<p>The local Smith party for prospective students is next Sunday. </p>
<p>For those not in the LA area, you might want to check with your local Smith rep or call the Smith Admissions office for the phone numbers of the closest alumnae reps.</p>
<p>The event that D went to when she was a junior was what first rocketed Smith towards the top of her list and she's been to four subsequent parties so far, the last three as a current student.</p>
<p>Anybody from the LA area going to the party at Vivian Forbes' house please feel free to say "Hi!" to me...I'll be the "guinea pig Dad" for all the parents to talk to (and keep them occupied while their daughters talk to current students unimpeded by POS).</p>
<p>This is off topic for LA prospie parties, but relevant in giving prospective students a sense of how small a world it becomes when you are a Smithie:</p>
<p>This morning I went to a local shop to buy comestibles for New Years Eve. My daughter had gotten to the shop before me, arriving right at opening time. I found her in the midst of an animated discussion with another young woman, who turned out to be another Smithie who just happened to be working in the shop -- AND she lives in the same house, right down the hall from my daughter. Ten minutes later, another young woman walked into the shop -- what a surprise! Another Smithie! The lovely thing was how glad they were to see each other.</p>
<p>Last night I tuned into a program on PBS about a children's book illustrator and writer who is a pioneer in the field: Virginia Lee Burton (who wrote and illustrated "Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel" among other classics). And there was Carol Christ, president of Smith, and Susan Etheridge, an esteemed education professor at the college, paying tribute to the significance of this pioneer in children's book publishing. </p>
<p>Once you are interested in Smith, it will show up on your radar screen more than you think it might -- for a small women's college in New England.</p>
<p>Yeah, Smithies pop out of the woodwork everywhere. I've heard the story of a Smith alum getting lost in Barcelona and getting stopping someone on the street who happened to be another Smith alum who now lived there. As well as people you've never heard of volunteering to let you stay with them when they heard a Smithie was traveling in their area, e.g., northern Austria.</p>
<p>Susan P. Etheredge is a classmate of mine, and it was a pleasure to see her at reunion last May (Now there's a good place to bump into fellow alumnae!)
TD, Susan and I took ballet together under the memorable tutelage of Karen Williamson, an ABT dancer who was brought in when the esteemed Rosalind deMille became injured.</p>