The Winding Road: Class of 1974 Newsletter

Greetings fellow Classmates and welcome to the second issue of our 50th Reunion Newsletter!  

Hopefully your summer is off to a good start.  While the event is still about a year away, the Reunion Committees have been busy on multiple fronts, gathering feedback on potential program topics, developing ideas for our Class Gift, rediscovering our youthful and earnest selves in the depths of the Carleton archives, and continuing to enjoy connecting with classmates from around the country.  You’ll see a few results of these efforts in this Newsletter, with more to come in future issues along with other activities in coming months.  As our outreach has progressed, we’ve been reminded of what an interesting and varied group of people make up the Class of ’74.   We came to Carleton from many different backgrounds, and we have continued to develop a wide range of interests, viewpoints, and life experiences as we’ve traveled the long and winding road since then.  We encourage all of you to come together in Northfield next June to share those varied perspectives and experiences and just enjoy each other’s company!  Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy the Newsletter.  Please share your thoughts and ideas for future issues, and for the reunion itself, at 50threunion@carleton.edu.  

Outreach Committee Chairs:  Kris Brown, Chris Helm, Mary Sanders Jones

Reunion Event Details:

When: June 13-16, 2024
Where:  Carleton College Campus in Northfield, Minnesota
Accommodations: Class of ’74 Participants will be housed in Watson Hall (with elevators!)
Cost to Attend:  50th Reunion alumni (and their spouses/partners) pay a fee of only $50 per adult for the full weekend (including all meals, events, and housing). 
How to Register:  Registration will open on the Class of ’74 website in March, 2024
Tell Your Classmates You’re Coming:  Click here to let others know you’re planning to attend.

Important links to Class of ’74 Reunion Information
Our various 50th Reunion newsletters and e-mail messages have included links to many important reunion-related pages and sites.  For your convenience, we have gathered many of them here for quick reference. Feel free to bookmark this page for easy access in the months ahead.

The Program Committee has been busily working to come up with a set of interesting and stimulating activities for our reunion. We have a variety of activities in the works, from panels to poetry and from tours to talks. Right now, we are asking for your input on several activities.

Congratulations to the Class of ’73 on their 50th Reunion, which was just celebrated a few weeks ago.  A total of 108 classmates, about 33% of the class, gathered on campus for an enjoyable four days of laughter, fellowship and thoughtful conversation.  Just a few fun reunion facts:  attendees came from 27 different states and countries; approximately 61% of the class contributed to a total gift of $28.2 million; there were 131 songs on their Reunion Class Playlist.  Insiders report a very successful event!

In our interview, classmate Maggie O’Connor reflects on the twists and turns in her life that brought both personal and professional gifts.  Arriving at Carleton from a year with her family in India, Maggie felt out of step with the cultural sea changes underway in the United States of 1970. By graduation she had adopted interests and experiences that re-shaped her identity. Entering a career in medicine in Minneapolis, her awareness of feminism, patriarchy and her own sexuality blossomed, this time ahead of the cultural tide.

No matter one’s major or the dorm in which one lived, there was one thing at Carleton that regularly united us: the weekend movies in Olin Auditorium.  The serious films in the student-faculty film series, usually shown on Wednesday nights, presented movies as an art form.  The Co-Op’s weekend series was supposed to be for entertainment, either on the screen or through debates with Mansco Perry over his selection of movies when he ran the program in 1972.  In particular, two movies have stuck in my memory: “Casablanca,” because it was so good, and “Red Line 7000,” because it seemed so inane.

We told you about the Class of ’74 Flickr photo site titled “Carleton Memories” in our first Newsletter, but since then we have added over 200 new images to the galleries after scouring the Carleton Archives, so we thought it was a good time to invite you, again, to explore this resource. There are now over 700 images in the “Carleton Memories” photo stream, but to make browsing easier, we have created several separate albums to organize photos into topics such as sports, music, theater, student life, and graduation. We have also created a “Farewells” album to honor deceased classmates, a “Do You Remember” album with some whimsical memories of our Carleton years, and “Colorized Algol” and “Colorized Zoobook” albums to take you down memory lane.

Our classmates continue to be busy with new plans and projects.  Here are a few more bucket list items that may interest or inspire you.  Send us a note at 50threunion@carleton.edu and let us know what’s on your own list for the winding road ahead!

Carleton Homecoming Football game on Saturday, October 7th at 1 pm.  The plan is to meet before the game for tailgating, enjoy the game and hang around afterwards as well.  St. Olaf has also designated that weekend as their Homecoming even though the game is at Carleton, so it should be a big crowd!

This game will also mark the 50th anniversary of Carleton beating St. Olaf in football our Senior Year. It was our only victory versus St. Olaf over an 18 year period.  Last year Carleton beat St. Olaf in football, so we are hoping to cheer them on for two in a row.

More details to follow.  Any questions, feel free to contact John McCracken.

That’s all for now. Our next issue is scheduled for late September, so remember to send us your bucket list items, your suggestions for classmates who might like to share their stories in an interview and your own special memories of life at Carleton.  We can be reached at 50threunion@carleton.edu. Meanwhile have a great summer and we’ll be back in the fall with more information about what’s shaping up to be a magnificent 50th reunion!