Lehigh University - Epitome Yearbook (Bethlehem, PA)

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Lehigh reacts to the referee ' s decision get a blind date. I began scouting around for my fall houseparty date in May. I found one, all right. She was really beautiful, a little short on brains, and she could dance, too. I was a big senior by this time and felt like quite an oper- ator. We went down to the big Fall Houseparty Ball in Grace Hall where my old friend, Claude Thornhill, was playing again. I had a swell time being pushed around on the dance floor, and then it happened. No sooner had I returned to the house to party a little when I realized my mistake. My date was so desirable, she at- Bernadine and Pete Welanetz talk over placement opportunities tracted all the men like a magnet. What a miser- able houseparty from then on! I couldn ' t even get her over to a dark corner to say nice things to her without one or two stags coming along to help me. We went down to the football game on Saturday afternoon and watched N.Y.U. sort of beat us by one point. I kept my eyes on the game knowing that the nine guys who sat in the same row had their eyes on my date. She certainly wasn ' t going to make a getaway unnoticed. Saturday night we went house-hopping and scored a big hit wherever we went. I never knew how many buddies I had be- fore, and strange to say, they were all without dates. It was then and there that I swore nev er to take a beautiful girl to houseparty again. That was my senior year, and I had one more houseparty to go. With determination I combed the country- side and found just the girl. She was plain look- ing, did a passable job on the dance floor, and had a wonderful personality. That was the best houseparty I ever went to. None of the stags bothered us. The fact is, I don ' t even remember the name of the big name bands that played at the Friday night dance. We had such a good time that evening that we stayed up all night and ended up playing tennis at five in the morning on the city courts. 16

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Cheerleader Lee and friend stories we used to get in when we first came back to Lehigh after the war. They were always a good excuse to keep from doing homework. Most of us were veterans who had had a semester or so at college before going into the service, and when we started school again we had a lot to talk about. Do you re- member much about school, Steve? Chick finally asked. Yes, guess I do, I said. You know, sometimes I ' ll be sitting around the house not doing much of anything, and out of a clear blue sky, I ' ll start thinking about some of the things I used to do at Lehigh. It ' s strange, but I can remember things as if they ' d taken place yesterday. Me, too, said Sam It must be old age creeping up on me or something, but I still like to think about all that happened here like, well a-a-a — houseparties. Houseparties, we all echoed together and everyone was talking at once. ' ' Sam, what ever happened to that girl you used to bring to all the houseparties? asked Doug. Well, I mar- ried her a couple years after I graduated, said Sam. But what about that Cedar Crest girl you dated one houseparty. You know the one I mean, the real, good looking girl everybody tried to make time with. I don ' t know what became of her — don ' t care much either. Some guy with a car started dating her, and I never saw her again, Doug said. The mention of houseparty turned my mind back to those week- ends and all that happened. No school Saturday, parties, dances, football games, picnics — ah, that was houseparty! I ' ll never forget the blind date I had up for the spring houseparty when I still was a junior. What a beast — no looks, no per- sonality, no nothing! She couldn ' t even dance. I pretended that I was a special fan of Claude Thornhill ' s, and we spent most of the dance by the bandstand listening to the music. I remember the hit tune was Near You because I wished I was elsewhere from my date. She was a good baseball player, and I let her wear herself out at the picnic on Saturday afternoon. I learned my lesson that houseparty — never again would I John Calvin and the hook 15

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Here, Steve, let me fill your glass, said Chick. The boys were talking about wrestling and Sam was saying, Do you remember the ' Easterns ' back in ' 48 when they held them in Grace Hall? Lehigh did all right and took the championship without much strain ' Yes, that ' s right, Chick said, and they held the ' Nationals ' here that year too. But in ' 49 we lost the ' Easterns ' to Syracuse by one point. That was hard to take. Billy Sheridan really turned out some wrestling teams in our day, said Doug. Do you remember Jackson and the way he ' d wrestle with his legs? He always wore a poker face and never seemed to use any effort on the mat Ke Isey was one for getting around, Chick said, he was ' Easterns ' champ for two years in a row. And there was Mike Filipos too and the Ericson brothers. They all worked like machines. Jim Hildebrand, Arcadia ' s Chick Nicholls, and Lehigh ' s new cannon Mike Cunningham breaks ground for the new gym It ' s strange how Lehigh should go so strongly for wrestling while the other sports got such little support, Chick said. But then, Lehigh only went all out for some things like houseparties, exams, and the music festivals. Music Festival. The name set me thinking about the big shows that were produced under the direction of Pro- fessor Schempf and Ralph Schwarz. I remember the Spring Music Festival of ' 48 in particular. Nothing as big as this had been tried at Lehigh before by the students. One side of Grace Hall was made into a stage with a screen that went the length of the room The music of the Glee Club, the University Band, and the Collegians was com- bined with special lighting effects and terrific staging. I ' ve always remembered Dean Congdon in phosphorescent make-up singing Way Down Yonder in the Corn Field and Dick Elrick in his handstand act and the Pershing Rifles d oing Queen Anne drill to swing time music. Of course there was Pat Lockwood, the Beaver College singer, who c?used a furor with her singing and healthy looks. But the festival of ' 49 was even bigger. Ralph Schwarz returned early in the fall to direct the production. An office and movie studios were set up in Drown