Marymount College - Elan Yearbook (Tarrytown on the Hudson, NY)

Page 42 text:

remember his last class and the advice he gave us to work so that we might have a share in making the world of tomorrow. We talked often of his humor and the way he took our teasing-especially the time we announced that he had won a lottery and we piled his desk high with saltine boxes. Air raid drills were part of our schedule now. Many of us became wardens and took first Aid courses. Blackouts always came before psychology tests it seemed. We remember the feeling of the first one, the sense of loneliness and quiet that descended over Tarrytown. Because of the shortage of men, we cancelled our plans for the Sophomore dance and took the college as a whole to the circus, instead. Springtime brought Jeanne Cawley's engage- ment party and the whole class deserted campus one Sunday afternoon for Bronxville. The beauty of May was darkened that year by the graduation of so many of our class- mates. We hated to lose them, but we resigned ourselves, and one summery night we gave them a party at Sleepy Hollow Country Club. It rained for our lantern chain so we held it indoors in the rotunda. In Junior year we welcomed Kay and Jane. We enjoyed our role of big sisters and pondered long over the choice of our majors and minors. Control room duty started that year. Marymount was asked to take the hours between three and six A.M. We signed up and crept down the stairs in the wee small hours of the morning to take our turns in watching for the signals that might announce 38 the approach of the enemy. As we shot down the hill in the police car Tarrytown slept and everything was weird and silent. At the end of the year we received honorary certificates for service. The Military service claimed more and more of our faculty and close friends. We erected a service flag for them in Butler Hall rotundag established a Friday morning Mass, listed their names on our service roll and planned our lives so as to be able to give the maximum of contribution to the war effort. When the results of our mid-year examina- tions were announced and four of our mem- bers received white cords-emblems of the Curian Honor Society, we were justly proud. With January too had come exciting plans for our Junior Prom. We decorated the lounge with silver lame and grew dizzy at the top of wobbly ladders. The big day cameg it rained and at the last moment we learned that the blind dates could not come. Tele- phone wires hummed-and we tried to sing away our blues in Tea House. That night fifty couples graced the dance floor and the rest of us acted as general hostesses. With the advent of Spring came the buzzing, not of the bee but about the bee .... Then came preparations for May Day, the twisting and curling of yellow and green paper into elaborate decorations. We finished the year in a maze of final examinations, parties and campus night songs. At last we reached the exalted position of Seniors, but we were not so sure that we

Page 41 text:

D' CHRO ICLE 0F THE CLASS '44 It all began one beautiful September day, in the year 1940 .... Young and carefree, we entered on our great college adventure. We were living in Sacre Coeur then . . . all the wealth of heaven seemed concentrated on the shimmering waters of the Hudson. We surmounted lightly the obstacles of registra- tion and orientation. No sooner were our tears of homesickness dried than we were plunged into the hockey tournament. We were good enough to play in the hockey game but not good enough to win it. That evening we kidnapped our opponents, mas- cot, Chonais bear, and hung him bedecked in purple, between Butler Hall and the Science Building. Our own mascot, Violet, the beloved polka-dot cow with the crinoline eyelashes, narrowly escaped a similar fate. We had only been at Marymount for about a month when we thought we were as well acquainted with it as the seniors, but we were still answering Benedicamus Dominon with thank you Madame and not knowing the difference. We remember the sermons of our first retreat, but we remember too, three days of continuous rain. It wasn't long before the beautiful ceremonies of December 8th took place and then came Christmas with its carols and parties and plays. In January we struggled with mid-year examinations, and with our basketball op- ponents. Soon Spring was in the air and with it came our Fashion Show with clothes by Lanz of Salzburg. Mr. Lanz himself came to Marymount for the occasion, and we were proud of our Austrian theme, carried out even in the table decorations. Our Easter gift to Marymount was our Freshman Cor- mont. We had fun writing it and financing it. The weather grew warmer and we took trips to Nyack on the ferry, sunbathed on the roof of Butler Hall, dodging-whole fami- lies of humble bees. We practised for May Day and prayed for fine weather. We played baseball and laughed riotously at the faculty game. Campus night was sad-it was our first farewell. Our return in Sophomore year was, oh, so different from our arrival as Freshmen. We were glad to be back and we had two new members, Grace and Maria. We had debated with the class of '43 about the occupancy of Gerard Hall and now we were settled en niasse in our rooms on the third and fourth floors. We helped to entertain the Freshmen and struggled all over again with registra- tion. Our carefree attitude was soon to be shaken. .Pearl Harbor had been attacked, we trembled at the implications. In a few short hours we had lost the world of today and were hurled into a new era, terrible, frightening .... War was declared on the day that we were received into the Children of Mary. Since that day we have never ceased our defense activities. After the outbreak of the war, Mr. Kelly our English prof went to Washington. He was the first to leave and we missed him. We 37

Page 43 text:

liked it because Senior year had always been the subject of ominous remarks about dis- sertations, orals, comprehensives. We had been told that they were things to be dreaded, and we discovered that our in- formants had not been mistaken. We sur- vived the onslaught however, and handed in our dissertations on January 12th, several pounds lighter than we had been in the Fall. We looked forward anxiously to our last retreat and then tragically found that 'the whole Senior class missed the first conference through a dinner appointment and a mixed- up bus schedule. For the first time in four years we won the mission drive and the free day. During the Christmas season we trimmed the tree and sang beneath it in our red choir boy cassocks. After an extensive vacation, we returned with only a few months of our college life remaining. Again we prepared for mid-year examinations and this time we came through with two more Curians and a Gerard Scholar. March 17th dawned dark and rainy as it had done for four years. But the parade went on and with it went Marymount in deluged caps and gowns. Spring trembled around the corner and shied into a snow drift which threatened to destroy the for- sythia blossoms. Comprehensives and Easter came together. They were followed by the concert at Town Hall, a night of triumph for the Choral Club. May arrived in 1944 with- out the anticipation of May Day. It didn't seem right, but the girls accepted the fact and went right ahead with Nurses, Aide work and all the other defense undertakings they had begun. The Red Cross featured promi- nently on the campus now. Examinations came for the last time. They brought nos- talgia for Marymount this time, for all the examinations that had gone before, for the fragrance of lilac, singing on the steps, walks around the lake, evenings at Mary- mount. And now it is the eve of graduation. Tonight the girls will gather in each others' rooms to review for the last time incidents of four happy years. In hushed tones they will recall so many things that have made life dear to them at college and then they will steal away to their own thoughts, their own rooms. Tomorrow the Class of '44 will graduate from Marymount College. 39