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The importance of college friendships is underscored in this very small sample of reunions that came to our attention this summer.
[ As we wander, we still Wunder ] • [ Younger & more flexible ]
[ Creating scrapbook memories ] • [ Forty plus & going strong ]
[ Summer solstice ]
They started getting together the summer after freshman year. Who knew they would still be meeting 44 years later!
Virgiina Stringfellow-Walker ’64 and Jean Bortell Morris ’64. Seated: Janet Myers Brunette ’64, Carolyn Nell Craft ’64, Carolyn Shively Guerrina ’64, Linda Taylor Bauer ’63, Joanne McCoy Baker ’64-’69m, Sally Osborne Dunn ’64. Standing: Barbara Cordivano Covington ’64, Barbara Brown DeShong ’64.
The Dead Ends first met the summer after their freshman year in 1961; and got their name as sophomores living in the same end of McCune Hall’s third floor. The group of about 15 women draws from the classes of ’63, ’64, and ’65 and has managed to congregate at least once a year for a day or two. Most became educators and are now retired while other occupations include librarian and artist.
The early gatherings were rather casual, but a farewell party, bridal showers, and weddings got them together each summer before they graduated, and for several years after. With the weddings, homes were more widespread geographically but they would travel at least once each summer to touch base. Children did not deter these reunions. “The hostess would hire a babysitter and we would sit, talk, and laugh for as many hours as possible,” Barbara DeShong ’64 said. “Of course a husband or two has been seen in the vicinity of our gatherings, but none would dare to hang around too long.”
Looking at one another’s photos are always a popular pasttime at reunions.
The yearly discussions have tracked through career moves, weddings (theirs and their children’s), child rearing, sending kids off to college, care of elderly parents, and applying for social security. Most of the reunions were single day events but overnight stays included the 25th reunion of their SU graduation so they could tour old haunts and checkout the changes.
They may be called Dead Ends, but they haven’t missed a beat and are still going strong after 44 years!