YA #3: Tell about college life; where you lived, what you ate, who you hung out with....

Millikin University Campus
Decatur, Illinois
(The MU Website says this is Shilling Hall, but it sure looks like AT Hall to me!)

"Oh my heart was filled with joy in Decatur, Illinois...."

I'll allow my fellow Millikin alums to finish that song; if they can remember the words...

It's been a bit of a nostalgic summer as I've reconnected with old friends from FORTY years ago!  Folks from East Aurora High School who I graduated with in June of 1973 and folks I met as I began my freshman year at old MU in August/September of that same year, even an old friend from elementary school in Watertown, Wisconsin. As I've been planning a trip back "home" to visit family and some of those old friends, it's brought a lot of memories to the surface and so tonight I'm dedicating this blog to some of those old Millikin friends. 

My college years were DEFINITELY some of the happiest years of my life. I loved my small private college that had no more students than my high school! I took a bit of security to college with me; high school friend, Maria Espinoza, went to Millikin as well and was my roommate through my freshman year in Blackburn Hall.

Maria & I celebrated our 19th birthdays together
She is 4 days older than me!

Maria was a bit more outgoing and social than I was and through her, I made several new friends on campus.

Some of my best friends from Freshman Year!
Maria, Bunny, Mollie, Vicki, Harold & Renee, Edd & Sue
(A bit blurry taking a picture of a picture with a phone!)

Add a few Zetas to this mix and you have the best friends a new girl on campus could have!

Robyn Wise: Front Row-3rd from left
Tawnie Moma: Over Robyn's left shoulder

Yep! Add Robyn, Tawnie, Sug Lyons (who pledged a few weeks later), a twin sister (Donna "Libby") and a "big" sister (Donna "Blaine"), Gina Vercler (Robyn's friend) and you've pretty much got a recipe for fun.... or trouble!

Apparently neither Blaine nor I
could stand the flash!

All these friends were pretty much divided into three groups: there were the Zetas, the Pi Phis and the dorm kids. Each of these groups contributed differently to my college experience, but they were all great!

With the Zetas, I had a house where I belonged, expectations to perform scholastically, provide service and go to dances! We also had woodsies, sing-alongs in the basement, meetings and dinners with our housemother! There were frat parties (straight out of Animal House), homecoming floats & Greek Games too! It's a wonder I finished first semester with the highest GPA in our pledge class with everything going on!

Then, there were the Pi Phis. Two of our very best friends were Sue Varde, a girl I met at a Millikin mixer in Chicago before going to Millikin and Gina Vercler who was Robyn's friend. Sue & Gina both pledged Pi Beta Phi when Robyn and I pledged Zeta Tau Alpha. The different houses separated us a bit, especially after our freshman year, but we spent all the time we could together.  Unfortunately, a lot of that time was spent in all-nighters, studying since at the time all of us were Biology majors!  A great time memorizing bones and muscles with three other loopy girls at three in the morning!

Sue encouraging Edd as he
dressed Abe Lincoln in a
MU rain poncho.

Finally... my dorm friends. They were the ones I ate dinner with, I was goofy with and I partied with. Maria and I had a good friendship from before. We had fun together and good-naturedly picked on one another.  I teased her for being a "twink" (aka music major) and she teased my about being in a sorority. But, between the two of us and a few parties, we built a very impressive beer can pyramid in our dorm window. People all over campus commented on it. We even decorated it as our tree at Christmas time!

Edd posing with a birthday cake we made
for Lanie's visit for her birthday.
(Pyramid is in the background!)

Bunny was the moody roommate to Sue. She hung out with us, but never seemed to have any fun...except when she was with my brother Al when he came to visit me on campus!  Mollie! Now, she was a trip. A literature major, totally engrossed in prose and theater. Everything was dramatic with her and overly exaggerated. Manic might be a good word for her. And Vicki. Sweet Vicki. How she ever fit in with the likes of us, I'll never know, but she always joined in and just smiled and giggled.

Renee and Harold were joined at the hip early on. Renee lived across the hall from us and was an Alpha Chi. Harold was a PE major and they were engaged before Christmas. I remember one night in particular with the whole gang. We all decided to go bowling.We were bowling as two teams and I don't remember how we were split up, but apparently I was on Mollie's team and not Harold's. Anyway, the score was really close, I had been bowling pretty well, I was the last one to bowl the final frame and the win depended on me. Being a true women's libber, Mollie cheered me on: "Remember Gloria Steinem!" In response, Harold shouted "Remember Joan of Ark!" just as I released the ball and it promptly landed in the gutter... I failed my team.

Edd hanging out in our room.
(He did that a lot!)

And finally, there was Edd. He was Harold's roommate and a "twink" like Maria. He could play the piano fabulously and really loved music. Even though Maria was the one who met him first and brought him (and Harold) into our little group, it was me who built a special connection with him. He was the best. You know how you just meet those people in your life that you just click with? That make you laugh and seem to know what you're thinking before you can even say anything?  That's how it was with Edd and me. We were always together and if I had to go do something at the Zeta house, we always had plans to meet afterward. He lived in Wapella, Illinois (about an hour and a half north of Decatur) and one fall afternoon the whole gang went to his farm, met his folks and had dinner and Edd played "oldies" on his piano for me, 'cause "oldies" was one of our things. One night, after the park near campus was closed, Edd and I went for a walk through the park. As we were walking along, some teenagers drove by us and threw some eggs out the window at us! One of them hit me on the thigh and Edd couldn't stop laughing about the fact that I had been "egged" in the park.  Afterward he felt bad for laughing at me though and as we walked by the beautiful rose garden, he stopped and picked me a bouquet (even though there was a sign prohibiting it). I dried those roses and kept them for a loooong time. Everyone was sure Edd was going to give me a ring for Christmas that year. I knew better though. A lot of our talks revolved around him talking about how much he missed his girlfriend who was still in high school back home. That and the fact that he was flunking his music theory class and school was killing his love for music all combined to make his decision to leave school after that first semester. I was devastated, but I understood and wanted him to be happy and knew that would only happen if he was with Cathy. So we said good-bye when we all left campus for Christmas break, but I still have the bracelet he gave me for Christmas that year.  My friends all knew how special he was to me though and they made sure that he knew when we were celebrating my (and Maria's) birthday! I was so shocked and so happy to see him, all I could do was cry...

Edd (& Maria) enjoying my surprise!
(Paul Edward Powers: My BB)

You know... I've heard people say that college isn't about the education, it's about the experience. It changes who we are, how we think and what we become. I may not have become the Occupational Therapist, Special Ed Teacher or even Elementary Teacher that I thought I would  become, but I did take a lot of steps to become ME in that first year. I like "me." I like who I am and I like where I've been. For all those friends who were part of that beginning, I say thank you. Wherever you are and whatever you have become, you helped change my life. My children have all had their time in college. I know their experiences weren't like mine, but I hope they were as much fun and provided as much direction. And to my grandchildren, I hope each and every one of you will work hard in school and prepare to go to college, no matter what you want to become so that you can start your own journeys.

With that, I leave you with a blast from the past. A tune by Deep Purple that was played over and over and over again at the freshman dance forty years ago on the grass between the boys' dorm and the girls' dorm on the campus of old MU...sadly, the people in the audience could have been any one of my friends....