Spring, 1967:  Remembering our senior trip

This page updated 3/28/25

Do you have more photos to add to this or other pages?  Would you like to have higher quality version of the giant group photo shown below?  Submit photos or requests to george.riordan@mtsu.edu

Known as "The Washington Trip", our motor coaches pulled out of the Seaholm parking lot on Friday, March 24, headed for sites in Virginia, Washington, DC, and New York City.  And what a blast we had over the next week!  

We had a photo taken of the combined Seaholm and Groves contingent in fron of the U.S. Capitol.  It turned out to be a giant photo, made with a camera with a revolving lens.  Patrick Joyce unearthed his recently, and had to split it in thirds, just to get it all in.  Here's the jolly group on Monday, March 27, presented from left to right.  See who you can recognize from 58 years past!

VIDEO LINK:  Click on the link below for the 3 minute YouTube video featuring photos of the trip from Jeane Tipton Houston and George Riordan:

https://youtu.be/Y_2WBcZhCmo

TRIP ITINERARY: 

PHOTOS from the trip 

by Jeane Tipton Houson (b&w) and George Riordan (color):

Saturday, March 25 - First stop: Alexanderia, VA for breakfast, after the all-night bus trip, tooling along the Ohio Turnpike, threading through the Pennsylvania Turnpike, through Maryland and into Virginia.

A street in old Alexandria

Tour of Mt Vernon

George Washington's grave, Mt Vernon

Later on Saturday, we boarded busses (again) bound for Old Point Comfort, on the Atlantic side of the Virginia Penninsula, at Hotel Chamberlin.  After dinner, we had a variety show, featuring some of our classmates.  While details are a bit hazy from this vantage point, it seems that the skit on the left was based on Njinski's original 1913 choreograpy of the 'Dance of the Maidens' from Le Sacre du Printemps, originally set to music by Igor Stravinsky.  While this work literally caused a riot in 1913, in 1967 we in the audience were all exceptionally well-mannered. 

 

 

 

 

 

1967 version at left and below, original 1913 production above

 

Ken Pratt performs some magic tricks

 

History has not recorded the purpose of the large theater popcorn bucket hats and the mops and brooms used in the skit below, but some historians deduce that these were possibly inspired by the costumes designed by Pablo Picasso for the 1917 Surrealist production of the ballet Parade (music by Eric Satie).   Production photo, left; Picasso design, right; rehearsal photo below. 
 

The Senioritis Singers, a group from Groves

Sunday, March 26 - Williamsburg, and on to Washington, DC 

The day being Easter Sunday, began with a sunrise service at our Old Point Comfort hotel that included a choir drawn from both schools (Seaholm and Groves) singing the Hallujia from Beethoven's cantata Christ on the Mount of Olives.  Then we got on our busses and headed for...

Colonial Williamsburg!

The Capitol Building

Detail of The Capitol Building

Interior of the reconstruction of the House of Burgesses, the lower house of the colonial Virginia General Assembly

Maze in the garden of the Governor's Palace

Interior of the dining room at the Governor's Palace

and on to Washington!...

Monday, March 27 - Washington DC

Arlington National Cemetery

Tomb of the Unknowns

Tomb of President Kennedy

Iwo Jima Monument

Washington Monument

View of The Mall, toward the Capitol

View of the Tidal Basin and Jefferson Memorial

View of the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial

 

Smithsonian Museums

One of the Smithsonian Museums, with detail of the fascinating shade structures, below

Lincoln Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

Tuesday, March 28 - Washington DC, day 2

Tour of White House

Capitol, Supreme Court, and National Archives

On to New York City!

Wednesday, March 29 - New York City

Circle Line Tour boat trip around Manhattan

View of the Battery, from the boat

The stately Brooklyn Bridge, viewed from below

Captain Pete Hawkins, in command of the tour boat (or so it appears)

We sailed close by Lady Liberty

New York at night:  Times Square

Lights of New York City, from the Empire State Building

Thursday, March 30 - New York City, day 2

Tour of Lower Manhattan and the United Nations

Art work in the General Assembly Hall by  Fernand Léger

"Peace" by Marc Chagall, stained glass

Outside the UN building:  (left to right) Jeff McLean, John Filkins, and Janice Pletcher

Broadway Theatre: "I Do! I Do!", starring Mary Martin (South Pacific, many others) and Robert Preston (The Music Man) in a two-person production, with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones, produced by David Merrick.  An arrangement of the titular song was played at our J-Hop (senior prom) by one of the bands, the Amtones, a coincident fact pretty much unnoticed at the time.  Don't remember the tune "I Do! I Do!"?  Well, it wasn't very memorable.  Neither was the show.  Although it was a big hit at the time and considered a great success, running for 560 performances.  And we got to see it, in its first Broadway run!

Friday, March 31 - New York City, day 3: Free time, all day!

Photo taken of the view from one of our hotel rooms at the Statler Hilton

Board busses for the trip home, 6:15 pm

Saturday, April 1:  Arrive Seaholm parking lot at 8:15 a.m.

A look back further: Ours was the first trip to employ motor coaches for the long trips, on either end, prior to 1967, the Washington Trip involved rail travel.  Note this page from the '66 Piper:

Now, wasn't that a time!