By Tara Olson P'02, '05

As presented at the Volunteer's Weekend Appreciation Dinner on October 3, 2004

I've been infected by the Deerfield Bug -- an insidious condition. My initial exposure to the bug occurred 26 years ago when I met my husband David from "The Great Class of 1970." The devotion and enthusiasm is catching -- gets right into your system. Early symptoms were severely compounded by my first participation in a Deerfield Reunion...

There was a brief moment when I thought that the bug could be in remission, but then our first child, Morgan Katherine enters the Class of 2002. She is dreading the start of sophomore English. Hates English, really. That is until she walks into John O'Brien's class. Sadly, it turns out to be his last year teaching at Deerfield before retirement but father and daughter now savor a shared appreciation of the Deerfield Bug. You see -- dad David was one of the students in Mr. O'Brien's first year teaching here.

By now I've got a full-blown case and...obsessive-compulsive accumulation disorder sets in...hats of all descriptions, varsity sweater, flip flops, coffee mugs. I even found myself purchasing a full set of gleaming china...green dinner plates with golden edges and green doors.

Something inexplicable takes over -- not only do I know all the words to the Evensong, I get teary when students and alums sing together in full voice as they do each spring at the close of Parents' Weekend. While I think of myself as a perfectly respectable person, I have been known to shout the phrase, "Choate... it's what's for dinner" on a football field.

Our daughter Meredith finds my behavior rather embarrassing but is becoming more accepting as she, too, exhibits symptoms. In fact, she gave her beloved Fred a lovely neckpiece sporting Deerfield doors for Christmas last year. Oh -- Fred? He's the Olson family dachshund and part-time DA mascot.

A really bad case of the bug is clearly evident if one is overwhelmingly amused and emotionally touched -- simultaneously -- by an Eric Widmer/Jay Morsman rendition of the Deerfield Locomotion Cheer. It doesn't really ever go away and there is no prescription you can take. I suspect that all of you here have been infected. The Deerfield Bug spreads exponentially. We are all carriers. So the message for this evening is simple - go forth and multiply!

As published in the Fall 2003 issue of Deerfield Today, a newsletter for alumni of Deerfield Academy