You have to register first. Freshmen filled out enrollment cards, which astonishingly still exist and which I look at regularly. They don’t contain a whole lot of information but often there will be a clue that points me in a fruitful direction.
If you look closely you’ll see that there’s quite a bit going on in this picture. I don’t really understand the system they’re using, but I love it that you’re supposed to be there but most definitely not in line. Instead, everyone gets to mill around aimlessly. Seems like a much better way to meet people and in fact most everyone seems to be enjoying themselves.
Predictably, there were also kids hanging out in the parking lot and I wonder whether the top photograph might have been taken by someone standing on top of a vehicle:
Note: I’ll be in Portland for the rest of the week, which means that I’ll have to rummage through my laptop for pictures to post. I’m sure you’ll enjoy this as much as I do–there’s some odd stuff in there.
This is just two months (or so) before their world went sour. Just a gratuitous comment.
It’s true, though.
Looks like a lot of people (professors, probably) had bought the then-newish Ford Model A. Love the wingtip shoes on the girl on the right.
The young lady in the foreground with the big white collar is the spitting image of my aunt Suzie Buford, but she was in the Class of 1935. I do not know what year she started.
Barney L. McCoy, Hanszen 67
Susie Stowers Buford was a freshman in fall 1931, according to p.198 of the University’s 1932/33 General Announcements. (http://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/36049/riceuniversityge193233hous.pdf?sequence=1)
Umm…would a car have been allowed at that spot in the archway? Seems more like a door or window on a higher level. (Sorry, know some of Rice buildings, but not an alumnus)
I remember Melissa posted a pic some time ago of the front of Lovett Hall, with cars haphazardly parked close to the building. Looked like the results of a blindfolded parking competition. I suspect that the concept of “parking” was still new enough, cars being commonplace only in about the previous ten to fifteen years, that it was very much more impromptu and less regulated than we would recognize today.
You may be thinking about the top photo in Melissa’s Sept. 26, 2013, post: http://ricehistorycorner.com/2013/09/26/more-parking-founders-court/
In the right side of the top photo, what appears to be a sheet-like banner/covering shows markings of “Fri Oct” , “?” and “Hofheinz Handled”. The odd latter phrase matches the end of an ad on page 4 of the Oct 11, 1929, Thresher (scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/65262/thr19291011.pdf) for a “Yo Yo Dance”.
I wonder if this relates to the late Judge Roy Mark Hofheinz, who was a Rice freshman in 1929.
An ad in the subsequent (Friday, October 18, 1929) issue provides additional detail about the event:
http://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/65263/thr19291018.pdf
TENSHUN DORMS!
FREE RIDE
TO AND FROM
YO YO DANCE
TONITE
KENSINGTON
9 TIL 2
Twin Six Bus leaves Rice
Hotel corner 9 P.M. – up Main
to Polk – out Polk to
Kensington — Flag It!
“Twin Six” refers to a 12-cylinder vehicle made by Packard:
http://archive.lib.msu.edu/MMM/EB/01/d/EB01d059.jpg
Wow! That seems like a pretty luxurious ride for a bunch of dorm rats.
Wow, just think of all that lies ahead for those fresh young faces. A lot has happened since then.
I am struck by the fact that the hedges on the left are neatly trimmed, but the set in the center appear to be in their natural state. I haven’t noticed that in other photos of the quad.
I noticed the “fluffy” hedges too. Any ideas?
Here are “fluffy” hedges in a 1938 photo:
http://ricehistorycorner.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/reade-landcaping-1938.jpg
Well, now that two people have asked I feel duty bound to look into it.
not very many hats.
The sign above the door seems to explain the lack of a queue. These are Rice students, after all. They don’t line up well in any case.
I think the idea about no lines was to keep as many people as possible within hearing distance. They were calling people in by name, so there was no reason to maintain rigid order, and unless they wanted a clerk to wander the crowd paging the next registrant, they probably announced names from the office door.
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