Here are a few items from the Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library and elsewhere on campus — and beyond.
Ode to a Hot Dog
In 1938, while on a “splurge” with Wilson House friends at Jimmy’s Diner in downtown Auburn, the late Muriel Swicker ’42 penned this ode on a napkin about the delights of a 30-cent hotdog.
Swicker, who passed away in 2008, placed the napkin in her freshman-year scrapbook, where we found it recently after the scrapbook was donated to Bates.
“Ode to a Hotdog,” from a freshman-year scrapbook of Muriel Swicker ’42.
Ode to a Hotdog
Oh Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy
Oh, luscious cytoplasm
We sink our teeth
in thy cell walls
Ever on thee spread
Shovelfuls of goooo
Oh crispy greasy cloak
Draped upon thy sides.
Yum — My God!
Below, listen to one of Muriel’s Bates chums, the late Virginia Day Hayden ’42, recite the poem (from memory!) in 2012 at Reunion:
A postcard view of Jimmy’s Diner at 150 Minot Ave. in Auburn, probably from the early 1960s. The location most recently has been home to a trading post.
Skull Session
This sketch of a cat skull by Cecelia Christensen, Class of 1919, is displayed in the lobby of Carnegie Science Hall.
Past and present, “students grapple with the spatial component of knowledge,” says Don Dearborn, chair of the biology department. “Transforming something you see, or know to exist, into another form, whether a drawing or a computer image, is a powerful tool for learning.”
Riders Up
In the 1930s, riding was among the many offerings of the Women’s Athletic Association. The Bates women’s athletics motto — “a sport for every girl and every girl in a sport” — reflected the national reaction to the era’s professionalized and exclusive sports culture.
The older gentleman at left likely worked for the stable that provided the horses for this Bates excursion. (Photo courtesy of the Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library)
Pete’s Prize
Meredith “Pete” Burrill, Class of 1925, won the Garcelon Cup for hurdles in 1922. Then Burrill took another leap forward, becoming a world authority on geographic place names.
Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library
