The Help, the 60s, & RPI
I've just finished reading The Help, the best-selling and lavishly praised debut novel by Kathryn Stockett. After my friend Sally Roseveare couldn't put the book down, I figured I'd better read it. I'm glad I did. The Help, set in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, is absolutely wonderful.
After I read The Help, I couldn't help thinking about my own experiences in the 60s. Unlike the white women in The Help, my family didn't have a maid. My first experience with black maids was at Richmond Professional Institute (now VCU). I lived in Founders Hall, a Victorian-era mansion turned dormitory, on the corner of Franklin and Shafer—the edge of Richmond's Fan District.
From my sophomore through senior year, I lived in the part of the dorm called second front. Our maid on second front was Adeline Brooks, a big woman who looked after her girls. She was good not to tell on us to the housemother if we had anything in our rooms we weren't supposed to have. When I read The Help, I pictured Aibileen looking exactly like Adeline.
During my junior year (1965-66), my roommate Polly had a hard time getting up for her morning class. I didn't want her to flunk out and—on my way out to my own morning class—asked Adeline, who was sweeping the hallway, to make sure Polly got up. Adeline took her job seriously. She'd poke Polly with the end of her broom, entreating, "Miz Polly, Miz Polly, Miz Becky say you got to get up." Polly wasn't too thrilled, but at least she didn't flunk the class.
In my senior year, Adeline was transferred to a boys' dorm. We missed her and I reckon she missed us. If she happened to see one of her girls on the sidewalk, she'd run to us and give us a big hug.
As Bob Dylan sang a couple of years earlier, "The Times, They Are A-Changin'." And they changed in Richmond, too, but we were too sheltered to notice much. We knew there was a war in Viet Nam, but only those girls with boyfriends in the army kept up with it. We knew there was a civil rights movement, but we didn't keep up with it, either. Most of us didn't get a newspaper, and—except for the Kennedy assassination coverage—we rarely watched the television in one of the dorm's three parlors. Our radios stayed tuned to music stations—usually WLEE. There was only one phone on second front, and the fourteen girls on second front had to share it with the girls on second center.
The dorms—and the RPI undergraduate programs—were segregated until my last two years. Then they integrated without a hitch. RPI was pretty liberal as Virginia colleges went.
However, when a black girl, Beatrice Wynn, was voted Harvest Ball Queen, it made headlines. As I remember, the Richmond paper sensationalized it a bit, but many students barely noticed.
After all these years, I can still see what second front looked like. My room was painted green, and had one dresser, two small wooden desks with chairs, a small sink, a closet, one window that overlooked the entrance to the basement cafeteria, and two twin beds with no headboards. I had the bed closest to the door. We shared a bathroom with the room next door. The old-fashioned tub was small. There was no air conditioning, and the radiator pipes rattled loudly when the heat cut on. Once we had a mild earthquake, but everyone thought it was just the the radiators.
Here are a couple of Founders Hall pages from the RPI yearbooks from 65-66 and 66-67:
I'm actually in one of these pictures—I'm the one in the foreground with a towel. Here's a close-up (Notice the caption!):
The road to beauty was indeed rough. We put on makeup before we went out. We wore stockings (This was before panty hose!). We rolled our hair up every night and slept with the uncomfortable rollers in our hair. Notice how many have rolled-up hair in this late-night Christmas party in December 1965:
And here's a shot in someone's room. The people below are (from right top down) Mary White, Gus Thompson, Mary Hu Bridges, Marena Grant, and Polly White. Paulette McCall is on the left.
Now I'm in my mid-60s. Hard to believe my college days were 45 years ago. Times have indeed changed.
And books like The Help remind us just how much.
After I read The Help, I couldn't help thinking about my own experiences in the 60s. Unlike the white women in The Help, my family didn't have a maid. My first experience with black maids was at Richmond Professional Institute (now VCU). I lived in Founders Hall, a Victorian-era mansion turned dormitory, on the corner of Franklin and Shafer—the edge of Richmond's Fan District.
