Snow in My Neighborhood, 4 of 4

These 3D pictures are stereoscopic anaglyphs, using the system that you may have seen in a couple of Sports Illustrated issues in 2000. For the three-dimensional effect, view them with a red filter over your left eye and a cyan (blue-green) filter over your right eye.

SEPT. 10, 2019
BE SERENE?

update

The fearless Yeomen taunted those Ohio State losers with a cheer, or "yell," which was already a tradition when the first Oberlin yearbook was published in 1890.

Last weekend I returned to Oberlin College to join eighty other alumni on campus. We were there to prepare for an event to be held May 24 through 27, 2019: the reunions of graduating classes from 10, 30, 45, 50, and 60 years before. The Class of 1970 was also represented to get an early start on their 50-year reunion, even though it won't happen until 2020.

The 50th is the big one, of course. The chart shows that nearly half the attendees at our “summit” were from 1969 and 1970. We all got together for socializing and dinners, such as the one shown here in the Tappan Room of the Hotel at Oberlin. But the individual classes, including my Class of 1969, also held breakout sessions to plan their particular activities.

Below are some photos. The ones with the crimson borders should be credited to John Kramer; those with the gold borders, to George Spencer-Green.

Left to right in the first group are Mr. Kramer, Biz Glenn Harralson, Mr. Spencer-Green, and the Class of 1969 officers: vice-president Carol McLaughlin Fishwick and president Wayne Alpern.

Our reunion committee got down to business, led by chairman Walt Galloway (here flanked by Mike Jarvis and Bill Truehaft).

Walt was very organized, and we accomplished a lot.

David Eisner, Bonnie Wishne

Various classmates volunteered to coordinate such events as a panel on liberal activism (Bob Weiner points out that the term nowadays is “resistance”), a service project, and another panel on the ways Oberlin has changed us.

But the weekend won't be all seriousness; it will also be a time for fun and reconnections. Our plans include a talent show, a story-telling session, and the traditional men's and women's breakfasts. We might even get together as early as Wednesday, May 22, 2019, to enjoy the attractions of the big city of Cleveland!

Then the Commencement/Reunion Weekend will find us all gathering at Oberlin. Stay tuned for further details.

Gazing out from this ivy-covered church 106 years ago, Pastor Jason Nobel Pierce must have exclaimed, “Look thou yonder! Directly across the street, we behold a renowned institution of higher learning.”

Revered Pierce was inspired to write a song praising the school and “Yon ivied walls, forming thy halls, beautiful to see.”

That composition became Oberlin College's Alma Mater.

Present location of Bibbins Hall, as seen from....................
the corner of Professor & College Streets.......................

Wishing to illustrate the words, I looked for photos of “ivied walls” on today's campus. Almost none have survived, except a withered vine at Finney Chapel (right).

The Lewis Center for Environmental Studies (below) has a lot of greenery, but it didn't exist in the olden days.

I thought I might have to go back to old record album covers.

Finally, I found an old semi-tinted postcard which I could colorize further.

Alma mater translated from Latin to English means nuturing mother in English, but that was too many syllables for Pierce's meter. Therefore, when we Oberlin alumni sing our school song, we praise not our nurturing mother but our brave mother — our parent who dared to welcome all races and genders and to fight slavery. We promise, “Our hearts shall be thy throne.” That is, if we remember the words. Or the tune.

To jog the memories of my classmates, I've written a new article, The Story of 10,000, which reminds us all to “smile a recognition of a common humanity.”