They're Just "Boys" at Vassar by Helen Myers (Poughkeepsie New Yorker, December 17, 1944)
"This is their home," Ada B. Willett said. "They came of their own free will. No one put them here, and no one can take them out. Sometimes they don't tell their families that they're coming until the very, last minute to avoid an argument. Dr. Charles Lane used to say that after they'd been here a month they added ten years to their lives because they knew they had security. You know Dr. Lane was our physician for a great many years, 25 or 30." The matron of Vassar Home for Aged Men was telling of the home and "the family" in the L-shaped living room that she shares with Blanche Stoutenburgh, assistant matron on the second floor of the institution at Main and Vassar Streets. Since the room is in one of the building's many wings, it has windows on three sides. It is furnished in old mahogany, most of it heirloom pieces. Miss Willet was very outspoken about her dislike of the home's traditional nickname "The Old Men's Home." "Our official name is Vassar Home for Aged Men," she said, "But I just say Vassar home. I think that's better, don't you? There's no need of talking about how old we are. I'm really rude when people say 'the Old Men's Home'—it's a name that implies 'Oh, the poor old things'—and the men are even ruder. One man was asked if he lived at the Old Men's Home and he said, 'No.' Just that with no explanation. His questioner was surprised and asked him again, and he said, 'No' again. Then the questioner asked where he did live and he said, 'Vassar Home.' That's the way they feel about it." Throughout the interview Miss Willett referred to the home's residents as "The men," "The family," and very frequently, "The boys." "That's probably a swing of the pendulum from 'old men' she said, but they love it. When I use it to them they say 'Oh, yes, the BOYS' and dance a jig. They like to think of themselves as a little younger than they are rather than older, but that's a usual attitude, don't you think so?" Miss Willett explained that the home was established by Matthew Vas109
