LANDED AT HOLLINS
(48:33)Hieu: So, Was Hollins a very beginning of your activities that involved with protests and society what happened around those years?
Brinton: Yeah…and Hollins abroad was critical.
Hieu: How did you get to Hollins, Dr. Lykes?
Brinton: Yeah! That’s a good question. How did I get to Hollins.
Hieu: Yeah!
Briton: UM…….I got to Hollins …I think because…..when I was…..two different ways. One when I was in high school, I really like French, and I hadn’t been in French since I was a kid. Um…..because I went to school was taught by nun that was historically …..French speaking, so they taught French in my school from the time you were little, you went to French classes……..may be .(49:12)just once a week, I don’t remember. But I do remember in seven grade….For example that we had a play that was in French, so we knew enough how to speak that we could actually plug in…you know…dramatic production …um….and I was in that place ….um….and I……so when I ….I guess when I was sophomore in college and high school …..um…..when you started looking at colleges, I read about Hollins abroad, and …and by ….this point, by the time I was probably ….fourteen or fifteen years old….I was like …..D…R…E…MING of leaving home, going to college. ..( both…..Laughing…)….BIG….BIG idea in my head. And I saw… this going to Europe for a year, and my….my FATHER was in business, so he traveled a lot when I was a kid growing up. And he used to send postcards all the time, sometime my mother went with him, and sometimes he went by himself. He traveled …um….in Europe some ….and …..When I was a child, and probably (preteen???) ……he traveled through Africa down the south Africa, along the coast of Africa and then the other moments….he traveled to China and Viet Nam and to ..SO he used to send post card all the time when I was a kid and I was fascinated by the rest of the world. I just can’t believe ……
Hieu: That does also contribute to your curiosity, too.
Brinton: Yeah…yeah…it‘s true.
(50:31) So the idea of living in Europe ….in sort of….. this some of tools …….SO I had HOLLINS in my head from that reason and then when I …..um…..I think I mentioned Billy book, I read this book about the people…of…Salem, I didn’t know exactly where Salem was …accept I knew…was in Massachusetts. So when I started looking for colleges, I started looking for colleges in Massachusetts.
Hieu : Uh, huh…….
(51:00)Brinton: And …..Because I when to Catholic schools and because …..not..(pause)…..college was not a big thing in my parents head. ….I heard a lot about the schools that …I went to and I hadn’t..heard about Catholic schools. So basically, my search for colleges was very limited. I had Catholic schools that I’m telling you about it and I had Hollins as my parents picked out and it was ok place for me to go. And that was sort of my first time major collision board off my family…..my parents who said I can go to college wherever I wanted. Fundamentally I decided that I was going to Hollins. Because when I got in colleges in New England, my father said my mother did not want me to leave the South, and my mother said my father did not want me to go to a Catholic college, because I was getting to go to NOT Catholic …..I don’t really know to this day what it was. They both said “you were going to school to Virginia for two years, if you change, if you want to transfer after that, you can transfer. And Hollins was very clever at that point. They sent you way half of your sophomore and your junior year. By the time you were done that, transfer to another college, it was a big of a challenge.
Hieu: Yeah, exactly. You don’t want to do that in the third year.
Brinton: So….I LANDED at Hollins, that was the best option….limited option. You know I grew up in the South. I grew up most Southerners if they went ……..Most kids that I grew up with, they went to colleges. They went to the state universities that ……or they went to colleges right there in New Orleans. I think the kids I went to high school with, there were only three went to colleges. Um….so It was not and normalize thing .
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..............................Brinton: And I am still in contact with ...some people I didn’t know that well at Hollins but I ……..I knew them a little bit and like a woman name …Brian…Murphy who I worked with today …with ???……she was in my class at Hollins. Um…we didn’t know each other that well when we were there, but we knew each other a little ….um…and I have not ever gone back Hollins for reunion but ……there is a woman name Mc Livingston who was ….um…on Hollins abroad, and she lives in Connecticut. And they had…a number of reunions for people that went on Hollins abroad together …and I have gone to those. That has been in Rode Island…a parents’ house in Rode Island. Um…so I kept up a little bit with them…..and there’re a few people that I see from time to time.
(56:55)Hieu: So when you go to Hollins, you decided Philosophy major right away or you changed it couple times?
(57)Brinton: Um…………(thinking) …….that ‘s un interesting question!......I am sure when I went to Hollins, I studied French, but I think that I was interested in Phylosophy in religions for…..from the time I got there and ……quite frankly ……the people that I kept up the most at Hollins are most of professors …as…students….like Ally (???)Frajer…and ….I had a professor when I was the first year student, and Ally died just a couple of years ago. And then Lary Becker, um….who was in philosophy department I had when I was in freshmen and ………I have been back to Hollins couples times to speak. And I stayed with the Beckers ….um…and seeing them. And they suddenly had a very important formative experience on me. And then there was a guy who …who I worked with …..who was a (Chapplen?/), actually who was a Catholic priest in Roanoke during that period of time, who I got to know very well ……..and ..um….
Hieu: Yes! You mentioned that in the speech.
(58:03)Brinton: …to……Jack …Mislan??…Um ….but…..I was …..again people at Hollins who were two and three years ahead of me …..like when I was fresh year student at Hollins, I was a freshmen, and I lived in what it’s called West Annet….which was a little building that was connected to west. It’s something else now, it ‘s not a dorm…….but I lived in the dorm with seniors , they were all seniors ….so I got to know people at Hollins were much older than I was. And I stay in touch with some of them interestingly enough. Um….and then people who were a year or two ahead of me,um….who also went on Hollins abroad, who I got to know through living in the dorms………