A Telephone Call Between New Friends Writer Amanda Stern ‘89 Calls Writer Abigail Thomas ‘59
AS: It is so nice to meet your voice.
ready for that. I lived right on the park. You could send
AT: It’s so nice to meet your voice.
your six-year-old sister there on a bicycle by herself. It
AS: How did you find yourself at Friends Seminary?
was safe as houses.
AT: I was going to go to Brearley, where my sisters went, and then word came from somebody to my parents that there
AS: What year was this? AT: It was 1958. I went to Friends in 1958 and 1959. Friends
was an opening at Friends. And there hadn’t been an
was my 11th school. I was used to the unfamiliar smell of
opening since like, Kindergarten. My God did I want to go
school and that had become a familiar smell. Oh, there’s
there.
that unfamiliar smell; I know that. Friends was the first
AS: Had you just moved to New York?
place I’d ever gone where I felt welcome. I didn’t feel
AT: Yeah, we moved a million times. We moved to New York
like a stranger. The people were friendly; I made friends.
City when I was 16. To Washington Square West and I was 40 Summer 2021 | Meetinghouse
There was something completely different about it from
