What do the Adirondacks, a poem by Yeats, and six members of the Grinnell College men’s and women’s swim team of the late 1970s, have in common?
Back Talk
![Edith Renfrow Smith](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/BT-Renfrow_BACK-TALK_cmyk.jpg?itok=Ll5E4JqZ)
My summer research with Edith Renfrow Smith ’37, by Feven A. Getachew ’24
![Illustration of people laughing](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/LAUGHING_iStock-1144149610_0.png?itok=Tjb2O-1E)
About 10 years ago, George Drake ’56 said tutorial topics should be fun, a comment that stuck and caused me to choose psychology of humor for the topic of my seventh tutorial in 2015.
![Stack of letters](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/back_talk_975x455.jpg?itok=iiW_k-yD)
The trunk had sat locked in various basements for well over 25 years.
![Two examples of the Helpers cartoons, included larger in the story](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/magazine-feature-images/backtalk.jpg?itok=LrwY5BNH)
Sally Campbell Galman ’96, a professor of child and family studies at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, has earned significant acclaim for her arts-based social science research.
![Paul Migliorato (right) and Hana, his daughter](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/BACKTALK_PaulandHana.jpg?itok=YQWnye5x)
![Emily Mize Robare](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/magazine-feature-images/Robare_headshot_web.jpg?itok=q3z49ZXY)
My 7-year-old and her friend were playing fairies. Her friend said, “If I could have any wish, I would wish that magic were real.” Annabel responded, “Really? Not to stop global warming?”
![Claire Frances](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/20171103.Moisan.french.class020.jpg?itok=UeV-lE6G)
![school bus](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/iStock-472064524%20WEB.jpg?itok=cnd8xrVq)
Unlike other boys, I never wanted to be a bus driver when I grew up; if I had, Grinnell would have given me the opportunity to fulfill my childhood ambition. But such was not to be.
![Four Grinnell friends in Italy](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/Italy%20_1%20WEB.jpg?itok=MLexUqCY)
We have all experienced meeting Grinnellians in unexpected places. Our group of four Grinnell friends took this to an international level during a trip to Tuscany to celebrate our collective bicentennial. We were visiting Lucca, Italy, in 2018 and taking a cooking class. While learning from Chef Giuseppe how to roll the perfect gnocchi, we chatted with our classmates — when lo and behold, we discovered a fifth Grinnellian in our midst.
![Michi Soderberg ’21 stands in front of bubble gum wall](http://magazine.grinnell.edu/sites/default/files/styles/300x200/public/bubblegum%20WEB.jpg?itok=8IrXGdMr)
Last spring, I participated for the first time in the Everyday Class Notes (ECN) care package project and found it was a wonderful way to connect with current students, in more ways than one.