WE ARE THE HANES HOUSE GIRLS YOU HAVE HEARD ABOUT

During that first semester it was hard to believe you were in NURSING.  We were deep in freshman year courses.  There was more to learn, however.  We were told that we needed to know how to play bridge, play tennis, play golf, go to a tea, to ride a horse, to swim, and to understand fraternity life. It is true that we were expected to know these things to "catch a great guy"and be properly educated. I was good to go when it came to riding a horse and swimming. Grandmother had taught me years before DUKE the way to eat properly and TEA was a skill learned early. I grew up on a GOLF COURSE. But tennis, bridge and fraternity life was to be learned.

BRIDGE  was learned from other classmates.  PHYLLIS BEDELL was my mentor in this game.  As the years went on more and more bridge was played.  As we neared our final year, there seemed to be a game going constantly. As one person had to go to class,  the next one took their chair. KATY KELLER, ELEANOR EMERY, BUTTONS DEICHMAN, MARCELLA JOHNSTON and JINNY JESSUP are just a few that I remember spending time smoking (yes smoking) and playing. 

 I shall never forget the first time I played with Phyllis and her date, BILL CROCKETT, (later married and have been til this day. We would play in the little rooms off the main lobby.  There was a hand dealt and Bill was my partner.  I bid once and he jumped to 7 No Trump.. I was uncertain anyhow, but that scared  me to death. Many years later when I was in Arabia I played every week with 7 BRITS.  A very similar situation arose.  A one club bid can take you to 7 almost instantly in their convention.  My mind when back to that night with PHYLLIS AND BILL and the absolute panic.  I have to admit I have done it to others since and I should be ashamed, THEY WERE RIGHT, with this skill I have met many wonderful people.  I still love bridge. Do people ever learn this in college any more?

I never quite got tennis.  I was good at it, but it just never could be as interesting as swimming.  I actually enjoyed walking to Physical Education from Hanes House to have COACH PARSONS drill us until we could hardly make it back to the dorm.  http://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/findingaids/uawjper/ 

FRATERNITY LIFE required more learning for me.  My family did not have a college education, with the exception of my father.  However, he was a basketball player and all his efforts went in this direction. So no one to help me get a head start in learning. I really didnt know what I needed to know.  I fortunately did not have to go through the agony that I saw some of my non nursing classmates suffer.  Rush started and the expectation was that the student get rushed for the sorority or fraternity of their parents.  I do think that it was somewhat automatic for some to get into the "right" one - given the right money.For me, it was a matter of learning about dating in the right fraternity, going to dances and parties, and the practices.  It was every girls dream to get PINNED to the man of their dreams.  This was followed with a serenade under your window at the dorm with the guys all in tux, a huge bouquet of red roses, and a party in the dorm social area following for all the fraternity men.  And there better be a good bunch of girls to entertain them. The first party at the fraternity house after being pinned, put you in a whole different category.  Pinning meant that an engagement ring would follow in your senior year with a wedding in June.  It mean no dating anyone else, but it in no way meant sex.  As a matter of fact if you had suggested that it would have been a true insult.  However, I am sure that close to 100 percent of couples have secrets that were never told.

The pins were worn most beautifully on a cashmere sweater and on a prominent breast part over the heart. In the fifties you wore a bra with straps so tight that they dug trenches in your shoulders.  You wanted the "girls" to stand up straight.  If you were well endowed, it was significantly more painful.

.

This was the normal sequence of events.  Can you imagine the security of that sequence, but it meant that most were married around 21 or 22 and the first baby a year or two later.  I cannot imagine it today. 

It seemed to me that very shortly the NURSING students knew that they were different. Of course, we were not allowed to pledge a sorority for the reasons I mentioned earlier,but there were other issues.After about a year it was clear that we were about serious business.  It became an unspoken thing.  Even the girls that were heavily involved in fraternities would not be able to attend many of the activities.  We were not always able to go to ball games because they were on weekends and we sometimes had to work. This became more often as time went by.  There was some break-ups because of our availability. It was clear that our primary objective was to be a NURSE, not be a wife.

We did have our own song.....

WE ARE THE HANES HOUSE GIRLS YOU HAVE HEARD ABOUT

THE GIRLS THE BOYS CANNOT DO WITHOUT.

AND WHEN YOU SEE US WALKING DOWN THE STREET

YOU WILL STOP AND SIGH

OH ISN'T SHE SWEET....

TO DATE US IS YOUR GREATEST JOY.....  and i forgot the rest.....

We were frivolous in our own way.

