This far, our autobiographic essays, have spanned the period of our life through (Thomas Jefferson) High School, (where we earned the unique, but, completely, unheralded, distinction of personally solving the classic, “Chicken-Egg” problem, [viz., “the egg came first, laid by the immediate predecessor in evolution of the chicken”]. At reader’s request, we will, in this writing, recount the recalled, salient, events of the following period of our life history. viz., our undergraduate college days; upon the optimistic assumption that they will be of equivalent interest, to that previously, expressed concerning our recounting of the previous periods of our life. Due to the revealed setting and context of our early life, our subsequent experiences, in general, were perceived with the eyes of an inexperienced, unsophisticated, first-generation, young American, of recently, arrived, poor, Russian-Jewish immigrants. Any comparison with the perceptions, attitudes, and mindset of today’s young native-born American, college students, we shall reserve, solely, to the determination of the reader.
We attended and graduated from Brooklyn College, [of the City University of the City of New York], during the years, 1954 through 1957 (graduating, six months early), Magna Cum Laude, with a “pre-law” major in political science, having been awarded, in early 1957, a membership in the Rho Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Brooklyn College, at the time, was a truly fine institution of dedicated learning, in which eligibility for a bachelor’s degree, mandated the successful completion of a well-rounded, solid, core curriculum in the Arts and Sciences, instructed by an eminent faculty.
To this date, we remain, eternally, grateful that tuition was not required, by Brooklyn College for students such as ourselves, with requisite High School grade averages; which empathic benefit enabled poor, but promising, students, such as ourselves, to attend an institution of higher education.
As general context, we request that the regular reader recall our past descriptions of the Brownsville- East New York, neighborhood of our young residence. The large, old tenement-style apartment houses, the streets, often tainted with horse droppings from the still extant horse and wagon merchants, the alleys and old, dented, garbage cans, the building connected, clotheslines, the water hydrants, the garbage strewn vacant lots, the atmosphere redolent with cooking and waste smells and the frequent sight of broken, cement sidewalks.
Brooklyn College, situated in the Midwood section of Flatbush, was the first experience, in our constricted, lifetime, which could be described as truly scenic. The College’s, beautiful, thirty- five acre, tree lined, campus, [then], including, Ingersoll Hall, the majestic domed library building, Boylan Hall and Roosevelt Hall, the social sciences and humanities buildings, and Roosevelt Hall the Science Building, built in the “Federal Style,” [ now, apparently, 16 buildings] the ornate goldfish pond sitting area with beautiful plantings, the flower garden, the large athletic field, and the picturesque walks; all of which merited the description in 2022, by the Princeton Review, as one of the most “scenic colleges.” In view of our nuanced, past lifetime experience, we were impressed to the point of actual reverence with its balanced, architectural and natural beauty. But, of most significance, the College contained an eminent faculty which, for serious students, afforded an unlimited, opportunity for mature enlightenment.
Consistent with the traditions of our inherited Jewish background, learning and education were no less than sacrosanct. We can recall our parents keeping responsibly, mute, during our periods of home study, (in view of the fact that we did not have our own room) so as not to disturb. In the context of the Jewish immigrant experience, generally, educational prowess and learning, were of paramount if not, singular importance.
Brooklyn College was a “commuter College” and, in contrast to enjoying the socially independent experience of a college undergraduate who attended an “away” school, our essential, lifestyle continued in the identical ambiance and immigrant context of our (earlier, described), family apartment. In actuality, we led dual lives; the life of Descartes, Locke, Melville and Isaac Newton, simultaneously, with the limited, provincial, and insecure setting of our family’s, alternately, overheated, or, cold, apartment, with the broken English, and the traditionally delicious, dumplings (“kneidlach”) in savory, Chicken soup.
Commutation to college was accomplished by public subway train to Brooklyn’s “Flatbush Avenue,” station. As we, nostalgically, recall, the train’s route had a regular stop at “Atlantic Avenue,” where suburban commuters affected their connection to the City subway, from the Long Island Railroad. These visibly, urbane, well-dressed commuters seemed, in our limited, empirical experience, to be somewhat novel and exotic. One fall season, we humorously, conceived of an after-shave lotion that would have the aroma of burning leaves, so that commuters might be induced to believe, that we too, were from the suburbs.
Perhaps, due to our, nuanced, background, we felt, eternally, constrained to evince, a spiritual reverence for a felt, existential value of the educational college experience. In our singular way, we, ardently, revered the professors for their perceived status and its implicit erudition. We listened intently and respectfully, took copious notes, studied hard, and, successfully, achieved high grades. Coming from our nuanced background, perhaps, due to our gratitude for the learning experience and the contributions to our ardent goal of enlightenment, we felt (unnecessarily) obliged to wear a sports jacket and tie to every lecture; as if it were a synagogue experience. While the latter practice may now seem unduly, reverential, respect for the learning experience, did result in a fulfilled educational experience, adding immense value and joy to our entire life. Our firm aspiration was to obtain a lifetime, personal, education in the arts and humanities at College, prior to our future professional (and practical) education at Law School.
Our fortuitous introduction to the many academic and cultural disciplines has, invaluably, added to our capability for rationality and maturity of perception, a fulfillment, we find, especially, valuable, at our present attainment of old age.
-p.
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