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

Page 21 text:

LOOKING AHEAD . . . This picture will be remem- bered as the frontispiece of the 1940 Brown and Gold. Then, as now, it symbolized normal college life . . The students in it have long since left Western — to teach, to start families, to fight, to die in war . . We be- lieve that they typify what we are looking ahead to . . normal peaceful college life . . a bal- anced proportion of fellows and girls . . real happiness . . good times . - We are confident that these things will return . . We ' re looking ahead, too, to an unprece- dented expansion of our campus and to the new Western Michigan college. Big things are in Western ' s future; new additions and improve- ments of present buildings will be made and a broad building program for the new campus on the Arcadia golf course grounds will be put into effect as soon as materials and man-power are available. Immediate additions include plans for an enlarged Union building with a new and roomier location for the Soda Bar, a girls ' recreation room, and facilities for college guests; a new training school and high school; several new dormitories; and a chapel. Long- range plans envision an auditorium, line arts building, science building, and a student activi- ties building. During these war years a definite need has been felt for a chapel on Western ' s campus. A fund for that purpose has been established to which the families and friends of Western service men and women who have died in the service of their country have contributed. Other individuals and organizations ftave also given generously to the fund. The chapel is to be one of the first buildings erected and will set the theme and color scheme for the remainder of the proposed campus. Its architecture will be modern, reflecting a youth- ful, functional spirit. As the Brown and Gold goes to press, the architect ' s designs for the chapel involve a general facade as in the sketch below and in- clude altars for Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish students, a seating capacity of 350 people, a bell tower connected to the main building by a pergola, and a garden to surround the whole chapel. In addition to the main door, entrances from the garden to the two altars are proposed. We who are at Western now will probably have left by the time the chapel and other build- ings which are to form a nucleus for the new college campus are erected; but we look forward to it with a sincere feeling of pride. We can only hope that the Western Way — the spirit, the traditions, the attitude, which we and those before us have developed here will carry over to the new school and that that spirit will in- crease and grow more powerful as the school grows. 15 '

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LOOKING BACK . . . 1945 at Western . . . Remember the fads and fashions and songs and dances and expressions of this year? We still jitterbugged and danced the Gull Lake Gallop, but slow, starry-eyed waltzes held sway, too . . . We had fun with the Navy-learning its South Dakota Hop, Detroit Del- tois, and shall we say Trainees ' Tromp . . . Western will long remember the popularity of The Trolley Song since it seemed especially apropos to our own Believe-it-or- not-featured trolley. Notice No. 12 ' s worn metal on the S.B. juke box ' s marquee at left . . . And speaking of the S.B., the strains of T. Dorsey ' s Swing High, B. Goodman ' s Jam Session, Hamp ' s Boggie Woggie, and Bing ' s Ac Cent Tchu Ate the Positive will be forever associated for us Bron- choites with that smoke-filled, noisy, sailor and coed- infested mecca. The Soda Bar ... In spite of the war most of our old traditions, pledging, Saturday night dances, open houses, and teas, occupied the let down your hair part of the school week . . , However, ' Women ' s League open houses substituted for former Men ' s Union get-togethers, farewell cruises replaced frat formals, and girl doe lines took the place of fellow stag lines. Vet pins won over W ' s, wings occupied the frat pin ' s traditional place, and navy blues outnumbered flashy sport coats and coverts . . . Sloppy coed fashions remained ; •glamour toi s beini; rcsefNcd lor vveek-enils . . . Engraved sterling hair clasps decorated the coiffeurs of most coeds . . . saddle shoes came back . . . pea- coats,, official or otherwise, were worn by the Navy and the Navy ' s girls . . . Comfort came first with jeans, plaid shirts, sweatshirts, and pigtails ending with stubby ribbons or colorful fl owers ... A Good Man Nowadays Is Hard to Find, ' Rum and Coca-Cola, I ' ll Walk Alone, and I ' m a Little on the Lonely Side, expressed our sentiments beautifully . . . We called floors decks, meals chow, and loved to say Roger, Hit the Sack; we proclaimed One Meat- ball Spindler ' s cafeteria ' s oflicial slogan . . . We ploughed through the snow in stad ium boots or donned angora-topped anklets as beau-catchers . . . We wrote reams of V-mail, studied hard, and dreamed of whc-n Johnnie Comes Marching Home.

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what is Western? Some say a rather small -white- columned group of buildings situated high on the hills of a mid-w estern town . . . others say it ' s friendliness — saying Hi! to everyone on campus . . . others — an acquaintance with books, men, ideas . . . Some say it ' s a song, or a prof, or a friend . . . We strongly suspect it ' s a combination of all . . . We know Western ' s not perfect — it has all the faults of a democracy — but somehow w e feel that a spirit has been captured here — an atti- tude that sets this school apart from all others — an idea that makes it exactly w hat America is . . . Western ow es that spirit to its sons and daughters for it is through them that it lives . . . Yesterday ' s Westernites are gone — here are today ' s . . . ' iIK 3r l m,U COLLEGE I