Cathy Eaton - Smith College 1968-1972
1968-1969: Freshman Year at Smith. My roommate was Peggy Gladstone from New York, and my suitemates were Jodi Shapiro and Bianca Del’Isola who had also attended HBS. On my first weekend, a bunch of us went to see Zorba the Greek, and I remember dancing Greek dances with our arms entwined on the way back to our dorm. I also loved King of Hearts. For four years I lived in Northrop House in the middle of campus. About 80 students from all four grades lived in the dorm. The food, cooked in our dorm’s kitchen was outstanding. We ate at small tables and used linen napkins. I studied Gov 100 (where we read Plato, Machiavelli, Socrates…) I thought of the course catalogue at as smorgasbord, or over my four years I took courses in geology, psychology, anthropology, archeology, Chinese government, African drumming, African sociology, religion, art, (sculpture and photography), Shakespeare, Victorian Prose and Poetry, English novels, world literature. I only studied 4 courses a semester and also took gym (tennis, squash, field hockey). My liberal arts studying was much less intensive than Colin’s and Devon’s architecture studies and glass blowing studies. I actually got a good night sleep most nights. I also played on dorm teams in field hockey, soccer, tennis, volley ball, and basketball. The family came east to watch John in the Worcester Crew Regatta. I often went to Dartmouth to visit John and used his ski pass on Wednesdays when I didn’t have classes. I learned to play squash. After our family trip to Vail, I was diagnosed with mononucleosis, and I persuaded doctor to allow me to take tennis instead of being marooned to exercise because of potential of spleen bursting. During the school year of freshman or sophomore year I volunteered and worked at the student bank. I remember how dirty the money was. Policeman escorted me to deposit all the money in a big bank down town.
Summer 1969: I traveled to Australia and New Zealand with the Experiment in International Living. [See separate section that describes that adventure.] We watched the Davis Cup tennis tournament in Cleveland and Illi Nastase and Ian Teriac came for dinner at the chalet. I rode western on Lady or Tylero, the two horses that Dad and Elizabeth had been riding.
1969-1970: Sophomore year at Smith: Dad and Mom took Elizabeth and me to Gambia, West Africa to visit Cy in the Peace Corps, London, England (where we saw the musical Hair, Istanbul, Turkey (where Elizabeth photographed a belly dancer, Budapest, Hungary, and Bucharest, Rumania (where we visited Ian Teriac and Illi Nastase, two of the Rumanian tennis team. I hoped to major in anthropology and sociology focusing on Africa and spend my junior year at Dartmouth and then in the spring go to Gambia. However, I only made first on the waiting list because my to-be advisor at Dartmouth forgot to promote my candidacy. Turned out the Dartmouth professor forgot to go to meeting to promote my candidacy.
Summer 1970: I think I painted Arrow Cottage with Willie Charron’s step son Cliff.
1970-1971: Junior Year: Crushed that my African adventure fell through, I decided to major in English because Grananne, (Grampa’s 2nd wife) asked me what were my goals. To my great embarrassment I wrote down I want to read better, writer better, think more clearly, and speak more fluidly. She then asked how I could achieve those goals. I was again very unsure and embarrassed about thinking about majoring in English because my brother John was an English major at Dartmouth. But I wrote my world literature professor Richard Young and asked him to be my advisor. In sophomore year he had given me a D------------ on a paper comparing The Divine Comedy and the musical Hair. He said that the paper depressed him for several months because it showed how decadent our generation was. I later learned that at this time his son (whom he hoped would go into the academic world) had left home to do Peace Corps type activity in the Middle East.
Elizabeth and I traveled with Grampa to San Diego, Chile. Grampa was visited President Allende, who was later assassinated . After Cy came back from Gambia, he and his Peace Corps friend Ben Hatch, his friend Rob Lord, my friend Margo McCreary, and Elizabeth drove across country. When I came back from Gambia, I visited a guy at Harvard whom I had met on the plane. I remember we explored the underground heating tunnels of Harvard. That summer our raccoon Rocky Bandilito (Dito) and our colt Zorba both died. [For camping trip across country, see separate section.] Before we drove across country, I worked for my Dad at his office as a gofer person. I was disappointed that John, when he worked for Dad, had real position of responsibility, and Adele Wick, who later worked for Dad, wrote articles and did research.
1971-1972: Senior Year. I studied archeology with Gail Bongiovani at U. Mass, Shakespeare with Mr. Nuttal, (after Mr. Young told me since I went to Dartmouth many weekends I wasn’t serious enough to be in his Shakespeare class. He later apologized.), a government seminar on China where we had over 1000 pages a week to read that were on reserve. I wrote my final paper on trade between Japan and China, hoping to convince Dad not to start trade in China. I don’t think he ever read the paper. My final paper had over 120 footnotes. I wrote another paper for my modern novel seminar. My grade was S for serendipitous. My teacher told me to write it after drinking champagne at Cy and Toni’s wedding. I began dating Rick Greenberg, a Bones Gate fraternity brother of John who was also cox for the crew team. I lived next to Betsy Dice, across the hall from Gail Bongiovanni, and down the hall from Karen Kell (who married Mark Hartman) and Michael Johns, and Mary Lee Clemons (who married Mark Blatchford) and Nancy Ammon (who married Steve Jianokoplos.) John borrowed a dress and wig and rode to my graduation, but Rod Morgan stopped him before his arrival.
