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Letter to the editor I am utterly amazed when I  pick up Student Lifelines and learn from it, posted notices, or from items in The Catalyst, the multitude of activities from which the students are able to pick and choose.    It wasn't like this a half-century ago. The only gathering places for students were in the corridors in the classroom and clinic areas and at Archie’s, a sandwich shop.    There was a student welfare committee.  It was composed of Dr. Vince Moseley, the student body president and the class presidents.  I was on that committee when, in the spring of 1953, it was decided to have some sort of function where students, wives, and girlfriends could socialize in an informal setting. It was decided that a picnic would be a suitable venue.  Several sites were suggested, and Mount Pleasant’s Alhambra Hall was selected as the site.    At the first Alhambra there was a beer wagon, softball and other games, and a fried chicken buffet.     In the evening, everyone repaired to Alhambra’s upstairs area, which had a stage. Music was furnished by the student band composed of J.D. Ashmore and others. Their instruments were made of washtubs, broomhandles,  scrubbing boards, cardboard boxes, and other paraphernalia.     The students put on skits panning the faculty.  One laugh-provoking scene:  A student whose size ranged between corpulent and obese (this writer!) was diapered with a bedsheet held in place with two four-inch- long safety pins.  He was pulled onstage in a little red wagon with a sign reading ”One of Daddy Beach’s  marasmic babies.“   (Dr. Mylnor Beach—known as Daddy Beach—was chief of pediatrics, and one of his favorite words was marasmic. Marasma, probably no longer used, is defined as progressive wasting and emaciation in infants.)     One or two of the faculty were unhappy with the way they were portrayed, but the majority got so many laughs out of the skits that they asked if they could put on the next year’s skits, panning the students, and  they did.  It's a shame that there were no camcorders in those days, as some of the skits were truly classics.    For some years after leaving Alhambra, the picnic was held at Pettit’s Point, the lovely Wadmalaw Island estate of Dr. and Mrs. Harold Pettit.  As the years passed, the site of the picnic changed to other appropriate places, and I note that Alhambra 2004 is making a slight eastward move from the Joe Riley Park to Stoney Field. Despite the changes in its locale, the Alhambra name has persisted.    My congratulations go to the Office of Student Programs, the Student Government Association, and the Medical Students Alumni Council for all they do for the benefit of the entire student body. Sincerely, Henry W. Rittenberg, M.D. College of Medicine, Class of '56   Friday, May 21, 2004 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.