Email This PageThe Cobbs Legend
Only someone from the Class of 1982 (Amy Singer, “Letters,” January Bulletin) might be horrified or bemused that men weren’t allowed in women’s dorm rooms after 9 p.m. From 1959 to 1963 at least, it was only from 2 to 6 on Sundays and the door had to be open—six inches it was said—although that may have been a joke that turned into a tradition, as was the supposed requirement of “at least three feet on the floor.” Those “do it twice” lines were attributed to Dean Cobbs so often that I almost believe, thinking back 40–50 years, that she actually said them to me when I raised the question as a member of the College Judiciary Committee. In any case, it was one of her signature lines, and it’s intriguing to know that it existed as far back as 1952. She invariably had a touch of the decorously but sympathetically ribald when we discussed the various malfeasances of students and what to do about them—a refreshing contrast to the harder line always taken by William Prentice ’37, then dean of men.
Leo Braudy ’63
Los Angeles
P.S. “Susie P.” was a nickname for Dean Cobbs that derived from the 1957 Dale Hawkins song Susie Q, covered by the Everly Brothers and (after our time) by the Rolling Stones.
