The photo above is from Rice University, 1965. Those of you who feel cut off from family and friends this year, take heart and remember the immortal lyrics “I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.”
So curl up with an edifying book and tune in to Ivy Style, as we’ll have special messages for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Ah, yes, the good old days. In fact, 1965 places this photo right in the middle of a legal fight between Rice University and alumni (Coffee v. William Marsh Rice University) over whether to allow blacks to attend — something the school’s original charter expressly forbid. It would not be until 1970 when Rice would graduate its first black student: Linda Faye Williams. Yes, it sure was grand back in the good old days when you could tell people to “just deal with it” if they didn’t agree with you.
I was heavily involved in campus activities and Student Government during my college years. Regrettably, I was fitted with the “Non-Traditional Student” moniker, but nothing could have been further from the truth. I was, and remain, very traditional in my observations and outlook. As a member of of the SGA, I was put in charge of organizing the annual campus holiday party. We were a very international campus and a very liberal arts institution. Therefore, we could not have a Christmas Party, but instead were allowed a Non-Denominational Holiday Party. Decorations depicting anything religious or traditionally American (via German and Scandinavian lore) were unacceptable. Penguins with Christmas hats and candy canes were off limits. I chose to adorn our Student Center with silver snowflakes and shiny blue and white anythings. The effect was convincing, but the sentiment was not. International students came to the US for the American experience but were instead treated to a politically correct, milquetoast representation of winter. Ultimately, I chose to forgo attending the party and opted for enjoying the glow of my Christmas tree at home; playing old Christmas records and watching the Christmas movies I’ve traditionally watched since I was a young boy. So much for my “Non-Traditional Student” status. I graduated in 1999, but that first year set an uncomfortable tone for what was to be my introduction to the modern American college campus, to which I must politely say “No thank you.” Tradition, be it overly romanticized, fondly remembered or reservedly observed is what ties us together as a people and as a culture. The shared values and experience is what makes us unique. Without it we are thin and hollow representations of what could be…much like the Non-Denominational Holiday Party of my college years. Merry Christmas and May God Bless Us, Everyone!
When the witch-burning regicidal maniac Roundheads tried to ban Christmas, the people quickly came to their senses, threw out the Roundheads, restored the King, and restored Christmas.
In the end Christmas and the Cavaliers won, and the Queen is on television every year on Christmas Day explaining this.
It seems like some of the remaining Roundheads in New England (a name that they stole from California, which Drake had already named “Nova Albion”) still haven’t got the message.
Ah, yes, the good old days. In fact, 1965 places this photo right in the middle of a legal fight between Rice University and alumni (Coffee v. William Marsh Rice University) over whether to allow blacks to attend — something the school’s original charter expressly forbid. It would not be until 1970 when Rice would graduate its first black student: Linda Faye Williams. Yes, it sure was grand back in the good old days when you could tell people to “just deal with it” if they didn’t agree with you.
I was heavily involved in campus activities and Student Government during my college years. Regrettably, I was fitted with the “Non-Traditional Student” moniker, but nothing could have been further from the truth. I was, and remain, very traditional in my observations and outlook. As a member of of the SGA, I was put in charge of organizing the annual campus holiday party. We were a very international campus and a very liberal arts institution. Therefore, we could not have a Christmas Party, but instead were allowed a Non-Denominational Holiday Party. Decorations depicting anything religious or traditionally American (via German and Scandinavian lore) were unacceptable. Penguins with Christmas hats and candy canes were off limits. I chose to adorn our Student Center with silver snowflakes and shiny blue and white anythings. The effect was convincing, but the sentiment was not. International students came to the US for the American experience but were instead treated to a politically correct, milquetoast representation of winter. Ultimately, I chose to forgo attending the party and opted for enjoying the glow of my Christmas tree at home; playing old Christmas records and watching the Christmas movies I’ve traditionally watched since I was a young boy. So much for my “Non-Traditional Student” status. I graduated in 1999, but that first year set an uncomfortable tone for what was to be my introduction to the modern American college campus, to which I must politely say “No thank you.” Tradition, be it overly romanticized, fondly remembered or reservedly observed is what ties us together as a people and as a culture. The shared values and experience is what makes us unique. Without it we are thin and hollow representations of what could be…much like the Non-Denominational Holiday Party of my college years. Merry Christmas and May God Bless Us, Everyone!
When the witch-burning regicidal maniac Roundheads tried to ban Christmas, the people quickly came to their senses, threw out the Roundheads, restored the King, and restored Christmas.
In the end Christmas and the Cavaliers won, and the Queen is on television every year on Christmas Day explaining this.
It seems like some of the remaining Roundheads in New England (a name that they stole from California, which Drake had already named “Nova Albion”) still haven’t got the message.
http://www.historyextra.com/feature/no-christmas-under-cromwell-puritan-assault-christmas-during-1640s-and-1650s
Merry Christmas, CC. Many thanks for the gifts of education and entertainment you and your colleagues have provided the past year.
Houston, TX, a wonderful place to be…from November to May, that is, at least for me.