Overall, I loved the article "The Legend of Crim Dell and Other Campus Rumors" in the Spring/Summer 2006 issue. I am a true believer in the Crim Dell legend because I was one of its beneficiaries (or victims, depending on your point of view). I had just started seeing my new boyfriend only a week before we took a walk around the W&M campus in fall 2001. I showed him the Crim Dell, but I did NOT tell him the legend.
As we walked across, he unexpectedly turned me around and kissed me right on the bridge! Two years later, we were married. So, in my opinion, the rumor is not unverifiable but TRUE!
MICHELLE HERMAN '03
Alexandria, Va.
I suspect that you will receive a number of letters concerning"The Legend of Crim Dell," by Jay Busbee ’90, in the Spring/Summer 2006 issue. Although the article was quite entertaining, it did include at least two inaccuracies of which I am aware.
RUMOR:Miles of catacombs run beneath Old Campus.
STATUS: True -- sort of -- but you didn’t hear it from us.
CORRECTION: The tunnels are steam tunnels -- brick walls and cement floors with steam pipes and electrical conduits. I would not advise anyone with any sense at all (not me, apparently) to venture into them without permission. However, they quite easily accommodate people and they most definitely do connect to the crypt under Wren Chapel, although the connecting door was securely pad locked in 1977, much to my dismay. The crypt features several tombs, one of which hadbeen broken into long beforeI visited it. The predominant rumor regarding thatparticular tomb in the 1970s was that it was the resting place of James Blair and that his bones hadbeen stolen by a fraternity.
RUMOR: Playboy loves us! Playboy hates us!
STATUS: False on both counts.
CORRECTION: At least one W&M coed appeared in the pages of Playboyin 1975 or 1976, in a spread featuring students from various schools. She was posed at an easel with a paintbrush in her hand and the photo was relatively demure by Playboy standards. I wish I could be more specific as to the exact date, but my issue is long gone, I am afraid.
Oh, and the Lord Botetourt statue was not on the Wren lawn in the 1970s, so I never had the opportunity to touch it for luck. Maybe that explains a few of my grades. Thanks for a great magazine.
ANDY LAX '77
Cornelius, N.C.
HOW OLD IS THAT CAR?
Iam interested in the date of the photo- graph [above], and I think you might be a bit quick -- thoughnot necessarily wrong -- about the date being in the 1940s. I am a "lemon lawyer," practicing motor vehicle warranty enforcement act cases in Virginia. I am also an automobile buff. ... In my years at William and Mary, students were not allowed to have cars in town. That rule was honored in the breach, and I suspect the same was true of the students in the photograph. ... There are two other things that are very revealing. In 1940, American auto- mobiles adopted "sealed beam head-lights,"which meant the filament, the lens and the reflector were all contained in a single unit.
I believe that none of the cars in the photograph have sealed beam headlights, and that they were all there- fore pre-1940. After World War II began, vehicles’ headlamp lenses were painted black with the exception of a small slit in the center. The headlights in the photograph are unpainted. ... Based upon the foregoing, I believe the photograph was taken in the spring, summer or early fall of 1939 or 1941.
J. RILEY JOHNSON JR. '54
Norfolk, Va.
