Hello fifties’ bohemians, sixties’ hippies, seventies’ radicals, eighties’ business oriented types, nineties’ nihilists and the new team working millenisls—all you different Antiochians…

If you read Laura Fathauer’s link you will see that , well, in Yellow Springs, folks do community building non-stop……and that is what makes us a treasure.

Last night about fifteen of us Antiochians..which included faculty, alums, staff and last year’s CM, Chelsea, went out to celebrate Chelsea’s 23 rd berfday.. Good lord..she is old! Chelsea is an example of how awesome even the last crop of Antiochians can be….so smart and articulate that it is humbling.

We went to a Vietnamese restaurant in Dayton..Little saigon..in a repurposed taco Bell. Of course when you get fifteen Antioch types in one place there is quite the conversation. Of course everyone compared everything and we started off by analyzing our respective orientations and graduations.

and then went on to talk about what people really remember many many moons later. Then one of the faculty started sharing her interests in nonstop which was a course on Suburbia. So the talk was of all the themed suburbia movies people collectively knew or liked….or disliked. and novels as well.

As we were delivered Vietnamese vermicelli ( I thought that combination of words to be odd), springrolls and the like, the conversation drifted to teaching styles and even at one point Ellen Borgersen talked about what it was like to be a Dean or Faculty at Stanford Law School and when faculty really know if you are “grasping it.”

The talk continued on after desert in the parking lot while the sky started turning fiery July red.

Be sure to have your own local Antioch moment with peers and colleagues. (Find your local chapter) Although last night once folks got into the term deconstruction they occasionally were over my head so my energy went to the beef and snow peas.

Anyhow..looking for stimulation? the answer could be right near you with a chapter event… If you want to reconnect give me an email holla buffaloduffy@gmail.com and we will find you a deconstruction expert and maybe some Vietnamese vermicelli?

Much love to all and I would love to network with old and new friends. Your chapter, remember, can help our next chapter.

Duffy ‘77

from YSO

where it is oh so green this year

and the corn IS as high as an elephant’s eye.

All you folks throughout the decades must know …. folks at Antioch have bonded in ways other college students do not. We really rock….

Instead of fraternities we have had entities such as Maples (Volunteer fire department) and in more recent decades people have bonded by

common interests….Science Interest Groups, Womyn’s center, People of Color Groups (TWA< BAMN and Unidad) and the most whimsical one and popular

The Red Haired Support Group (so popular that people were “dying” to get in”.)

In you want to be involved in the ultimate Antioch interest or support group remember that your Alumni Association wants you to bond with each other.

Antiochians of varying vintages can learn much from each other and have fun.

If you want tp reconnect with your colleagues you can check Chapters out at Antiochians.org/ or you can feel free to bug or pester me to find you the connection. It would make the yenta in me very happy.

I would love to help you reconnect….contact me buffaloduffy@gmail.com YOU can be instrumental in having fun at an alumni chapter and help create

another chapter for Scott Sander’s way in the future revised ed. of Antioch an episodic history.

Yours from a tranquil and beautiful Yellow Springs.

went to the Horace Mann Statue in the Glen last night. …someone has painted Horace’s shoes red. Just too outrageously fashionable….

I LOOK FORWARD TO ANY CONTACTS

Much love to all

Duffy ‘77

I guess as we speak the next chapter in Antioch history is continuing to be written.  with thousands of authors..and hopefully , thousands of gifts..

Yesterday  on 716 Xenia Avenue, the Big Gray House where the Alumni Association has taken refuge… we had a moment of fun while we fun-draised.   I wrote the largest check I have ever have written and it was, of course, from my final library pay check.   So ironically I have become the equivalent of a Horace Mann Donor as I went out the door of the Big Olive (Kettering Library)…..after 39 years…… As a person who really has never made much more than 80 dollars a day and put 10 in every day for gas…this was a little taxing.  So I asked some friends to come and have an impromptu moment of giving with me.  With a few calls using the little red YS phonebook (which lists families and even their pet’s names with phone numbers btw) and with Judith Wolert-Maldonado’s ‘05 email blast to a group of supportive villagers we had a dozen folks turn out for a YS News photo op.    We surrounded Sheri with checks, pledge forms and folks waving dollar bills. That was a fun and fast 7,000 dollars.   I am glad folks came..I hate cameras..so their company made it easier.    and Wendy Ernst who works in the office was on the street trying to make us smile like babies in a stroller …

More folks might have come but it was a last minute thing and many folks were also at a meeting downtown at the Emporium (at the UNDERDOG Cafe) working on outreach and recruiting for the Non-stop Liberal Arts Institute.

