College Friends
Janet studied anatomy and physiology at Goucher College. One of her courses required dissecting a shark. As the weather grew warmer through the semester, the sharks developed an unpleasant odor that remained with the students after class was over….
In those days, Goucher was in downtown Baltimore and Mom and her friends would take the trolley home. Janet says she and her friends never had trouble finding a seat on the trolley when they would come straight from the dissecting lab!
Janet and her friends had an enriched poetry and song background. Here are some samples:
(To the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)
Starkle, Starkle Little Twink
What you are I know, I think!
And that herald of spring:
Spring has sprung,
The grass has rizz.
I wonder where
the daisies is!
It was time for graduation and Janet and some of her friends had not been selected for the Phi Beta Kappa honors group. They showed up at graduation with signs that said, “Also ran”!
Joe and Joan Silverman
Joan was an art historian and Joe was a chemical engineer. They had two sons. One went to California to get a job in cartoons. The son worked very hard and sent his parents a copy of a brand new show he was working on. “So, what do you think, Dad?” he asked proudly.
“Nah,” said his father discouragingly. “It will never succeed!”
That show was The Simpsons–the longest-running scripted primetime TV series in the US (29 seasons)!
Joan, who moved to Silver Spring when she got married, gave art tours at the Washington, DC, museums. She took Janet on several tours. Once Joan and Janet went to see a collection that had been donated by the Mellon family to the National Gallery. Joan was very disappointed with the collection.
“Oh, dear!” she mock-fretted in a loud voice. “Somebody already got the good ones!”
Bill & Jackie Schmidt (foreground), Joan & Joe Silverman (back, seated)
Bill and Jackie Schmidt
Bill was an executive at McCormick Spice. He said whenever he ate at Janet’s house, he would get withdrawal symptoms. He would joke that he would have to bring his shaker of additives and preservatives so he could eat Janet’s healthy meals!