Highlights from 1975 to 1977

The Hollyfest is such a great idea, and I can see Holly totally basking in the limelight. For my contribution, here are a few highlights of the 1975-77 experience…

Persian classes: Holly and I took two years of Persian together and sat next to each other all 4 semesters. We sat at the end of a long rectangular table, almost holding court ! (we had names for everybody)

We would meet twice a week to do our Persian homework (painfully translating Sa’adi’s Golestan from the original text) at the Gray St apartment … now;

• we each wore hats, she a pith helmet and I a monkey organ grinder’s hat
• we would have coffee and Marlboro breaks and break out into a chorus of “Daddy Please Don’t … ” or … ” I hate Persian … “
• once our friend Jeri dropped by and her portfolio of revealing self pictures mingled with Persian texts
• we would finish (5 hours later) with biscuits and alouette cheese watching I Love Lucy

That being said, we took the class and homework very seriously …

Classics: Holly and I both had an interest in the Greek classics (and even more so with Greg) so …

• when she was very pregnant with Laszlo, we concocted to stage this dialogue in the Harvard lift where I would bring up Euripides and Aeschylus and Holly would respond “yes, I’m reading them as well, particularly for the characters of Medea and Clytemnestra – I want to pick up some useful child rearing tips”
• there was utter silence in the lift …