Welcome and Overview | Mission | History | Committees | Council | Get Involved | Celebrate Tufts!

Celebrate Tufts!

Margaret Holmes Cook, J25 biography

Interview Excerpt
Margaret Holmes Cook, J25

On the important influence of the Universalist Church

"I had a grandfather—my mother's father—and my mother [who] practically ran the Universalist Church in my youth, so I was constantly there. When I got to high school, my English teacher was a graduate of Jackson, and she was the daughter of a Universalist minister. In a neighboring town was a longtime family friend named Bowen. Mr. Bowen was an active Tufts alumnus and gave the Bowen lions [the lion sculptures flanking the entrance to Barnum Hall]. My mother was Angie Sayles Holmes. When I went to Tufts, I decided that I'd use Sayles as a middle name instead of just Margaret Holmes (because of the Universalist connection). I discovered, in those first years especially, when we were young and learning a lot about the college and all, that Universalism was rampant. We went to chapel every morning."

When asked to describe the philosophy of the Universalist Church, Margaret recites by heart the following words, memorized when she was five years old:

"I believe in the Universalist fatherhood of God and spiritual authority and leadership of his son, Jesus Christ, in the trustworthiness that the Bible is containing a revelation from God and certainty of just retribution for sin, and the final harmony of all souls with God. In other words, the Universalists had a creed, which I have just recited. The Unitarians did not. That was the difference primarily, I think, between them."

On extracurricular activities

"Mildred Ward (my roommate) was a rabid sports girl. She wanted to be on every team you can imagine. And she was just the kind who got elected captain. So what did I do? I got myself chosen manager of any team she was on. I made out schedules and all that kind of thing. We ran all of them [the teams]. We really did.

"What we actually did for fun, outside of dating, was playing bridge. We lived in a house on the corner behind the dean's house. You know the main gate to the hill? There's a dean's house right across from it and down back is a big brick building. On the next corner down there was somebody's summer home and that was turned into a girl's dorm [Graves House]. We probably had 25 girls in it. And across the road was Start House. That was our social life down there. Bridge was not a regular thing at all, but it was astonishing. There were four of us at Graves House who adored playing bridge . . . [we did it] just to relax. It was our fun game.

"No matter who asked me out, I would probably go. I mean, I didn't pick up anybody special until about the last year. A small golf course had been built and I discovered this one man, who would cut class or do anything to go out there and play golf. So whenever I was free I would go too and we had a lovely time playing golf. There were only about seven or nine holes. But that didn't matter. I mean, we were just thrilled not to have to go somewhere to play. We didn't all have cars in those days either, you know. So to get to a golf course somewhere would have been an ordeal. But this was wonderful.

"Our life at Graves House was fun. I think we had a great house and so did the girls over at Start House. Maybe up at Metcalf, where there were so many more of them, it was harder. But we got along just fine. And Graves House was also next door to Professor and Mrs. Wren. Paul Wren was their son, and boy, did we all fall for him. Oh, he was so cute. Yes, he was so cute.

"The one person that I saw and perhaps could call a date was the Durkees' son, Ben. The Durkees had three children and they all went to Tufts. Ben was my age and the other two had come and gone. I don't know really why Ben and I got together and had some good times. I guess it was largely because he had gotten the use of his car. The Durkees didn't think much about letting the children have the car, but Ben could take the car. Mrs. Durkee loved fresh vegetables and eggs and things like that. And this community, East Arlington, particularly down closer to Tufts, had farms. You could go to the farm stand and buy things. That was the one big event when Ben would be sent up to Arlington to buy vegetables, and he'd always ask me to ride. That was a big event. It was a real thrill."

On world events

"I don't suppose I ever read a newspaper in all those four years. None was delivered at the dorm. I'm sure we didn't spend money buying one or having it delivered. We hardly knew what was going on, unless some professor brought up some event that struck him worthy of using as a topic, but as far as I was concerned, we were oblivious. We were just having a wonderful life."

On working

Margaret had a summer job in Adams overseeing a playground, earning money for college expenses, but got resourceful when she needed more.

"I know one time I asked the office, 'Isn't there any job?' I must have felt the need of cash. And they sent me to a place down on the boulevard, down at the foot of Tufts, where a woman had just come home from the hospital. She felt that she needed somebody and had asked somebody from college to come down and take care of her place and clean it up a little bit so she'd be happy recuperating. So Millie and I went down. We were thrilled. That woman and I got to be quite chummy for a long time. She didn't need me, you know, eventually when she grew well. But she always kept me in mind and would invite us down to have ice cream."

On the Reservoir

"Yes, I remember the Reservoir. [Laughs] You weren't properly a product of Tufts if you didn't have a date and walk around the reservoir once—at least. That happened to me. I was greatly amused. Who the man was now, I don't really remember offhand. I haven't thought of him in years, but he was a student. And all of a sudden, he invited me to walk around the Rez."

On the brightest memories

"Oh, well, many, many, many good times. I had a lovely time there. I learned to live with other people. As a little girl, I had only lived with adults. Running the teams and going to all the games. I went to every football and basketball game. I don't know, I guess we finally did have hockey. Sure, and gym didn't really lure me a lot, but I did all right. And certainly going to the movies was a 'going-on' and going into Boston. Of course, we were also gung ho, some of us, about going to really major events in Boston like symphonies and great concerts and all that kind of thing."

back to oral history homepage