BTW there is now a fledgling website for the Institute!!  and a group of two hundred supporters on Facebook…..and other viral marketing…

Yesterday I was a little more nutz than usual..wondering whether folks and the YS NEWS would get there. (many moons ago when Ruth Churchill in the Testing Office analyzed my psychological profile she clucked and said..”Oh boy, you have an innate high anxiety level”) Ruth knew everything and I would bet you folks from the 60’s and 70’s can vouch for her.   She and later Katy were true escerpts about Institutional Reasearch and Evaluation. They just called the Testing Office because they tested the crap outta you.

Folks did come and it was a great blue sky and low humidity day….but I did not want to photo op to happen until Al Denman got there……he as well as having been the college pastor and wonderful teacher , mentor and marathon runner was also the very first person to see that the College needed to  have a governance system that would totally know about and nurture just the college……he was the father of Indpendence..so it meant alot to me for him to be in the picture….and Bob Baldwin ‘57 as well.

Thanks to those folks who made the IPM dash Eric Miller, Evelyn Lamers, Anne Whitaker, Juan Gregorek, Nevin Mercede, Steve Bognar, Donna and Al Denman, Steve Bognar, Ken Huber (The one man picket line) , Judith Wolert-Maldonado,  Bob Baldwin….and if I forgot someone well, my neurons are sizzling!

Hopefully with our collective Antiochian imagination we can collectively concot some fun-draising events in multiple venues. Beach or park picnics, art galleries, restaurants, group trips to concerts.

In YSO next week we will be having funb at the Farmer;’s market and a giant Community Potluck…….Ice cream socials anyone.

If you want to write some of the next chapter and have fun think about CHAPTERS in your area and well….be serenditous and have fun. I hear that folks in New England will be having a Div Dance of Sorts.

Stay in touch and be sure to have fun. Non stop fundraising for non stop and all the folks and things that we love.

Crazy Duffy ‘77

P.S.   Be sure to pass some gatorade and B vitamins around….and maybe have a spahgetti dinner….some of the ways to train from that marathon.

Camus is quiet and clover studded today you can hear the birds singing but also the sounds of digital security camera installation and Stanley Steamer cleaning up stuff for AEA.

also windows cracked open on the 2nd floor of McGregor……..ventilation? who knows.

BTW Thanks to Nina Myatt , 53 and retired urator of Antiochiana and endless warrior for the Big Olive…she planted a flower bed of pretty pink and purple petunias in the Library flower bed.     and has been shelving trucks and moping as a volunteer.

other blood, sweat and tears award today for Bob Devine….who has given much money and time and been a lightning rod like many of us.

and Finally the factoid of the Day..a question asked by Kim-Jenna Jurriaans ‘08 who is working on a book, I believe with Megan Rosenfeld ‘69…. who was the first female Maples’ Fire Chief…. answer Lorka Munoz  ’88

Take care out there……..and whadabou that next “CHAPTER”?

It is finally summer in Ohio.   Unlike many of the more recent years we have had the best rain at the right times so the corn IS an high as an elephant’s eye and the corn tassel rains have yet to come.   If corn is now a fuel crop Ohio may finally prosper.  It feels like there are walls of corn lining the highway on the way home to Dayton.  Actually pretty and  bucolic.

I am working for awhile with the CRF to assist alumni in various ways. For this interval I will be in the front office in the Big Gray Building at 716 Xenia Avenue…and in that office is also Fred Kraus. If you come to town……please stop by……you might get a big old hug…a snazzy non-stop tee-shirt( 100% cotton) and a pledge form even.

The faculty and townsfolk of Yellow Springs are working non-stop on the Non-stop Liberal Arts Institute.  Dennie Eagleson ‘71 is finishing up a DVD that will be a taste of this non stop frenzy by the faculty.  Of course Dennie is being meticulous so have a small amount of patience for the release. I am type A so all this makes me suffer..I will plant garden seeds and then go out in two days and holler at them “where are you?” are we there yet?

At this point 20 or so faculty will teach classes.  And depending on the future everything may simply melt into village for awhile. A lucky tourist might stroll into the UnderDog cafe and find a roundtable discussion or a powerpoint going on. These twenty I have known for decades and they will be a  promising seed core of faculty should we have that midsummer’s nights dream come true.

