|
("We
counted our noses and our blessings," says Flip Collins)
After you’ve clicked
on the blown-up enlargement above, you’ll have some idea
of what I mean by our guys "rallying around the flag."
. . '44 Men really did show upon on campus for their TENTH and
the photo really doesn’t tell the full story , , Art was
determined to set a new "TenthYear Attendance Record"
and made a "Just register with us and pay-no Reunion-Fee!"
offer to all Greater Tompkins County Area '44's to come join us.
Each got a Ballantine's
tin cup (with chain) for their beer as a walk-on and some 58,
repeat 58, off them signed the C.U. Reunion Register at that time.
The Class of ’44 sign-aboards totaled - Men and Women '44's
- a whopping 215 in attendance, but I’m sorry to say that
not even this total got the record for us but it did bring about
some true mob scenes at many of our functions.
Let’s take a
look back and see how things went in '54 . . For example, all
classes paraded in those days . . They lined up INSIDE Barton
after their Saturday $1.50 luncheon, marched out the Barton’s
East exit back door, and paraded down Campus Road to the stands
in Hoy Field, where the Class clerks indicated the reserved spaces
in the stands for the individual Reunion Class Photos. Organization
plus! Before I forget, the tab for the Barton Hall 50 years later
- that’s June, 2004 - is a posted $12.00 a ticket.
Pre-lunch, we heard
President Deane Malott’s Annual Report to the Alumni in
Statler Hall Auditorium ("Cornell is solvent!") . .
and post-luncheon we opted to just lounge around and do the "beer
thing" or take one of the many one-hour Campus Caravan bus
tours with the then seniors acting as the "barkers"
aboard the buses. Ten years out, I found Cornell to be as beautiful
as ever and it certainly didn’t appear to have changed that
much.
Friday evening post-dinner,
many of us were "audience" at the Alumni-Senior Sing
held at the Goldwin Smith Portico at 8 . . This Reunion activity
has since been replaced by an informal concert held inside Goldwin
Smith’s quad entrance at which talented alumni groups (the
Sherwoods, the Hangovers, etc.) do their thing to entertain the
alums . .
The '54 Reunion Rally,
the climax of the weekend’s activities, was held in Barton
Hall, rather than in Bailey Hall, and the acoustics in the Drill
Hall for the Glee Club and the other songsmiths, were in one word,
reverberating . . All in all, our TENTH was a most memorable occasion
for those of us who were present, and we do have some black &
white and full color vintage photos thanks to Curt Andrews to
show you that will confirm this . . so click on the captions below!
|
