Under the picture of me on page 35 (“Alumni Notes”) in your 2009/2 print edition, it says that I lived in a “downtown dorm.” That’s true, technically, but I wanted to point out that 603 E. Seneca Street, Hilliard House, was almost at the top of the hill! We had to climb down that huge hill every day, and in the winter the snow would come up to our waist!

In the 1950s, if you were a female music ed student you were not allowed to wear slacks in class! I always cheated: I wore a long coat and rolled up my slacks when I got to class. Carrying my instruments, tap shoes for dancing class, and books while trudging up and down Seneca Street in all kinds of weather made that dorm seem way “uptown” to me, as well as to my peers.

Merle Gutterman Holstein ’58
Great Neck, New York