I
lived at home my first year of college.
I
rode a bus to downtown Denver where I attended my freshman classes at
University of Colorado extension.
The
second year I left for Boulder.
*
I
had done so well my first year that I was given a $500 dollar grant
that I didn't need to pay back.
This
was 1967.
$500.00
in 1967 had the same buying power as $3,746.57
in
2018.
{SOURCE:
DOLLAR TIMES}
*
I
went to Boulder to live in a dorm.
I
wouldn't know who my roommate was for a few days.
His
name was Michael Gould, from San Fernando, California.
He
had a girlfriend back in San Fernando.
*
If
I was a nerd, then Michael was a jock, easy-going, with a sense of
humor.
We
got along.
Especially
after I wrote a couple of his Freshman English papers.
His
English teacher was the wife of my Shakespeare professor.
*
I
lived on the ninth floor of what is even to this day the tallest
building in Boulder, Colorado.
It
was called Williams Village.
Today
it's called Stearns Tower.
It's
fifteen stories tall.
*
My
tution paid for breakfast and dinner.
The
food wasn't too bad.
One
time at dinner, we were served enchiladas.
I
remember I also had jello.
I
proceeded to cut up my enchiladas and jello into small pieces.
One
of the guys who lived on the same floor as me asked, “Do
you cut up everything that you eat?
I
replied, “Yes.”
He
shook his head, which at this time was dripping wet from all of the
hot sauce he had put on his enhiladas.
I
forget his name, but he is the tallest man I've ever seen except for
the famous Corn King.
He
kept a lot of guns in his dorm room's closet.
He
sometimes warned other card players when they made him mad that he
would go get one of his guns.
I
thought that was funny.
The
guns' triggers were safety-locked, and he never went to get one.
*
On
Saturdays I watched one TV program in the dorm's Recreation Room:
Laugh
In.
I
didn't smoke or drink.
I
never went to any parties.
No
wonder I didn't have any friends.
*
Well,
I did go to one party.
A
beer keg party.
I
can't remember who took me to the keg party, or who brought me back
to the dorm.
I
borrowed one of the dorm's graduate student's John Hopkins pewter
mug, and was warned not to lose it.
I'm
lucky I didn't lose or forget it.
I
was very inebriated when I left the party.
I
went crazy when I got into the dorm's elevator...yelling and kicking.
When
I finally made it to my room, I turned on the lights, and promptly
went to my sleeping roommate and tried to push him off his bed. He
sat up and lifted his right arm with a closed fist, ready to sock me,
but then
started
to laugh.
Lucky
for me.
*
I
didn't get to know anyone on my floor of the dorm, or for that matter
anyone at the university.
Michael
and I didn't speak to each other very much.
I
spent most of my time in the library away from all social
interference.
*
Two
of the dorm tenants became known as camel jock and lee
harvey.
Camel
jock had a moustache, and was from the Middle East.
Lee
harvey looked like Lee Harvey Oswald.
I
thought both didn't deserve these titles, but they took it all in
fun, at least on the outside.
*
Nothing
happened that was very exciting, except for the night that the male
students snuck into the dorm of the female students, and sprayed
their doors with whipping cream.
That
was about it.
Then
I moved somewhere else.
IT'S
ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES AND DORM LIFE
