I got home late Thurs, got up early Fri & walked (air v. sweet) – we didn’t get off till 9:30 or so (much to S’s displeasure), and totally relied on S for directions, schedules, and when to be where. Drove up listening mostly to Conspiracy of Fools (abt Enron), which did get kind of repetitive. Kept thinking abt reading Goodnight Moon to L, when he was maybe 6 months, and how he’d put his tiny hand on my finger as I pointed to the telephone and the red balloon and the picture of the cow jumping over the moon.
We got to the B&B (Jackson House, outside Woodstock) maybe 4:30 – scurried in to park & join L waiting in line (w/ hundreds of other beaming parents) to greet Pres Wright & join a reception at his house. L relieved that his thesis defense had gone well – the theoreticians hadn’t asked hard questions. I said, maybe the theoreticians were secretly in awe of experimentalists – JJ Thompson (not that I could remember his name at the time), who could devise expts, but (according to his son, was clumsy & it was best to keep him from touching equipment). L started talking abt the Pauli effect – a physicist who jinxed expts.
Pres House is on Frat row (pretty noisey, acc. to L). Pres W is a tall ex-marine – imposing & kindly manner. He & wife greeted each family, and a student aide took that family’s camera, & shot a picture of the family with the pres. The house is gorgeous – incl paintings from the college museum, 12 needlepoint chairs embroidered by the wife of a former pres, and the Wrights’ collection of Han & Tang dynasty chinese figures (an amazing figure on a leaping horse, 1,100 yrs old).
Picked Mom & Sid up at the train & ate dinner at a casual-dining place in Queechee. I kept beaming at L and he kept saying he hasn’t had his picture taken so much in his life. (well, it may have been more than any single day in his infancy, after all, I didn’t have to hold him or diaper him).
Left Mom & Sid at the B&B & scurried in to Class Day, thinking how grateful I was to have lived to this day – sh’hechiyanu -- . Class Day in a cleared hollow in the woods – v. pretty & piney. Valedictorians announced (4.0 avgs) and class orator gave a vg speech (when he arrived in Hanover, on scholarship, from overseas, his father gave him an envelope with cash for the family share of tuition. He left it on his desk, locked in his room, while he went exploring. He found it gone when he returned. He was petrified – he didn’t know anyone in the US. His RA found him in tears, reported the problem – Pres Wright handed him an envelope w/ a check for the amt he’d lost when he matriculated. Whom did he owe? How to pay back?
Then all sorts of prizes were announced – super-students who excelled at their studies and at sports and were presidents of frats & sororities & excelled at good works. They came dashing up, one by one. The class historians gave a skit.
Weather heated up.
I was supposed to meet Jo Albert for coffee after Class Day exercises . We agreed to meet for coffee at the Dirty Cowboy @ 12:30. S, L and I went to meet prof Chernov – whom L had for 5 classes. S had recruited him to come for 2 weeks to MathPath. He was v. complimentary abt L – showed us around the math bldg. Jo & I talked in the Dirty Cowboy – L refused to come & be shown off, since he had a lot to do, incl pack--she’s been at World Bank for 21 yrs now. Robbie left for Brookings.
S and I set off to spring Mom & Sid for lunch– I called L who somewhat disappt’d not to be incl in lunch (S said he should have come & talked to Jo). We had lunch in Woodstock, thendrove back to Hanover for physics dept reception.
Met L’s advisor. Karl Yando’s parents. Dept chair sounded for order, made a short speech about what a pleasure it is to see students mature – you taught them as freshmen & looked at their homework; you taught them as seniors, & listened to their presentations, and were astonished at the change. He gave L the Ast & Physics prize in honor of F. Sears. “Awarded to a graduating senior for significant contributions to the Department and unusual achievement as an undergraduate and for the promise of continued commitment to the study of physics”.
There were maybe 4-5 prizes following, among the 17 majors.
We beamed, had the dept chair re-enact the gift (after the presentations) so we could take pix, received congratulations. Talked to dept chair, other profs & students, and also the dept manager, who was once a submariner, returned to take care of elderly parents.
Went back to B&B, had yummy dinner (I thought) at their restaurant, went to sleep early. Up early (Sid had tickets for handicapped seating, Mom, Sid & I had to be in place by 8:30, so we had to be out by 7:30). We got into place w/ no problem, and annointed selves w/ sunscreen. I scurried off to by NYT & hat. S parked & found a seat in the general section. Rumours of a 4 hour ceremony. (the sun was baking – I was wearing black because that’s the color my nice washable clothes are. How I envied the lithe young things in sundresses).
By the time I returned, Sid had located all mentions of L’s name in program (cum laude, high honors in subject). I settled down to read NYT & wait – we were huddled in the small amt of shade afforded by a camera platform.
The commencement seemed to take forever.
It ended. Leon came striding toward us. We decided to go to Margaritas for lunch & they had room (glory be!). S and L went off for cars, I hung out w/ Mom & Sid and snapped pix of the families – they were so international. A Hawiian undergrad, wreathed in leis to the eyebrows. Senegalese (it looked like to me, or maybe Malian) Dr. Two Japanese – a PhD & an undergrad.. We ate – S recalled the points of the speeches much better than I did. L left for a bike ride (30 + miles in the heat) , Mom, Sid & S napped, I strolled through Woodstock, and bought 4 paperback mysteries.
We rejoined L for late dinner. L didn’t want appetizers – he’d end up like me. I pouted. In the parking lot, I said we looked like shrimp next to him. I was a stout shrimp. A stout, silly shrimp, he replied. A stout silly, sleepy shrimp, I retorted. He patted me on the head.
We headed back, slept, breakfasted. Dropped Mom & Sid at the train a little early, headed in for Leon & to meet his history of sci prof. Nice chat – we went to the coop where I bought way too much food, but forgot plastic forks. L filled up car. Terrible heat, even in NH.
We set out for a rest stop near Brattleboro, but when we stopped, the man in the next car noticed smoke coming from the green Subaru. Great consultation about what it was. We went to Brattleboro, to a brake & muffler place, where they put it up on the rack, but didn’t see much of a leak, and the transmission fluid (it turned out to be differential) seemed normal. They pronounced us good to go. We (Leon & I, in my car, so I could listen to ATC) drove to the Merritt pkway, where I got a no-cal red bull (Starbucks has too much sugar – 30g). Leon tired of ATC and switched to the Subaru w/ S at the top of the Garden State.
I drove down the GS, listening to Joshua bell playing the Brahms Violin concerto – the finale – I guess I was high on the Red Bull – I was so happy. I guess I should stop worrying over whether I was a good enough Mom. I must have been ok, mustn’t I? Got home w/o further incident, bit after 8:30. Got L takeout at Chen Heng.
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