1963

Lou's warmed glazed doughnuts on a cold March day were our madeleines. What more to wax nostalgic? The Midget Diner's hot corned beef? Hal's coffee in the morning, deep chocolate milkshakes at Putnam's, the Green Latrine?

There was beer, lots of it. Probably too much! But there was also too much snow, and too few girls. One house set a record: 23 kegs in 23 days. An up-and-coming St. Louis brewer picked up the tab. And what's this? X-rated ice capades on fraternity row? Craziness," one classmate describes it, "one big party after another . . . there were guys who never left their fraternity basements."

And there were many who did. Some learned to ski in a great phys. ed. program ("You're terrible!" my instructor screamed). Many watched undefeated, record-breaking football: Don McKinnon was All-American; Billy King, All-East. Steve Spahn won the Ivy basketball scoring crown; and Gerry Ashworth, later an Olympic runner, set a heptagonal record with a 9.4 100-yard dash. JimPage made our ski team the best in the East.

And many never left the 1902 Room or Baker Library, or any one of the late-night, all-night study dens—except, of course, to witness memorable visits by Robert Frost, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Nelson Rockefeller, Ralph Ellison ... and Homer, King of the World.

The Hopkins Center opened senior year, but before that was Life Sciences I, II, God I, II, Herb West, Phil 25, English Honors, foreign study, Great Issues, small issues, Independent Reading, and more music groups than you can shake a baton at from the Handel Society, Glee Club, Community Orchestra, Barbary Coast, Sultan, and Madrigals to rock groups like the Renegades, Drivers and Rebels, and an avant-garde jazz ensemble called The Trinity. There was theater and literature, journalism and politics, and, yes, religion. We were a high-powered group, but eclectic and sensitive, creatures of our times preparing for changes to come. Thanks Dave Schaefer and Bruce Baggaley for helping me remember.

Now to some news: Dave Boldt, an enterprising reporter for the Daily D, went on to the Wall Street Journal and head of the editorial page at the Philadelphia Inquirer. Recently he got embroiled in controversy when he published an editorial expressing concern about the growing poverty of blacks and suggesting that welfare mothers be offered incentives to use Norplant, a new contraceptive implanted under a woman's skin. The editorial set off a storm of protest from a number of David's colleagues, which received national coverage. As a result, David and his paper took the unusual step of publishing a second editorial apologizing for the pain caused by the first, and for "linking the issues of race and contraception." In a subsequent interview, David said the original editorial was a mistake and that he "deeply regretted" the way it linked race to poverty and birth control. Nevertheless, he stood by his position that Norplant could help the fight against poverty. He also feared that as a result of the controversy at the Inquirer future editorials, requiring consensus of the editorial board, would probably be bland rather than provocative.

Harry Zlokower, 65 West 55th Street,. Suite 303, New York, NY 10019