The star lights up on South Mountain
A snowy holiday goodbye
In December 1975 I was living off-campus in a third-story apartment over a jewelry store on West Fourth Street. To finish the final project of my sophomore fall semester, a take-home essay exam in Shakespeare's Histories and Comedies for Prof. Barbara Traister, I began the evening rereading the required plays and writing scratch copies of the essays in the all-night study room in Mart Library. When the scratch copies were done, I walked home in the bitter night air to begin typing. I did this until around 8 a.m. when I took a break and met a friend for herbal tea and light breakfast in her apartment a little farther off-campus. Exhausted as I was, that tea never tasted so good, and the end-of-semester chitchat perked me up for the additional typing to come. It began to snow lightly during the afternoon, and I was just finishing up as the dusk settled over the city when my brother Bob arrived from New Jersey to take me home for winter break. After a quick drive up to Maginnes Hall to drop off my completed essays and a look out the back window at the Star of Bethlehem, Pa., we were headed through the flurries and the dark home to Clifton, N.J. A few hours later, I was snug in my attic bed, where I slept off my all-nighter for 10 hours and awoke to a whitened landscape, Christmas songs on the radio and a month of welcomed rest.
--Dennis M. Sprick ‘78
A window to the Christmas City
It always seemed to me as though I had the last final time slot that the organizers could design. I felt that someone checked my class list out before setting the dates....let's see - what class gets the 'final' final exam this year so Steve doesn't get home until the day before Christmas? Actually, my favorite was when I was living as a member of Kappa Alpha. The house looks over Bethlehem with a grand picture window view. I still can see the town fully decorated for Christmas and getting into the holiday spirit. Each week the Advent candles over the bridge coming into town would change and you knew that it was soon time for the Christmas holiday. It was a beautiful view - one that I remember clearly today!
-- Steven D. Sturgis ‘76
In December 1975 I was living off-campus in a third-story apartment over a jewelry store on West Fourth Street. To finish the final project of my sophomore fall semester, a take-home essay exam in Shakespeare's Histories and Comedies for Prof. Barbara Traister, I began the evening rereading the required plays and writing scratch copies of the essays in the all-night study room in Mart Library. When the scratch copies were done, I walked home in the bitter night air to begin typing. I did this until around 8 a.m. when I took a break and met a friend for herbal tea and light breakfast in her apartment a little farther off-campus. Exhausted as I was, that tea never tasted so good, and the end-of-semester chitchat perked me up for the additional typing to come. It began to snow lightly during the afternoon, and I was just finishing up as the dusk settled over the city when my brother Bob arrived from New Jersey to take me home for winter break. After a quick drive up to Maginnes Hall to drop off my completed essays and a look out the back window at the Star of Bethlehem, Pa., we were headed through the flurries and the dark home to Clifton, N.J. A few hours later, I was snug in my attic bed, where I slept off my all-nighter for 10 hours and awoke to a whitened landscape, Christmas songs on the radio and a month of welcomed rest.
--Dennis M. Sprick ‘78
A window to the Christmas City
It always seemed to me as though I had the last final time slot that the organizers could design. I felt that someone checked my class list out before setting the dates....let's see - what class gets the 'final' final exam this year so Steve doesn't get home until the day before Christmas? Actually, my favorite was when I was living as a member of Kappa Alpha. The house looks over Bethlehem with a grand picture window view. I still can see the town fully decorated for Christmas and getting into the holiday spirit. Each week the Advent candles over the bridge coming into town would change and you knew that it was soon time for the Christmas holiday. It was a beautiful view - one that I remember clearly today!
-- Steven D. Sturgis ‘76
Posted on:
Sunday, December 05, 2004
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