February 2025 - History Corner

Once Upon a Hillside: 25, 50, 75, 100, and 125 years ago

February 1900

The Hillside Club was founded on 5 October 1898. No newspaper articles about the young Hillside Club could be found for this month.

February 1925

Business Meeting, February 2

Miss Annie Woodall, chairman of the Educational Advancement committee will have charge of the program. A demonstration of Camp Fire Work by a group of Camp Fire Girls will be given under the direction of Miss Ada Hillman. Prof. John William Gregg will exhibit the plans for the garden.

Work Day, February 14

Mr. B. C. Gerwick, chairman of the Grounds Committee, proclaims this as Labor Day. The object is to improve the appearance of the club property and to start the garden. Plans have been prepared by the committee and you are urged to be on hand with gardening tools to help the good cause along.

Social Meeting, February 16

The social meeting for members and guests. A play, “An Attic’s Fantasy” will be given by members who have no attics. Other attractive features will be on the program.

Music Section

Mrs. R. L. Ulsh, chairman, announces that in February, this section will meet every Tuesday evening at 8 o’clock at the Club House. Rehearsals for the operetta to be given in March are being held and anyone interested is invited to join now.

February 1950

The Hillside Club has a nearly complete archive of monthly newsletters. Unfortunately, there is a gap from October 1949 through January 1951.

February 1975

Fireside Meeting, February 3

The Literature Section will present “An Evening with Mark Twain” for your February enjoyment. Six members will read short excerpts from some of your favorite books by this beloved author. Among these will be “Innocents Abroad,” “The Mysterious Stranger,” “Letters From the Earth,” and “Roughing It.” And everyone who likes to roam vicariously or not in fact will enjoy the section chosen from “Life on the Mississippi” with its accounts of amusing and informative facts about the big river.

International Relations, February 10

We will be privileged to hear Professor Lewis Lancaster, Department of Oriental Languages, University of California, tell us of his 1973 walking trip in Nepal. Professor Lancaster’s program is entitled “Trekking in the Himalayas” and is accompanied by slides. The expedition included the professor’s family and five students from the university, their objective being an inventory of the books in the numerous monasteries of that distant land. The walk lasted seven weeks and covered 300 miles.

Evening of Music, February 17

The second Evening of Music program features some well-known Hillside artists who have entertained us many times in the past. Carol Tomlinson and Bill Nelson will each sing solos, followed by a duet. Lois Tomlinson will be at the piano. Then, to introduce a choral note, we will be favored by a short program featuring the Berkeley Women’s Chorus under the direction of Elizabeth Burdick. Your chairman heard this chorus at the Christmas program of the Etude Club, and we lost no time in engaging them to sing for us. After the intermission, two more well-known Hillsiders perform, Luigi Piccirillo giving us a music reading of “The Telephone,” a one-act comic opera by Carlo Menotti, and Helen Sizer at the piano.

February 2000

The Club’s archive of printed monthly newsletters ended with the May 1994 issue. If you know of a source for any newsletters between 1994 and the Club’s renaissance in the early 2000s, your historian would love to hear about it!