73. Williams Memorial Institute

(This will be the final blog post written by Sue about the very happy 5 years which she and her family spent living in the village of Mystic, in Connecticut, USA.)

When Pieter and I were planning our trip to Mystic, back in 2007, I’d had in my mind a list of the places which I hoped to revisit, as well as of the family friends with whom I’d hoped it might be possible to reconnect. High on my list of priorities was my wish to revisit the small, girls-only, high school where I had spent 4 ½ very happy years, after completing my primary school education there in Mystic.

Regarding the family friends with whom I had hoped to be able to reconnect, I was very happy to have been able to make contact with them prior to our trip, and also with Nancy, my closest friend throughout those years. We all got together and happily spent two days catching up, sharing a meal and reminiscing about those earlier times, 44 years before. I had been particularly keen to see the house where Nancy had lived, which had been like my second home, and I remembered that it was from there that we had ridden our bikes out of town, very early each Sunday morning, to go bird watching with our binoculars, in the woods beyond the village. I still exchange Christmas cards with Nancy every year.

With regard to my wish to visit my old school, I’d been unsure as to whether or not this could be achieved, for two reasons. Firstly, our visit happened to coincide with the American school holidays, so I didn’t hold out much hope that it would be possible to enter the building. Secondly, it was located some distance from Mystic, in the neighbouring “small city” of New London, and given the scarcity of public transport, we decided that our only option would be to hire a car. This sounds simple enough, however, that trip will be seared in our memories forever. Firstly, there was the fact that American cars are “left hand drive”, and secondly, we were directed onto a very busy freeway (which both of us remember as having 8 lanes, going one-way), where we entered on the far left and had to exit on the far right, with cars travelling at very high speeds. I shall be forever grateful to Pieter for being determined that we would do it, and for getting us safely there and back.

And, I shall be forever grateful that we found that the school was, in fact, open, and that we were very warmly welcomed by the skeleton staff who were there, once I had explained my connection to the school. We were invited to take our time, exploring the building on our own, and it was exactly as I had remembered it. As high schools go, it was in fact quite small, being a modern, one-story building. which included an auditorium with a stage and fireplace, a small number of classrooms, and well-equipped labs, a library, art room, cafeteria and full-kitchen, small infirmary and large indoor gym.

I was able to recall so much while we were there and I was very grateful to have had the opportunity to bring back so many memories. Also, as a further reminder, when we left, I was given a set of 2 WMI mugs, which I have treasured. Unfortunately, over time, one broke, however, I still have the other one and still use it every day for my cups of tea.

Before I write about my own experience at WMI or “Williams Memorial Institute”, as it was called then, I think it would be helpful and interesting to give some background history of its origin and development. I knew nothing about this at the time I was a student there, and it’s only as I have been researching its origins for the purpose of this blog, that I have learned how it evolved.

Williams Memorial Institute (or The Williams School, as it is known today) was a private, secondary school for girls in New London, Connecticut, at the time when I was a pupil there, from 1959 to 1963. It had originally been founded by a Mrs Harriet Peck Williams in 1891, as a memorial to her son, a whaling merchant, who died in 1855. From 1891 onwards, it served the public school system of New London (and other surrounding towns, e.g. Mystic) for 60 years, until the City of New London opened its own public high school in 1951. WMI’s Board of Trustees, believing that WMI could still be of educational use to the community, though no longer used by its public system, decided to continue the school in New London, and in order to maintain and develop its usefulness, in 1954 the Board invited Connecticut College (at the time a college for girls which was also based in New London) to assume the management of the school. To enable this, the Board acquired a piece of property on the Connecticut College campus, and erected a new, modern building there, to which the school moved in 1955. This was the building where I had attended WMI from 1959 – 1963.

Throughout this long period of the development of WMI, one thing had remained constant. The Board of Trustees had always considered it “necessary and proper” to “secure the continuance of operation of the school in harmony with the will and codicil of Harriet Peck Williams (except for location)”, including the express provision in her will where she says, “It is my will and desire that in the general instruction and management of the school all due respect and reverence shall be paid to the truths and doctrines of our Holy Religion.” In accordance with her wishes, the school day always began with a short religious service and after classes had concluded for the day, activities and club meetings were scheduled for the afternoon.

And this leads me to my own experience at this school, for which I was, and still am, so very grateful. In fact, it’s only as I have focussed on writing this blog and looking back at all the material which I still have from those school years, that I’ve realised how significant they were for me and what a positive contribution they made to my overall development. Given my somewhat disrupted early years of education, I was very fortunate to have been given a scholarship to WMI. I think it may have been organised through the Church where my father was the Minister and may have been prompted by American generosity towards visitors to their country, something which we experienced on a number of occasions.

Finally, why do I write so positively about my years at WMI and what factors contributed to it offering such a unique experience?

First of all, its small size. It covered the high school years from 7 – 12, and over the 6 years that I was at, or in contact with, the school, the total number of pupils ranged from 86 to 105 (with most years being below 100), and with class sizes ranging from 10 – 23 (with only 1 class per year). There was a real sense of the school population being a small community, and also, there was a real sense of cohesion in the school. This, I think, could in large part be attributed to its relatively small size, and also to the close interaction of students across the years, through the extra-curricular activities (choir, dramatic society, athletic association etc).

While the main emphasis was, of course, on academic development, there was a lot of emphasis on these extra areas as well, with the aim being to produce well-rounded students and to develop the highest potentialities of each one. As I stated earlier, it’s only now that I really realise how much this opportunity contributed to my overall development and how much I gained in self-confidence.

With regard to the extra-curricular activities, I did “try out” for the choir, which made a considerable contribution to Parents’ Days, Class Graduations, Christmas Pageants and other special events. However, not to my surprise, I was told that I was “totally tone-deaf”, and therefore, that my contribution was not required. Thankfully, my heart lay elsewhere, with the Dramatic Society, and there, thankfully, I did show some talent. To my surprise, I actually flourished, sometimes being given the lead role in plays. This experience awakened my love of the theatre, and I followed it up some years later by joining an amateur Dramatic Society back here in Australia. Overall, those years at WMI were the happiest in my young life and this opportunity had equipped me so well for coming back to Australia, where I had spent so little of my life thus far.

There is just one last explanation that I would like to add. I would never have been able to include some of the detail that I have in this blog post if I hadn’t had my “Legendas”, my American-style yearbooks, which I have kept all these years and which I still treasure. They’ve helped me to recall so much and have reminded me how very happy those years were and of what close friendships I made. Apart from individual photos of each student/class, they provide a collage of photos which give a very good overall impression of school life and of the range of its activities. Also, once they are issued, students often write messages in each other’s books, helping them to keep their memories of those years alive. They’ve certainly reminded me of the close friendships which I made and, finally, of how much I had valued this experience.

Sue

P.S. On Sunday morning, 8 June, Pieter will be back with a post about the design achievements of his Dutch son, Mark van der Kwaak, who is known among motorcycle enthusiasts around the world as “Duckman”.