5p, one sided pages, mimeograph on matte off white paper. Old staple mark and new staple in top left corner, 5 horizontal folds. Community Clean-Up day on Monday mentions that Mary Brett, Sam Brown, and Ruth Miller were elected student officers last Thursday. Visitors- Jascha Klein Kedric Lynch Jack Lipsey John Chen & Vladmir Hartman John Sweitzer Ruth Platt.
BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE COMMUNITY BULLETIN
College Year 11 Bulletin 35
Monday, June 5, 1944
CALENDAR:
The Board of Fellows will meet this afternoon at 4:30 o’clock in Study 10.
The Faculty will meet without the Student Officers on Wednesday afternoon at 4:30 o’clock in the Kocher Room to hear reports on the oral examinations and to read the Upper Division Plans of candidates for the Upper Division.
There will be a Community Meeting on Wednesday evening at 6:45 o’clock in the Lobby of North Lodge.
Tea will be served on the porch of North Lodge on Wednesday afternoon and on Friday afternoon from 4:00 until 4:30 o’clock.
EVENTS OF LAST WEEK:
The five day interlude ended in a blaze of industry on Monday with a Community Clean-Up Day. Teachers and students volunteered to do an assortment of clean-up and fix-up jobs that had been selected by the Planning Committee with the general intention of improving the external appearance of the College grounds.
Work got off to a semi- sleepy start at 9:00 A.M. following a general meeting for explanation and organization of the work to be done, and continued through the day. The usual afternoon slump was skillfully avoided by the initial appearance of the revised custom of afternoon tea (iced, of course)
The results of the one-day manicure were quite gratifying: The Biology Laboratory was put in new, dusted order by Janie Stone, Carol Ostrow and some of the girls. Preparation for a new fence and sign at the entrance to the College grounds was made by a crew under Nell Goldsmith. Old posts, dead trees and weeds were removed from the sides of the entrance road, and the Gatehouse was thoroughly cleaned. The grounds around the Studies Building were trimmed and cleaned, and Kenneth Kurtz out back the threatening woods along the lake bank below the road and thereby exposed again the view of the lake.
Bob Wunsch and the dramatists put in a big day at the Drama Shed. The sorted properties, costumes and scenery and put them in meticulous orderliness on labeled shelves, then they cleaned the grounds in front of and on both sides of the Shed.
Workers put a new rock curb along the driveway behind the kitchen, trimmed bushes around the Dining Hall, picked up trash everywhere even the campus, and there was a general collection and restoration of wandering equipment, kitchen dishes, cutlery, shop tools, to its proper place.
Molly Gregory, perched on the mower behind Pearl and Lady, cut the weeds from all the large lawns.
Anni Albers and Mimi French properly cleaned the art and weaving room.
A large trash crew kept the International and the dump truck going all day. Trips to the dump with loads of trash, broken furniture and bru were numerous.
Chuck Forberg
The whole College celebrated on Monday evening with a roast pork supply on the College picnic grounds across the road. Molly Gregory and Ross Penley carved and served the pork that had been browned over co in the outdoor fireplace. The climax of the meal was strawberry pomade, with sauterne and champagne and served by Fritz and Mrs. Hansgirg.
In the elections, held on Thursday of last week, Mary Brett, Sam Brown and Ruth Miller were elected Student Officers.
On Saturday evening, in the Dining Hall, Josef Albers showed photographs of some of the paintings and drawings of Mathis Grunewald, the fifteen
B M C COMMUNITY BULLETIN- 1943-44- #35- Page Two
Century artist, and commented upon them. This “picture concert” was followed by the playing of the Victor recordings of the three instrumental movements from Hindemith’s opera, Matthias the Painter, which the composer has grouped together as a three-movement symphony, each movement of which is named after a portion of the world famous Isenheld Altar of Mathis Grunewald. Frederic Cohen gave a brief analysis of the Hindemith music, then the recordings were played again.
WITH FORMER STUDENTS:
New Addresses:
Duncan Dwight
808th B.O.
Bourman Field, Kentucky
Corporal J.F. Wolpert, 32460549
330th Bomb Gp. (WTT),
Dalhart Army Air Field
Dalhart, Texas
Pfc. Claude Stoller, 32702551
13th Armored Division Band
Camp Bowie, Texas
In the Mail:
Corporal George Alsberg writes from somewhere in Alaska: “From BMC I went to Stanford, got my B.A. and did graduate work in economics at the University of Chicago. In between was a year of research for the Virginia State Planning Board and the Virginia State Board of Education. I entered the Army in the Fall of 1942, and after basic training in the Signa 1 Corps, was sent for specialized training to Vint Hill Farms Station, near Warrenton, Virginia. Last September I was sent up here. As far as the physical facts of life are concerned, I can hardy complain. My work is mostly at night, and all winter, from the first of December until the middle of May, I have been going skiing on the Pacific Coast and is superior to anything in the East. At the end of February we had a big winter sports carnival here, with skiing, speed skating, ice hockey, and boxing. Teams were from posts all over Alaska. I entered the skiing competition, in which were many soldiers who as civilians were notable skiers, so naturally I did not place too well. In March I took a two weeks furlough up at Mt. McKinley U.S. Army Recreation Camp, formerly a deluxe hotel built by the Department of the Interior in 1940 for the tourist trade. To say that it a Paradise is an understatement. Anyhow, we all had private rooms with bath, and no army regulations. In April I was honored by being selected as a member of a ski team to represent Ft. Richardson at a meet at Nome, at the ski lodge. We drew our own rations, did our own cooking, lived as we pleased. Incidentally, we won the Four Way Team Competition by a decisive margin.”
