Mountain Day

Once a year at Smith comes a magical day…Mountain Day!! The chapel bells ring early in the morning, classes are cancelled and all Smithies head out to hike, pick apples and enjoy the days of fall.

http://alumnae.smith.edu/cms/?smithstories=mountain-day-with-the-notables

Of course, like Christmas, the best part of Mountain Day may be the expectation. Excitement builds day by day as Smithies try to guess when the big day will come. Endlessly discussed at meals, in dorm rooms, before and after class, speculation builds around certain “rules.” Mountain Day can’t be a Friday because then it would just be a long weekend. Mountain day can’t be a Monday, but, wait, wasn’t there a Mountain on a Monday several years ago? The weather forecast enters in to the calculations, too. The weather has to be good or no one could go apple picking. And Mountain Day has to take place before the fall break at Columbus Day weekend.

The endless handicapping eventually translates into action. No one is exempt most especially the decision-maker.

Poor Carol Christ has her dog running loose, is standing in her pajamas facing a crowd of excited and rather rowdy women. It is all part of the fun of Mountain Day.

Mountain Day doubles as a much-beloved tradition and a great way to let Smithies blow off some steam and release tension as they dig into the new school year.

Wednesday was Mountain Day this year. My own Smithie called me even as the bells were pealing and her friends were shouting. It was fun to be on the phone and experience the hilarity and excitement. Ellie did go apple picking and sent me some photos from the field.

Apple picking

Ellie and friends

My beautiful Ellie

Mountain Day is so beloved that the alumnae association sends an email out to all alums announcing that it is THE DAY. Every year when I get that email, the fond memories of those days return.

I think there should be a Mountain Day in everyone’s life. A time to kick back and just enjoy a gorgeous day and live in the present with no thoughts or cares of yesterday or tomorrow.

Postcard from Ellie at Smith

Recent email from Ellie:

just had Quad Riot a little while
ago. Of course I missed everyone w/ all the water balloons I threw, but I got
nailed w/ a bucket of water,curdled milk, and what smelled like a combo of
 pickle juice and sour cream….evidently Morrow decided not to follow the no
compost/food rule…..bastards….Despite my smell and wounded pride I
proceeded to Carol Christ’s house w/ the rest of the quad to scream outside her
 house. We yelled for quite awhile until her husband finally came out and
informed us that Carol was out of town…coward! :p

Overall it was still a fun riot, as
 my fellow Comstockers began streaking the quad (we have a rep to updhold) I
instead decided to end the night by running up to the showers immediately

Let me add some context. Quad Riot didn’t exist in my day, but it is a giant food fight in the Quad. The Head Residents get together to pick the day and email the students. I guess the food part was supposed to become water balloons only, but apparently that didn’t happen. The Quad Riot is a precursor to massing in front of the President’s house and calling for Mountain Day. We did do that in my day. Carol Christ is a very nice rather soft-spoken lady. I feel for her poor spouse who has probably been left to defuse the post-riot before. Mountain Day is one of Smith’s best traditions. A surprise announced in the morning by the tolling of the bells in Helen Hills Hills Chapel, it is a day the President has chosen when classes are cancelled and everyone is to head outside and enjoy the fall. Weeks are spent wondering when Mountain Day will be and the tension mounts. The lore around when it may or may not occur is legendary. It can’t be a Monday or a Friday. It can’t be a rainy day. It has to happen before Fall Break, but not before the end of September. To this day I feel a special sense of nostalgia when it is Mountain Day and email my friends who are Smithies the news.

Needless to say, Ellie is a Smithie now. She is fully immersed in the place and its traditions.

Ms. Elizabeth Goes to Smith

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August 31st Peter and I drove Ellie up to Smith. Ellie did a remarkable job packing herself and preparing for her new life at college. Over the summer we worked to clean out her room. She gathered lists of items which should be brought to college life in the dorm. She even did some planning for her decor shopping online for items which would make her room feel comfortable and look pretty.

We arrived at Smith and checked in at the amazing gym facility which they have. It made a great place to hold check in. There were stations for registering, picking up ids, getting campus maps and everything was quite well organized. Next we headed up to Comstock. Comstock is one of two houses which form the Little Quad. The good thing about being an alum is that I knew exactly where to go. Ironically, Ellie and I stayed in Comstock when I went to my 25th Reunion. We shared a single room overlooking Paradise Pond. Who knew that someday she would be living in that house? Or that my diabolical plot to somehow get her to want to be a Smithie would actually succeed?

A bevy of boisterous, happy Smithies met us at the entrance to Comstock. They gave us instructions, greetings and lent a hand carrying Ellie’s possessions up to her room. Ellie’s room is in the Maid’s Quarters, first window on the left. It is one of few doubles. It isn’t huge, but it seems very comfortable and there are two large walk in closets–so lots of storage. Ellie had skyped with her room mate, Bayla, and knew she was already in residence having arrived early to try out for the tennis team. Their meeting was enthusiastic and friendly. Ellie’s apprehension about her room mate faded quickly as they immediately began planning their room and exchanging information.

