7 I OUT OF THE LAB 4i 157 



Marriages 



Quite a few families have actually begun in Woods Hole. Wilson reportedly 

 introduced Morgan to Biyn Mawi^ undergraduate student Lilian Vaughan 

 Sampson, whom Morgan later married. Conklin met his wife while she was 

 a student in one of the MBL courses, while others met at the Mess or while 

 waiting tables, for example. Conklin noted that he had begun to generate a 

 list of MBL marriages until he realized that it was longer than a "Catalogue 

 of the Ships of Homer." If "marriages are made in Heaven," he remarked, 

 then "there is certainly a large branch office in Woods Hole. ' Furthermore, 

 he enthused, such marriages were eugenic and likely to last since the 

 participants shared interests and companionship very generally. 



One Woods Hole proposal had unusual complications. During the first 

 war, the Fisheries area was closed off by a marine guard. Anyone who 

 worked there could only be reached by written message. Accordingly, an 

 MBL scientist asked for a messenger to deliver a note to a woman at the 

 Fisheries. The note, it seems, contained an invitation to go canoeing that 

 afternoon, at which time the scientist proposed. 



The war did not interfere with the important business of life, though 

 sometimes science did. It was not always easy being an MBL spouse or child. 

 Summer resort housing did not offer as many conveniences as at home, the 

 nonscientist spouse (usually the wife) often felt left out of the interminably 

 scientific conversations, and it was hard having a husband who was away 

 working in his lab at all hours. New brides found the circumstances 

 particularly unsettling, though they either adapted and fell in with the 

 different style or else left. 



The Beach 



As families have learned to relax and enjoy, MBL folk have taken an ever- 

 more-active interest in the beach. A sunny afternoon finds the MBL beach 

 full of teenagers and older sunbathers of all sort, though these are busy 

 scientists so that many choose early mornings and late evenings for their 

 swimming. One non-MBL Woods Hole resident complains that she does not 

 like the MBL beach. People there talk in funny accents about tilings that are 

 not comprehensible, she laments. And she is right; tliis beach on Buzzards 

 Bay, which was donated in 1936 by Edward Meigs and enlarged with an 

 addition by Oliver Strong in 1940, is unusual as a beach. No penny arcades; 

 no cotton candy; no hotdogs here. This is the MBL beach. 



As Lewis Thomas has so ably written, it is a special place. Scientists do 

 not set aside their research work and forget about it for a few hours of fun 

 on the water's edge. They take their work, in their heads, in their books, or 

 scribbled on a bit of paper, with them. Many a dilemma has been resolved 



