Donald Hall - Arriving at Christ Church College, Oxford (24/111)

To listen to more of Donald Hall’s stories, go to the playlist: • Donald Hall (Poet)
US Poet Laureate Donald Hall (1928-2018) published essays and anthologies of both poetry and prose including "String too Short to be Saved: Recollections of Summers on a New England Farm", and "Ox-Cart Man", a children's book which won the Caldecott Medal. [Listener: Kendel Currier; date recorded: 2011]
TRANSCRIPT: Then I went up to Oxford, and took the train up to the town, and asked the taxi driver to take me to Christ Church. And when I arrived at Tom Tower, there were two gentlemen, as I thought, dressed all in black, with black bowlers on, who immediately grabbed my suitcases. And... they were elderly folks, and I thought, no, I should carry the suitcases. I didn't know the rules. It took me a long time to learn the rules. They did take me to my rooms... Meadow Buildings four, overlooking Christ Church meadows, and when I got into my room, the young man... a man older than me, quite young looking... came to me and said, 'Good afternoon sir, I am your servant, sir'. And again, I wanted to say, 'No, you're not, take it back, don't say that'. I'd never been out of the United States, and of course, Oxford... this was England of 1951, which was already changing considerably, but Oxford less than other places, and Christ Church less than the rest of Oxford, so that it was still kind of holding on to the... the Brideshead mode or model at that time. And... oh, I made all sorts of social errors, but I came to love Oxford also, and to have a wonderful time there.