There’s enough continuity on college campuses to make you believe that things have pretty much always been the same. But every once in a while I come across something so foreign that it implies an entirely different universe. A batch of documents from a group called the Newcomer’s Club, which was dedicated to welcoming new faculty and their families and integrating them into the close-knit Rice community, was one of those things. This little invitation card especially caught my attention. It was a covered dish supper and square dance, called by Joseph Davies, who never seemed to miss a party. I do winder how many of the newcomers were also new to square dancing. I’d bet a lot:

When I turned this over I was delighted to see it addressed to Frances Brotzen, whose husband Franz arrived in the fall of 1954 to teach in the Mechanical Engineering Department:

By 1956 Frances herself had become a member of the group that so kindly sought to welcome new arrivals to campus each fall.

Bonus: I was all set to walk out to my car in the stadium lot by cutting across the intramural field. This guy stopped me cold. It felt like I was approaching a mountain lion. So I re-routed to the sidewalk.