{"id":3930,"date":"2018-04-29T23:52:03","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T03:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/?p=3930"},"modified":"2018-04-29T23:53:39","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T03:53:39","slug":"the-poet-and-the-dribble-glass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/the-poet-and-the-dribble-glass\/","title":{"rendered":"The Poet and the Dribble Glass"},"content":{"rendered":"

Though not a Williston alumnus, arguably Lewis Miller (1919-2008) headed a Williston Northampton dynasty.\u00a0 He and his bride, Jean Douglas Miller ’36 (1918-2005), sent five children to Northampton School for Girls or Williston Academy.\u00a0 Two generations of descendants have attended since.\u00a0 Jean’s brother Richard Douglas ’41 (1923-2007) was the unwilling hero of the following memoir.<\/em><\/p>\n

Playwright, actor, and journalist, Lew Miller knew how to tell a story.\u00a0 He penned this one for his children and grandchildren in 1992.\u00a0 Recently Elizabeth Miller Grasty ’66 shared it with David Werner of the Williston Office of Advancement, who passed it on to the Archives.\u00a0 It is reproduced here, with some editing, with the kind permission of Ms. Grasty. — RLT<\/em><\/p>\n

The Poet and the Dribble Glass<\/strong>
\n by Lewis W. Miller<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Robert Frost (Larry Palumbo\/Library of Congress)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As Robert Frost approached Easthampton, Massachusetts, one evening in 1938, he would not have been in the mood for jokes.\u00a0 Certainly he was not expecting to be the butt of a practical joke.\u00a0 Elinor White Frost, his wife of 43 years, had died suddenly only two months before.\u00a0 Further, he had decided to resign his long held position at Amherst College.\u00a0 Frost, at age 64, had entered a bleak period of his life which seemed to him without hope.<\/p>\n

His reason for visiting Easthampton, that Tuesday, May 27, was to fulfill a long-standing commitment to an old friend, Archibald Galbraith, Headmaster of Williston Academy.\u00a0 Each spring for many years, Frost had given \u2013 at Galbraith\u2019s invitiation \u2013 a reading of his poems for the students.<\/p>\n

The student who was destined to confront this world-famous Pulitzer Prize winner was Richard Knowles Douglas.\u00a0 He was a diffident 15 year old unlikely to indulge in practical jokes \u2013 especially on an adult.\u00a0 Richard (nicknamed \u201cRed\u201d at school) had a busy life ahead: Amherst College, Albany Medical School, U.S. Navy M.D. with the Marine Corps, followed by a long, fruitful, still-continuing career in the practice of surgery in his home town of Westfield, Mass.<\/p>\n

1938 was the year in which Adolf Hitler forcibly annexed Austria.\u00a0 Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in his second term as President of the United States with \u201cCactus Jack\u201d Garner of Texas as his Vice President.\u00a0 Charles Hurley, Democrat, was serving his only term as Governor of Massachusetts.\u00a0 Williston Academy, in its 97th year, was planning to celebrate its centennial in 1941.\u00a0 Red Douglas may possibly have forgotten such highlights of the year.\u00a0 But he never quite forgot the trauma of the evening ahead.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Richard K. “Red” Douglas ’41 (The Log, 1941)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dinner was served as usual in Payson Hall to students living in South and North Halls.\u00a0 A master and eight students were waited on at round tables by \u201cscholarship boys.\u201d\u00a0 Latin Master Lincoln DePew Grannis (\u201cGranny\u201d) usually said the grace before meals.\u00a0 The food was described as \u201cbullet-proof \u2013 everything but tasty.\u201d\u00a0 The Saturday night menu never varied: one boiled hot dog, one slice of Boston brown bread, baked beans, milk, and water.\u00a0 Presumably the food served at Ford Hall, a new dormitory on the New Campus, was more appealing.\u00a0 The cost of boarding there was higher.<\/p>\n

