Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts - Mohawk Yearbook (North Adams, MA)

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EENIUH CLASS HISTUHY Heflections Mirror, mirror on the wall reflect the past, tell us all THE DEEP, dark past began to unfold and 1943 came into view. On the bumpy road to knowledge twenty-six peagreen freshmen garbed in their best zoot suits succumbed to S. T. C. with Dew-ey eyed innocence, stout hearts, and knocking knees. The costume of the day was soon in for a drastic change as the Sophomores contrived, planned, and plotted for initiation of this little band of unwarped minds. At this early date our ingenuity and originality came to bud as we followed the satanic Sophomores' instructions and paraded college halls garbed as Mother Goose characters. Out of the mists of '43 loomed a mountain and a day never to be forgotten, for on this day was born the slogan, Comb the Mountains as we searched flora and fauna for one of our erring freshmen. After mastering such terms as tibia, fibula, tuberosity of the ischium, Polis and Idia , and cleaning up the neighborhood collecting weeds on nature tours and learning all about sonata forms, the Freshmen decided it was time to shrug the academic life. Collaborating with the Sophs they sponsored the Fall Fantasy and glided over the Blue Room dance floor. Our annual Stunt Night found these twenty-six Frosh portraying lively gremlins who tormented studious freshmen. Little did the Faculty know that these gremlins would soon come to overrun the whole college! At last the horror of exams, Blue Books, and German verbs was surpassed and the first phase of college life was over and left to be recorded in the annals of time. - Now 1944 entered in as '43 faded from sight. This year found our ranks diminished almost to half. Some had fallen by the wayside, some never recovered from exams, some had gone off to war and some, ah perish the thought, had turned to marriage! But the remainder were a plucky sort and harkened to the words of Be strong and of good courage. We quickly set to work in our role of Sopho- mores and rubbed our hands with glee as we harassed nervous Freshmen during their initiation period. During this year the neighboring community of Williams- town assumed a new and vital interest. After our class sponsored the Harvest Moon formal, V-12's Navy wings of gold and letters marked free -all became part of our well rounded and integrated personalities. As the year progressed Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Rum and Coca Cola were songs that imparted new and personal meanings for our Sophomore sophisticated. But along with the play must come the work, so we learned as we first set foot in the training 30

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not for the sake of giving us this opportunity to bask, but rather to give us an opportunity to expand onward and upward. So we, just as the ivy plant, are prepared to venture into the world to mike our own way. We are prepared to show our maturity by expanding into greater fields, by asserting ourselves as individuals. But in doing this, it is not necessary for us to scver ourselves from those ideals and concepts which go toward making a better person. Rather, it is imperative that we utilize all that we have been taught. We are not an isolated entity, we are an emlicdiment of the ideals, the aspirations, the hopes, and dreams of many. just as the roots are a part of the ivy plant, so too, the goals and ideals which we have adopted from those people so closely associated with us are now a part of us. These standards have formed into a pattern - a way of life. Now is the opportunity for us to enforce this way of life. Our roots ask no other reward than this! Cecilia Conroy 2 9

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school to observe and also encounter our first education classes. The rest of the year dwindled away quite rapidly with our band of warriors still marching, leaning slightly to the left , but nevertheless with eyes focused on the future obstacles of Classics and training to be met in our next semester. The year 1945 rolled in with a bang as the jolly juniors prepared to face the professional curriculum and dogged flying academic shrapnel. This indeed was an important year for the thirteen juniors as they became not only Big Sisters but also took the first steps towards being future teachers. We were caught in a whirlpool of methods, minimum essentials, lesson plans, units and our first attempts at actual teaching. Along with those Training School Blues came new worries as we met Homer, Plato, and Dante with a dash of Child Study and Sociology and the March Militaire! july 4th became a year round event as fireworks and repercussions rocked the college halls along with sighs of oh those juniors and memories of Basic Black days. This year the Stunt Night prize was captured by our class when we presented Living Masterpieces com- plete with background music. Our only regret was the pictures cannot speak! One of the major events of the year was the formation of the J-13 basketball team coached by our one and only Freddie. Being a bold sort we challenged the school to a game, met our foe, and walked off with points to spare. 1945 began with a bang and seemed to close with a bang as the jolly juniors smoothed their ruffled feathers and prepared to assume the oncoming dignity of stately Seniors. To the accompaniment of Pomp and Circumstance' the most recent chapter in the saga of the Seniors began its dramatic unfolding. Our summer tans had barely began to fade when we met our first challenge, Speech Class. We trembled through this course only to face our second challenge in the form of Tolstoy's War and Peace. We soon mastered the technique of reading one hundred pages per night, and so we devoted our spare time to the creation of a college newspaper. Taconic Columns became the student publication and also one of the highlights of 1946. Before many months had passed we found our- selves uheading for the last round-up in the training school. For five long weeks the Seniors practiced everything they knew and some of what they didn't know. We at last returned to our regular college life only to witness our last weeks dwindling with rapid speed and le jour des jours approaching rapidly. The mirror shows what we have done in our four years. Though all we have left now are our reflections, they remain vivid and clear, tempered with smiles and tears of our loyal class. It is with light hearts that we now recall the past, but with a more serious gaze, we contemplate the future which we must face alone and ponder those reflections as yet unborn. Anna Louise Zabaunik 3 1