What's going to be your major, son?

It was early September of 1953.  We were making the two hour drive down to Princeton in the used '49 Packard Dad had purchased the year before.  Dad was at the wheel, mom next to him, my brother Geoff, now a junior, in back with me.  We turned off the Jersey Turnpike at exit 9, New Brunswick,NJ, with only a few more miles to go before I was to register for my freshman classes.  I was nodding off when I heard dad ask, "What's going to be your major, son?  I shook my head clear of cobwebs, swallowed and replied, "Why I don't know, Dad".  I don't have to decide until next year."  (All Princeton undergraduates whose field of study is liberal arts, take general survey courses the first two years and then choose to major in English, or History, etc. for a concentrated field of study during the last two years.

"Oh, hold it right there, son.  Remember how you liked to help you mother tie bandages down at the school, at the Motor Corps?  You're going to be Pre Med, for you're going to be a doctor!

I was dumbfounded. "The Motorcorp!", I exclaimned under my breath.  Why that had to be ten years ago, when I was nine. And I only went there once! I couldn't voice my thoughts aloud for there was never any arguing with my father, even when he came up with a pronouncement like this, way out of left field.

And so I registered pre med.  Princeton had a very respected and sought-after pre med program.  I found myself in classes with sons (Princeton didn't go co-ed until 1969) of doctors and others who had had their hearts set on that profession for years.  These were highly motivated students.  Science and biology were their favorite subjects back in high school so they were well-prepared for the sophomore-level bio and science courses that  freshmen pre med students were required to take.  I had never taken a biology course and had taken only one general science course in high school.  I was soon lost in these sophomore-level courses with their well-schooled motivated students and fast-moving curricula.  I got "D's" in both courses that first semester.

When it came to signing up for second semester courses, I switched out of premed to become a general liberal arts student.  I did not ask my father for permission to do so, and he never again mentioned premed.

Buy Some More 1944

The government needed to sell more war bonds.  At Armonk Grade School a contest was run to see who could create the best slogan to motivate buyers.  The winning entry would be awarded a headline in the North Castle Sun.

The winner: BUY SOME MORE, WIN THE WAR

Author: fourth grader Lynn Hall

Where were you born, son?

Where were you born, son?

It was the summer of 1942.  They were on a vacation trip in the 1941 Ford woody.  Parents were in the front seat, Richard and Geoff in the second, Carol and Lynn in the back.  They pulled up to Canadian Immigration.  The officer looked at the papers the driver gave him for a few moments.  Then he stuck his head in the car window, rapidly scanned the faces of three of the children then focused on the little boy in the rear seat.  "Young man, tell me, where were you born?"  Unfazed, the boy said, "Brooklyn Base Hospital".  The officer held his gaze for a moment, then withdrew and waved the driver ahead.

They drove on for a moment, then the parents broke into laughter.  Finally the woman turned to ask,  "Why Lynn, where did you just say you were born?!  Brooklyn Base Hospital? Where on earth did you get that idea?!

Editor's note: Lynn was born in Long Island College Hospital, in Brooklyn, NY.

Poster Boy

It was the day after Pearl Harbor.  Lynn was six.  Esther hadn't seen him for over an hour.  She called his name and got no answer.  She left the kitchen, calling again.  She found him down in the playroom crouched over poster paper and spilled crayons.  "Look, mommy! he cried, thrusting the paper into her hands.  In large, multi-colored, irregular letters, it read:

                                                JAPS BOOBED VANILLA!

April Fool April 1, 1935

She hurried out of the doctor's office and found a pay phone.   She dialed the Daily News switchboard, then he came on the line.  "Hello".  

Breathless with excitement, she exclaimed, "Warren, guess what the doctor said – we're going to have twins!

Silence.  Then he said, "Esther, you didn't really think I'd fall for it, did you?"  He chuckled.  "You know, I wasn't exactly born yesterday". 

Now she was silent.  He went on, "All right, I'll say it for you: April Fool.

"B-but Warren, I mean it!  It's true!", she said, and burst into tears.