Sunday 9/29/57Dear Mom & Dad,
I just got back from church and, finding that there is yet a half hour before dinner, decided to write that letter I've been meaning to get off for several days now. The senior class attended the "President's breakfast" this morning - that is, we were the guests of Mr. & Mrs. Gettell and the alumnae association for breakfast in Wilbur. It was so nice. We are all so pleased with Mr. Gettell and his speech was just the thing for morning - light, short and to the point.
Things seem to have piled up as never before. Thinking back on last year, I can't imagine how I managed to attend show rehearsals every evening and do all the other things which I'm now doing. But I guess it was just a function of how much I enjoyed that job and how sure I was that I could do it. My courses all seem good. I'm disappointed with the professor I have for my novel course. He is quite redundant and not at all stimulating but we read many good (and long!) books so perhaps interest will be aroused more from this quarter than from classes. In Renaissance lit we have been studying the period, getting background and have yet to read anything other than Burckhardt's "Civilization of the Italian Renaissance". But Mr. Bottkol is most interesting - a real scholar who deplores our lack of knowledge of Greek, etc. but, for all his cracks at our lack of scholarly learning, is very stimulating and interesting. Miss Smith, my advisor by the way, is a dear and while her 18th cent. lit classes are not terribly exciting, she has a lot to say and her enthusiasm for Pope is rather catching. Lit Crit, the course which I dreaded so much has met only once as it is a seminar - once a wekk, 2 and a half hours, with a tea break, etc. which is really quite a farce since there are at least twenty-five people in the class (there are usually only 6 or 8). I really am not sure how it will develop - the first class was a series of rather pedantic spoutings on Aristotle's Poetics which we all had read - many questions raised but few actually answered - and the majority of the class made to feel terribly unlearned by Mr. McGee and an English grad student trading references to any and all of Shakespeare (with many quotations, complete with act and scene) and Greek tragedies which few of us had read. However, it may improve and certainly will be stimulating. For this week we are reading Oedipus and writing a paper on catharsis of emotions in this work. It's a thought course, to say the least. Only one trouble - the class meets Thursday afternoon and papers are due the following Monday, with no chance of working on them ahead of time. This may rather hamper any weekend plans I have, but I'm sure there will be a way around that. As for music - it's a joy! Mr. Leedy is wonderful and so far the course has been pure relaxation for me. I have hopes that with the knowledge of music and a bit of theory that I've picked up along the way, it won't be too hard and I shall be able to continue to relax and enjoy the course.
Friday night Mud and I went to the Half-Way and celebrated her birthday (a little late) with pizza and chianti. I heard all about her summer at the AFS work camp in Washington (state). She was anxious to tell someone who was really interested all about it and, of course, I was a very willing audience. She felt she gained a lot from the experience and I'm sure it was even more valuable for her than she now realizes. She was thrown into the company of all manner of people and, as she herself pointed out, this was the first time she had ever lived very closely or even worked very closely with boys. She's always gone to girls schools and her brothers were all older. It wasn't an easy summer for her and there were all sorts of conflicts with in the group but from the sounds of things, she was looked to as a leader of the group and fulfilled this position with ease.
Edgy and I had a long talk before church this morning. She had a wonderful tour of Europe and of course wants to return but also came in for her share of personality conflict. However, it was good for her and she seems to have come back with her feet much more firmly on the ground. She's quite interested in a fellow from Amherst she's been dating off and on for the past three years and, of course, the pressure is on both of them to join the great ranks of those "lucky" pinned couples. However, they are wisely abstaining and dating others. I find in Edgy someone who feels as I do about the "mountain-climbing set" vs. the "gracious living set". We don't want to belong exclusively to either group, and like me, she has found few people with the same inclinations. She also burns up at being called either the O.C. type or the M.H. type.
Enough of this. Had a nice letter from Charlie. He spoke of probably seeing me at Lake George - which is the weekend before the proposed trip to Norwich - and, as I don't know if I can swing both in a row, I don't know when I will see him. I was hoping he would stop before he went back to SU as the campus is the most beautiful and weather has been crystal clear.
Dinner time - I'm planning on Norwich the weekend of the 19th of Oct. Give my love to Tom. I will write him one of these days. What's the latest from that quarter? Oh, had a most enjoyable evening with Aunt Hat and Frances last Tuesday. Dinner at a lovely place called the Log Cabin, overlooking Mount Tom, as they will probably tell you.
By the way, could you look through my middle desk drawer for a cancelled check which came over the summer from the bank. It's for ten dollars and is to and endorsed by, Eloise Gorton. There was a mix-up on caps and gowns - seems another girl had paid the same girl twelve dollars for the same cap and gown - and neither of us ever got them. I would like to have the check here before I write her about it. It would be with either the July or August bank statement.
See you in about three weeks,
Love,
Liz