Some classes do seem like a dream….former Yellow Springs’ News Editor, Don Wallis and Photography Professor Dennie Eagleson will teach a photojournalism course which involve photography and the art of oral interviews.  Be sure to check out Don’s book about a poor rural Black town in Indiana.  ALL WE HAD WAS EACH OTHER. I tease Don by saying  ”Well, all  he have is Don Wallis!”  He is a passionate journalist…

And  non-stop things are definitely going to be findable in cyberspace very shortly.   For starts there is already a facebook Non-Stop group. and there other surprises coming.

Facebook is a great networking tool…not simply for the young….but well if you are YOUNG simply remember the sorta thing that Judge Judy might say…if you put something in cyberspace..it just might be out there forever and ever. Prudence anyone?

A large number of Villagers are resolute and still solidly behind the College’s legacy.  First Giant Community Day and Potluck is next week…I plan to bring a nice sweet organic carrot, raisin, pineapple salad and pledge forms.

If you are interested  in getting involved in an any alumni events out in the real world feel free to contact me and I will try to hook you up to other Antiochians. want to build a chapter or hang out at events with fun folks…? why not? Tomorrow iI will finally become the equivalent of a  Horace Mann Giver since I plan to donate a fair chunk of my final library paycheck to the Alumni ssociation (CRF) and the reasons for this is all of you.    I wish had 100 million to give…..

The richest thing in my life for the last thirty some years has been the thrill of watching folks arrive and work on their passions and dreams. with marvelous faculty as well. This has been a nurturing environment where people had the time to work on their dreams both here and in that outside world (aka co-op) I am grateful to have known so many and know without even hesitating that until the very end we had students who who so usual and wonderful… If you ever get me started I would hammer you with anecdotes…so many that even Katy Jako, the ultimate data hound would say uncle…and say maybe we have data.

YSO is wonderul vibrant, cosmic and sometimes a little irregular.  check it out.  Gotta go…but wanted to stay in touch.

another email contact for alumni who want to get involved in the “serendipitous”  is buffaloduffy@gmail.com  please give me a e-holler

A little love and a little “corn”..from Ohio…

Duffy ‘77 and the years since and well, there may even be the possibility of an unsanitzied blog at Antiochians.org but this will take awhile since this may be done by volunteers

(and thanks to them for all that 3AM work,  some of us have to hit the pillow after the 11PM news)

She lived in New Orleans for a while and then came back to YS along with John Fleming…..and did YSKP (Yellow Springs Kids Playhouse.)  I sometimes tease her as Weezy from the Big Eazy.

She has also just started a career in counseling….gives a new meaning to psychodrama…

we may need both her old skills and new ones.  and her heart is for us.

Duffy

—– Original Message —–

Friday, June 27, 2008 11:18:41 AM
From:        Louise Smith
Subject:    Goodbye
To:        Pulse
Cc:        Announcements, faculty, Emeritus Faculty, College Staff

Dear All:

While I know that many of us will continue to see each other in the years to come as citizens of this village and members of the non-stop community, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge what is happening today and say goodbye.

Goodbye to a unique community. May we find our way together into the change that has been thrust upon us and the change  that we can make for ourselves.

Goodbye to fifteen years of teaching in a building that was challenging and inspiring. It is a good building for art.

Goodbye to the students who have taught me so much.

Goodebye to the colleagues, friends and fellow travellers who have worked here in such a dedicated way.

Goodbye to the confusion of these last hard years. I hope to find clarity.

Goodbye to our relationships to the university. May we never find ourselves so disempowered and disrespected ever again.

Goodbye to the divisiveness that caused us to not see each other.

Goodbye to the village of Yellow Springs as we know it.

Goodbye to this moment of sorrow, anger and hurt.

There is a sign that I have hung in the theater building all year. It is one word and it represents toil and perseverance. I think of Mother Courage when I see it.

The sign says: ONWARD.

Take care everybody, of yourselves and your loved ones.

Best of luck to all!

Louise

No words can convey the mood here today.    At Noon Main Building and all its office have gone dark.

