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Douglass College Student Life: Dance with Dads

This guide includes pamphlets and other resources from the "Dance with Dads" from 1950s to 1970s.

Picture from the Time

[Pictured, left to right: Joan's father, Joan Hojecki, Carol McClure Sanzalone, Robert McClure.]

 

Carol McClure Sanzalone (DC’69) sent me this picture of her, her father, and her roommate and her roommate’s father. Her dad was the “host” for the day and was very proud of that fact.

 

As you can see, the Date with Dad event was not only for father-daughter bonding, but for the Douglass students’ fathers to bond as well.

In Orbit with Dad

The 1960s were an interesting time. The country had a preoccupation with the Space Race in which the United States and the Soviet Union were competing to put their ships and satellites up to the moon and other regions of outer space. That is why the 1961 Date with Dad theme was “In Orbit with Dad.”

Vietnam

Additionally, the Vietnam War was in full swing during the mid-60s.


Donna Blumenthal Chlopak  -- 1972 Class President -- recounted for me what it was like for her and her friends to sit around the television screen, hoping the men they knew weren’t being drafted. They had papers with all the birthdays of their friends on them and dreaded the time they would be called.

 

1969 Program

Automation

Also in the 1960s was a fear that automation would replace workers, leaving people without jobs. While automation did replace people, clearly not all people were replaced by machines.

 

1963 Program. It reads, "Our Dad...automation...won't replace him!"