A CHARGE TO KEEP, A SONG TO SING, A LIFE TO LIVE

The first semester at Duke was certainly different for each of us.  It was especially DIFFERENT for me.  College life was fascinating.
In those days, we lived in a dormitory without air conditioning, the hospital was not air conditioned either. We had a housemother that monitored our every move.  Our dates would have to come into the dorm, check in at the front desk and the switchboard operator would call us down to the lobby to meet our "gentleman caller." We signed in and out and could not stay out past 8 on weekdays and 10 on Friday and Saturday. Someone checked our cards at the appointed hour, came to our room if we had not signed in, and for lateness we were reported to the JUDICIAL BOARD.  JD was an elected court of your peers that levied judgment and punishments for our infractions.

Dating was such a new experience.  Fraternities parties were to be desired and for me very intriguing. My first one (I cannot remember which fraternity it was,) was with a blind date.  I certainly do not remember his name but I remember the night as if it were yesterday.  It was held at a cabin on the highway going toward Chapel Hill, 15-501.  You cut off the main road, rode for just a little while then turned into the woods and there stood a cabin.  The music was blaring, not by today's standards but certainly by that of the early fifties.  The music of Elvis had not really taken hold. He had not yet recorded for Sun Records, that began a year later.   These top ten songs could be heard.  Loud meant that the volume was up, not the percussion.

Position	Song	Artist
1	"The Song from Moulin Rouge"	Percy Faith
2	"Vaya con Dios"	Les Paul & Mary Ford
3	"(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?"	Patti Page
4	"I'm Walking Behind You"	Eddie Fisher
5	"You, You, You"	Ames Brothers
6	"Till I Waltz Again with You"	Teresa Brewer
7	"April in Portugal"	Les Baxter
8	"No Other Love"	Perry Como
9	"Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes"	Perry Como
10	"I Believe"	Frankie Laine

Probably the sexiest song that year was No Other Love. Perry Como lasted for decades. Soon after the party started, I was offered a cup of what was being called PURPLE JESUS.  Someone, thank goodness, whispered to me not to drink anything unless it was in a bottle and opened in front of me.  I had a coke. Later I found out that P J'S were grape juice and grain alcohol.  They would not have gotten me home for it would have been my first drink.  The boy I was with was a junior.  He was hell bent on "making out."  I didn't date him ever again after he had told me I was the worse date he had every had. He did call me, but I somehow knew better.  I found out later that he was one of the richest boys on campus, certainly he was not one of the best.

Duke Stadium in the Fifties

I fell in love with football.  I had attended a game my senior year in high school and now here I was on the very campus that those players went to class. Two of the girls that helped orient us were dating a real football stars.  WORTH LUTZ and LLOYD CAUDLE were very handsome and very nice.  We would walk  over to the stadium to watch practices.  These two relationships ended in marriage. It was so romantic to us to watch the two DUKE NURSES and their gladiators.  It was there that I met SONNY JURGENSON. I had seen him when I went to the very first away basketball game in high school.  He played for New Hanover in Wilmington.  You can imagine how excited I was to have a date with him. As with my date with the fraternity "man", it did not go well.  He was used to having girls drop in their tracks for him. I didn't. I am sure he would never remember that date, but I certainly do. I was very in awe, worried about my reputation, scared and generally a mess.  He became the starting quarterback and was very famous as a player for the Washington Redskins and later a national announcer.  For a girl who was not worldly, it was all a big puzzle.

The first semester does not sound very much like nursing.  It wasn't.  We had really not started learning anything to do with the ART AND SCIENCE OF NURSING.   I wish that I had a list of all my classes in the correct order, but I guess it doesn't matter much. I watched in awe as the upperclassmen came in from work on the wards in DUKE HOSPITAL.  I wanted so much to put on the student uniform starched and clean and take care of patients. We had already started attending student government meetings.  They all began with us singing A CHARGE TO KEEP.  It sounds so hookie now, but I can close my eyes and feel the sense of pride and responsibility. I was not pleased when these words were those chosen by Pres.Bush to title his book. It belonged to us.  I only remember the first chorus:

A charge to keep I have,
A God to glorify,
A never dying soul to save,
And fit it for the sky.

To serve the present age,
My calling to fulfill:
O may it all my powers engage
To do my Master's will!

Arm me with jealous care,
As in Thy sight to live;
And O Thy servant, Lord, prepare
A strict account to give!

Help me to watch and pray,
And on Thyself rely,
Assured if I my Lord betray,
I shall forever die.

