53
Gene Horwitz and Wilma [Schulz] Horwitz.
Beginning of 1953.
I always headed for the light dining room and smiled if I saw Elliott Castello, often
with Joe Connell, always smiling, always joking, and always welcoming if there were
any empty seats left at their table. They were also the core of a wonderful singing
group, along with Doug Powell and Bob Brewer. A group "sing" might erupt anywhere
in the House, at any time.
I remember going on a day trip to Pt. Reyes once with a group from the House, led by
the wonderful Rafael Rodriguez, a botanist and an artist. My maternal grandparents
were from that area, and I had always considered the tops of those bluffs to be singularly
uninteresting; but as Rafael pointed out the tiny flowers and leaf structures of so many
different plants, I gained a whole new appreciation for what I had considered dull
pasture land.
Many of our I-House friends who stayed in (or returned to) the Bay Area continued
to meet socially, and the dressiest event during those early years was the New Year's
Eve party. Thanks to one of the I-House cross-cultural marriages, I learned of a
great way to have a lovely, but inexpensive, maternity dress for one of those parties.
Joanne Dietz (New Jersey) had married Azam Ariff (India), and Joanne taught me
how to wrap my six yards of satin-striped chiffon as a sari. She also lent me a cholo
(traditional blouse) to copy, so that I could sew one in the appropriate color. That New
Year's Eve, I felt as elegant as a seven-and-a-half-months pregnant mom could feel.
Taken from an interview by Jeanine Castello-Lin in May of 2010;
editing assistance by Wilma Horwitz
