A Letter from 55th Reunion Yearbook Editor Brooke Stoddard

     How much did we have in common, really? Maleness. Letters of Acceptance. For most of us, WASPiness. And a rather common culture: Three black-and-white television networks; Eisenhower/Kennedy/Johnson; the horrible Kennedy assassination; popular movies and music. That’s about it. 

     We came from 45 states* and 15 countries. We gathered for the first time in Alexander Hall. We became roommates of strangers, and used maps to find lecture halls and Commons for meals. We lost Cane Spree, we were appalled at how little upper classmen paid attention to us, and we discovered not everyone had Saturday morning classes. We learned that whatever talents we believed we possessed were inferior to those held by someone else in a room or a dorm not far away. Most of us were gobsmacked by our first midterm exams. Dreams imploded; dreams blossomed. For those of us (most) who stuck it out for four years, we could add these to our commonality: the weird mutations of the Beatles, the sense that Princeton might not be the center of ultimate cool (London, Berkeley, perhaps?), plus, of course, the campus. 

     Most of all, maybe the campus glommed our disparate parts together and made us a Class. The Gothic arches of Holder, the yellow and red leaves of October, lit dorm windows on a winter’s night, the tulip trees and wisteria of April. The campus made us a Class, the Class of 1969.

     We have a lot to be proud of, we of the 45 states and 15 countries, we of different childhoods, religions, high schools, prep schools, neighborhoods, hopes and expectations. Not that we did it alone, but we helped transform Princeton from 250 years of white male privilege to one of the great universities of the world. 

     That’s a good peg to hang our hat on. 

     We come back to touch something again which once touched us. 

     55 years out. A lot of water over the dam. Probably also some hips and knees. Possibly, younger alums look at us in wonder. “What was it like then?” Let them wonder. 

*The excluded: Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, Utah and Vermont