What a rare mood I'm in! It was a wonderful Sunday. The morning was quiet, with Elsa at church, then post-church breakfast with friends, and John sleeping upstairs. The afternoon bustled.
Five or six of the Girls School freshmen
moms came by in the afternoon for the fourth of five workshops Elsa had for
making freshmen "memory boxes" which the moms will present to their
daughters at a Cairnwood tea on the 24th.
There was so much energy in the house as moms picked up where they had
left last week or got started for the first time.
I saw young women I had not seen for a many
years - like Kim Adams and Mary Van Zyverden - and met new ones, like Jamie
Rose and Valerie Lehman.
I could not see them working on their
boxes, they were out in the dining room and I was in the kitchen, but I could
hear them, all having what sounded like a good time. One of the women talked about how she had
dreaded this project and how happy she was to be having such a good time.
The local women's alumni group sponsors
this event celebrating the freshmen girls - or,as they are called on the
invitation, freshmen women (!) - as they enter the Academy of the New
Church.
The tea is always a lovely time. I hope to go again this year. When the guests enter the entry hall at
Cairnwood - a beautiful mansion that was first the home of John Pitcairn, then
Raymond Pitcairn, and finally Willard & Gay Pendleton when he was Bishop -
the first thing they see is a long table displaying all of the 8 1/" x
5" boxes, each one designed and decorated for a freshman girl by her Mom
or a relative or loved one. A delicious
tea is served in what was the library, followed by a presentation in the
exquisite entry room.
Gay was an honored guest at the tea when
she was alive and was able to go at least once.
She was so happy to see Cairnwood being used for such a wonderful
use. Hearing the women working on their boxes
made me think of her. She was a great
woman and good friend.
After the last woman headed out the door, I
announced I was ready for my nap (a bit late at 5:30). Elsa said she had hoped to take me past the
Assembly Hall so I could see it as it is being taken down to make room for the
Mitchell Performing Arts Center.
How glad I am that she persuaded me to go,
in spite of being a tired chick-a-biddy.
It will matter that I got to see it when it was just beginning to be
taken down. There was a strange,
unexpected sense of coming full circle, since I remember when it was
built. Today, in spite of some parts of
the walls already torn down, most seemed still in place, and to see the huge Palladian
window wistfully and beautifully outlined.
It was good to have a chance to say goodbye
to what feels like an old friend.
It was back in 1931 that I watched them
building the Assembly Hall. I give Andy
Klein the lion’s share of credit for it built;
he stood up in a meeting and lambasted the powers-that-be for dragging
their heels for so long building something that had been needed for many
years.
There are so many memories associated with
the Assembly Hall. ANC basketball games,
dances, operettas and plays, Assemblies, blood drives, voting, wedding
receptions.
I remember when, before the Field House was
built in the late '50s,
the Assembly Hall was the center of ANC sports, where they suited up for football in the fall and baseball in the spring, where they
played basketball in the winter. Driving past, I especially remembered
graduations, with sugar cookies and punch served afterward on the lawn.
It felt good feeling the happy memories and
remembering the happy times.
Many friends I have not thought of for
years came to mind as we drove around the building, set against a vivid blue
late afternoon sky. We came across some
current ones as we looped around the back - Carol and Justine Brannon and Gail
Cooper. We shared thoughts about the
Assembly Hall. The window panes were out
along the back of the building, the emptiness covered with plywood, and some of
the stones knocked out underneath the window sills. Gail said if I got out of the car, I could
look straight through to the sky of the empty back window. I took her word for it.
The memory I think I will hold is the look
of that back window, which inspite of having glass gone and the top of
the wall above it knocked out, looked elegant. I am glad of the chance to see that.
We drove around the cathedral so that I
could see the flowers, which have never in my memory been so glorious. It was wonderful.
Swinging past the college toward Childs
Hall, Elsa suddenly stopped the car and backed up, driving into the college
parking lot. I could not figure out for
the life of me what she was doing, then saw - Aileen King Synnesvedt (Louis'
sister, not his daughter) and two other women were out walking. It was the second time we have met Aileen
while she was out walking.
I asked the woman in the middle to take off
her sunglasses (I cannot recognize people through sunglasses) and lo and behold
it was Marge Merrill Rose. I got to meet
the third woman, who was Ginny Latta. It
was wonderful to talk to them.
We returned to College Drive, nipping past
a female runner. Out on Buck Road, Elsa
pulled over - again - so I could talk to Bob and Laurie Klein who were out
walking. I admire how Elsa can recognize
people way in the distance when she is driving and can recognize them through
windshields. That has always been difficult
for me.
We did one last pull over before heading
home. Elsa baffled me when she pulled
into the driveway across from what I call the Junge compound and just
waited. The female runner we had driven
past at the college pulled up alongside and turned out to be Mary Jane Bruser Junge. What was surprising was that Mary Jane lives
in California. It turns out her son
broke his leg (playing football?) and needs to have it set, so she and Bergen
(who has already headed home) came East to see how he is doing. It was such a surprise.
The evening ended up with Elsa making a
"blessing box" for me to give Leanne Lehy, who hopefully is still at
Sandstroms' today. Elsa decorated the
little box, then I wrote out in my own scraggly fist the individual blessings -
health, wisdom, love, peace, community, and so on - which she cut up, scrolled
and put in the box. It was a nice way to
end the day, with blessings for someone I love.
It was a wonderful Sunday. As I headed up the wooden hill, there really
was a smile on my face for the whole human race. It was a happy day.
Love to one & all - Katharine Reynolds
Lockhart, ANC Class of '28
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