DEPARTMENTS
Roommate Tales
By design, lifelong friendships are formed in the halls of Holy Cross. (There's a reason first year students live in residence halls with larger community areas and access to plenty of staff with open doors. As bonds are strengthened and students find their niche, they move up to more apartment-style rooms that help prepare them for transition to the oft-dreaded "real world.") Here are just a few memories of res life from true-blue Holy Cross friends. Want to share your roommate tale? Please email it to us at hcmag@holycross.edu. It may be used in a future issue.
Opposition Parties
Marilou Lang and Mary Quinlan
Class: 1976
Dorm: Mulledy
Marilou:
Major: French
Currently living in: Plainfield, Conn.
Mary:
Major: English
Currently living in: Montclair, N.J.
"We were like Felix and Oscar," says Mary Quinlan, about her college cohabitation and unlikely alliance with roommate Marilou Lang. "We hadn't met before moving in together, but it didn't take long to see that we had completely different personalities!"
That first day Quinlan arrived at Holy Cross dressed to the nines, flanked by suitcases of clothes and accessories, while Lang showed up with a single bag, sans make-up, wearing painter's pants. And, as the week went on, other differences emerged: Mary enjoyed late nights, while Marilou needed rest. Marilou studied long and hard, while Mary hit the books rarely, (but still earned the same good grades.) At mealtime, Marilou threw on some sweats and hit the cafeteria, while Mary took time getting ready, and strolled into dinner sociably late, looking fabulous.
"We approached everything in life differently," says Lang, "but that's what drew us together. We weren't competitive with each other. We were complementary." Their modest room in Mulledy-with a green and blue rug and matching bedspreads, and a cheery Monet print on the wall-provided a nice haven for the two. Over time they became the best of friends, sounding boards, confidantes, lifelong companions.
"Our lives are like night and day," says Quinlan, currently a publishing executive in New York City. "They've always been that way."
"But we sure had a ball," says Lang, adding that the two still see each other a couple times a year. "It's a relationship I know I'll always be thankful for."
Brotherly Love
Jonathan Paolino and Shane Murray
Class: 2002
Dorm: Alumni
Shane:
Major: PreMed/Biology
Currently living in: South Boston, Mass.
Jonathan:
Major: PreMed/Biology
Currently living in: Worcester, Mass.
When Jonathan Paolino first met his roommate-to-be during freshman orientation, he was a bit uncertain about how they'd get along. For one thing, Shane was an only child, while Jonathan himself had five siblings. "I never had my own room," Jonathan remembered thinking at the time, "and he never had to share a room with anyone."
But Jonathan's uncertainty proved to be unwarranted, and the two ended up rooming together all four years. "It didn't take long to hit it off; it became one of those effortless relationships that turned into a really deep friendship," says Shane, adding that Paolino was Best Man at his wedding, and he returned the favor when Jonathan married.
"We're like brothers now," says Paolino.
Because Paolino and Murray were both in the same challenging academic program, they counted on each other to be good influences and study partners. "There was a time when it got pretty tough and a lot of our friends were dropping out of Pre-Med," Shane thinks back. "But we helped each other, buckled down, and got through it together."
Living in Alumni senior year, Jonathan recalls hosting many parties and the sanitary toll his room took. "I remember one of the old Irish housekeepers on the floor really giving us a piece of her mind because we weren't keeping our place picked up. She used to threaten us with her shillelagh! Funny, I never saw her with it."
Double Dates
Tom McCabe and Ernie Brita
Class: 1965
Dorms: Wheeler, Carlin, Lehy and Healy
Tom:
Major: Accounting
Currently living in: Dennis, Mass.
Ernie:
Major: Accounting
Currently living in: Alexandria, Va.
Tom McCabe and Ernie Brita lived together for four years at the college, in four different dormitories. "Tom and I really got along," remembers Brita. "Still do. We never had any issues and have ended up in a friendship that's lasted our whole lives."
Without question, their bonding took place as a result of the residential life experience at Holy Cross. By McCabe's recollection, as accounting majors, he and Ernie had every class together except the foreign language electives they took. "We slept in the same room, took our meals together, went to parties together ... I can't say we studied together, because Ernie studied a lot more than I did!"
Ernie remembers the first day he walked into Wheeler for his freshman year and encountered a cluster of rather large and boisterous football players. "They took one look at me and threw all my clothes out the window!" Of course, much horsing around ensued that and every other year, including frequent trips to Boston to watch the home team play must-see football against Boston College, as fierce a rivalry as existed in those days. "Tom and I double-dated with our girls at those events," says Ernie. "We had some great times in Boston after the game."
Tom also remembers a funny story. In the mid-'60s, social protests occurred often around the country, one might even say they were fashionable, in Boston, Worcester, and everywhere else. "So our class thought we'd have our own protest," says Tom, proudly. "I think it was the very first protest at Holy Cross. We marched in protest when the cafeteria raised the price of a donut from .05 to .10. We called it 'The C.O.D.E. Protest': the Congress of Donut Equality."
