howard Johnson-type house and gained rave notices in the ECHO about his blue bathroom. Nels Corey became the new line coach for the football team which split first place in the State Series with Bowdoin. George Bazer, Dick Verrengia, Sandy Sanderson, Ray Billington, Ed Cawley and John Ratoff played some excellent ball for Coach Holmer. Five fraternities laid foundations for their houses in fraternity row. Four suc- ceeded in putting houses on those foundations. The Lambda Chi's, with earnest but unlucrative teachers and preachers for alumni, graciously allowed the Tau Delts and Zetes to squabble over the unsightly hole to decide whether it should be a Tau Delt garage or a Zete cold storage cellar. The success of the Varsity Show, Bottoms Up, was largely due to the hard work and patience of such as Bev Forgy, Joan Acheson, Dick Tupper, Norma Ber- quist and numerous others. Sandy Pearson did an excellent job of substituting for Mary Thomas, on short notice, in the next year's show, Slightly Off Key. Powder and Wig had its share of '52 theater addicts. Appearing from time to time were Caroline Wilkins, Dale Dacier, Janice Pearson, Joan Gridley and Pat Erskine, who picked up a Powder and Wig dramatic award for her lead in The Glass Menagerie. January l8, T949, marked a sad day for Colby College. Pop Newman died. There was something about that guy at once unbelievable and undescribable. lf you didn't know him you couldn't understand the loss, and if you did know him or if you just saw him walking around, you know that volumes could be written about him without fully explaining the effect he had on people. Just before finals, Lambda Chi produced a musical show called Saint Looie Woman. What they lacked in talent they made up in noise. This was the first attempt any fraternity had tried in the line of a full-fledged show. However, all the fratrenities and sororities participated in a Hangout sponsored show a year later which was a tremendous success. Tau Delts walked off with the first prize, with the D. U.'s running a very close second. The Tri Delts pranced into the winner's circle of the sororities. A couple of old traditions were brought to our modern campus during our sophomore year. For one thing, the Elijah Prish Lovejoy stone was settled in the mud way down in front of Miller Libe, and for another, a circular was awaiting our arrival, that announced that henceforth no drinking would be allowed on campus. Both traditions were blithely ignored. The college year of i950-5l kept up the tradition of newness on the campus. A Student Government, worthy of the name, came into being. lt actually obtained results. Dean Nickerson addressed the class at the Senior Banquet, and with com- plete sincerity stated that he was somewhat surprised but extremely pleased by