Ghost Joins Mass Hall Celebration

About 100 past, present, and omnipresent residents of Massachusetts Hall gathered in the Holoyke Center penthouse last night to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the construction of the hall, which is the College's oldest building still standing.

The commemoration began with a buffet dinner of roast beef, cold cuts, and a stuffed pig complete with apple that was prepared and served by Bruno, once the personal chef to Field Marshal Rommcl in the Africa Corps during World War II.

After dinner, Burriss, Young 55, assistant dean of Freshmen and proctor of Massachusetts Hall, read a letterform, the President and Fellows that declared, "This anniversary shall be celebrated this evening with reverence, thanksgiving, decorum, and all degrees of gravity, merriment, and appropriate piping, clangor, and percussion sound."

Then Young, pewter mug in hand, proposed a toast to "a fine old building" and to the Mass Hall ghost, an omnipresent resident of the dorm. The ghost was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and since no one knows which side he was on. Mike Meddler '73, an Englishman, honored the ghost with a toast to "freedom" and Sam Burr '73, a Yankee, gave a toast to "independence."

As some of the guests watched the Bruins defeat the Blackhawks at one end of the penthouse. Tommy Sancton '71 played New Orleans jazz on his clarinet at the other. In between, other guests drank beer and wine and talked about the good old days in Mass Hall.