There is no question that Saint Mary’s College forever holds a special place in the heart of every student who attends. The memories, the traditions, the troubles, and the hope for the future have all affected each Belle’s college experience. It is because our school is so unique that we couldn’t think of a better way to describe the Belle experience than through the stories of our awesome alumnae!
The tailgates, the parties, the friendships, the most valued traditions, all start with a Belle’s own story. Check out these hilariously funny and classic SMC stories that only a Belle could understand from fifty years ago, to now. This is SMC Then and Now!
It’s a Belle’s Life for Me.
“The curfews: we had to be in our rooms at 8:20pm each evening studying with a 10 minute break to run to the Rec at 9:50. On the weekends, the curfew was 10:30p on Friday and maybe 11:30 or 12p on Sat. if there was a dance at ND. I remember Sister Alma being there in Holy Cross Hall, checking to make sure we hadn’t been drinking when we came home. In LeMans, it was Sister Sophia. If you were chewing gum, you were very suspicious. I remember the uniforms we wore: grey wool suits with white blouses in the Winter and pastel golf dresses in Fall and Spring. I remember the night before we left for Christmas vacation when we put our stuffed animals outside our bedroom door and the upper class girls walked the halls singing Christmas Carols.”- Joan Thompson Class of 1958.
“A bunch of gal friends and I walked over to Notre Dame for our First pep rally experience as freshman. We were all huddled in a big crowd when all of a sudden someone pointed at me and shouted, “Her!” I was then picked up and threw over a Football players shoulder and carried away. My friends all laughed and waved me goodbye as the player informed me to act like his girlfriend and had carried me up five flights of stairs to meet his mother.” – Mary Ruth Renehan, Class of 1964
“Football weekends in South Bend are the Best. (Especially if you’re 21…) Friday happy hours were always a great start. Often times, punch was mixed with grain alcohol in garbage cans in order to serve the large party. I guess the grain alcohol killed the germs that would be in the garbage can. This sounds disgusting to me, but I do not ever remember anyone every questioning being served a drink that was mixed in a garbage can.” – Katie Hanfland Class of 1983
“The Panty Raid- We were to go buy underwear and large bras and put our names and phone numbers on them. Then the freshman Notre Dame guys would come running over like a huge to our freshman dorm, Regina, and we hung out of the windows throwing out the underwear! It was like a freshman initiation! It was a very exciting night for us freshman girls to unite with eachother and laugh at whatever phone calls that came after” – Brigit Briody Class of 1987
“One of my favorite memories is how we spent our time on Saturday afternoons during the winter of our Senior year. Everyone knows how bad South Bend winters are; not a whole lot to do. I have no idea who came up with it, but we had a Saturday afternoon “club” at one of the off campus houses. It, of course, involved a bunch of people, and a keg of beer. But was the main part was the games- not the typical college drinking games you might imagine. We played serious games of charades and name that tune. I vividly remember how much my stomach hurt from the laughter of watching friends try to act out AC/DC’s I’ve got big balls.” – Shelia Montroy Class of 1987
“Just minutes after being dropped off at Saint Mary’s for the first time, my two sisters turn to me and say, “you have to make your own friends – you cannot hang out with us and our friends. For the first few weeks – try and only stop by our rooms on Sunday’s” The door closed and not twenty minutes later did I hear a knock on the door. An adorable girl with a huge grin on her face asked me if I was Barabara Biasley and told me she was my sister’s best friend’s sister. She invited me to a happy hour at Notre Dame and me, not knowing what that meant, agreed to go and we, me and all these new, older girls walked to Dillon Hall for happy hour. Clare introduced me to so many new people and we had a blast of a night and I had my first ride home on the last shuttle from the grotto. A girl up front got puked on by another girl. thankfully we were on the back of the bus (shocker) – howling laughing.” – Barbara Baisley Murray Class of 1987
“I’m remembering being in line for pizza at Vesuvio’s after a night a Finnegan’s. We literally had $2 to our name – if we buy pizza, we can’t afford a ride from Lenwood home. If we do the responsible thing and take a cab, we have no money for pizza. So we do what any brilliant SMC chick would do. We get in line for pizza, and identify a nice looking Domer several people in line behind us in a purple and white checkered shirt. We order our pizza and kindly tell the cashier that the guy in the back in the purple and white checkered shirt is paying for us. We grab our pizza, and run with enough money to get home.” – Katie Newberger Class of 2002
“I got in trouble for dressing up my high school friend like a girl and made him wear a bra stuffed with socks to get past the front desk of LeMans. Then he got busted by security and the security guard called me to “reclaim my items” I.e. My bra!” – Kathryn O’Connell’ 2002
Once a Belle Always a Belle
“When we were at Saint Mary’s we developed a group of friends that was about 30 girls. This group was made up of about 4 different groups. In recent years we have all stayed in touch through emails. One of the girls in our group found out she had pancreatic cancer. We started group emails of about 30 girls. In these emails we would set up a day and time when we would all stop what we were doing and pray for our friend. After about 2 years, our friend died. Since most of us did not live close by we could not attend the services. There is enough of us in the Chicago land area that about 10 of us meet at a church in La Grange at the time of the actual funeral services and we had our own little service.” – Tracy Flannery Class of 1987
“You know what a Saint Mary’s graduate will grow into – a smart, kind, confident, faith-filled woman who is willing to acknowledge her strengths and weaknesses – one who takes a normal, grounded approach to the peaks and valleys of life – someone who will work harder than anyone else in the room – not because she has to – but because she wants to.” – Barbara Baisley Murray’1987
Check back next week for some more SMC Then and Now Stories!
All stories are true accounts
Photos provided by the author