Last Friday I found an entire folder of pictures taken during Freshman Week in 1970. (I’d never seen them before, which I suspect is because they were filed rather unhelpfully under “Students.”) They’re really very good, I think. At least they evoked real feeling for me–I see them and clearly recall how frightened, lonely and excited I was when I left home for the first time to go to school, how disjointed the world was for a few weeks. It’s too hard to pull out just one or two pictures from this batch, so I’ve decided to declare this entire week “Freshman Week, 1970: The Reprise.” The images seem to track the new students from arrival through the course of the week, so I’ll try to follow along as best I can (bearing in mind that sometimes I have to guess what’s going on.)
First we see them moving in:
I think this next one was taken in Will Rice. I had no idea that students were allowed to paint their own rooms and I assume that they no longer can, but I honestly don’t know:
And finally, a little time for socializing in the RMC:
Tomorrow we’ll get our id cards.
Bonus: My granddaughter came to the Woodson with me today. She was so eager to see the photo files that we couldn’t keep her in her stroller!
