Alumni News
NOVEMBER 22, 1963 BEGAN LIKE ANY OTHER DAY for Donna Ariosa, Marianne Benson and me. The three of us were on the third floor in the art room. “This old world is full of sorrow” we sang, just like our heroine Joan Baez. In our stiff blue uniforms, with the white collars and cuffs and the eight pleats front and back, we looked like Puritan waitresses. We knew something about sorrow, or so we thought. As members of the Class of 1964, we were taught to care about the world around us. Each morning in Collection, teachers like Claire Walker, Robert Nicolls, Frank Shivers and Eleanor Mace spoke to us about our “potential” and our role in society. There was the expectation that we, the Class of 1964, had a responsibility to change the world. Even the alma mater exhorted us to heed “thy clear high call to service.” That’s a lot to ask of teenagers. Our adolescent brain chemistry didn’t quite have the neurons to process those messages consistently. Such ideals often felt way beyond me. The Civil Rights movement had come to Friends School. Already that fall, three civil rights workers who had been in Selma, Ala. spoke to us in Collection, and our class had traveled to Philadelphia for a weekend “work camp,” where we painted Inner City residents’ homes and attended services at a South Philadelphia Baptist Church. The people there sang “We Shall Overcome” like it was life and death. Then, too, the anti-war movement was beginning to stir. Suddenly, Greg Neumann entered. Out of breath, his eyes glistening, he cried, “Kennedy’s been shot!” We ran down the stairs through the silent School and over to the gym, where Bazaar had been bustling an hour ago and was just now shutting down. Days later when Kennedy’s body was lying in state, Avijit Chatterjee, our exchange
Susan Grathwohl
Gregory Neumann
Was it only a month later that we first heard a group from Liverpool sing “I Want To Hold Your Hand” ? Two years later, Norman Morrison, our religion teacher, immolated himself on the steps of the Pentagon “to express his concern over the loss of life in Vietnam.” What would Friends School say about that, I wondered. But it would be 40 years before I would summon the courage to ask. We lived in times no school could prepare for with counseling sessions or bereavement groups — such options did not exist. (That’s why our generation invented them!) Now here we are, almost a half-century later, a widely scattered group of extraordinary individuals beginning to connect in deeper ways, coming up on a big milestone — our 50th Reunion. The story of our experiences, our strengths and our hopes could contribute to that event and offer a legacy for Friends students and teachers. FS
Donna Ariosa
Join the conversation! Collection invites members of the Class of 1964 and others to share recollections and reflections on that time. Where were you when JFK was assassinated? How did you respond? How did that event resonate for you as you went on to college and beyond? What would you say about it now? Here are three ways to connect with Sue Dingle, who will gather your responses: Email: s123dingle@aol.com Phone: 917-309-0988 Mail: P.O. Box 56 New Suffolk, NY 11956 We look forward to hearing from you!
NEWSCOM.COM
The Beatles play The Ed Sullivan Show in February, 1964.
student from India, left School and took the train down to Washington to attend the viewing. Forty years later Avi says, “I just wanted to pay homage.” Greg and Savitri Gautier (formerly Donna Ariosa) remember walking to the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in the middle of the day, risking possible suspension for leaving campus. The day of the Memorial Mass, I went to the Cathedral by myself. I had never been to Mass before. It was half over by the time I got there. The place was packed, the Mass was in Latin, and I couldn’t follow what was going on, sitting when others were standing, standing as they sat down.
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