Summer 1972: After graduation I worked as a counselor at Alford Lake Camp with 5 thirteen year olds in my tent. Louise’s family took us on sailing boat overnight trip. The campers told me I was too sarcastic. I taught photography, riding, and tennis. Elizabeth, Rick Greenberg, and I camped in Nova Scotia around Cape Breton and went to Deep Cove. Saw porcupine up a tree.
Summer 1969: I traveled to Australia and New Zealand with the Experiment in International Living. [See separate section that describes that adventure.] We watched the Davis Cup tennis tournament in Cleveland and Illi Nastase and Ian Teriac came for dinner at the chalet. I rode western on Lady or Tylero, the two horses that Dad and Elizabeth had been riding.
1969-1970: Sophomore year at Smith: Dad and Mom took Elizabeth and me to Gambia, West Africa to visit Cy in the Peace Corps, London, England (where we saw the musical Hair, Istanbul, Turkey (where Elizabeth photographed a belly dancer, Budapest, Hungary, and Bucharest, Rumania (where we visited Ian Teriac and Illi Nastase, two of the Rumanian tennis team. I hoped to major in anthropology and sociology focusing on Africa and spend my junior year at Dartmouth and then in the spring go to Gambia. However, I only made first on the waiting list because my to-be advisor at Dartmouth forgot to promote my candidacy. Turned out the Dartmouth professor forgot to go to meeting to promote my candidacy.
Summer 1970: I think I painted Arrow Cottage with Willie Charron’s step son Cliff.
1970-1971: Junior Year: Crushed that my African adventure fell through, I decided to major in English because Grananne, (Grampa’s 2nd wife) asked me what were my goals. To my great embarrassment I wrote down I want to read better, writer better, think more clearly, and speak more fluidly. She then asked how I could achieve those goals. I was again very unsure and embarrassed about thinking about majoring in English because my brother John was an English major at Dartmouth. But I wrote my world literature professor Richard Young and asked him to be my advisor. In sophomore year he had given me a D------------ on a paper comparing The Divine Comedy and the musical Hair. He said that the paper depressed him for several months because it showed how decadent our generation was. I later learned that at this time his son (whom he hoped would go into the academic world) had left home to do Peace Corps type activity in the Middle East.
Elizabeth and I traveled with Grampa to San Diego, Chile. Grampa was visited President Allende, who was later assassinated . After Cy came back from Gambia, he and his Peace Corps friend Ben Hatch, his friend Rob Lord, my friend Margo McCreary, and Elizabeth drove across country. When I came back from Gambia, I visited a guy at Harvard whom I had met on the plane. I remember we explored the underground heating tunnels of Harvard. That summer our raccoon Rocky Bandilito (Dito) and our colt Zorba both died. [For camping trip across country, see separate section.] Before we drove across country, I worked for my Dad at his office as a gofer person. I was disappointed that John, when he worked for Dad, had real position of responsibility, and Adele Wick, who later worked for Dad, wrote articles and did research.
1971-1972: Senior Year. I studied archeology with Gail Bongiovani at U. Mass, Shakespeare with Mr. Nuttal, (after Mr. Young told me since I went to Dartmouth many weekends I wasn’t serious enough to be in his Shakespeare class. He later apologized.), a government seminar on China where we had over 1000 pages a week to read that were on reserve. I wrote my final paper on trade between Japan and China, hoping to convince Dad not to start trade in China. I don’t think he ever read the paper. My final paper had over 120 footnotes. I wrote another paper for my modern novel seminar. My grade was S for serendipitous. My teacher told me to write it after drinking champagne at Cy and Toni’s wedding. I began dating Rick Greenberg, a Bones Gate fraternity brother of John who was also cox for the crew team. I lived next to Betsy Dice, across the hall from Gail Bongiovanni, and down the hall from Karen Kell (who married Mark Hartman) and Michael Johns, and Mary Lee Clemons (who married Mark Blatchford) and Nancy Ammon (who married Steve Jianokoplos.) John borrowed a dress and wig and rode to my graduation, but Rod Morgan stopped him before his arrival.
Summer 1972: After graduation I worked as a counselor at Alford Lake Camp with 5 thirteen year olds in my tent. Louise’s family took us on sailing boat overnight trip. The campers told me I was too sarcastic. I taught photography, riding, and tennis. Elizabeth, Rick Greenberg, and I camped in Nova Scotia around Cape Breton and went to Deep Cove. Saw porcupine up a tree.