We were actually a pretty special group.  THE CLASS OF 1957 WAS THE FIRST GENERIC BSN CLASS AT DUKE.  I along with about thirty others were the first to graduate from the program. We had others who joined us from other colleges in our sophomore year, but there are just a few that started and finished the program. We felt very special and we were. If there are any classmates out there that have the list of classes in the proper order, please let me know.  My research filled in the blanks about the cost of our program. The cost for one semester of the BSN degree program was $540: ($175 for tuition, a $75 general fee, $80 for room rent, $200 for board,and $10 for laundry.) All of our meals were taken in the Hospital. Without my scholarships, I could never have gone to Duke.

DUKE was truly a leader in NURSING at that time.  A few years after I graduated, THELMA INGALLS started the first graduate program in nursing in the country.  I was so lucky to have sat in her classroom and listened to her words of wisdom.

Walking, Walking, Walking-- West to East to Hanes House

This statue of Washington Duke on East Campus.
The legend is... If he stands up as you pass in front of
him, you are a virgin.

That first semester at Duke changed my life in so many ways.  I was away from the security of my home and family and in a new exciting world.  I walked a lot before Duke, but I really began to Walk. In this first year my classes were on East Campus, except for Sociology, and that was on West. From the Chapel on West to the statue of Washington Duke on East, is 1.8 miles.  Hanes house is about half a mile from the Chapel.

One of the landmarks that remaied the same at least
until a few years ago. This
Underpass was the first place you see after you leave
East going West. Always lots of graffiti. 

We had several choices.  There was a bus that passed in front of Hanes House.  It went off campus and took a ton if time.  Those of us with a limited allowance found the cost too much.  You could walk to West and get the shuttle. That was the method of choice for most of us.  The third option was to go to the quadrangle and get a ride with an upper class man with a car. Freshmen did not have cars.  This was iffy option but one we loved.  The last option was to walk.  If the bus was not there, if there were no rides to be hitched, you walked and you walked fast.  I have been on that drive many times recently and there is no one walking. There are people all dressed in correct apparel who are running or biking. It appears for exercise or pleasure.  We walked out of necessity!

The building that Art History was
taught in is the red building at the
very back of campus.

Art History was in the oldest building you can imagine.  The class was on the third floor,  By the time we got from Hanes House to the bus, walked the distance to the back of campus, and up those three flights of stairs we were exhausted. I love art, I learned a lot, but after the walk right after lunch and looking at two screens in a darkened too warm room was very dangerous to learning.

It was the fate of all Duke students to take Religion. One full year of it.  My professor was Dr. Mason Crum.  The first words he said when we entered class was that we would not discuss religious practices as individuals. We were there to learn about religion and theology. But, he said, I will say one thing about my belief.  This is my Fathers' world.  That is the last we heard of individual beliefs, but we learned about the Q, all the way to modern religions.  I was amazed at the A and so were many of my East campus class mates.  Somehow, the school of nursing students were not supposed to be as smart.  They had not caught on to the fact that we had to meet the same entry requirements.  Our baccalaureate program was of the same quality, we took the same classes, and we carried more hours.

Marilyn Monroe in the fifties.  She was the pin-up
that every guy had and the look we all wanted.

Sociology was taught by a professor that taught me resilience if nothing else.  The class was all male except for two nursing students, female of course, there were no males in the fifties.  The first words out of his mouth was, "Can you imagine Marilyn Monroe going to the bathroom?"  I am sure my face was redder than my lipstick.  But the lesson was a good one.  At the human level, we all have the same needs. Do not be fooled by the trappings.  Political correctness was not yet a concept.  I am sure he had shocked classes since he began teaching.  Later when I was teaching college courses, I had my set of shockers and remembered this class with fondness.

English was taught first as English Composition, the first semester, and as English Literature, the second. I loved both courses and excelled in them.  There was a student union type building behind the building and the most luxurious thing was to get coffee and lounge in one of the nooks with an assignment.  Writing was not a chore for me, thanks to LOUISE SMITH at GREENSBORO SENIOR HIGH.  She had quoted most of the great works, had us read even more, and insisted we write a five hundred word theme each and every week of our senior year.  I hated it then but really loved the skill it had given me when I got to Duke.

One of the classes that I forgot to mention earlier was PHYSICAL EDUCATION. This was another walk.  We donned shorts with a raincoat over our exercise clothes, and tromped all the way through the quadrangle to a building near Cameron Indoor Stadium. A good part of the walk was through the men's dormitory area.  They hung from the windows and yelled and whistled.  They would run down to talk to us on our way back after class. 

My raincoat was a yellow slicker.

This is what was under those
raincoats . That is what we were hiding.

Walking lasted us until the day we left Duke and years after.  Our first initiation in Walking 101 was just the beginning.  We walked to classes, we walked to the hospital at six in the morning, we walked from the hospital to the dorm at midnight and we were on our feet all the time we were in clinical. There was no sitting for us.  We even had to stand when we were not doing anything.  

