The banner headline of the Monday, Oct. 14, 1961 Attleboro Sun tells the tale of a poor Foxboro girl that found herself in "a bit of a sticky wicket" and undoubtedly quite puzzled to be finding herself in the midst of an international incident. Here's how the story read that day:
Foxboro girl quickly apologizes to Nigerians
A postcard that went astray has given the American Peace Corps its first black eye in the field.
Nigerian university students demanded Sunday that the corps unit sent to teach Nigerians be expelled because of criticism of primitive living conditions in this year-old African Republic written by an enthusiastic - but "thoughtless" - girl in the group.
Her postcard to home dropped accidentally on the campus, stirred 1,000 students at Ibadan University to one angry demonstration denouncing the American volunteers as "agents of imperialism."
Margery Michelmore, 23, a Smith College honor graduate from Foxboro, quickly apologized to university authorities for writing the "thoughtless card" in an attempt to quiet the uproar. Peace Corps Director Sargent Shriver Saturday in Washington said that he talked to the Nigerian ambassador and "he did not seem disturbed. He said it was the type of thing you could expect in this kind of operation, and I agree with him."
The anti-American demonstration was organized after someone reportedly had found on the campus grounds the postcard that Michelmore had written to a friend in Waban telling him: "With all the training we had, we were really not prepared for the squalor and absolutely primitive living conditions rampant both in the cities and the bush.
"We had no idea about what underdevelopment means. It really is a revelation, and once we got over the initial, horrified shock, it is a very rewarding experience. Everyone except us live in the streets, cook in the streets and even go to the bathroom in the streets."
She described the university as "great fun," but added, "I just hope they do not repeat last year's Lumumba riots." This was a reference to anti-white demonstrations in Lagos, capital of this former British colony of 35 million people, after former Congo Premier Patrice Lumumba was slain in Katanga province.
The American girl's postcard was copied and circulated among the 1,500 students here by the Ibadan University Student's Union, which described her comments as "damaging to our country."
Shriver said no action has been taken on Michelmore's offer to resign but that she is free to quit if she so desires, at any time.
Here's a related sidebar entitled, "Foxboro girl defended by Peace Corps head."
Margery Michelmore, the 23-year-old Peace Corps member whose postcard raised an uproar in Nigeria, was "victimized" by African students opposed to the agency, one of its officials says.
Dr. Joseph Kaufman, Peace Corps director of training, was quoted by the Boston Globe to that effect in a telephone interview from Washington.
Michelmore, the director said, is a "very fine girl, not the type who would be whining over adverse conditions." Kaufman said her statements about squalor and primitive living conditions do not imply that corps training procedures were inadequate. They mean simply that no amount of intellectual preparation can really ready an American for the emotional shock of seeing the physical conditions of an underdeveloped area, he said.
The girl's father, Howard Michelmore of Foxboro, a business executive, said his daughter, a 1960 graduate of Smith College, "was brought up around Foxboro and Boston, so how could she know what real true poverty was like?"
"She just wanted to help the country and ease world tensions," her father said. "It was what she wanted to do - I certainly had no objections."
"She dislikes publicity and certainly would not do this with any intent. She had just never seen enough of poverty to understand the people there."
A sweeping tip of the old Irish Scally cap to rookie coach Mike Strachan and his Attleboro High gridiron squad on their fantastic season, regardless of the outcome of their upcoming contest with Xaverian (but still, let's go ahead and clobber them, OK guys?)
I want to thank all the friends and well-wishers that were so wonderful to me during and after my recent hip replacement surgery, and also my personal guardian angel, my ever-caring wife Patti, Dr. Jeffrey Poggi, Dr. Mahesh, Dr.Kaba and their staffs and my visiting nurses and therapists and the nursing staff of the Montplaisir unit at Sturdy; Attleboro is blessed to have all of you.
Please be good to one another out there, and try to do a good turn for another daily. Please remember the hungry and the homeless and try to do whatever you can for the needy who find themselves in desperate straits. Peace.
Thomas McAvoy's commentaries appear in this space on Tuesdays.
