Throwback Thursday - Smith College, HCC Graduation

I like the idea of Throwback Thursday so every now and then when one strikes I will blog it.

Today we were driving through Northampton and we passed this building which is part of Smith College.

When I went to Holyoke Community College, 1968-1970, they didn't really have their own buildings. Their main building had been the old Holyoke High School on Sergeant St. A new high school was built on Beech St. in 1964 and the old high school was renovated for the college. This building burned down in January 1968 just a few months after moving in. When I started in September 1968, they were using temporary places. One was the Baptist Church on Northampton St.; I had Sociology there. That winter, because the buildings were so spread out, they decided to let the girls wear slacks because of the cold. It seems archaic, doesn't it? In 1969 they finished building what was to be their main building (in later years used as a daycare, and in later later years torn down and a new senior center built).

All this to say, when I graduated in 1970, they really didn't have a place to have the graduation ceremony.

They used one of the buildings at Smith College. It was a joke for awhile that I graduated from Smith College. The night of the graduation, Paul showed up in his (our) brand new, just picked up that day, 1970 baby blue Volkswagen. It was a very exciting night, until on the way home I realized that I had left my pocketbook in the basement of the building where we had changed into our gowns. We went back to the building but everyone was gone and it was basically closed up. Somehow, I can't remember exactly (I think we climbed in a window), we got into the basement of the building. Paul had a flashlight and we started looking for my pocketbook. Within a short time a security guard found us and asked us what we were doing in the building. We told him about my pocketbook, but he said we weren't allowed to stay in there. He took my name and my work phone number and the next day I got a call at work that they had found my pocketbook.

(This is from a page in my old scrapbook; the Holyoke Community College invitation, and the message from the security guard at Smith College.)

As I was working that day and Paul wasn't (sounds familiar) Paul went to the Smith College Security to claim it. Talk about young and foolish!