Until next time.....

Off To Duke

HANES HOUSE, DUKE SCHOOL OF NURSING RESIDENCE 1950's
My first room ...top floor four windows from the right.

Disclaimer:  Before I pen another word on this blog, I just want to say...These are my memories, my opinions, my thoughts and may not resemble facts as they were or are. I do hope you will add a note if you take exception to my facts or want to add to them, it will be appreciated. (By the way, you will find that I may repeat my stories, jump back and forth. These stories are being written as I remember them. I am having a really good time writing and am not doing as good a job of editing myself as I should. I beg your indulgence.)

Duke Hospital in the 50's when I arrived.  This entrance is from West Campus. It is a walk that I took many times to and from class.  My dormitory, Hanes House is at top center, just off the map.  The front of the hospital is not seen.  I will be using this picture later to point out wings of the hospital.

The journey through Duke and being a nurse really began the summer of 1953.  Graduation from high school had been wonderful. The days of summer were filled with work at WESLEY LONG HOSPITAL and all kinds of advisement from the nurses there.  I recounted my visit in the summer to compete for a scholarship in an earlier blog. 

We arrived one by one. Our families, for the most part, drove us loaded with all the necessities. We came from New Jersey, Delaware, Illinois, Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan, Virginia, West Virginia, and of course North Carolina.  The picture below is the class of 1957.  On the Duke site, it says that most of the class came from other colleges.  This is not my memory. Some who graduated in 1957 came during our sophomore year after they had a year or two of college. Buttons Deikman, Mary Ann Edens,and  Katy Keller ,were transfers in.  As I write, I will refer to the members of my class by their maiden names at least to begin with.

Most of us were right out of high school and so eager to begin our life at Duke. My roommate was PAT SINETTE from West, by God, Virginia. She and I got along from the very start. She was so full of life and had her foot on the gas for full speed ahead from the beginning.  She had a saying,  "I am like Jesus, I love them all!  I was so unworldly that it was years later that I knew what she meant.  She taught me what creaming jeans meant, that everyone french-kissed, drinking beer was the done thing (especially from a straw) and that collecting artifacts from campus was OK.  We had a flagpole top from some place on campus that was hid under the head of her bed.  I adored her, was scared to do any of the thing that she did, but enjoyed her many stories and listening to her tell them.

Our room was just big enough for two single beds, one desk, two chairs and one floor lamp.  When you entered the room we each had a closet on the sides of the entry.  The bathroom was at the end of the hall.  You quickly learned to vie for shower stalls in time to get to class on time.  It was very new and sterile until we put our touches on the beds and the walls.  The most exciting item was our bulletin board.  Everything went there.  All kinds of tickets, bulletins and on and on.  I wish I had saved those items. 

We were on the third floor at the front of the building.  There was one elevator but we were discouraged in using that convenience, unless we were carrying our laundry down to the facilities on the first floor.  Freshmen were assigned to the higher floors and never to suites or private rooms. My roommate Pat, was so excited that we faced the graduate center that housed men. It that was across the street directly in front of our dorm.  It was not long before we had acquired a pair of binoculars to watch the boys. They gave us a show when they knew we were watching.  They pranced and exercised in the buff.  They were future DUKE doctors, preachers, and engineers.  Pat left Duke after Christmas break.  She was the first nurse in history that made all "f's"in her first semester.

As orientation started, we found that although we carried the same class load PLUS, there were differences between us and the East Campus women. For me it was Religion,(all freshmen at Duke too this course, it was required.) English, Sociology, Art History, plus NURSING HISTORY.  This course was taught by THELMA INGALLS

Thelma Ingalls taught us our first course
History of Nursing "The first nurse was the
first mother."

 who is nationally known.   

The nurses dormitory was Hanes House and was located on West Campus.  In those days, there was a campus for women and one for men. West Campus was for men, but the nurses needed to be near the hospital and medical facilities.  So there we were.  For most of us, the first inkling of difference came during orientation.  On East Campus the women wore a bow on the back of their head to indicate their freshman status.  Not so for us.  We were not included in that ritual or the ritual of being pledged into a sorority.  We were not allowed. Were told that, although we could participate in extra curricular activities, we would not have the time nor would we be allowed to live in a sorority setting.  It was depressing to some of my class whose mothers wanted them to follow in their steps. If we could not be included, we would have our own ritual. This philosophy lasted throughout our four years.  OUR BOW was made of gauze and adhesive tape.  We wore it proudly to classes on EAST CAMPUS. I still have mine sixty years later. I think the east girls were quite jealous of our position on West Campus.  

,,,,,,more to come!!