Class at Haverford

Well I didn't have to learn much about class at Haveford:   Me and my buddies in Newark had occasion to take a nail to the side of any really fancy car like a Cadillac that parked in our neighborhood.   We hadn't read Marx, but we understood the underlying theory.   We just didn't know what to do about it.

I chose Haverford by way of two routes.   The first is I had attended Farm and Wilderness summer camp for two years, a Quaker camp, and really taken to it.   Another was that my father drew two circles around our home in Springfield.    His suggestion for where to go to college....far enough away I could not come home for dinner, close enough to come home for a weekend.   Haverford was the Quaker school within that chosen area.   It wasn't quite that simple.

Well the day we arrive at Haverford, my dad drives me down in his 1948 Plymouth (this was 1962 and people didn't drive 14 yr old cars then.)   We pull up next to the freshman dorm and up behind us pulls a maroon Rolls Royce.  We looked at each other and my stomach went south.   I think my dad already knew what to expect.

In 1962, Haverford had a pretty heavy participation from private school preppies.   They were not entirely pleasant to rough edged city kids like me.   I also sensed a hint of anti-semitism, though there were plenty of Jews at Haverford....just that many of them were from private schools too.   Well the preppies apparently had a lot more experience than I did in binge drinking.  An early infamous episode at Haverford was when some  drunk Haverfordians were hosting a party in a dorm for a visiting chorus from a women's school (I believe it wasMount Holyoke) and distinguished themselves and their prep school upbringing by peeing in public in the punch bowl.   Now even a guy from Newark would have know better.   Haverford had an honor system code of conduct which would adjudicate such behavior.   It was administered by students.   The behavior to be avoided was behavior degrading to a a female guest...by design a standard that could change with community standards.   I can't remember if the perpetrator was suspended or expelled.

Quesiton:  What's the one sure way to identify a preppie?
Answer:  If he's wearing penny loafers with no socks.

My senior year I took an advanced sociology class at Bryn Mawr.   Remember this was the 60's.   Our instructor was a very left sociologist named Martin Oppenheimer.  He was an early writer on participatory democracy.  I was the only guy in the class.   We met way upstairs in a medieval looking hall at Bryn Mawr.   There were a lot of southern girls in that class.   In general, their poise and self assuredness and perfect dress and manors made me uncomfortable.   However I took evil glee in the fact that the politics and positions of Dr. Oppenheimer made them uncomfortable, while I just loved it.  OK....a moment of class humiliation.   This may be TMI for some, so read on at your own risk:

End of spring semester, we were sitting in the classroom, taking our final exam.   It was hot and the windows were wide open.   It was very quiet.   It was very very quiet.   I was sitting there merrily taking my test when my body sent the signals of the desire to let off a bit of gas.   Well all my life I had been what I would call "silent but deadly."   Never caught in the act.   So I figured it was safe to let the flatulence go.   It was only a natural phenomenon anyway.   Deadly it was, silent it was not.    I can still see the turning necks of the proper girls in the class.   I read, "Aha, we knew he was a cretin."  I shrank, I shriveled, there was no where to escape.   They had their payback.   I still remember.