A barren Adams Dining Hall at noon on the first day of classes this fall.
Tradition holds that as the defeated British soldiers retired from the field at Yorktown, their regimental band struck up an ancient march, The World Turned Upside Down:
If buttercups buzz’d after the bee
If boats were on land, churches on sea
If ponies rode men and if grass ate the cows
And cats should be chased into holes by the mouse
If the mamas sold their babies
To the Gypsies for half a crown
If summer were spring
And the other way ’round
Then all the world would be upside down!
Well, the world certainly has turned upside down here. You would hardly recognize Cambridge. Totally gone is the “buzz”—the music drifting from open dorm windows, the rush of students up and down Plympton Street, the constant thwacking of the C-Entry door. The shouts, the laughter, the honking traffic. During the spring and summer you could have heard a pin drop from one end of Harvard Yard to the other, and perhaps most strangely of all for a commuter like me—parking spaces everywhere! Of course, the pace picked up glacially in the fall, and this spring the College will be running at almost half-capacity, but it won’t be until fall 2021, or perhaps even 2022, that things return to the normal we so took for granted. (Remember shaking hands and hugging acquaintances?)
Yet, though it all Harvard endured, and life at Adams continued, albeit in a quiet, very different way. In a wonderful speech for his 25th reunion, famous columnist Walter Lippmann ’10 concluded:
Wars, panics, elections, and all the other excitement of history take on a new perspective when you remember that Harvard has survived them all. I do not say it is the only way, but I do say it is one certain way, to remember that through all the commotion of affairs, through all the quick, the transient and changeable movements of life, there are living things that are permanent and endure. It would be possible to say many things in praise of Harvard but at this moment perhaps the most important thing one can say is that Harvard is a place where you can, when you feel the need of it, cool your fevers and walk quietly and confidently once more.
That maskless day is coming again soon, I can feel it.
Our best to all of you for a safe and healthy Holiday season.