social activities – Malvena Pearl's Emporium

Fires of Wisdom: Mills College Alumnae Oral History Project, update for 2023

Recently, I have been asked to speak about a project near and dear to my heart, one to which I contributed many years of labor and creativity. I was able to work with excellent colleagues. Mills College is no more, but the history of the place, the lives of the women who found their way to this college are very vivid and compelling. The alumni want to keep this memory alive, just as we did in this oral history project, Fires of Wisdom.

For many years, I was active with my college’s Alumnae Association. I helped to found a group called Fires of Wisdom: the Mills College Alumnae Oral History Project. I had an internship as an undergraduate at Mills College. Our goal was to interview the eldest living alumnae and friends of the college first and to meet women who were returning to campus for their “golden” reunion of 50 years or more. We wanted to make these stories of traditions and memories available at the Mills College Library, so other researchers could have access to what we learned.

We went about doing interviews with the eldest of our college alumnae and Mills friends. We wrote curriculum and researched training methods for teaching volunteers how to conduct oral history interviews; we drew on the work of other oral history groups like the Regional Oral History Office at University of California at Berkeley. We initially found assistance from professors at Mills, like Marianne Sheldon and at other schools across the U.S. who were implementing this type of research. Oral history methodology at that time was not in the forefront of academia. In fact, when I begun this work, there was only one book on the topic at our campus library. All of the interviews, the teaching, the assistance for this project was done by volunteers like me, with very little funding from the Alumnae Association. Many years after we began this work, we combined forces with other scholars to archive our interviews with the Oakland Living History Project at the Mills Olin Library.

You can look up the archives of the Fires of Wisdom Mills College Alumnae Oral History Project in the Mills Olin Library here.

Mills College differed from the many colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area in that it is was, until recently, a women’s college for the undergraduate programs. After World War II, the graduate programs were coeducational. One of the most famous graduates of Mills was musician Dave Brubeck. You may have seen an amazing interview with Mr. Brubeck, a native of California, in Ken Burns’ jazz documentary.

Through our interviews we learned what campus and off-campus life was like in various decades before the 1990s. We heard about past traditions at the college, student perspectives on historical events and about the formidable personality, mission and rhetorical skills which comprised the character of Aurelia Henry Reinhardt, the college president from 1916-1943. During her time at Mills, Aurelia experienced two world wars and addressed issues of these conflicts openly and with a compassion that makes her unique. Her commitment to women’s education was inspiring. We began dedicating our work to this intriguing past president of the college when our volunteer group began doing Dramatic Readings at Mills College Reunions, complete with slide shows of our interviewees (also known as narrators) and with our group dressed in vintage dress to represent the decades of women we interviewed.

For this project, we made every effort to locate and interview alumnae of color and find people with diverse economic and cultural backgrounds, not just the famous folks with the most successful careers or those who already had the most written accounts or interviews of their lives. Those had already been done. We wanted to create a kind of mosaic of perspectives on life in the SF Bay Area during the tenure of President Reinhardt.

While I was at Mills College, (1992-1994) as a Resuming Student, I commuted to campus. I was a member of the the Mary Atkins resuming students’ lounge, where nontraditional-aged students could form study groups and support each other as we returned to school. Some of my classmates were over 40 years old, some were in their seventies. Many had children to support and jobs while completing their undergraduate degrees. I was 29 when I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies, after many years of working and attending college part-time at other universities. The Olin Library on Mills campus was a refuge for me as was the Reinhardt Alumnae House, where I did much of my research and met up with advisers, interviewees and volunteers for the project.

During my 11 years of volunteering for the Alumnae Association, I made a lot of friends who were alumnae. I met students and college staff members. To thank volunteers for their time, we had to find a fun way to gather. So we started having tea.

Through Fires of Wisdom, which we named after the college’s anthem or hymn, the core group of volunteers started some new traditions and reclaimed some others. One is based on stories of Holiday Tea with the President Reinhardt. Several members of our group collect vintage clothing. Many of us just like hats. We all seem to like tea. So, we dress up, with our hats, gloves, shoes, purses and enjoy High Tea at Lovejoy’s Tea in San Francisco..

