Well, I went there at age thirteen, my father went up with me on the
train the day before, I never understood the reason why. We were
supposed to be there on a certain day and we went the day before. We
walked there from Alexandria, in those rugged individualist days, you
didn't worry about walking three miles, so we just walked on up. I and
one other boy were the only ones there that day. He is still living and
a good friend of mine, John T. Lewis Jr. The Episcopal High School then
was a little smaller than it is now, but not very much, it had about 185
boys. They had just finished two new dormitories which were regarded as
the ultimate in luxury, I suppose, although they were just like horse
stalls if you lived in them. [Laughter]
Really, literally, it was just a stall with a curtain in front of it and
a narrow bed and a wardrobe to put things in and one small chair with a
straw bottom. No desk, no light, just the window. You were not supposed
to stay in there, you weren't supposed to stay in there at all, it was
just to sleep. You got up in the morning and got out of there and went
to breakfast and came back and brushed your teeth and then you went to
class and then you played in some game or athletics or something in the afternoon and then went to study hall at
night.
I was, as I mentioned awhile ago, very fortunate in my previous
instruction, since I was a couple of years younger than most of the boys
in my class. I graduated at sixteen and I played on the baseball team, I
was singles tennis champion. I was homesick as the devil the first year,
like everybody else. The school did a great deal for me; I couldn't
admire it more than I do. Mr. Hoxton, the headmaster, was a great leader
of the boys, he was a tremendous personality and a great athlete, which
was what we thought was most impressive. He was not particularly
intellectual, which I find unfortunate now, but at the time, it didn't
hurt me in the least. He was a charming gentleman, very upright, and
honorable, devoutly religious, but he never discussed any cultural
subject, as far as I can recall. On Sunday nights, the boys would call
on him and on other teachers and he was very agreeable and would talk
about almost anything except books or art. He was really just not
interested in those subjects. When I went on the board of the school,
some of us got together and decided that we were going to try to get an
art course in the curriculum. There wasn't any when I was in the school.
On the board, as I said, we brought the matter up and didn't get
anywhere with Mr. Hoxton; he just didn't think that was the sort of
thing that ought to be taught in a boys' school. Latin, Greek, and
mathematics were the three things that he thought were fundamental, plus
a few other things like English, government, and history. Well, after
we butted our heads against a brick wall on
that, I talked to Mr. John Stewart Bryan, the publisher of the paper I
was working for, who was a great intimate of Mr. Hoxton. I asked Mr.
Bryan to please get hold of Mr. Hoxton the next time he went up to the
school and talk to him about an art course, which Mr. Bryan was all for
doing. He did talk to Mr. Hoxton the night before the board meeting, and
Mr. Hoxton was so completely converted that he wanted to build an entire
building devoted to art. Well, none of us wanted to do that. [Laughter] We didn't have any money to do it
with in the first place, but we did get the art course in, and after
that, music, and music appreciation [unclear] It was a better balanced curriculum.
Another shortcoming was that we were not urged by the school to take
advantage of the cultural opportunities in Washington. We had holiday
every Monday and you could go to Washington once a month, if you had the
money. If you were a monitor, you could go once a week. I was a monitor
my third year, but I seldom had the money to go to Washington, even once
a month. I had an allowance of 25¢ a week, which wasn't too unusual at
that time. Some plutocrats had a dollar a week, which seemed
astronomical to me. I would sometimes get money at Christmas and hoard
it so that I could go to Washington. When we went to Washington, it
seldom occurred to us to go to an art gallery or a symphony or to see
the workings of Congress. We would go to a cheap restaurant and get
lunch and maybe to a movie. We couldn't afford to go to any good
restaurant; we would go to the Washington Lunch and get hotcakes with
syrup. That was usually the extent of our splurge.
The school did a lot for me in the sense that they had a fine honor
system and very good instruction in the courses that they had. The
teachers were remarkable; a number of them were quite exceptional, and
made a lasting impression. While the curriculum was limited, it was
typical of the era, and similar to that in most southern prep
schools.