Let Them Eat Cake!
Kerry Behrens, Nicole Nicas Rovner and Kelly MacMullin
Class: 1998
Dorm: Healy
Nicole:
Major: History/Art History
Currently living in: Newport, R.I.
Kelly:
Major: Mathematics
Currently living in: Ashland, Mass.
Kerry:
Major: Psychology
Currently living in: Northborough, Mass.
Kerry, Kelly, Nicole and a handful of other close friends began their bonding during those first few anxious days of freshman year. "I remember sitting in the hallway early on, talking with the girls and really hitting it off," says Nicole. "We were all from different backgrounds, but being able to sit and talk in that environment really held us together."
The group stayed friends through college-Kelly and Nicole studied abroad junior year in Galway and Florence respectively-and they came together senior year to live in Carlin. "We called our room 'The Bubble,'" Kerry explains. "If you had a hectic day or something wasn't going right, you could always retreat to 'The Bubble' and find comfort with your friends."
And retreat they did. All the girls remember retiring to their common room, for a cup of noodles, to work on Kerry's word processor with the built-in printer, and to watch the dysfunctional-teen drama marathon of "My So-Called Life"; Kelly gave Kerry the VHS tapes after graduation as a memento of that experience.
"The first week of freshman year," says Kelly, "I remember Kerry's mom bringing a big cake in for Kerry's birthday. Sharing that cake sure helped bonding. "The best thing we got out of Holy Cross is each other," adds Kerry. "If we ever hit a low, or had a bad time for some reason, we all had each other to turn to."
First Class Women
Mary Ann Rettig and Connie Morse
Class: 1976
Dorm: Mulledy (resident advisors sophomore year)
Connie:
Major: Sociology
Currently living in: Exeter, N.H.
Mary Ann:
Major: Religious Studies
Currently living in: Oakland, Calif.
Connie and Mary Ann, class of 1976, roomed together sophomore year as RA's. "I remember we had our own bathroom," says Connie, "which was a big deal back then." One day, Connie was in that bathroom, in her fuzzy, one-piece pajamas with the trapdoor, hair in rollers, only to emerge to find a roomful of classmates there to surprise her for her birthday. "You can imagine my embarrassment!"
Connie and Mary Ann were compatible from the start, having already known each other from the Chicago area where they grew up. "She was the only person I knew on campus at the time," says Mary Ann, "so we really stuck together." That even meant, occasionally, playing corny jokes on each other. "One of us, I can't recall who," admits Mary Ann, "put a dried date, fruit, on the telephone, and then announce to whoever, 'Connie, your date's on the phone!'"
More seriously, Connie and Mary Ann were among the 225 women that entered in the college's first female class back in 1972. "We were somewhat naïve at the time," says Connie. "But we had a very tight and very unique bond."
That connection began in the residence halls, with Connie, Mary Ann, and close friends Mary Claire Buckley, Sally Hoy, and Ruth Ann Elias all staying close to this day. They get together sporadically, meeting recently for their 35th year reunion at a home on Martha's Vineyard. "The era and culture was different," Mary Ann adds. "There was a strong sense of community and connectedness among the group of women from the inaugural class, and it's still palpable today."
Angels in the Snow
Evelyn Pontbriant and Martha Kelly
Class: 1978
Dorm: Healy
Martha:
Major: Chemistry
Currently living in: Philadelphia, Penn.
Evelyn:
Major: Biology
Currently living in: Norwich, Conn.
As members of the third class of women to enter the college, Martha Kelly and Evelyn Pontbriant recall one quirky thing about Healy, their freshman year dorm. "Everything was set up so high for when the men lived in the rooms!" said Evelyn, laughing. "Martha and I are both five-foot-two and the mirrors and shelving were all much too high for us to reach. We had to move them way down so we could at least see ourselves. I remember guys coming in and seeing they were so low all they could was adjust their belt buckles."
As Chem and Bio majors, Martha and Evelyn studied hard and even kept a job, working at first in Kimball to earn some spending money. But they also played hard. "We were pretty silly," says Martha. "We'd stay up talking until midnight and then study till 4am."
Evelyn and Martha both remember frolicking in the snow; Martha can picture zany times she and her friends had traying down snowy hills, while Evelyn's memory takes her back to the Blizzard of '78, a winter storm that walloped central Massachusetts. "The drifts were so high around campus that people were jumping from the roofs into the snow. Only thing was the snow was so deep they had to come and dig kids out!"
Today, Martha, Evelyn, and handful of other classmates still get together. "I believe our bonds have only strengthened since leaving college," says Evelyn. "Everybody has taken different paths, but it's so good when we can get back together and just talk."