I'm Just Saying.............
I remember things. Sometimes I am caught off guard by a memory so clean
and clear I can almost reach out and touch it. I remember where all my sisters lived in Nunn Hall. I remember
crowding into room 307, sitting side by side or back to back on the four dorm room beds, or in the floor,
as we conducted official Delta Gamma business and made fierce and sometimes rash decisions about our sorority....(example:
blue sailor dresses with or without knee socks for Tuesday night dinner?)
I remember peculiar things about individual sisters, as well. I remember
that all Joyce Crouch had to do was look at me with the devil dancing in her eyes to send me into peals of uncontrollable
laughter at the most inopportune times. I remember how Donna Mac pined away for George so badly sometimes she couldn't
sleep at night . I remember that Linda Racke's hair looked the same when she woke up in the morning as it did when
she went to bed at night. I remember trying to count all the freckles on Donna Tatman's nose and wanting desperately
to play connect the dots. I remember watching Nancye and Parkie as they waited in the outside open hall to see
two of the "Williams triplets" drive up the hill to Nunn Hall. I remember the distinctive sound of Lisa Palas's voice
when she sang one of her original songs, a foreshadowing of the success she would later have. I remember the look on
Sharon Faulconer's face the first time she ever laid eyes on David Dinsmore in Apparatus Class and me trying to inconspicuosly find
out his name for her. I remember cutting EVERYONE'S hair in the exact same hair cut. I can't even
remember that incident without laughing at how ridiculous we all looked...Stepford DG's. I remember thinking how
beautiful Gaynelle Watson's long auburn red hair looked beside my own shorn locks. I remember Lorraine Fisher teaching
a couple of us pledges the words to a little dirty ditty that have remained notorious and unforgotten through the
years. I remember staying up talking all night long with Debbie Schrader and sleeping though class the next morning.
I remember Lisa Palas rushing a dress backstage to me at the Miss MSU pageant, because she mistakenly thought I was wearing
the old "borrowed" dress I had worn to the rehearsal and the look of relief on her face when she saw the
emerald green flowing gown my mom had bought for me -- thanks to the combined opinions of some of my DG sisters
on a shopping trip to Lexington. I remember Debbie Crisswell transforming into a cowardly lion right before my
eyes, and I remember trying to talk Janie Richmond into moving into Nunn Hall from East Mignon, because I knew she was
going to be my "little," and just short years later driving frantically to West Union with Debbie Schrader
to be with Janie after a sudden and unexpected loss. Little did I know they would return the favor to me years
and years later. I remember "passing the candle." I remember sharing secrets, keeping secrets, and secretly
crying when I realized graduation was upon some of us. I remember things about all the DG's.
Sometimes I see something that triggers a vivid memory from those college days, or I see someone that
looks just like Debbie Selmeyer or someone who talks like Virginia Abrunzo and I'm hit with momentary, but
poignant nostalgia.
I remember thinking at the time that I didn't want those college days to end.
I must have been astute to realize life would never be that simple again.
I've returned to Morehead periodically over the years and I've seen the changes
there that have done little to blunt the edges of my memories. The town may have changed and the campus may look a little
different, but I can still remember sitting in a booth with my life-long friend, Debbie Schrader, at Pasquale's
as they called over the loud speaker, "Large stromboli......Gail"
I hope you will share your memories from time to time and rekindle those memories.
I would love for a different DG to submit an essay for "I'm Just Saying" for every issue, so I'll be calling on
you to do so. We owe a huge thank you to Sharon Dinsmore and Jan Hankins for sending in the photos and news clippings from
back in the day.
Continue to submit your photos from now and then and articles and I hope you
enjoy this issue of the DG Newsletter.
As I close this issue, I want to, again, congratulate both Lisa Palas and Kay L.
Cook for standing as great leaders and role models.
I am so happy to reconnect with all of you, who have, simply by being you,
touched lives, and left your mark on life. You are all so special with so many gifts, and I'm proud to know all
of you.
In the bonds,
Gail
