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JL 



100 YEARS EXPLORING LIFE, 1888-1988 



unique. Recently two young boys, probably about ten years old, were talking 

 at the MBL beach. One reported that his family was going to Australia in the 

 fall for his dad's sabbatical, and that it was going to cost them each over 

 $1,000 for airfare. But that was okay, he said, because they were going to take 

 it off their grant. The other boy asked why they were going. "Well, " came the 

 ten-year-old's reply, "the animals are different colors there and they develop 

 diflferently than the ones here." The other boy reported that his family was 

 just going to North Carolina for their leave the next year. "That's not so bad," 

 the first one replied, "we went there once for my mom's sabbatical and it 

 was neat too." Children do not talk like that in the less stimulating "real" 

 world. 



Neither do children out there choose to spend their summers in 

 school, let alone to study something serious like science. But many MBL 

 families find themselves drawn back to Woods Hole even in years when they 

 meant to stay home or go elsewhere. The children do not want to miss their 

 friends or a session of the Science School, held in the old schoolhouse 

 building. There they take classes of all sorts, with a liberal dose of seashore 

 field trips included. Ten-year-old Science School students know more about 

 marine organisms than many professional biologists in other parts of the 

 country. Then as the children get older, they often work at the MBL, maybe 

 in the supply department, as Whitman's and Conklin's sons and so many 

 since have done, or in the Mess, or cleaning dorm rooms, or more recently, 

 in the library or photocopy room. Perhaps it is the enthusiastic response of 

 the children that captures and perpetuates the MBL spirit best. 



Unknown child on the beach. Photo by Alfred 

 F. Huettner, MRL Archives. 



