college – Thoughts From The Passenger Seat

Today I drove up to my college, Annhurst College in Woodstock, Connecticut for my 45th class reunion. I wrote about it here for a prompt on “what colleges have you attended?”.

It was a lovely hour and a half drive, part highway, part back roads. Once I got there, I checked in and then took some time to walk around the grounds which is now the South Campus for Woodstock Academy.

*I love that the building is called Annhurst Hall!*

I will tell you more about the day with pictures later but you want to know what made it my Lucky Day?!

My ticket was the first of ALL the raffle tickets pulled! I picked the BIGGEST basket there. All the items were from Maine – maple syrup, coffee, crackers, pancake mix, popcorn, potato chips, jam, soap – it was so heavy!

Then, just before lunch, I was getting ready to put the basket in my car so I could pull my chair closer to the table and then said they were drawing the 50/50 raffle. I set the basket by the door and sat down.

MY TICKET WAS CALLED! It was the first year they did this raffle. I won $175.00! Everyone was saying, “What?! She won again?”

It must have been that Holy Spirit shining down on me today. Or maybe because I was sitting next to a “Daughter of the Holy Spirit”? 😁 That was the order of nuns at our school, and I was sitting next to my former boss in the Admissions office, Sister Gertrude 😁

Whatever caused it, I felt truly blessed by my prizes and to be with the incredible women (and a few men) in the room today.

What colleges have you attended?

I attended one college from 1978 to 1980 and received my Associates Degree in Secretarial Science back when that was still a thing.

Annhurst College was a beautiful liberal arts college set in Woodstock Connecticut – “the quiet corner” of the state. Laid out on both sides of Route 169 it was originally a teaching college for Daughters of the Holy Spirit, the nuns who taught in the catholic schools in the eastern part of the state. It then developed into a “regular” college for girls, and by the time I got there, it was co-ed with a 5-1 ratio of females to males. At the time I was there the student body was around 250-300 people.

The college consisted of one old brick building that housed “the gym” and sciences classrooms on the second floor, and classroom/administration building, a student center/cafeteria, and cultural center of built in the 1960s. There were two dormitories – one built in the 1960s and the other built earlier, as well as another building that housed the nuns when I went there and contained the chapel. There were also old homes that some nuns lived in and one was used for the admissions office. In the basement was The Hobbit Hole, the college bar. The only official place to drink in Woodstock because it was a dry town!

I loved it from the moment I saw it. I loved walking everyday to meals and to classes along the paths, sitting out in front of the student center after a meal, or waiting for one, riding my bike to Roseland Lake, taking the school’s bus to Putnam on Fridays to pick up supplies from K-Mart, ordering pizza nearly every night (and gaining that “Freshman 15”), and just reveling in the beauty of the countryside.

Sadly, in the spring of my 2nd (and last) year at Annhurst, it was announced that it would be closing at the end of the academic year. all underclassmen were given help to find somewhere to go at that late notice and alumni were left without “a home”. It really left a hole in the hearts of everyone.

Nancy (me) Annhurst College Graduation May 1980

Views of Annhurst College present day (2023)

Thankfully about 10 years ago, an alumni association was started up and there is an annual reunion held at the campus which is now part of Woodstock Academy (a private school).

My husband and I occasionally ride out to Woodstock on the motorcycle and he drives down Route 169 so I can have my bit of nostalgia.

*A common conversation after graduation:

ME: I go to Annhurst college. THEM: Oh! Amherst in Massachusetts wow! ME: No, ANNhurst college in Woodstock. THEM: Woodstock NY! Oh wow! ME: NO ANNhurst College in Woodstock CT. It closed the year I graduated. THEM: Oh! Never heard of it.

Tell me in the comments if you’ve ever heard of it!

Tag: college

My Lucky Day!

ANNhurst, not AMherst*