There is no way I’m posting one of these on Good Friday, so this is it until Monday. (Unless I’m overcome with the need to say something, of course, which in all honesty could happen.)
I cannot look at this picture without laughing.
I mean, really, somebody here had to have said something like: “You know what would be great? If we posed for a picture in our fancy gowns and white gloves with a dead, stuffed owl and just acted like everything was completely normal. That would totally rule.” Hilarious. 1958.
I really do not think that it is funny. The girls had pride and dressed in a civilized manner. The Owl is not stuffed. It is the girls in the OWLS (Owen Weister Literary Society) Would you believe that at football games the boys wore coats and ties with the girls in heels and hose. You must think that the custom is funny. I do not. The custom at Hanzsen College was that the college members wore “dress up clothes” for Sunday Lunch. I guess that this brings a good laugh that will take us through good Fricay. Regards, Gus
Hi Gus,
I think the girls look very nice and I don’t think their clothes are funny at all. In fact, I was just saying to someone today that one of the biggest changes I’ve seen in the students over the years is the way standards of dress have simply collapsed. It’s the owl that I think is funny.
Happy Easter!
I believe the owl is Samantha the Owl, (or a predecessor, also stuffed, on the same tree-like base which supported the Samantha I knew) which was passed on through OWLS, the Owen Wister Literary Society, from President to President. She, or her successor, actually lived in my room for a year when I served as president in 1980-81. She was most definitely stuffed, and molting, at the time I had custody of her, and she was quite the conversation piece, once you got past living with a piece of taxidermy……. What ever happened to her? Maybe you can find her, Melissa!
Well, I’m not sure . . . but I do have a couple of ideas. Believe it or not there are several of these stuffed owls floating around. I even found one in the bowels of the gym when I was cleaning things out before the recent renovations.
Key question: do you think you’d recognize it (or her, I guess) if you saw it again?
I’m pretty sure I could, and I’m still in close contact with two of the three presidents who preceded me, plus my roommate (who was quite skeptical about the need to display her prominently in our room) and between us we ought to be able to pick her out of a line-up…..
Ok–hang on and I’ll see what I can find. I might have to call y’all in to the Woodson for a consultation.
At least they aren’t “throwing up the horns” like people from a certain other Texas University are pathologically compelled to do regardless of the occasion. 😉
When did the literary societies die out? I had no idea they’d persisted (or, at least, that OWLS had) until the early ’80s; I thought they’d gradually faded away after the colleges were established.
Chepe, I know that we OWLS existed at least through my graduation (1989).
[Make that “we *had* OWLS”…didn’t mean to imply that I was a membrer.
“member”…I really need to stop posting and get some coffee.
I love the curtains in the background of the picture. Do you know where it was taken? The curtains remind me of the ones that were in the ballroom of the Rice Memorial Center (RMC) while I was at Rice (1976-1982).