LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:
Learning
in Asia
I am writing to correct a few errors in President Stanley's otherwise fine introduction to "Learning from Asia" [PCM, Summer 1999]. In his piece, President Stanley refers to a trip to China taken by 10 Pomona students about 70 years ago. First, the trip was in 1929-30, not 1930-31. Second, it was not, strictly speaking, "R. Stanton Avery '32 and nine of his friends." It was a group that I organized, including Avery and one of his close friends. And though some of us did refer to the group jokingly as "Ten Yung Men of China," the real name of the group deserves mention: The Oriental Study Expedition of Students from Pomona College.
The trip lasted almost a year and included visits not only to China, but also to Japan and Korea.
From San Francisco we went by steamship (in steerage) to Hawaii, where we stopped for two or three weeks before going on to Kobe, Japan. On the ship, we met the man who had developed the gyroscope. (I can't recall his name.) After hearing our story, he thought we should see more of Japan, so he paid our way by electric train to visit the island of Honshu. In all, we spent three weeks in Japan, then went by a French ship to Shanghai and on to Hong Kong, then by train to Canton, where we stayed at Lingnan University, a Christian college on an island in the center of the Pearl River. We stayed there for about a month, living with the students and playing basketball and singing. I remember that they warned us not to walk out in the fields at night because of the cobras.
From Canton we returned to Hong Kong and Shanghai, where a former Pomona student named Fong Sec had a good post at the Shanghai Commercial Press, a huge printing shop. We stayed there for about six weeks, then went north to Soochow University, then up to Peking, where we stayed at Yenching University for about a month and a half.
We then went into Manchuria for a couple of weeks, staying in Mukden and Harbin, where we met some Russians who had fled from St. Petersburg. We also spent two weeks or so in Korea, staying at the Seoul School for Girls, where we earned the reputation of being the most gentlemanly men they'd ever met.
Our return trip took us back through China to Kobe, Japan, where we boarded a modern ship called the Asama Maru. On the way home, we encountered a hurricane with waves as high as the ship, but we made it through and eventually got back to San Pedro, California, where our trip ended almost a year after it began.
I was happy to read about the Pacific Basin Institute and the College's continued interest in Asia. Seventy years ago, we pioneered "Learning from Asia." But we believed in taking it a step farther. We believed in learning in Asia.
--Carroll W.C. Lorbeer '29
Oxnard, California
A Football Cruise
Kirk Reynolds' fine article on "The Rivalry" [PCM, Spring '99] started me thinking about some of the football games I attended as a student.
Several stand out, but one in particular is remembered. In the fall of my freshman year (1927), Pomona had a game scheduled with San Diego State at San Diego. Then graduate manager Glen Turner arranged an excursion for the student body. For a nominal sum, students could depart Friday afternoon the day before the game and ride to the harbor on a three-car trolley. At San Pedro we boarded one of the Alexander Line's coastal passenger-freight ships for a cruise down to San Diego arriving the next morning. After the game (about which I recall nothing!) we reboarded the ship for the cruise back Saturday night. The trolleys were waiting for us to return to Claremont, and we got back about noon, I think.
Our tickets entitled us to two dinners aboard. There was a combo and everybody danced until the music stopped about midnight. A real carnival atmosphere existed. And, I might add, without any liquor.
--Burt Henderson '31
Ventura, California
The Amazing Class of '01
On opening the latest Pomona College Magazine [Summer 1999], I was startled to see the striking picture of a member of the class of '01, rock-climbing in Nevada. While attending Pomona I occasionally saw members of the class of '01 visiting campus. I wasn't sure that any were still around. I am pleased to see that a few are--and looking so active and well preserved! It should give hope to members of my class.
--Bill Pease '50
La Mesa, California
Prophetic Memory
One day when we were in our teens, Robert Shaw stopped to talk to me as I left organ practice at Ontario's Presbyterian Church. When I tried to persuade him to continue piano lessons with Vinal Palmer Fredericksen '16, he said, "Loretta, I don't need to do it. I just have to hear it. I'm going to put choral conducting on a par with orchestral conducting."
How right he was! Is there any hope of hearing his perfect 1998 Christmas television program every year?
--Loretta Bond Lease '37
Long Beach, California
More Branches
Our family is enjoying the Pomona family tree you presented [PCM, Summer 1999], but I have to add that my grandmother, Charlene Shannon Sheets, took Spanish at Pomona, and that you left out Jeremy Douglass '99 and Regan Douglass '03 who are the fine grandchildren of Malcolm Douglass '45 and Enid Hart Douglass '48. Obviously we're proud of our Pomona heritage and will continue supporting our beloved alma mater in numerous ways, including, hopefully, producing more alumni.
P.S. Frank's second cousin, Tom Bonynge '34, and his wife, Edie Bonynge '39 also graduated from Pomona.
--Barbara Frisbee Hart '47
Winston, Oregon
Encounter of the PCM Kind
The Sidelight on page 58 of the Spring 1999 issue of Pomona College Magazine caught my eye. Pam Rino 94 (who graduated two years after my son Todd '92) was riding her bicycle across America for breast cancer awareness. My home is only a few blocks from the Southern cross-country bicycle route, so I contacted Pedal for the Cure and Pam via e-mail. Marie and I arranged to host the 35 riders and 15 support personnel at our home on June 15. Pam and I corresponded via e-mail and I convinced her that she should go to her first alumni reunion this spring.
At about noon on June 15, I set out to look for the riders. I received a cell phone call giving me directions, only minutes before I found the four trucks that were part of their support group. Pam and I first met 30 minutes later under a ramada on the beach by the Gulf of Mexico. Some of the riders dashed to the beach, since this was the first real taste of the Atlantic Ocean. The riders began to straggle into my yard by three that afternoon. By 5 p.m., all were accounted for. Fortunately, we were prepared for the vegetarian diets and the large caloric intake demanded by these athletes. Fifteen of the group slept at our house. The group was up as soon as the trucks departed, and we were alone again, but with many wonderful new friends--all because of a sidelight in Pomona College Magazine.
--Bob Austin '58
Pensacola, Florida
