Chapter 11 - Poetry under Pressure -- Daily Chapel Services

1950 - 1957

     The buses dropped us at Clinton Inn and we trotted up to Martha-Mary Chapel to begin each school day with a student-led chapel service. With the exception of the organist, the service was entirely put on by the students. We sat, fidgeting quietly in the pews, with our teachers sitting in wooden chairs next to us, ready to pounce if our fidgeting made noise. Parents often attended, looking down on the service from the balcony. When Mr. Ford had been alive, he was often found enjoying the daily chapel services, sitting in the balcony.

Martha - Mary Chapel in 2014

     The program consisted of a student announcer introducing a program of hymn-singing, poetry recitals, readings, and musical performances. The service was taken very seriously. The student announcer ended with the words “This is your student announcer, [name],” my favorite line. All those who had to perform sat in the front, stage-like area, facing the audience. Sometimes an entire class was performing, and they would all sit up in that area.

     We were given individual assignments with lots of notice by Mrs. Needham, our music teacher who was in charge of the chapel services. Two or three times a year every student was required to recite a memorized poem, an inescapable ordeal. The poems increased in length in proportion to our age. We were given two or three weeks to prepare, which prolonged the agony. I can’t tell you the tears and the terror that accompanied my memorization ritual. I can still see the printed page in my mind, with my name handwritten in the upper right-hand corner, “Betsy C.” (There was a “Betsy L.” in my class). I spent hours staring at the page in a humiliating exercise in futility. I could recite the words to nearly every song I’d ever learned, but the idea of reciting a poem in front of the entire school filled me with horror and dread. One of my sons-in-law recently asked me what I recall about my actual performances. The answer is “nothing.” I only remember the dread. Funny, huh?

     We were occasionally assigned “readings” and I was fine with those – no memorization required. They were mostly book excerpts and were sometimes interesting. I yearned to be the student announcer, which was restricted to the older grades, and was an honor rarely accorded me. I would have gladly been the student announcer every morning.

     My musical skills never warranted solo performances, but I enjoyed those of the students who did sing solos or duets or played an instrument such as the auto harp.

      I can’t omit mention of the day our chapel service was broadcast live on television in color (a big deal) on October 25, 1955. It was the NBC Dave Garroway’s “Today Show” (a really, really big deal). We were in fifth grade. I remember all the extra practice in advance. It was cold the day of the performance, and there was a special bus schedule, to make sure we arrived about 6 a.m. for the 7 a.m. show –It was nerve-wracking for all of us, but very exciting. In searching the Benson Ford Research Center in 2008 for photos of the school buildings of my youth, I found several folders of schedules, letters and plans about this event, all carefully saved and archived. I found very few 1950's papers and photos of the academics.