Prologue

I am often asked how we met. So, very quickly, here is the bare bones.

Dr. Gunter-Richards is famously well educated—PhD with honors from Yale, PhD with highest honors from Dartmouth. I also carry an Ivy League PhD, so many people assume we met at some sort of colloquium or conference. In fact, we met in a South Boston diner as undergrads. We had both seen a neighborhood theater rendition of Waiting for Godot.

After the show, a number of the theater patrons moved their discussions across the street to the closest coffee shop. We did not speak Instead, Dr. Richards talked to my date, though argued would be closer. David is a Harvard graduate and he never stood a chance. It’s worth mentioning that though we never spoke, Dr. Richards did give me one of her famous deconstructions. It was not a pleasant experience.

We would not meet again for over two years. During that time I graduated from Mount Holyoke and began graduate school at Dartmouth. Dr. Richards was on a faster track. She finished her baccalaureate degree in one additional semester, then her doctoral work in three more. To be clear, Doctor Richards earned a PhD, from Yale, in four years from secondary school. This was noticed in high places, such as Governor’s offices, which in turn gave Dr. Richards a leg up when she went into politics.

The occasion of our meeting was Sociology 521 - Cultural Sociology, which is the University’s way of describing a directed readings course. I was a student in the class and was feeling impatient because the instructor was a few minutes late. That quickly vanished when I saw the name she had written on the whiteboard. It would be two more weeks before we exchanged our first words, though I admit I spoke at length behind her back. Truth be known, Dr. Richards was an easy target, so I sniped.

This adversarial relationship lasted well past the end of the course. In those days, Dr. Richards was not paying any attention to her appearance, hard as that is to believe now. It was easy to mock this or that aspect of her presentation, until the makeover. You are aware of the merry-go-round wedding, which Dr. Richards coordinated and Francine Martel was a bridesmaid. Martel refused to be associated with Dr. Richards as she looked then, so she and the bride intervened.

The makeover did great things for Dr. Richards’ appearance, but just as important was the impact on her confidence and sense of place. She acquired a way to exist comfortably in polite society, which had been barred before. It also made it easier for the two of us to work closely, which was important because I was her de facto aide. Whenever Dr. Richards was unavailable—which was often—I could usually keep things moving because I knew her objectives. Even now, twenty years later, I have only to mention that I had a part in the wedding to establish bona fides.

From the Author’s Preface to Life on the Merry-Go-Round, second edition

Chapter 1 »