A Letter Written on Feb 22, 1956

Wednesday

Dear Mom & Dad,

I've been planning to write for several days now, but something always seems to come up. This week has been only moderately busy but Edgy and I went skiing with her brother and some of his friends over the weekend so there has been some catching up to do. The ski trip was really fun. We went up to Big Bromley near Manchester, Vermont and spent the night there. Skiing conditions were excellent and the day couldn't have been better. We all came back with sunburned faces.

I hadn't realized how rusty on skiis [sic] one can get over the summer. Friday night I had a blind date with a graduate of Clarke University in Worcester who is working in Cambridge. A nice guy but nothing spectacular.

I'm afraid you got the wrong idea about my suggested switch for next year. This is not an organized program like Junior Year Abroad but rather an original idea of mine. I have heard of people doing this on their own but haven't talked with anyone who has. I have done some thinging about it and have talked with several people, including Edgy, who is thinking of spending her last two years at Colorado as a geography major. This along with your letter has persuaded me that this might not be the most practical move. Originally I had been thinking of somewhere that would cost less than Holyoke but I doubt if there is such a place if I get my scholarship back (unless possibly Syracuse but even that would cost more without a scholarship). Edgy wants to transfer because she has never known anything but girls' schools and I can see her point. This also made me realize that I have spent many years with co-education and also made me remember all the things I disliked about it - such as sororities, etc. Also - we received announcements the other day stating that we must report our choice of major by March 16. This was a shock to all of us who didn't think we'd have to decide until after spring vacation. Anyway, this set me to thumbing through the bulletin and I found a million and one courses that I want to h take here that I know I'd never be able to get in another place. And then, your suggestion of possible graduate work sounded good to me, but then, I'm not even sure of my major yet.

Along that line - I have been thinking and have decided that perhaps an English major is not exactly what I'm looking for. I love my description class and want to take more comp courses but the college only offers about five such courses. An English Comp major would involve 36 hours in the department, of which only about 9 or 12, in my case would be composition. The rest would be literature courses that I'm not sure I would really enjoy. I've been fishing around and have come up with the idea of a religion major with related work in history and philosophy and any other courses I wanted to take - including 12 hours of English composition! The minimum religion major is 24 hours in the department - but a 6 hour philosophy course which I was planning to take anyway can be substituted for 6 hours of religion - leaving only 18 hours to be spread over my last two years. (The only possible drawback is that I haven't yet had any religion course but that doesn't really worry me as I know I will like it.) This is all outlined on page 114 of the '56 bulletin under "Field of Concentration" (Religion). As you can see they suggest all sorts of History, Philosophy, Sociology, Psychology, Music, Geography, ect., courses as related to the field so it is n anything but a narrow one. (Please pardon the typographical errors, I'm in a hurry!)

So much for the distant future. To get down to something nearer - like next summer. I wrote Aaron and tactfully (I hope) inquired about salary for this summer. Should be hearing from him soon. Discovered the other day that our house-president went to camp with Hedy Cohn, Peter Rose's fiancee and that she knows Peter Lauterbach through her brother. They are from Medina and sail at their place o n [sic] Ontario. Small world!

Sounds like you are all keeping quite busy - especially Tom. That band must be pretty good when they start playing at Cornell houses. Did Ducky ever go into the Navy?

By the way - thank you so much for the Valentine money - it went toward my ski trip as did the dollar Aunt Hattie sent me. Also had a letter from her and she sounded very busy and kind of generally tired and fed up.

Saw Mary Kaiser when I was up at Dartmouth and she is thinking of driving to Alaska this summer to see her sister and brother-in-law. Wanted to know if I would like to come along. Guess Alice is going along too. She was evidently with a fellow by the name of Rodormer a from Syracuse - one of Jeannie Romig's crowd. I met him at Penny's party at Christmas time.

Must run to a Nom-Com meeting. The big slate - SGA Pres. and JB head also major offices went up today and tonight we start working on House Presidents. By the way, Nan Holton is up for SGA President and stands and excellent chance of getting it.

Outing Club is having a square dance this Saturday night - should be fun! Dick may come down for it, I haven't yet heard. Haven't done anything about Soph Hop yet. I would almost rather go skiing if the weather is good.

What would you think of Edgy & I going skiing during part of spring vacation? Just an idea, so far.

Love,
Liz