This page is for stories about when we were undergrads at Swarthmore. Send your stories to be included here to submit@swarthmore71.org. (Let us know if you want your name included or not.)
Heard on a local train from Philadelphia one Saturday night about 40 years ago...
"Swahhthmore ... !"
only a bunch of bearded, long-haired students get up to get off the train ...
"Swahhthmore ... ! Home of Sworthmore college of psychadelic knowledge."
There was a toilet stall, I think in the basement of Parish – near the bookstore? – that had graffiti on it – unusual for Swarthmore – people usually had more respect for private property.
But (only at Swarthmore) the graffiti did not have oversized phallusses (phalli?) or women in unusual poses – It was a poem.
I cannot remember much of it – apparently, it was an ongoing effort – a conversation as it were.
It was political of course, and dealing with the War.
And one of the contributors finished his stanza (he was mildly anti-war, but not as rabid as another contributor) with:
"But still I must confess,
Dislike of SDS."
Bob Cushman remembers a notice by the mailboxes in Parrish, where people used to advertise used books for sale, rides wanted/offered, etc. Someone had posted this notice:
"For sale: Ionesco's Rhinceros - unused"and someone else wrote on it:
"Nonsense, I saw him using it just yesterday!"
From Gail (Foster) Newbold:
Do you remember Frank Ackerman '67 & friend Kathy Moore '69 sitting on Parrish porch, evenings. I'd stop by when the Libe closed - They had a guitar and an amazing array of songs & knew union history. Frank's bio. in Wikipedia says he got his PhD. at Harvard (economics) but does not mention Swarthmore.
My favorite from Frank at Parrish porch: "Banks of Marble." (See lyrics on the Music page.)
~ New verses (wanna write one?) would tell about Mountaintop Removal coal mining & other climate change-related topics!