Peter was an invaluable help getting Ellie settled. He carried the refrigerator up to the room singlehandedly, helped me hoist the bookcase up on Ellie’s desk to open up floorspace and was gracious and engaged in the whole process. Once Ellie was fairly settled, Peter and I headed to our hotel and dinner. Ellie was meeting a group of first year students for dinner and ice cream at Harrell’s and had informed us we were no longer needed.

Peter and I were seated in the Noodle Shop when my phone rang and a tearful Ellie sobbed that she had missed hooking up with the dinner group and would never make friends at Smith. There were lots of other dire prognostications having to do with her utter failure and end of life. I suggested she come join us and she could catch everyone later for ice cream. We had dinner and dropped Ellie back at Comstock still gloomy and nervous. Peter asked her to get his sunglasses which he had left in her room and she headed up. When she returned she was laughing and introduced us to Caroline, her next door neighbor. The sun was shining again and she barely waved goodbye. It was a much better ending to the evening.

We met Ellie for breakfast in the morning and she was excited and told us we could stay to eat lunch at Smith but she was busy and wouldn’t be able to spend any more time with us. She had a group of women to meet for lunch at Cushing and lots of other things to do.

Peter and I headed out of Northampton after breakfast. Our work was done. There have been and will be many more upsets and tearful calls, but they are fewer and fewer and mostly Ellie is just very happy and excited. She has a favorite place to study in Neilsen Library which is right where my carrel was in the library some thirty years ago. She has lots of friends, seems to like her classes a lot and has gone on record that she is really glad to be at Smith where she can focus on her work during the week and go to parties at Amherst and UMass on the weekends.

For me, having Ellie at Smith is a fitting continuum. My girl hasn’t left me. She is in a place that I know and love. Her evening seminar is in a classroom in Seelye that I had classes in. She is walking the paths I walked. When she calls sitting on the hill by Paradise Pond, I know exactly where she is. Smith meant so much to me and gave me so much and I am thrilled that Smith is my legacy to Ellie and Ellie is my legacy to Smith. It is a deeply satisfying.

Difficult Choices

Back in January when Ellie was having a small meltdown about not getting into college, I told her that I wished for her a flock of difficult decisions in April. At that time, Ellie said that she would be happy to have difficult decisions to make before a May 1st deadline. Happily, I was quite right on that front. Ellie has five tough decisions to make. So much better than the alternative…

Deciding where to go to college is, I think, the first big decision most kids have to make. Ellis is approaching this decision with the same methodic and thorough manner in which she managed her applications. I have been so impressed and proud of Ellie throughout this process. She has been in charge of selecting the schools to which she wished to apply (with some help from Meg Lahey, a college counselor we retained, who happens to be a Smithie…) and she managed the process of writing essays and meeting deadlines. There were some late nights and last minutes, but all in all she did a great job. Her essays were well-crafted and she had a lot of them to write. She also implemented a program of follow-up emails and contact with the various Admissions Offices of which I have never seen the like. She made a calendar and developed a schedule for reaching out and continuing to acquaint the schools with her accomplishments and personality. I think it made a huge difference.

Holiday Trains and Christmas Eve

As a long time commuter, I have a strong relationship to riding Metro North. My work week trains are pretty serious places with quiet and intense reading of newspapers. We regulars all know that talking is not welcome and we sit in companionable silence preparing for the day. Evening trains are much the same. More frequented by non-commuters, they tend to more noise, but everyone is generally focused on leaving the office behind and preparing for an evening of family life.

Holiday trains are a whole other story. And, truly, they have their place. Christmas Eve we rode into the city to have a holiday lunch and to see THE MERCHANT OF VENICE with Al Pacino. We got on the train in Port Chester and it was already quite full. Most groups were families with gaggles of excited children giggling and exclaiming and thrilled with the prospect of a day in the city, a visit to the tree in Rock Center and the ultimate prospect of a visit from St. Nick. It was anything but quiet, but that was just fine because it was a place full of happiness and anticipation. It was fun just to sit in the midst of the bedlam and enjoy everyone’s excitement.

The Spring House in Winchester Center

 There are few places on earth I would rather be than at our house in the country. We have owned this house since before we were married. In fact it was the Thanksgiving after my father died which spawned the purchase of our first major piece of property. Not wanting to dwell on my father’s death the previous April, my small extended family of Bobbie and Ferd, my brother and his fiancé and Jim and I all decided we would find a neutral location to celebrate Thanksgiving. Becky, my soon-to-be sister in-law, and Don were coming from Massachusetts. Jim and I were in New York and Bobbie and Ferd were in Chicago. We decided to meet in Western Connecticut at the Boulders Inn in New Preston. They had a good restaurant, we could sightsee a bit around Connecticut and ignore the still sore loss of my father. It was a lovely, if bittersweet, weekend and reminded me completely of how much I loved Northampton and the area around Smith when I was in school.  Jim and I returned from the Thanksgiving weekend and decided we needed a weekend retreat.

My first 3-Day breast cancer walk

In 2004 I did the 3-Day in New York. I decided to do the walk on the spur of the moment. I heard an ad on the radio and I just knew I wanted to be part of it. I wanted to do something which mattered. I heard the ad, ran inside and signed up. Afterward, I started to think about why it was important that I do this. I wanted to honor someone in my life who died of breast cancer and who had not been properly honored by me for the role she played in my life.