Mount Holyoke College
South Hadley, Massachusetts4/21
Dear Mom & Dad,
Just got back from the song fest in Conn. It was great! There weren't as many people there as were at Jim's in December but I had just as good a time. In addition to singing, we explored an old iron & silver mine - from Rev. War days & now abandoned - and did a bit of rock climbing.
Yes, I finally did a bit of official rock climbing. Mom, you would have been glad to see how safe it actually is because people are so careful. We were in an old quarry and climbed with what is known as a top belay - that is you are roped in from the top of the cliff. The first lesson was the hardest - that was getting up the nerve to jump, the thing every beginner starts out with to get the feeling of a fall. Once you've done it, you're no longer afraid of falling. It's like playing tarzan & swinging from a rope which is around your waist. We were with Les, a fellow from Harvard, Tom Horth [my M.I.T. skiing friend - the one you liked[]] among other people and when I saw how careful they were, I realized that there's little danger in the sport if you know what you're doing.
Jim Stekert was at the song fest. He's such a great fellow. Wish he would come visiting to Holyoke sometime but I don't know. He has a graduate assistanship [sic] in Physics at Penn. so will be spending the next four years there.
Discovered that the world of folk singers is small, indeed. I had heard about an excellent lute player from N.Y.C. who would be there and who should he turn out to be but a friend of Stek's whom I had met. In fact, he was the fellow with us when I bought my guitar.
It was a wonderful weekend and weather was warm & nice. Saw forsythia & magnolia in flower in Conn. Terribly hard to come back to school but wonderful to be able to forget about it for two days.
Work is - well, work. Last week was paper-writing week with one for Chaucer, a long one for Short Story and two for Shakespeare - actually one done ahead of time. I still have a 20 page philosophy paper that's haunting my life & which I can't start yet as we haven't finished the philosophers to be included. The assignment: characterize modern philosophy.
Conference is this weekend - coming, that is. Luckily my history blue book was moved up from next Monday to this Friday so I can go with a clear conscience. After I decided to go & had signed up I learned I could have had a blind date from Amherst - a fellow Barbie Martin & Glen have wanted me to meet all year but who doesn't date too much - but he'll be around for a while. And I can't see spending all that money one someone you don't even know.
Well, must write Aunt Hat - she sent up some cookies last week - and then to bed.
Love,
Liz