Although we have since archived all of the interviews we did with Mills College Alumnae and friends at the Olin Library, we still like to get together, dress up and share our stories. Here is this year’s photograph of our participants:

Fires of Wisdom 2011 Tea at Lovejoy's in San Francisco — Fires of Wisdom 2011 Tea at Lovejoy’s in San Francisco

The other members of the group in the 2011 photo are, left to right: Moya Stone, Erika Young, Betsy McCall, Beth Woolbright, Jane King, Cecille Caterson, Kathleen McCrae and on the far right, Malvena Pearl’s Emporium proprietor, Suzette Lalime Davidson.

Please note that my dear friend Jane Cudlip King is at the center, in the photo, here. She graduated from Mills in 1942 and had done decades of volunteer service with the college. She prepared young people to take the S.A.T. and had the best memory for the works of Shakespeare quotations that I’ve ever encountered. She also did a great impression of President Aurelia Henry Reinhardt, with all of her vast elocutionary skills.

Two people who I meant to have in this photo were the other founders of the project: Kristen B. Caven and Penny Peak. We trained more than 30 volunteers for this project and only a handful are as enthusiastic about “dressing up” as we are.

We are grateful to Nancy MacKay, formerly of the Mills College Library, for assisting with the archive of all the interviews; Professor Marianne Sheldon, Professor Andy Workman and Professor Sherry Katz.

Mills Oral History Project, the early years, 1996

Jane Austen Mini-Convention in San Mateo, CA

Our friends with the Jane Austen Society of Northern California let us know that there was a mini-convention in the works for March, 2017, and we got prepared.

Our proprietor was able to find a suitable outfit to wear, created and loaned by creative and talented Lynn McMasters, who also created the outstanding Timeline of Fashionable Hats for Ladies and Gentlemen during the time period of Jane Austen, that was on display at the Public Library in San Mateo.

We had delightful historical and literary presentations by a number of members of the Jane Austen Society, live music and country dancing. Ann Morton provided delicious cakes and other desserts for our consumption. We had a game of Whist, presided over by Deborah Borlase. Our Proprietor offered a hands-on writing workshop for those who wanted to learn or revive their skills with the quill pen and ink, folding paper and sealing it with wax. We had a marvelous turn-out of all ages of people, met some old friends and made some new ones.

It’s now been requested that we help organize a program, like this one, as a fundraiser for the Vassalboro Grange in Maine, with Full Circle Farm founders Jody and Bernie Welch, our Proprietor’s sister and brother-in-law. So stay tuned, gentle readers, for more information about that event, coming your way in August, 2017.

2017 Events planned so far

The photo above was taken at our friend Kristen Caven’s book release party, an event called An Afternoon at Caffe Florian. It was held at the Bellevue Club in Oakland, CA.

Just prior to the Afternoon at the Bellevue Club, our Proprietor attended a dance with friends in Alameda, CA that was a Hogwart’s Reunion Ball, hosted by P EERS. Evidence of her attendance is below.

But wait! There’s MORE! Coming up in March, our Proprietor will be attending the Jane Austen Society of Northern California’s Mini-Con at the San Mateo Library. She will be instructing students in the art of letter writing, using a variety of historically appropriate quill pens, ink, sealing wax and paper.

We are getting sponsors for this event, and the most prominent is the San Mateo Public Library, where last year’s event was held and was a huge success. So that’s on Saturday, March 25, 2017, from Noon – 4:00 PM at 55 West 3rd Avenue, San Mateo, CA 94402. Many of us will be dressed up in our Regency attire, which is in no way required. There will be presentations, dance instruction, lectures on various Jane Austen related topics and of course hands-on workshops like this one on Letter Writing, entitled, “Creating Regency Letters with the Tools of Jane Austen’s Time.” Who knows? There may even be tea served!

Events in 2016

Our Proprietor has been so busy, this year, she realized that she hadn’t taken the time to enter a proper Update for this season’s events.

The first photo is from the Blind Baby Foundation’s Beeper Egg Hunt, a few years back, with the pictured pals Kenny and Kate, plus Costumer’s Guild members (Helena, Lynne, Dawn and the Proprietor) creating the costumes and helping out. We had an Alice in Wonderland Tea Party for the young guests; and gathered contributions of tea, cookies and all sorts of raffle prizes from kind Oakland vendors. That day at the BBF Beeper Egg Hunt was much fun. So, this year, our Proprietor remembered that she might borrow the Alice costume that Helena created and is wearing in the photo for a similar event at the Camron-Stanford House! In the next photo she’s wearing the Alice dress, standing next to the amazing docent training officer, Molly (on her right) as they both admire the handiwork of Dragonfly Cakes in Sausalito. “Eat Me,” the cake told Alice.

