(re-run) Edith and her friend, Laura, were bored. It was Saturday night, and they’d been at their all-girls’ school, Holy Names, for a whole week. It was time to find some guys, to find a party. They pulled into Berkeley and headed for Fraternity Row. Laura spotted someone she had dated before and rolled down… Continue reading Parking Lot Pick-up
Category: college
If Only I’d Known
As they say, hindsight is 2020, which is referring to your vision, not what year it is. As in, your vision about what happened in the past is pretty good, now that you’ve had time to look at all the angles and analyze it. Looking back over my OCD life, I now understand that it… Continue reading If Only I’d Known
The Danger of Family Secrets
To this day my mother says, “It was a different time. That’s what families did in those days.” She is talking about family secrets. Mine had a whole bunch of them. My dead Uncle David, with his farm painting on the living room wall of my grandparents’ house, was a mystery to me. He’d died… Continue reading The Danger of Family Secrets
The Princeton Ploy
(re-run) It was her third day as a freshman at Temple University in Philadelphia. Sue was riding the elevator with her friends between Hardwick and Johnson Hall when he got on. He had all of his stuff. He was moving in. “School started already,” one of her friends said. “I was in San Diego,” he… Continue reading The Princeton Ploy
Lola Meets Ricardo
Lola met her forever husband on the first day of college at the University of Iowa. She had signed up for a speech and composition class with an emphasis on women’s studies. When she got to the classroom, there was a note on the door that the class had been moved to another building. A… Continue reading Lola Meets Ricardo
Doc and Lillian
When I was just out of college and teaching in a small town in Nebraska, I rented a refurbished farmhouse from the superintendent. His dad was Doc. Doc’s wife was Lillian. They became my surrogate Nebraska grandparents. Doc used to be a dentist, and one day he presented me with a mood ring. Remember those?… Continue reading Doc and Lillian
Bricks, Ricks, & Cardboard
(re-run) The college mixer was hosted by the men in Lorch House in Friley Hall, in the heart of the Iowa State campus. Tappan House, the top two floors of my dorm, Barton Hall, was invited. Yes, I am old. Yes, dorm floors are co-ed now. This was in the days of the dinosaurs. The… Continue reading Bricks, Ricks, & Cardboard
When a House Feels Like a Home
It’s been nine years since I moved into my little house. It has changed so much, and that’s a good thing. I liked the location but not the house. It was vacant. I saw it three Sundays in a row. The third time I looked at it, I decided I could live there. It was… Continue reading When a House Feels Like a Home
The Day We Were the Minority
I’ve told the story before. I may have even written it, but that’s the downside of being old. You forget. It was 2014. My youngest was in college on the East Coast. For spring break, she proposed that her older brother and I fly across the country to meet her in DC for ten days.… Continue reading The Day We Were the Minority
Pennies from Heaven
(re-run) When I was sixteen, I saved up my babysitting money and went downtown to Cottage Grove Avenue in Des Moines, where there was a head shop filled with incense, hanging beads, roach clips, black light posters and tie dye. Although I wasn’t a pothead (I didn’t smoke cigarettes either), I enjoyed the ambience of… Continue reading Pennies from Heaven
