Comfort and Strength
Rudolph Montgelas ’33
My first Pomfret experience and remembrance were the apple trees that grew around the lower part of the gymnasium and on the little meadow that leads to the football field. They were all heavily laden with fruit ready to be plucked and a constant source of enjoyment to a confused, nervous young “new kid.” Then there were the multi-colored leaves falling around the stark beauty of the chapel and blowing across the upper fields as you looked out of the dormitories. There probably isn’t anything more beautiful than Pomfret in the fall.
However, reality soon set in and the active sport and classroom routines made one have to concentrate on the day-to-day routines. Sports were a must and everyone played them whether puny or mighty. It was football in the fall, hockey and basketball in the winter, baseball and rowing in the spring. Chapel was compulsory – twice a day, including Sundays. Class work was carried out in the tradition of the three R’s, and discipline was stern and unyielding. To many this routine will sound Neolithic, but to a youngster just poking his nose out of boyhood and into young manhood, there was much comfort and strength in these absolute and certain facts of life.
