Rick and I have just returned from a visit to New England and the annual picnic given on her beautiful farm by Joanne Holbrook Patton, ’52. Below is a picture of me with Joanne, who is on the far left, and some of her classmates. (Thanks to Michelle Badger, ’06, for the image.)
I had a chance to catch up with several current students who were there, including the soon-to-be President of the Senior Class, a junior who is on her way to Spain for a year abroad, another student who is on her way to D.C. for an internship, yet another who was off to an equestrian competition the next day, and a soon-to-be first year student who came with her just-graduated elder sister.
And as always, I heard lots of great stories. Mrs. Patton told me one that I loved so much I asked her for permission to share it with all of you.
When she was an undergraduate, Joannie Holbrook (as she was then) served as editor of the Briar Patch, a responsibility she undertook with seriousness and some trepidation. She wanted very much to make sure that under her leadership the yearbook would be a great success and a fitting record of the time she and her classmates had spent at Sweet Briar. At that time, the advisor to the yearbook was Professor Jessie Fraser. At the beginning of the year, Joanne recalls that she went to Professor Fraser for advice and got a surprising answer. Professor Fraser told her to go sit, quietly, in the dell for a good long period of time and to pay attention to all that surrounded her. Everything important and permanent about Sweet Briar would then be within reach, she assured Joanne.
As Mrs. Patton tells the story, she was unsure about this, having had in mind something more like advice about editing photos, but she dutifully went and did as advised. And as she sat there, indeed, she found that everything she loved about the College came into focus. And with her vision refreshed, she got up, brushed herself off, and went to work.
I intend to remember this story during the inevitably hectic interludes of the coming year and to treat myself to a spell of dell-sitting when I need to regain perspective.
Classmates from 1952 at Green Meadows Farm
