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Friday, August 27, 2010

Friday Five Dorm Edition


Mindful that many others are heading off to further schooling or delivering their loved ones to the institutions that provide it, here are five questions about dorm life.

1) What was the hardest thing to leave behind when you went away to school for the first time?
Actually I didn't head off to school. the hardest thing was that I lived at home and went to the local State University in Ohio. Living at home was truly hard at that age.

2) We live in the era of helicopter parents. How much fuss did your parents make when you first left home?
That would be five years later when I really left for good and I was a good deal older. My mother made a lot of fuss and sent care packages frequently.

3) Share a favorite memory of living with schoolmates, whether in a dorm or other shared housing.
During the 3 final years of colleges, I worked in summer stock in the summer and lived there. My usual room mate had animals and living with two big dog and a bird in a small apartment was...different. Once we were transporting her horse to NY when we had a flat tire on her van. We had to take the horse out of the van to change the tire. I was left holding the horse. What did I know from horses? The horse took off running down the highway. We eventually got it back. The there was the time...

4) What absolute necessity of college life in your day would seem hilariously out-of-date now?
An eight track?

5) What innovation of today do you wish had been part of your life in college?
An away college

Bonus question for those whose college days feel like a long time ago: Share a rule or regulation that will seem funny now. Did you really follow it then?
I was on the cusp of the great revolution, women's liberation, the summer of love, drugs, sex, rock and roll. I graduated from HS in 1967. I had picked out a swell wardrobe for college (as for HS I only wore uniforms.) But, I was an art major and shortly all of my clothing was stained with paint, and other stuff. Well I started wearing...slacks! Then jeans. I was called into the Dean of Women's office. Dean Painter, I'll never forget it! She said that she understood that I had been see wearing pants and jeans on campus! Oh no. This must have been 1968 or 69 by then. You remember? This was Youngstown State University as stones throw from Kent State University and we would also shortly have armed National Guard on OUR campus. I said, Yes, I've ruined all my clothes and I feel more comfortable in clothes that I don't have to worry about. That was the end of that.

9 comments:

Terri said...

I DO remember that, although I was not in college in 1968, but I was attending a school that would not allow girls to were pants -we could wear them under our dresses in the winter when we walked to school, but had to take them off when we got there. crazy....

eight-tracks - crack me up...made me think of records and all the equipment - amplifier, speakers, etc...now, an iPod and a dock with speakers.

altar ego said...

Love your bonus story. Gasp! The shock of such outlandish clothes!

Unknown said...

What a great story for the bonus. Thanks for sharing it.

revhipchick said...

getting called in for wearing jeans? wow! that is amazing! it's crazy to think how much has changed!

Wendy said...

You have great stories. I love the horse going down the highway.

angela said...

Wow--called into the dean's office for wearing pants and jeans...that would have flippd me out. There was no dress code at all by the time I went. I was usually barefoot and sometimes covered in paint or clay, so I'd have been with you!

revkjarla said...

the horse story, hilarious. and the jeans story...wow.
8 track tape, I totally forgot!!!

Jan said...

This was so good to read, esp. as we're about the same age. I graduated from HS in 1968 and also lived at home. It didn't seem so strange to do that back then.

Dorcas (aka SingingOwl) said...

No jeans allowed for us either. And it was up in frigid North Dakota. I graduated in 1968...Summer of Love...hmmm...being in California I recall that summer as having a lot of sweaty, stinky, pot smokers everywhere. LOL! Your pic up top made me grin. I could hear Cream playing in the background...almost.