My College Story... 30 years later

It's been 30 years since I attended college out at SC. Hard to believe at times, and yet not so hard to believe.

I look back and remember how shy I was. No one really knew me back then. I was "Crane" in the "Bird Family." I was the crazy one doing (as I recall) pretty dumb things that I care not to blog about. LawR named close friends different "birds." LBD was "Flamey," because of the 21 candle birthday card salute we gave her. We taped the candles to the card and lit them all up. She had to blow them out, quickly!! MAK was nicknamed "Jr. Birdman." Donna was named "Demobird," for obvious reasons. ;-)

Of those three friends, I was the only one who had children. LawR was married to her first husband for about 14 years. She was a teacher down at a small town 15 miles east of here. Then she met her second husband through the Internet and moved to his town, Capital City and she quit her job as a teacher. MAK's husband died and LBD never got married. I haven't see LBD for quite a while, I think S was just a year the last time I saw her. She is a lab manager in Stillwater.

The guy whom I was hung up on eventually went back to school playing basketball for Mac College. His team played SC a few times and I would see him. I also traveled to Bethel College to watch Mac play. Little did I know at that time, there was another player on the Bethel team who eventually became my pastor at the church we are currently attending. About 12 years later got to know Weldon quite well until he moved on to a larger church in Nebraska. After the guy went to Mac College he left my hometown and I never saw him again.

S saw pictures of the guys who I dated back in college. The term "losers" came up. Hey, it was the 70's everyone looked different back then! I'll be keeping pictures of her former boyfriends when she is married too...ha ha and we will see what her kids will think of them when they are her age. :)

My lab partner and I broke up after I graduated from SC. I lost track of him until I found the alumni directory. I haven't seen him in 30 years either.

Rod L., my first boyfriend, who was six years old than me, died a year or so after we broke up. He had drowned in a swimming pool because he had an epileptic seizure.
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I've had great times, sad times, and funny times. I laugh remembering how I couldn't rewind a film projector and so my friends kept the teacher busy talking while I wound the film manually backwards! I remember the art teacher (even though I didn't have a class with him). LawR would say in a nasal tone, "SH-ARP!" The pranks throughout the times. I wasn't immune from the pranks either. I remember driving away and hearing a clunk as pop cans fell out from under my bumper. Then the times when me and MAK would serenade LawR outside her window with "When I'm calling you." Taking showers and after using the toliet we had to yell "Flushing!" If you didn't yell it then the water would go from a nice pleasant temperature to a scalding hot one pretty quick! If you knew someone was in the shower you didn't like, then you could think, "well they got theirs." Tee hee! Not nice but true. The visitation of the boys coming over to the dorm. There were rules on where they could and couldn't sit and the door had to be open. A lot of the times these rules were followed and a lot probably not.

We had Super Bowl parties in the Parlor; engagement showers; and floor meetings/parties. We would pull all nighters in the basement and sometimes do laundry downstairs. Some would have coffee pots and hot plates (although it wasn't too allowed). We used to get little packets of tea and sugar. I remember stuffing my sweater pockets with these things. We payed for the food service so we figured we were entitled to these little packets. We would eat in the cafeteria killing flies with salt and reviving them with water. (this was usually the guys). Then we would play "Pomp and Circumstances" on our water glasses. We enjoyed driving 8 miles north for Pizza Hut, Sonic, and Peter Pan. Or staying in Sterling eating at Broadway Pizza (no longer there). Going down to the drug store for a fountain drink.

I had a History Methods class at Mac College and I usually rode with Don or Kerwin. I had a major crush on Kerwin but he had eyes for Trudy H. I had to sit there and listen to him talk about her. The final class time the entire class (which consisted of students from the Mac College and Kansas Weslyan) went to eat at the "Happy Chef." We all had to press the button to make the "Chef" talk! I paid more attention to the other guys in that class than Kerwin. I think he knew that I was "mad" at him. Oh well..that was then.

That's how my college life was 30 years ago. I'll always remember the guys playing football in front of Campbell Hall and cardinals flying around in the early spring.

Yes...it does seem like eons ago that this all took place!