During my junior year (1965-66), my roommate Polly had a hard time getting up for her morning class. I didn't want her to flunk out and—on my way out to my own morning class—asked Adeline, who was sweeping the hallway, to make sure Polly got up. Adeline took her job seriously. She'd poke Polly with the end of her broom, entreating, "Miz Polly, Miz Polly, Miz Becky say you got to get up." Polly wasn't too thrilled, but at least she didn't flunk the class.
In my senior year, Adeline was transferred to a boys' dorm. We missed her and I reckon she missed us. If she happened to see one of her girls on the sidewalk, she'd run to us and give us a big hug.
As Bob Dylan sang a couple of years earlier, "The Times, They Are A-Changin'." And they changed in Richmond, too, but we were too sheltered to notice much. We knew there was a war in Viet Nam, but only those girls with boyfriends in the army kept up with it. We knew there was a civil rights movement, but we didn't keep up with it, either. Most of us didn't get a newspaper, and—except for the Kennedy assassination coverage—we rarely watched the television in one of the dorm's three parlors. Our radios stayed tuned to music stations—usually WLEE. There was only one phone on second front, and the fourteen girls on second front had to share it with the girls on second center.
The dorms—and the RPI undergraduate programs—were segregated until my last two years. Then they integrated without a hitch. RPI was pretty liberal as Virginia colleges went.
However, when a black girl, Beatrice Wynn, was voted Harvest Ball Queen, it made headlines. As I remember, the Richmond paper sensationalized it a bit, but many students barely noticed.
After all these years, I can still see what second front looked like. My room was painted green, and had one dresser, two small wooden desks with chairs, a small sink, a closet, one window that overlooked the entrance to the basement cafeteria, and two twin beds with no headboards. I had the bed closest to the door. We shared a bathroom with the room next door. The old-fashioned tub was small. There was no air conditioning, and the radiator pipes rattled loudly when the heat cut on. Once we had a mild earthquake, but everyone thought it was just the the radiators.
Here are a couple of Founders Hall pages from the RPI yearbooks from 65-66 and 66-67:
Notice that the housemother, Mrs. Manning (top left, above) was smoking. A lot of the girls smoked too. But notice how prim the girls in the bottom picture were sitting, but how casual they were in their rooms. We always wore dresses or skirts to class or on campus. Any art students who had painting studio had to cover their jeans with trenchcoats.
I'm actually in one of these pictures—I'm the one in the foreground with a towel. Here's a close-up (Notice the caption!):
The road to beauty was indeed rough. We put on makeup before we went out. We wore stockings (This was before panty hose!). We rolled our hair up every night and slept with the uncomfortable rollers in our hair. Notice how many have rolled-up hair in this late-night Christmas party in December 1965:
And here's a shot in someone's room. The people below are (from right top down) Mary White, Gus Thompson, Mary Hu Bridges, Marena Grant, and Polly White. Paulette McCall is on the left.
Now I'm in my mid-60s. Hard to believe my college days were 45 years ago. Times have indeed changed.
And books like The Help remind us just how much.
~
The RPI yearbooks from 1930 until 1960s can be read online at The Internet Archive.
The RPI yearbooks from 1930 until 1960s can be read online at The Internet Archive.
posted by Becky Mushko | 1:37 PM
3 Comments:
I thought The Help was a great book; my book club had very interesting dicussion over it. I am glad it led you to these interesting memories!
I think I still have roller dents in my head from all the nights I slept with those silly things in, until of course the early seventies when long straight hair became the rage.
Great photos!
Di
Great post! I lived in 909 and graduated in 1966. We probably crossed paths! I was a Fine Arts major. I found you while writing a blog post about dorm a decoration contest we organized in the winter of 1965. I was looking for a photo of Founder's Hall. My new blog is SandyBeachGirl.com I remember Paulette McCall! The maid's. Weren't they the best!!
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