PH M/2C Cynthia Carr writes Gulfport, Mississippi: “It’s so hard to maintain contact with people and places while you’re in the service. Merely writing letters isn’t enough, but it is all we are capable of doing…. I go on writing letters now and then, continually being surprised at what a lift they can give and yet still being too lazy or something to keep us a regular correspondence with all my friends. Besides, when one sits at the typewriter all day as a so-called job, its hardly relaxing to sit there during liberty hours and write letters”
Private Bernard Malek writes from somewhere in Canada: “After Basic Training I was sent to a Technician’s School in Indiana. For two months I went to classes and worked in a General Hospital, all with considerable success. And before I knew it, I was cursorily examined and shipped over-seas with a unique feeling I hope never to experience again. I now find myself ‘overseas’ though no further away than over the border ‘Somewhere in Canada’. After much shifting about, I’m finally settled in a Dispensary with little to do and plenty of spare time. Sometimes it feels like those two years at Blue Ridge, not at Eden. There I did some work! I read to my hunger’s satisfaction.”
Lieutenant Bela Martin writes from Saint Augustine, Florida on May 2 “I am to begin next week with a flight of students- my first class. They are newly commissioned Ensigns to be developed into fighter pilots. My experience may be of some help to them. Last week I went out alone in a ‘Corsair’ and scared around with the freedom of a bird, flying low, flying high, flying slow, flying fast, doing rolls and whatever else I wanted to do. At ten thousand feet the earth was just a living relief map. It was cool there too, and the engine was like an affectionately purring cat. You own the world when you are up there. The Corsair is such a wonderful machine of destruction, but I never thought
B M C COMMUNITY BULLETIN- 1943-44 BULLETIN- #35- Page Three
About that that day….The educational system for pilots has improved steadily since first I entered the Navy. Some of the movies are really works of art in teaching. The cutaway models of engines and planes are like the human skeletons medical students examine and probe into. A pilot can never learn too much about the inner workings of a plane and about flying…..”
Tanya Sprager writes from Los Angeles, California: “Oats Levy spent a weekend here at ‘Sprager Gulch’ about a month ago…The other day Junelaine Smith called me from Long Beach, and we had dinner together She is trying to get a job on the west coast…I received the Summer Bulletins the other day, and I was immediately filled with nostalgia longing to return to Lake Eden for the Summer Sessions. The Music Institute sounds really wonderful. I can’t return this summer but I am planning to go back in the fall….”
Pfc. Claude Steller writes from Camp Bowie in Texas: “The summer bulletins look fine- they make me terribly nostalgic…. Fernando’s letter in a recent Community Bulletin was very good. Fernando make a fine analysis of a very real problem. I agree very strongly that more attention should be paid to the organization of Senior Division plans. Perhaps the real problem, underlying the one Fernando brings up, is that we are all so unprepared for the duties and advantages of the community life when we first come to Black Mountain College…..Here I’m in another army band- a divisional one this time with 65 pieces. We have two warrant office bandleaders who are both fine musicians. The band is comparatively excellent musically. It has many finished musicians, and we play very ambitious stuff. I play Third Chair Flute and Piccolo and am really far from good enough for that position. However, I’m assistant to the supply sergeant and do minor repairs on instruments and such. The best part of that, though, is that I was able to make a little study out of the supply room. So I managed to get a little privacy. The warrant officers are very friendly and come in evenings, or invite me over to their hut for beer. We talk endlessly about anything, and I manage to get some enthusiastic references about B.M.C..”
Corporal Jerry Wolpert writes from Dalhart, Texas: “After fourteen months in Kansas we have been sent for a six weeks interlude to the Texas panhandle. The change is distinctly for the worse, so we are looking forward with pleasure to our return to Kansas. I have been transferred to a tactical outfit, known in the airforce as a bombardment group…”
WITH FORMER MEMBERS OF THE STAFF:
New Addresses:
John A. Rice
Out of Door School
Route One
Sarasota, Florida
(The above is a summer address only)
ARRIVALS:
Connie Spencer arrived on Monday morning from Washington for a five day visit to Lake Eden.
