DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Adelia M. Hoyt memoir and photographs

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Page 25

UNFOLDING YEARS 25
taught me that we are not all endowed with the same talents and that we should have respect and consideration for all.
My lack of musical talent was a great disappointment to my father. Fond of music and a fairly good singer himself, he had hoped that I might become a good musician. I do not think that anything I ever accomplished quite made up to him for this disappointment, and I felt this very keenly. It was for his sake and to maintain my own self-respect that I forced myself to continue my musical studies all those eight years, and to occasionally perform in public. No one will ever know what excruciating torture it was for me, for I knew only too well that my performances were perfunctory and mediocre. 
After the first vacation I returned to school to enter the Intermediate grade under a sighted teacher, one Mrs. James of whom we were all very fond. Some of my classmates had been left behind and our class was much smaller. Several things of importance marked this year. We mostly roomed in groups of four with two large double beds. Among the older girls were four who were outstanding because of their ability and qualities of leadership. I had known Emma Magoon, Ena Cassels, Blanche Fearing and Nannie Duncan the previous year and admired them from a distance. Now it so happened that Nan was kept at home because of her mother's illness. As the students were mostly allowed to select their own roommates the three remaining girls cast about for a fourth to make up their group. For some reason they chose me, probably considered as the person least objectionable. Then they drew lots to see who would share the bed with me and it fell to Blanche. She confessed to me later how disappointed he was and how she envied Emma and Ena the good times they would have after the silence bell--whispering confidences. I had admired Blanche from our first meeting so I was delighted with the present arrangement. 
I still clung to the hope of being a writer. I found that Blanche had the same ambition. She had already published one poem and as we confided our ambitions to each other and recited our verses, I felt

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UNFOLDING YEARS 25 taught me that we are not all endowed with the same talents and that we should have respect and consideration for all. My lack of musical talent was a great disappointment to my father. Fond of music and a fairly good singer himself, he had hoped that I might become a good musician. I do not think that anything I ever accomplished quite made up to him for this disappointment, and I felt this very keenly. It was for his sake and to maintain my own self-respect that I forced myself to continue my musical studies all those eight years, and to occasionally perform in public. No one will ever know what excruciating torture it was for me, for I knew only too well that my performances were perfunctory and mediocre. After the first vacation I returned to school to enter the Intermediate grade under a sighted teacher, one Mrs. James of whom we were all very fond. Some of my classmates had been left behind and our class was much smaller. Several things of importance marked this year. We mostly roomed in groups of four with two large double beds. Among the older girls were four who were outstanding because of their ability and qualities of leadership. I had known Emma Magoon, Ena Cassels, Blanche Fearing and Nannie Duncan the previous year and admired them from a distance. Now it so happened that Nan was kept at home because of her mother's illness. As the students were mostly allowed to select their own roommates the three remaining girls cast about for a fourth to make up their group. For some reason they chose me, probably considered as the person least objectionable. Then they drew lots to see who would share the bed with me and it fell to Blanche. She confessed to me later how disappointed he was and how she envied Emma and Ena the good times they would have after the silence bell--whispering confidences. I had admired Blanche from our first meeting so I was delighted with the present arrangement. I still clung to the hope of being a writer. I found that Blanche had the same ambition. She had already published one poem and as we confided our ambitions to each other and recited our verses, I felt