Western Michigan University - Brown and Gold Yearbook (Kalamazoo, MI)

Page 10 text:

TEMPO OF Forty-five ... a queer year at Western — normal yet not normal — signs of peace yet signs of -war . . . Remember the scintillation, the uncertainty of newspaper headlines? One day we won the w ar, the next day w e w ere pushed back . . . Remember too the return of a few vets to campus . . . rumors of more V-12 ' s . . . marines moving out of Spindler . . . gals moving back in . . . shortages of men, cigarettes, meat . . . The ' svide-eyedness of neyv freshmen . . . the big snow that fell one November night and remained ' til spring . . . w ind that sw ooped up the hill and rattled the whole Science building . . . the cellophane coating the campus wore one winter morning . . . Ski tracks on the hills . . . Miss Tamin ' s w ooUy headscarf, Mr. Garnau ' s cap w ith ear-flaps . . . The routine of classes and books in a topsy-turvy w orld . . . the comfort of pillars, hills, friends, ideas that stayed as they r MlUTARY EXPERTS SAVT [Next 3 Weeks to Decide [Length of Europe ' s War KUledin Pacific Areaj were . . . the clear notes of colors blown every day at 8 and 5 . . . the hup, dew, tre, haw of marching platoons . . . the sight of white caps bobbing along Oakland drive like double rows of marsh- mallows . . . the Navy ' s own brand of whistles — its casualness with coeds ... its turned-up peacoat collars and watch caps on snowy days . . . And remember the way we felt like laughing, shouting, crying and praying all at once when the news of liberated war prisoners came trickling through . . . Also — the sinking feeling of telegrams and long-distance ' phone calls . . . Christmas time and the Belgian bulge, Iwo Jima, Okinawa . . . digging deeper for that extra war bond . . .

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DEDICATION This yearbook is dedicated to the Western f ello-ws who are not here — to those who fight and w ork so that they may return — and to those w ho can never return . . . We feel deeply in- debted to these men and can only hope that they may know our thoughts . . . Every time w e look at the flag flying high and free over the Hilltop, every time w e watch a blue star on their service flag turn into a gold one, every time we get letters from them or see their names in the Herald or Gazette, we can ' t help but feel that they are the true Western — that w e ' re only fight- ing a holding action here until the day they come back . . . We have tried to keep this small section of their w orld as normal as possible — tried to retain the things ve believe they w ant kept — to improve where improvements w ere needed — yet w e know that they have done the sacrificing . . . And w e know for a certainty that these fellow s, upon returning, vi ill make Western a happier Western — the w orld a better w orld. TEMPO OF THE TIMES COLLEGE ORGANIZATIONS ATHLETICS ADVERTISEMENTS

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THE TIMES... midnight bull sessions over can ' t ■we do something to help . . . anxious study of Wac and Cadet Nurse pamphlets . . . The great exodus from Spindler and off-campus houses to sailor-evacuated Walwood . . . Archie ' s candid observations in the Herald . . . Spring elections rejuvenated ■with mianpo-wer . . . riotous t weeds and plaid the fello ' ws sported after stowing a vay khaki and blue . . . Wedding rings that kept appearing ' til they ■were as common as frat pins . . . rumors of N.R.O.T.C. ' s next year — rumors of no Navy at all next year . . . Sniiles of the administration as it issued four final notices as to semesters or trimesters next fall . . . President ' s Roosevelt ' s death . . . the San Francisco conference . . . Western marines and Navy men coming back w ith their bars and gold braid before tours of duty in MwPacific waters and islands . . . Our few days of spring when all the gobs and gals who ' d been merely going together suddenly fell in love . . . warm evenings at the Lib . . . stopping on the ■way home to sowing in the Training school playground . . . the heavy scent of the first campus lilacs . . . music drifting through an open Ad building ■windo ' W . . . The special hope of Easter this year . . . the footsteps of the messengers of peace . . . false alarms of peace . . . tension in classrooms and ne-wspapers and on the radio . . . and finally — the biggest, the best, the most ■wonderful ne-ws of the year, of many years — V-E Day.