Queens College - Silhouette Yearbook (Queens, NY)

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At the very end of the term the C.C. comprehensive results sound- ing a note of grim realism were published, along with a sheepish admis- sion by Dr. Rivlin that no conclusions could as yet be drawn from the experiment. But didn't we just though. january 1941 started quite a year. Week after week national obituaries made the headlines. The tragedy of France, and the tragedies after-less shocking, as time went on, of Yugoslavia, Greece, Crete, Norway, Sweden. The political maps of modern Europe weren't used in the history courses. Geography was what the second page of the Times said it was. And in the midst of all this, the same old preoccupa- tions, assignments overdue, term papers to be written, dances and parties to go to, clothes, cars, ships, and sealing wax, and the rest of the college rigmarole went on in the same old way. Delmonico's was selected for the Junior Prom, desperate class officers, who turned out to be Mike Santopolo, Graham Tahler, Lillian Lari, Margie Collins, and Dave Sinowitz, tried to put the bee on us for thirty-five cents class dues. As if they didn't know better. Queens 56

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suers. You should remember the pic- ture. We've been looking at it ever since. Everybody felt this exhibition could not be topped, so the oflicial rush was called off. Besides, having just won the first athletic trophy of its existence, in ping-pong of all things, the campus bruisers felt that they could ignore mere muscle for the nonce. The Crown, in sympathetic mood, denounced autumn emphasis on football and such, demanded more attention to amatory exercises. So we exercised and exercised. The first of a gripping series of an- nouncements was made about the mark- ing of the C.C. and Lit. comprehensives. 304 Lower Juniors were sure they'd Hunked anyway. And while the boys, l the big ones, were tearing out their eyelashes waiting for the results of the nation's first peace time draft, another anti-war rally took place on campus. It was just about then too that the long suffering Crown editors hazarded a timid suggestion that they be given an oflice and a couple of desks if nobody minded. They were sternly reproved for lack of pioneering spirit, and told that National Defense was holding up production. Pity the fourth estate, - but what estate? By November 29, nominations for Student Council via the petition system began, and no one could hope for a signature, even a forged one, without giving three in return. Little chalk drawings insisting that St. Joan was no angel appeared in class rooms, and Gertie Gring and Rosemary Hartman had roles in what was probably Queens College's first extravaganza-mail costumes from U. S. Steel and all. At long last the literature and arts comprehensives were published, the marks, that is. But hardly anyone, except of course the passers with distinction, noticed, in the midst of big doings which included the Winter Wonderland Formal, when Miss New York or Evelyn Pieper, according to how well you got to know her, put in an appearance. And then there was always Christmas, taxes, and final exams. The Crown received its eagerly-awaited desks, and, happy as larks, wrote a beaming little editorial entitled, Please Have a Merry Christmas. 55

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got fully accredited by the State Department of Education, and the weary rumor that the Science Building would positively be started in 1942 didn't get a rise from anyone but lower freshmen. Ken Milden- berger won the Playshop award for his original play, Hypothetical Hurricane -a cool ten bucks, and had it produced in true Playshop manner. Beside the purely dramatic, everybody in the place was in a furor about Orientation, A.M., the varsity show, produced, written, and scored by students, and the whole campus hummed For Further Details See My Heart for weeks afterward. The Silhouette contest was pretty dramatic too. There were about forty entrants altogether, sternly admonished by the press to wear bathing suits, and evening dresses-but without any accessories. That last sounded immodest as anything, it didn't turn out to be. The consensus of opinion later was that we had some pretty nifty little jobs at school, and the john Powers chose Betty Ann McCann as niftiest. Hell week was hell as usual, what with six red devils madly chasing an innocent maiden with their wicked looking pitch forks, while a very buxom angel lolled on the roof of A building, a barrel clad eccentric paced up and down the road in front, and two gay-ninety cuties rode a tandem round and round the campus. Hellzapoppin, incidentally, was still packing them in on Broadway, which is perhaps an explanation of the college mentality during the time. Then, of course, Gabby Fontrier played an original piece in a recital of student compositions, which included opus one of both Sol Berkowitz and Norman Phillips. We were pretty impressed. The strange, damp currents of the world outside wafted in now and again, but always attuned to the college media. There was, for instance, the British Relief Hop where Joyce Surber trilled. Ruth Lerman appeared on the campus with two visiting British sailors, and the last of the Peace Rallies was held. Alice Duer Miller's visit to the campus resulted in a 51,000 relief drive. But then too, there were Parents' Night, and book reports overdue, and the shivering prospect of finals when our sins would be visited upon us. Then too, was the first honest-to-god graduation, and the anticipa- tion of being seniors. Considerations, these which still dwarfed all others in the summer of '4l. We had not yet come to December 7. 57