literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org

Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

I have made the acquaintance of some St. John's Alumni at

http://www.myspace.com/literarydiscussions

One recent graduate has asked me how things were in the 1970s. She
had heard that it was much wilder. Actually half my time there was in the
late 60s.

I have been inspired by this question to try and quickly write down some
of my recollections.

Pardon me if I write in haste, and pay less attention than usual to style.

Actually, it was my high school biology teacher at Amity, who rented a
film about St. John's, showed it to our class, and suggested that I go.

I went for a 2 day visit as a "prospective student". I had to read Plato's
Apology in preparation for the seminar that I would be auditing.

I interviewed with Mr. Tolbert, Director of Admissions.

Now those were the days, in 1967, before computers and spell checkers.
He smiled and admonished me for misspelling the word laundry as
laundary.

He explained to me that students and faculty at St. Johns are
grammarians first and foremost. He ordered me to purchase "House and
Harman's Descriptive English Grammar" and study it over the summer. I
did indeed acquire that book and spent many hours each day, reading all
300 or 400 pages, and diagramming each and every exercise sentence.
By the end of the summer I was quite expert in the art and science of
diagramming. I am certain I benefited greatly from the exercise.

Mr. Tolbert was quite a chain smoker of pipes and cigarettes. He would
puff on a pipeload of Cherry Hill tobacco, and then follow it with a
cigarette. A majority of students and teachers (tutors, as they prefer to
be called) were heavy smokers. As a prospective student, the smoke in
the classrooms was so overpowering that I worried whether I could
endure it for four years, even though I myself at the age of 18 smoked
pipes and cigars in moderation.

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