I handed my keys in at 11AM and am tidying up before I depart the Big Olive.  Avoidance and De Nile work for me..I feel very Egyptian.

all folks need to know is……many of us have loved this place even with its irregularities and dystopian imperfections..                                                    many of us have loved the rivers of people who have passed through..

non stop Antioch

I will be THERE…… as long as it is possible

Duffy ‘77 ..last day after almost 40 years at the Big Olive (Kettering Library)…

There is a Community Pot Luck on the stoop of Main Building at 5PM….don’t know who has energy to go..and even if it will storm today….we have had afternoon t-storms for several days now.  The corn will be as high as an elephant’s eye.

Antioch really has been like Auntie Mame…….opening up the world and sometimes seeming  a little bawdy and off-color…. and for those of you who may be theater buffs.

well  Auntie mame would say ” life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving”

and in the musical version…there was a song ..with words that go something like  ”Open a new window, open a new door,  Travel a new highway you’ve never travelled before”

Even in the last couple of years Antiochians went everywhere and did great things, Elephant sanctuaries in Thailand, planting a new tropical forest in Panama…not want most co-eds do…….

Where’s Rosalind Russell or Lucy when ya need ‘em?

Weather was great, food was great, company was awesome.   Positive energy is growing and a growing and great resolve to keep pushing on….

One quick Saturday thunderstorm cooled us off…although it didn’t get terribly hot at all.

Here is a link to the first of many photo galleries.   258 pix here…..if each pic is worth 10,000 words well…you do the calculations.

I was thankful to have dodged the camera!!!

Antiochians from 1946 to 2012 were here..and actuallly one current student with their newborn hopes to eventually have a 2030 grad.

thanks to Johnny no!  and others  Try this link for starts  ……..

http://staff.antiochians.org/?p=17 A note from a College Revival Fund Flyer…..

1. KEEP INFORMED   read your alumni E-newsletter from the CRF. Talk to your friends and visit Antiochians.org….

2. GIVE NOW TO THE STRUGGLE     Your pledges and gifts fund our effort. Make a commitment to give at the highest level you can.  Every pledge and gift is critical.

3. PLEDGE EVERY YEAR FOR THE FUTURE

Your pledge will halp save and sustain Antioch College for the future,

4. JOIN OR START AN ALUMNI CHAPTER (I may be able to help you with this one myself…….hooray!  and let us all add fun to fun-draising!)

Go to chapters.antiochians.org   or call 937 767-2341

5. Introduce us to YOUR Antiochian friends.

6. HOST A Phone-a-thon.

7. Host a fundraising event

8. SPREAD THE WORD THAT WE_WILL_SAVE_ANTIOCH COLLEGE  tell others all the time

9. KEEP US INFORMED!!!  If you learn something that you believe will help us do our work, let us know.

NON-STOP Antioch!!!!!

Duffy soon to be in refugee mode……..

pass this note on to friends…..like a chain letter that comes with many blessings

Just a quick note from YS….and then who knows?

We are rapidly approaching reunion and June 30th…don’t know what word works semantically best for me. Maybe hibernation or dormancy…and exile.

Yesterday evening there was an impromtu or serendipitous gathering or picnic on the back stoop of main building…facing the horsehoe.

Yesterday was originally faculty “eviction” day. Faculty were told to get everything out of their offices…or stuff would be thrown out.

So the picnic was planned as a moment for folks to be with each other. (The deadline has been extended to June 16th) Of course….we have had our first brief heat wave and on top of that it seems like something breaks down

in one building or another in rotation. Some more paranoid folks think this is also additional psychological warfare…but I think it is because we are virtually without staff already. For example, the library AC works about every other day or every other hour ..(ain’t working right now but folks are down there with duct tape and bandaids) .and McGregor’s had totally fried last October…so the second floor of that building

was brutal. I went over yesterday to help Hassan Nejad for a moment..and was soaked through within five minutes. Older faculty should stay hydrated so they don’t passout while they pack.

Yesterday it seemed like the breezes were coming straight from the equator…but by 5:30 there was some relief and in the shade you had it made.

Since I am a type A person I arrived at Main Building promptly at 5:30 with a casserole dish of organic carrot salad. (mmm,but with pineapple, raisins and miracle whip) . I bumped into Lori Askeland, a Wittenberg faculty and YS Council member who also must have been a type A..we said to each other “Well, where is everyone?”

Well , gradually folks gathered…with covered dishes, blankets, chairs.

we wound up using the concrete ledge of the back steps as a buffet table…..and eventually as folks arrived..the ledge filled up with all sorts of bean salads, tabbouleh, fruit, baked beans one one lonely tuna salad. (when I got home and told my other half…I was asked..”Where was the meat?” Well at most Antioch gatherings..the fare is sorta healthy.. although no one brought any tofu concoctions yesterday. Thank God!)

