Honey, I Shrunk the School
Cal Coquillette ’67
The sign read “Pomfret l,” as Mother deftly steered our ’62 Ford station wagon, crammed with steamer trunks and army duffels, over the dip at Henry’s place and abreast of the ethyl pump. After chocolate milk for me and black coffee for Mother, Henry told us that Pomfret School was “just up the hill on the left,” and I was glad in a way, if only to climax a three-day drive from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I was apprehensive about this prep school idea, but Dad had told me that it was a small school where everybody knew everybody else.
After a greeting from Mr. [Peter] Richardson, then Director of Admissions, I parted company with Mother, assuring her that I’d be home for Christmas vacation. Following a whirlwind tour with my brusque senior adviser, I sat for a moment on the desk chair they furnished, and sort of wished that Mother was still around so I could tell her about my initial impressions. It wasn’t small, it was big — climbing stairs in the main building, gazing at the dining room that could seat 260, standing on the running track above the old basketball court, seeing the Chapel that belonged to the school and nobody else — brother, was it big.
There was my history teacher, a Mr. J. Williams with a booming voice and impressive vocabulary; a Mr. Hassler, the football coach and athletic director, who I’d heard rejected pro offers just to teach and coach at Pomfret; Mr. Daentl, who must have explained our first-day schedule to each member of the third form; Mr. Farney, the dorm master of Upper Il, who talked of rock-climbing and white-water canoeing; and Mr. Milnor, who inspired reverence and awe from those of us who tried to keep up with his crisp speech and gesticulations.
Pomfret began to shrink in size as I familiarized myself with the physical plant and got to know a few of the faculty. As it turned out, the masters were preoccupied with you, and you came to realize that what you knew was pretty small potatoes to what they knew. There were things to be learned — and a great deal was to come from the dormitory, the locker room, and the lunch table, as well as the classroom and library.
