Searching for Mom in the Pages of the Vassarion
The Vassarion
Sarah survived Vassar and even learned from the experience. When her mother sent a homemade dress to wear to a party, Sarah borrowed her roommate’s dress instead. She studied hard, aware that she was less well prepared than her friends from private schools. Sarah knew she was at one of the best colleges in the country and was proud to have gotten in. She would make the most of it. Yet, when all the families came up for graduation at the end of her fourth year, it was hard to be one of the two girls in her group who were not invited to a dinner party given by the parents of Ellen Bacon Endicott of Beacon Hill.
One hundred years ago, my mother, Beatrice Chinnock, a senior at Montclair High in New Jersey, decided to apply to Vassar. To increase her chances of admission, Mom spent an extra semester at a private prep school in Summit, NJ. She was the first member of our family to attend college, so getting into Vassar must have been quite a big deal. There were only 273 women in her graduating class because 71 dropped out, probably due to the stock market crash in 1929.
In sorting through her possessions, I found a copy of the 1932 yearbook. She surely treasured the Vassarion as a representation of what she had accomplished. The handsome black cover features an embossed profile of a female warrior from ancient Greece. Turning pages, the theme becomes even more apparent, with Greek-inspired images of vases, dancers, chariots (driven by women, of course), and this statement as a foreword: “The belief of the Greeks in a well-rounded development of the individual is implied in the traditions of Vassar College.”
I couldn’t find her name among those listed in any of the clubs, although there’s evidence that her rooming group was active. Their extracurriculars ranged from Class President to head of the Glee Club. I know Mom felt inferior to these new friends, who had all attended private schools. I’d like to think she spent her free time at the library researching Greece, for instance, because her name is mentioned on a page dedicated to the Vassar Travel Bureau. Indeed, for two years, she organized “The Odyssey Cruise,” which allowed her to enjoy a free summer trip to Europe. That cruise remained among her fondest memories. It must have taken courage for her to shepherd her fellow students across the ocean to a foreign land. During my childhood and adolescence, she never told me about this extracurricular activity of hers. It was in old age that she confided highlights, like her midnight swim in the Aegean.
The 1932 yearbook didn’t reveal any clues to Mom’s character, but it did confirm how thoroughly she enjoyed Vassar. By junior year, she fit right in, overcoming her feeling of alienation. I find her standing in the third row at prom, happily holding the arm of a tall, good-looking date.
After graduation, Mom used the Vassarion to keep track of classmates. She left a squiggle in black ink beside class photos of women to whom she had “sent Xmas cards, 1934.” To some captions, she added married names and recent addresses. To others, she jotted down professions.
Vassar remained a significant influence throughout her life. She corresponded with classmates, and upon retirement moved to Cape Cod, where former roommate Nancy Macdonald maintained a summer house on Slough Pond and classmate Margaret Campbell spent July in Hyannisport. The most precious thing Vassar gave my mother must have been the opportunity to forge friendships with a group of amazing women. She was very proud when I chose to follow in her footsteps and attend the College. How she would have loved the fact that I Zoom twice a month with my own classmates, including one former roommate!