The back steps were shaded by a large oak…and the view under it was of an emerald green and clover- studded lawn….where kids played while the grown-ups chowed down and chatted…some sitting and some standing.

At 6:30 or so there was the start of a brief program (informal) of speakers. Each person spoke about ten minutes. First Lori Askeland spoke about the buildings and their historic legacies and how the entire campus was on the Historic register and much of YS as well. and how Lori was amazed at the College’s energy during the past year and how she made many new friends..young ones….and how to her the toxic culture theme was more myth than actuality. She stated that the village council should try to pass ordinances for preservation for the campus and the town historic district.

Then Scott Sanders spoke and gave the history behind the the origin of Main Building’s archictecture…and style……by going back to upstate NY well before 1852.

And then Glenn Harper..a member of the Ohio Preservation society talked about the histories of the various buildings but also what Antioch has meant to him…since he was himself..a 1985 graduate…of the non-tradtional sort…meaning as a student he was not part of the 18-22 age brackett.

He got involved in history at Antioch by studying its history and while he was a student studied with John Rury and managed to get published even as a student by writing an article with Rury about women at Antioch in the “day”.

The article: The trouble with Coeducation: Mann and Women at Antioch, 1853-1860, by John Rury and Glenn Harper. History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 26, No.4 , Winter 1986, pps.481-502.

after Glenn spoke….the three academic chairs of non-stop …Hassan Rahmanian, Chris Hill and Susan Ecklund-Leen spoke about how we may losing the venue…for an interval…but how a core of faculty, townsfolks and others with alumni support intend to continue and nurture the core values (sans venue) of the Antioch experience. Classes and Community Meetings will be held throughout the Community…in churches, the senior citizens center…with the town and others putting deeper meaning into community and experiential education. Since much of what is happening is outta the box….we are working with terms that seem crazy to many…..we all need a thesaurus, eh? so the dreadful temporary word executive collective for the three faculty is being used. The idea is that of sharing power and leadership. ..and is not intended to seem out there.

Indeed some courses sound scintillating. Dennie Eagleson and Don Wallis, for exampe, will be teaching a combined photogrtaphy and journalism course.

And I tease Don Wallis (former award winning YS news editor) about one of his books which was about a dirt poor black community in Indiana…entitled “All we had was each other”

I will tell him “all we had was Don Wallis”.

After the first set of speakers Beverly Rodgers, Prof of Anthropology went to the tree on campus that was planted in memory of her daughter…and then many of us went to all the trees and benches that have histories behind them. (including John Graham’s and Louis Filler’s) One tree was planted in memory of Nolan Miller, my freshman advisor..who pinched our butts long before you were mandated to aways be appropriate. BTW many folks have had their ashes strewn on campus..so it is in a way, hallowed ground. Just a hadnful of years ago,. for example,at reunion, Eleanor Drey, Deb Goodman and Peter Thomsen came with Larry Steger;s ashes and put them in places that Larry loved..including near the Art Building…and as some slightly irreverent but loving Antiochians…put a spoonful or so of Larry’s ashes in some ashtrays. Larry. it seemed, just loved to smoke.

By 8:30 the picnic was winding down…and the summer evening felt delicious with soft breezes and golden sun as thunder clouds built in the west to break the heat wave. The drive back to ole horrid Dayton was Okay….a quilt of corn and wheat…Ohio has some pretty moments.

And it was good to see an old friend…Harold Wright ’s (retired Professor of japanese) daughther Rose was visiting….she is also an eighties’ grad. I had not …seen her in 25 years…she had schlepped all the way from Hawaii.

Please excuse syntax and any typos…thunderstorms last night and stress kept me from getting a real night’s sleep. any old excuse, right?

Just a little local color for friends…..and a tidbit of nostalgia and history.

Much love to you all.

Of course….really no adminsitrative types came last night. I wish folks had enough fortitude to share our feelings. But I guess we are all human and some of this is sorta painful.

Duffy ‘77 and the decades since.

Matt and Flora and Catherine if you have time please pass this on. ……and hello to John Feinberg..wherever you are…….. back to grinding up 32 years of timeslips…some when I made 5.25 an hour and worked 95% time…would not trade any memories at all.

singing the old song that Fred and Ginger song “No, They can’t take that away from me”