IMG_20160312_134234749 — March Hare Tea at the Camron-Stanford House, Oakland, CA with Molly (right)

IMG_6371(1) — 2016 Edwardian Ball, San Francisco

Here are some other photos from events we attended. The black, silk, beaded shirt was a gift from Sara, who received it from a design teacher. It was apparently beaded in Paris in the early 1900s, so the Proprietor wore it to the Edwardian Ball in San Francisco.

And here is evidence that the Emporium’s Proprietor does a fair amount of community work on behalf of women and girls. She’s performing the monologue called “The Flood,” in Eve Enslers’s Vagina Monologues. This year, with a cast of 9 women, they were able to raise $1,200 to give to Oakland Elizabeth House for women and their children who are homeless.

Flood 2 — V-Day at the Uptown Lounge. “The Flood.”

We recently learned of the passing of our dear friend Jane Cudlip Coblentz King, Mills College class of 1942. She is pictured, above, at the center of our group in the grey and black jacket. Jane was 93 years old when she passed last fall. She retired from tutoring just the year before and boy howdy, could she tell jokes, stories and remember Shakespeare, line, act and scene! She is dearly missed by our group of volunteers in Fires of Wisdom, the Mills College Oral History Project, pictured above. We miss her so much, some of us made a gift to the American Heart Association in her memory.

~~ Malvena Pearl’s Emporium staff also witnessed the glory that is/was the Pan Pacific Exposition, entitled Jewell City. There are many images, including a lot of stories, here. ~~

Finally, the Proprietor started off in January of this year assisting some clients with their outfits for the NOIR CITY Film Festival at the Castro Theater in San Francisco. Here are some happy film goers!

My grandmother’s Scrabble club

I promised to tell a story about my grandmother, for whom this blog was named. I only found out about the weekly Scrabble club from one of her friends from her church, a Meeting of Friends in Vassalboro, which I used to visit in the summers, when I went back to Maine. I heard about the Scrabble group at Grammie’s funeral from one of the other players, when we were telling each other our favorite things about Grammie.

First, I have to tell you what prompted this. It was a reminder of one of my other Favorite Things About Grammie.

Recently, my friend K. lost a friend, on social media. Not by death or in “real” life. K. lost someone because her former friend didn’t believe in K.’s support of gay marriage. K.’s mother Ruth’s words ring true, in this case. They remind me of my grandmother. When a phone call came to Ruth’s mostly-Republican neighborhood in sport of Proposition 8 – or Proposition Hate, as many of us called it – that was opposed to gay marriage in the state of California, Ruth simply said she would not support Proposition 8. When asked why, Ruth replied, “Who are we to stand in the way of love and happiness?”

This is so in keeping with my grandmother’s words. We had a unique discussion about this topic, back in the early 1990s. Grammie was 92 years old. She surprised me with her candid thoughts and blew away any preconceived notions I’d had of how “the older people get, the more conservative they get.” This was not the case. Grammie was shocked to learn that Ross Perot, who was running for president, was firing people in his campaign when he thought that they were gay. Grammie was a lifelong member of the Friends Meeting, the Quakers. She didn’t usually talk about politics or religion with me. But she was upset. She said, “You cannot tell just by looking at someone that they are a homosexual. That’s outright discrimination.” She explained that there were many gay people in her Meeting.

She didn’t say this at the time, but there were gay people in our family that had only come out to her, and she had kept their secret throughout her life. My young nephew was able to come out to his parents, and to me. Our uncle was not so lucky. Many of us guessed that my grandmother’s eldest son had a hard time after his return from WWII. He was forever changed by the experience of driving an ambulance in Normandy, at age 18 — after being raised a Quaker. I know that kind of experience would change anyone. Grammie always supported my uncle, with unconditional love, through his drinking problems, even when he was not able to focus on a career or on his own children or marriage. She never gave up on him. Later in life, he discovered tattoo art and opened a studio. He took his grandchildren with him to England, when he visited other tattoo friends there. He would bring back the most delicate tea cups for my grandmother’s china collection. He had what I would call a mural on his back of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party from Alice in Wonderland. The only reason I know this is because I saw the photos that he gave Grammie of his competition in a tattoo show. He never showed me this body art, himself. But we were pallbearers together when Grammie passed. She was a very quiet, very loving person. Very respectful.