Private Robert Marden arrived on Wednesday on a furlough from Scott Field in Illinois. He will leave on Thursday for his new assignment, at the Air Base in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Gorda Hagendorn arrived on Wednesday to take over secretarial duties in the Registrar’s Office. She was formerly a secretary at the Katherine Gibbs School in Boston. Her home is in Roxbury, Massachusetts.
Pfc. Dick Brown reached Lake Eden on Saturday to spend part of his furlough from Scott Field here. He will leave on Tuesday for Selfrid Field in Michigan.
Mrs. Annette Dabney Stone arrived from Richmond, Virginia, on Friday afternoon to take up duties as College Hostess at Lake Eden.
H.B. Adams of Lenoir, North Carolina was a Sunday morning visitor at Lake Eden. Mr. Adams is the father of Henry, a former student at Black Mountain College.
B M C COMMUNITY BULLETIN- 1943-44 BULLETIN- #35- Page Four
DEPARTURES:
Sam Brown will leave on Tuesday afternoon for his home in Wilton, Conn.
WORK CREW REPORTS:
Construction: The Construction Crew evened the newly built road, work on new table tops in the Dining Hall, did construction work on a cupboard for the kitchen, dug a ditch for footing and the wall of the terrace, completed the painting job in the Dining Hall and assisted the Hauling Crew.
Nell Goldsmith
Farm: During the last two weeks five tons of hay were taken up and stacked at Morris’. This land is now plowed and disked for soy beans. The curved field was planted in silage corn. One ton of barley hay was taken to the barn from the triangle at the corner of the Farm Road. The Farm House Field was mowed, and three tons of alfalfa were gathered and stacked.
The Bottoms Field was mowed, and some of the barley hay there was shock for loading.
The Vegetable Crew set out five hundred cabbage plants and a second planting of beets and carrots. They dusted the beans and did some inevitable hoeing. Also, alas, corn hoeing has come round again. Bennett’s Field was started, and there are indications that it isn’t a favorite sport.
Craven’s Lodge Eurotia had a black beef girl on the mountain. It needs a name.
Molly Gregory
Hauling: During the past two weeks the Hauling Crew faithfully attended to its usual task of removing trash from the Kitchen, the lodges, the Studies Building and the faculty cottages. Various driversmade trips to Grove’s in order to supply sand and stone for the concrete work being done under the Studies Building. The crew also worked long and hard, cleaning up the countless mounds of junk piled up on Clean-Up Day. With the help of several perspiring volunteers the haulers all but finished transferring the last of the lump-coal from the storage place near the Service Quarters ruins to campus furnaces.
Bill McLaughlin
Hough Leader: The Hough Leader, suffering from the acute clutch trouble, labored up the mountain three times during the past couple of weeks to haul down building rocks for the terrace masonry workers. On its final climb the Hough sighed and gave up and is now resting on the slope, awaiting the installation of a new clutch.
Bill McLaughlin
Maintenance: Last week, only painting: Mrs. Stone’s suite was finished the kitchen doors were varnished, and the Studies Building stair tower was painted down to the middle of the landing with white cementice.
Ginger Osbourne
Tuesday Schedule
There will be a Faculty meeting in the Kocher Room at 2:00 o’clock to:
a). hear reports of the committees on the oral examinations of the candidates for admission into the Senior Division
b). decide upon what candidates should be admitted into the Senior Division.
There will be a Board of Fellows Meeting in Study 10 at 4:30 o’clock
BEFORE THE WEDNESDAY FACULTY MEETING:
Each teacher will hand in to Secretary Arlyn McKenna an evaluation of the work of each student in each of his Spring Quarter classes. (It is highly desirable that these evaluations be typewritten and in duplicate)
Arlyn will hand to each advisor the evaluation of the work of each of his advisees.
The advisor will make a summary of the Spring Quarter work of each of his advisees.
AGENDA FOR WEDNESDAY FACULTY MEETING:
Advisers’ Reports on the Spring Quarter academic work of the students. (Eric Bentley’s advisee reports will be given first)
Work report on each student
Summer Quarter Registration for Classes before end of Spring Quarter.
REPORT ON HIRED WORK DONE LAST WEEK ON CAMPUS:
Work on the addition to South Lodge, which is being constructed by a Asheville contractor, is progressing rapidly. The five-room building is completely framed on poured concrete foundations, and the roof is being laid this week.
The lobby in South Lodge has been floored over to give additional bed space on the attic level. Two additional dormers were out, one on each side of the chimney on the back, to give the new attic light ad ventilation.
After much delay, due to Hough Leader repairs, building stone has been brought down from the mountain, and work is underway on the stone wall around the terrace under the Studies Building. The plan is to have at least part of the terrace completed for use by the Art Institute this Summer.
The road from the entrance to the campus up to the front of the Studies Building was surfaced last week. The county road grader came in and made preparations for loads of a gravel-and-sand mix which was brought in and spread by the Grove Stone Company. When traffic-bound the road will be smooth and weather proof.
Chuck Forberg
