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MacCoy, Marjorie Newell | to Family, 10 May 1908

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Date
1908-05-10T00:00:01Z-1908-05-10T23:59:59Z
Abstract
VC 1911
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vassar:56227,Box 41; VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_009
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: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_009_001
May 10, 1908

Dear Family-

        So many things have happened since I wrote you that I feel as if I had quite a volume of news. 
To begin with. On Tuesday the Seniors had their May-pole dance, and it was too pretty. The girls who wound the May pole were dressed in pale colors and all the rest in white. And the only music was a [giant] kind of [sound] that the outside rings of Seniors sang. After the pole was wound and [unwound], they scampered over to their tree and crowned Martha [Boise] Queen. The crown of daffodils, be it said, was a trifle over one ear, but she looked dear nevertheless. 
Everything was rather calm until

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_009_002
Friday, and since then -! Ye gods! How Vassar College has [changed]. 
    In the first place Anna came up from N.Y. with [Helene] [Houghton] who brought her up from the station right to 415, and Frances Cutler and Lilias were both here, but I was at a class. You can imagine how excited I was and how I watched my watch while Miss [Thallon] rambled on indefinitely (a very good adjective for all her remarks!) about Louis XIV. This [unreadable]. As soon as the bell rang I made a beeline [down] Rockefeller steps and flew down the corridor here yelling like a maniac straight into the arms of Anna [and we] danced an impromptu Highland [Swing] on the rug. There was time to talk a bit and there to “show Anna around” before we went down to the cottage and got

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_009_003
dressed for dinner which we had with Val at Cary Cottage along with Val’s two cousins, Caroline Hall, Laura [Herring] and Lilias. We had a fine time of course, and got back in time for Chapel. After chapel, although it rained (of course) we went to the Choral Club-Orchestra Concert. It really was very good, and they had a tenor from N.Y. who had a very sweet voice. He sang some of the songs that Anna sings, such as “Si mas Vero.” Field day was to begin at 8:30 the next morning. It poured cats and dogs all night long. Saturday morning was gray and threatening, but we gaily donned our things and went up to the campus, only to find that it had been postponed till ten. But is was so

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_009_004
threatening even then that Dr. T put her foot down hard and said “no Field Day till the afternoon at two.” So we wandered around and went up the library tower until lunch time. After lunch, just before two o’clock, it let down buckets of rain and everybody just fairly swore. But it finally eased up a bit and the bell for Field Day rang, regardless of the sprinkling process going on outside. We armed ourselves with umbrellas and sallied forth, and had Field Day, [willy-nilly]. The [weather] saw we were sports, and decided to [turn] in and help us, so the sun came out and everything went on [serenely]. Field Day was great. We couldn’t see it all for we had to go to the All Chapter Play, but we saw quite a lot. To the great surprise of everybody - themselves

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_009_005
included - The Sophomores won -- beating the Juniors by 1 ½ points! We came in [tall] with 16 - The highest was 32 ¼, but we are proud of ourselves anyhow, for we had three firsts. Two records were broken -- Dot Clarke (1909) broke Miss Babson’s record for the Running [High] and got her “V,” and Theodora Wheeler (1911) made the record for the new Hop Step and Jump - so winning her “V,” and she is the first freshman on record with one. Ha! Ha! Helen White just missed breaking M. Vilas’s record for the [Fence] Vault. 
    The All Chapter Play was very good -- it was Stevenson and Henley’s “Macaire.” Lilias was in it, and was very cute and pretty, and Julia Lovejoy was the most adorable man you

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_009_006
ever saw. Of course there was great excitement and much shouting [after] Field Day was over, and Anna enjoyed that immensely. About 8:30 that evening, groups of people - curiously none of them Sophomores - might have been seen wandering aimlessly up and down the quadrangle “waiting” for “something.” They [soon] found out that the “something” was going to take place over near North and sure enough it did. 1910 has its tree and it is a mighty pretty one too over between North and the [hedge] along Raymond Avenue. The ceremonies were lovely. First we heard fairy violin music which grew nearer and nearer until finally groups of wood sprites began to appear from different directions, [gather] around the tree, singing that perfect Arthur [unreadable]

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_009_007
-oh goodness, I can’t remember it’s name! When they had all gathered they danced around the tree with the green light [thrown] [full] on them, the inside circle going the opposite direction from the outside one. They had some speeches -- which of course we couldn’t hear, and then sang a perfect hymn to one of the Mendelsshon [Mendelssohn] (Pete! How does he spell it?) Songs [without] words. And then gradually, little by little they disappeared in groups into the mist. The moon had gone under a cloud and the calcium lights that they had had left a soft haze all over everything, it was perfectly exquisite. After they had vanished, the sprites reappeared in capes and scarfs [scarves] and marched to 1908’s tree where they

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_009_008
had left their banner, and put it and the Field Day Banner on their Tree. They are so proud of themselves they don’t know what to do, for in addition to Field Day, they [won] the Tennis. This being the first time they have ever done anything worth mentioning the College is pinching itself to see whether it is awake or not!
    This morning we went to Chapel and sat in Dr. T’s seat as she had requested us to do. Fances Cutler took us down to Cary’s for dinner, and Anna left on the 3.45. Mr. Strictland came up to Poughkeepsie for her, and it was nice to see him again. 
    Excuse this incoherent letter, but it has been interrupted many times, lastly by a [yelling] [mob] of Juniors trying to grab Elsa’s slippers.

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_009_009
    I did love having Anna so, and I think she enjoyed it too, and everybody loved her. She is a darling. 
    I am tired, so will go to bed right off. Guests are fun, but they use up lots of energy!!
        Lots of love
            From
            Marjorie

 


: VCL_Letters_MacCoy-Marjorie-Newell_1908-04_1908-05_041_009_010
[Postmark: Poughkeepsie May 11 2 P.M.]

Alexander W. MacCoy
Mrs. William P. Logan
    Overbrook Ave and 58th St. 
    Philadelphia