At the starting gate

With a high school diploma from Jefferson High School in Portland, Betty Hines was anxious to enroll at Reed, and because of her interest in chemistry, the admission process consisted of an interview with her would-be major professor, Dr. Ralph K. Strong. Strong advised her to wait a year before starting, so she took postgraduate coursework at Jefferson, a school she remembers for its high standard of education.

As a day-dodger, she rode the Sellwood Trolley [Eastmoreland car 1046] to Reed, then the bus. The majority of the 300 students attending were also day-dodgers, and Betty knew them as well as those who lived on campus. "Day-dodgers had their own particular activities and dorm people had theirs. They did mix, and there was no particular restriction. It was a matter of time and availability." The primary mixing activities outside of classes were chorus, theatre, dances, and sports. Academic requirements, however, kept her burning the midnight oil.

Easy, as A–B–C

In her first chemistry class at Reed, where seating was assigned alphabetically, Betty found herself next to Walter F. Holzer '29 (pictured at right), whom she married years later. ("He said he couldn't get away.") "I've always been happy that Dr. Strong dis-couraged me from entering, because otherwise I wouldn't have sat next to him."

After three years as a day-dodger, she moved into residence hall C of the Old Dorm Block (A, B, C, and D halls west of Sallyport were for women, while E, F, G, and H were for men). "I remember after Halloween waking up, opening the door, and discovering a bale of hay outside our door. It was quite a big bale of hay. I couldn't get out the door. I remember telling Walter all about this and he was keeping a straight face. He was one of the perpetrators."

The same score for "all"

Charles Botsford, who was head of physical education for men, was a fine influence, Betty remarked. "Whenever you'd go into the gym, and people were playing volleyball, he would say, ‘seven all.'"(Or any other number that he chose, but the score was always "all.") "Never anybody ahead." Sports at Reed in the late 1920s included football, played by a team embarrassed by winning; tennis; and volleyball. Golf, known as "cow-pasture pool," wasn't as popular as it is today, she explained. Betty played on the Reed volleyball team for three years. "You could either have three sports for one year and get a letter, or three years and one sport, which I did. We used to play with Pacific College [Pacific University in Forest Grove]."

During her sophomore year, Betty remembers that significant efforts got underway to raise money for building the outdoor pool. "When I first saw lakeside, it was lakeside. There was no pool, nothing, except the lake. There used to be a tug-of-war across the lake, one group on the other side."