Homecoming Virtual Exhibit

HOME COMING an odyssey of resilience

Five Fragments from Four Painted Vases. Greece, Attic. c. 520-430 BCE. Cleveland Museum of Art

EPIC BEGINNINGS "Tell me about a complicated man, muse,"

Perhaps many can relate to the plight of

So begins the Odyssey of Homer, the epic

Odysseus, kept from returning to his home

so many generations of students have

by disaster after disaster. In a world

poured over in schools across the world.

ravaged by the pandemic, unprecedented

Often, when one recalls the work, the

natural disasters, and civil unrest, it is

dominant

difficult to imagine that we may ever reach

impression

is

of

fantastic

encounters: sirens, cyclopes, Circe. While these

characters

are

memorable,

one

might be surprised by how little of the poem's length the episodes constitute. The core of the epic is instead drawn not around the theme of

adventure, but of

νόστος (nostos), Greek for homecoming. It

is from this word that we derive another relevant term: nostalgia, literally an ache for one's homecoming.

our own Ithacas again. Still, we remain resilient.

This virtual exhibition looks to the resilience of generations past through their own times of uncertainty,

ORAL HISTORIES

In 2020, we reached out to many Heights

"Certainly, the war was winding down but

alumni who had lived through periods of

being drafted was still a concern of many. I

discord,

remember

change,

and

uncertainty.

The

feeling

some

dread,

going

following quotes are excerpted from the

home, lying on my bed, and listening to

memories they shared.

them pull dates and numbers. When they pulled mine, I felt a great burden lifted from my shoulders as the number for my birth date was 289 and knew it was very unlikely that I would be drafted and could carry on with my student life."

Dave Nadzam, class of 1971

Heights Students protest treatment of Black community, February 1990

"Both MLK Jr. and Robert Kennedy were

"I was fairly oblivious to world events

lights of hope, so the assassinations were

during Kennedy’s presidency. It was his

blows to those hopes in the ability of our

death

society to advance forward. It felt like some

protested the Vietnam War, participated at

of the basic foundations of our society were

the sit-in at the University of Chicago

coming apart at the seams. I remember

administration building, and was chased by

feeling a sense of betrayal that my parents’

the Chicago cops in Grant Park during the

generation was unable to see or act to

1968 Democratic Convention. I became

correct the injustices of the Vietnam war,

enthralled by the women’s liberation, gay

racial prejudices, political manipulations,

liberation and civil rights movements. I

and others. Now that I am the older

advocated the legalization of marijuana

generation, I can see that it takes constant

and psychedelic drugs."

ongoing work to move forward, and keep moving forward."

Alan Kepner, class of 1966

that

woke

me

up

politically.

I

Dorrie Slutsker, class of 1963

A mother administers the Sabin Polio Vaccine to her Child in Youngston. 1962.

"I remember the polio epidemic quite well because I caught it and was hospitalized in a children's polio ward in the Cuyahoga County Hospital on the West side for several weeks.

Yes, we were all worried and I am sure my parents felt helpless. Parents were allowed to visit for short periods twice a week and it was a very lonely time. The nurses and doctors were great and did what they could to keep us busy, within limits. We all thought the infection might have come from swimming at Euclid Beach, but who really knows. In any event, swimming in Lake Erie was banned. It was a different time then. All we had were standard public health preventative measures, as were applied with measles, mumps and chicken pox.

Public health nurses visited the house at intervals and there was a placard tacked to the front door that said "QUARANTINE." It was respected and enforced. People in those days complied willingly because the general political clime was that of cooperation. WWII had recently ended and we had all participated in victory gardens, experienced rationing, metal drives, air raid drills and the like. We kids thought we were on the national team to help the country beat the disease."

Dr. Arthur Lester, class of 1957

HOMECOMING

fin