Soon after dinner the hundred or so boys attending Frost\u2019s reading gathered in the Dodge Room.\u00a0 Most of them were seated on the floor of this handsomely paneled room in the New Gymnasium.\u00a0 The poet referred to his readings at schools and universities as \u201cBarding Around.\u201d\u00a0 Years later, when asked which poems were presented that evening, Douglas replied, \u201cAll of them \u2013 no explanation or discussion, he just read \u2013 seemed on an ego trip.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Frost had been reading for one and a half hours, a student broke wind.\u00a0 This occasioned embarrassed laughter among his fellows, to which the poet responded, \u201cWould you like me to go on?\u201d\u00a0 Hearing no answer, \u201cVery well, I will continue.\u201d\u00a0 This he did, for another half hour!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Headmaster Archibald V. Galbraith (William Rittase)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the close of the evening some two dozen especially invited boys joined Frost in the Headmaster\u2019s House for refreshments.\u00a0 Mr. Galbraith inquired of Frost his choice of beverage.\u00a0 A glass of milk was requested.\u00a0 \u201cGally,\u201d as he was called by the students behind his back, turned to young Douglas nearby, asking him to bring a glass of milk for the famous guest.\u00a0 In the kitchen a maid (\u201cShe never liked me,\u201d recalled Douglas years later) poured the glass of milk, placed it on a tray, and handed it to Red, who served it to Robert Frost.\u00a0 Frost took a drink and spilled milk down his tie and shirt.\u00a0 \u201cHow clumsy of me,\u201d he murmured, as he wiped the spill with his handkerchief.<\/p>\n

A second drink resulted in an even greater spill.\u00a0 Seeing this from across the room, Galbraith \u201ccame down like a locomotive\u201d heading for the hapless Red.\u00a0 \u201cWas this done on purpose?\u201d Galbraith demanded angrily.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, sir,\u201d the student answered \u2013 fully expecting to be thrown out of school.\u00a0 The Headmaster\u2019s response was not complimentary.\u00a0 Red returned the dribble glass to the kitchen.\u00a0 There, the Headmaster filled a fresh glass while the shaken student attempted to exonerate himself.\u00a0 \u201cThis is not my fault.\u00a0 I have never even heard of a dribble glass!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A vintage dribble glass (Private collection)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Red\u2019s explanation may have been believed, but most likely he was allowed to remain in school because Archibald Galbraith held the boy\u2019s father, Archibald Douglas, in high regard.\u00a0 Robert Frost graciously accepted the apology required of Red, who was then permitted to depart for his dormitory room.<\/p>\n

Holding no grudge, Robert Frost returned to Williston each spring for more \u201cBarding Around,\u201d at least until Red Douglas graduated in 1941.\u00a0 The record does not state whether Red continued to attend the readings.<\/p>\n

Skeptical?\u00a0 Oddly, I’m not.\u00a0 The story is, of course, really by Richard Douglas, merely transmitted by Lew Miller.\u00a0 There is substantial detail, but at no point does the narrator make the extravagant claims of the sort alumni indulge in when they reminisce about “good old days” — that stuff, I tend to take at about 50% (unless I’m telling the story).\u00a0 No one, more than 50 years after the event, claims or is given credit for the joke.\u00a0 And who might it have been?\u00a0 It would be easy to blame the maid, who actually produced the glass and poured the milk, except that it is unlikely she would have dared.\u00a0 Can it be that Frost was never the intended victim, rather that someone had spirited the glass into Galbraith’s kitchen, hoping to catch the Head himself?<\/em><\/p>\n

Frost’s visit was duly reported in <\/em>The Willistonian of June 3.\u00a0 There is no mention of anything untoward, but a rather nice irony in his chosen theme.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Willistonian, June 3, 1938<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Though not a Williston alumnus, arguably Lewis Miller (1919-2008) headed a Williston Northampton dynasty.\u00a0 He and his bride, Jean Douglas Miller ’36 (1918-2005), sent five children to Northampton School for Girls or Williston Academy.\u00a0 Two generations of descendants have attended since.\u00a0 Jean’s brother Richard Douglas ’41 (1923-2007) was the unwilling hero of the following memoir. … Continue reading The Poet and the Dribble Glass<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[140,336,287,12],"tags":[477,256,478,479],"class_list":["post-3930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni-alumnae","category-guest-bloggers","category-memoirs","category-williston-academy","tag-lewis-miller","tag-practical-jokes","tag-richard-k-douglas","tag-robert-frost"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3930"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3994,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions\/3994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willistonblogs.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}