Page 55 - YB1942

Q.fJHAT was the Freshman class like? \'qe ter. We took everything in stride from the were the class that came in with "war light- semester exams to the heart-breaking saving time" that made us crawl out of our Mason-Dixon basketball finals. Then sud- beds at night to go to breakfast. \We took denly, after an old-fashioned blizzard, first aid courses and saved old postage spring came; and overnight the grass W:lS stamps and tin foil; we conserved sugar, green and the flowers were up. There was wrote letters to fellows in camp, and tested midnight serenading, then spring football, air raids and black-outs. and drill in the open again. In rapid suc- Yet, on one afternoon in the Indian sum- cession, the spring formal dances, the May mer of 1941, we stood waiting in front of a Day festivities, and finally the inevitable quaint old building, just :1$ other groups of final exnrns. young hopefuls had waited on September \'\1hat was the Freshman class like? \Y!e afternoons for seventy years. \'7c were might proceed with superlatives such as waiting in front of the Administration "our men were the handsomest, the most in- Building of \'<'estern Maryland College; telligent; and our women were possessed and, after what seemed like hours, we shook with beauty, charm, and wit"; we might hands with Dr. Holloway and realized that speak of our undefeated football team, our at last our college life had begun. boxers, wrestlers, basketball players, our Shall we everforeet that first week-s- members of the orchestra, Glee Club, those "welcome to \\7.M.C" activities, the S.CA., lR.C, French Club, Home Ec. assemblies with the inevitable speeches, the Club, and Choir. Rut that would be pre- formal and the informal receptions; and can remious. \'(fhat really matters is that we we ever forget the placement tests? \'\le are living in a crucial period in American were introduced to the kicking post, heard history. \\,fhen we remember our Freshman legends of the seventh green, and were wor- year in college, will also "Remember ried by the "three dates and you're steady" Pearl Harbor." rumor; and we learned that it was sa voir MARY THOMAS. to complain about the food, to cram the The firs< activity of the fre.hm~n cia'! i. :llmost inevitably night before a test, to call anyone and to pray for nino Afterthought: when it r:lin5, it pour.! everyone "morons," and to nuke "job" an all inclusive indefinite noun. Then, that first week, we witnessed the literal RE- TURN OF THE NATIVE, when the upper-classmen carne back and reduced us to the lowly status of RATS. Crisp autumn came, bringing those first exciting classes, those victory marches into town, the night football games in Balti- more. Then carne Homecoming, and the Sadie Hawkins Dance with Freshmen girls dragging the upper-class "big shots" and upper-class women dragging Freshman fel- lows. Time marched on in double tempo. Weeks flew by until we were singing "Jingle Bells-Hey!" and talking about home again. \Y!e returned in january with the annual determination to make even our best, bet-