Out of the Red

When a student, whose account was $20 in the red, came into the Cambridge Trust Company to withdraw $20,head teller Axel A. Lindberg explained to him that the letters "OD" on his bank statement stood for "overdrawn," and not "on deposit." Until this fall, after 42 years with Cambridge, and now in a part-time job with Reliance Cooperative Bank, Lindberg has continued to administer such service with a properly reserved grin.

Overdrafts, however, have been an infrequent worry. The bank once "used to leave $100 off statements to protect the students," Lindberg recalls. "The main trouble was that the fellows used poor arithmetic." Radcliffe, surprisingly, is much less irresponsible in this respect that Harvard. "I can't think of a single girl who's given us any trouble. I think they keep their house in pretty good order."

Aside from the increasing feminine influence and occasional new buildings, not much has changed around the Square since Lindberg began at Cambridge in 1911. And, save for clothing styles, undergraduate temper and attitude have remained constant. "I remember seeing a picture in the bank showing a line of students sporting those broad-brimmed straw 'skimmers'." Then, of course, "there was the era of the battered hat," he recalls, "before the fellows stopped wearing hats at all." Riots, or lesser displays of spring fever have also been common. "I remember one, just after they'd finished building Wigglesworth, when somebody there dropped a bag of water on a fried outside, and minutes later, there was a big crowd on Massachusetts Avenue. I was across the street, but the tear gas bombs still got me."

Lindberg's local recollections extend back further than his bank experiences. He was born in Cambridge, and has remained here all of his 65 years. When he first began work as a teller, he also taught piano, and though he admits "I don't think I could play a five finger scale now," Lindberg still sings with the Aleppo Temple Shirne Chanters. Since he is a bachelor, Masonry is his major hobby, and h e has been a York Rite Mason for 38 years.

Retirement, of course, would give Lindberg more time for these interests. But even after 42 years, Lindberg has taken the part time job because he enjoys banking. Besides, he muses, "you kind of get used to the ways f college boys."