Harvard College gave us many things as undergraduates, but a close connection with each other wasn’t one of them. Exchanging stories about what it was like to handle a very imposing and impersonal institution as very young adults was not on the curriculum. Thank God for reunions. They’ve been my main means of getting to know my classmates as individual human beings. To enrich the conversation for our upcoming fiftieth reunion, I’m spending the next few years recording the voices of my classmates, talking to me from the heart about themselves and Harvard after nearly 50 years. I edit these conversations into short narratives of three to five minutes. People have been remarkably open and confiding about their personal experiences, and, for me at least, the stories so far have been riveting and revealing. I'm making them available on my YouTube Channel. By our fiftieth reunion, I should also have DVDs (or whatever has replaced them by 2016) available to the class. I'm grateful to all the classmates who've spoken with me so far for their generosity and for keeping me busy, since my retirement from public radio, doing the thing I love best.
Below, hear several members of the Class of 1966 share their Harvard memories and stories: