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

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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

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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

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MARYMOUNT COLLEGE MOTHERS' DINNER wALDo11F-AsTo1uA JAN.22,1944 2 e K V A S . 5 . ,K 3'