Back to the Scrabble club. The woman I spoke to at Grammie’s funeral said she was the youngest member of a Scrabble group and it was an honor for her to have been asked to be part of it; the other three players were all over 80 years old. She and her longtime companion had met my grandmother at the Quaker Meeting House. I learned that each Friday night, three of Grammie’s women friends would arrive at her house, with some snacks to share, to play Scrabble. The format was always consistent. They played the first three games in total silence. Then they’d take a break, laugh and chat, break out the snacks and have tea. The fourth game was much more relaxed and they talked while they played. She said she was really going to miss those games. They were run like clockwork, a vital part of her week. And she said that my grandmother was one of the best Scrabble players she had ever met.

Now, I kind of knew this about my Grammie. My grandmother never told me about those games, nor did she ever talk about her religion. She’d invite me to go to Meeting and if I was too tired, no problem. She’d go and come back and we’d have the rest of Sunday together with visiting. If I wanted to go, she’d smile and she got to introduce me to her Friends. She was a very capable and gentle listener with a killer sense of humor and a contagious laugh. She loved listening to baseball games on the radio. Sometimes, when we were younger, we’d walk along the edge of her property, along the road where the black-eyed susans and daisies grew, and we’d pick up garbage. Just cleaning the neighborhood together. Making it tidy. Or we’d plant pansies in her yard. Sometimes we’d just sit on the porch and listen to the birds and the sounds of the occasional car going by. We didn’t really need to say anything. She loved to be with us, her family. She absolutely glowed, in that quiet way, when we’d visit. Also, as I learned from this other Scrabble player — and other members of her Meeting — something I knew about her. She gave the Best Hugs, Ever. To EVERYONE in her church. I seriously have never known anyone like her. And that’s why she is my mentor, to this day.

Many things to Do and Tell about

So, do tell! Our proprietor went to her 20th Mills College Reunion yesterday and she saw lots of long-lost pals and even met some new ones whom she had only known in her volunteer capacity as Class Agent from 1994 to 2007 or so. She even did some (gasp) Networking for her day job status, as she has only recently been offered a Temporary Full Time Job at her old stomping grounds, UC Berkeley. Aherm. What does the Queen of England have to say about this? Let’s find out:

We were So Pleased to see our buddy and pal Jane Cudlip King, from the class of 1942, at the lunch on Toyon Meadow! We also saw Redwood Mary and hung out with her for most of the day, meeting friends and classmates of hers, getting caught up, getting our photo taken and hearing part of a dramatic reading of Letters written to Mills College President Aurelia Henry Reinhardt, during the Japanese internment period of American History (talk about infamy, holy cats, why did the government force people to live at race tracks?!) that was being read at Danforth Hall. Our proprietor could only stay for an hour and a half of that before she had to go to her Class Dinner at a classmate’s home, which was also awesome in many 21st century ways, unlike walking back into the past when seeing all the wonderful alumnae and staff who were Kind to her. That is what we take away from the day at Mills.

Also? The lunch didn’t suck and she got to give out information about her latest volunteer organizations, the East Bay Children’s Book Project and the Next Step Learning Center for adult literacy in Oakland.

Speaking of life during World War II, Here are some Photos of the Fires of Wisdom: Mills College Alumnae Oral History Project at a few of the annual Tea outings, which keep the Mills Tradition of Having Tea and Schmoozing up a storm. CAN YOU TELL WE LIKE HATS? Yes. Yes we do. Old hats. And outfits that recall the Tea Parties of Yesteryear. We keep this Fire alive to Stay Connected and share Experience, Strength and Hope. To share our activies and triumphs, stories of our travels and job huts. And to give scoop on what vintage clothing stores and thrift shops are still in business or what flea markets for charity had the best deals on gloves. (not really a huge topic but sometimes…)

The first photo is of the Fires of Wisdom group at a performance of our Dramatic Reading at Alumnae Reunion at Mills A note from our proprietor: HI JANE! I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU ARE STILL CONDUCTING THE CAMPUS TOURS! We LOVE YOU and WE HAVE MISSED YOU SO MUCH! I almost burst into tears when I hugged you, yesterday! SEE YOU SOON!