I was later glad I hadn’t joined a Greek sorority. They were rather uppity at MU and I was never that way.

My frat opinions are based on my own experience of 50 years ago. I saw awkward boys turn into confident men under the guidance of the frat system. Not so much for the more confident and socially adept. It served a purpose but it wasn’t for me. I suspect that today frats are all about the party with a dash of lifetime networking.

My sorority opinions are based on 3 daughters that did not choose to participate.

None of my three finished college without a lengthy interruption. In each case they formed relationships outside the college milieu and wound up dropping out. The problems ranged from grades to boyfriends. I doubt that would have happened if they had been in a sorority.

All of them went away to school. It might have been different if they had chosen a hometown college.

It was my favorite four years.

I pledged a frat but later depledged. I could not abide the regimentation that was part of 60′s frat life.

I had taken a couple of years off to travel the country and I felt that frat life was better suited for younger guys with sketchy social skills.

Anyway, the girls, the parties, the girls, it was grreat.

After partying with four houses for several weeks, I pledged a frat that was a nice fit for me. It was a very diversified house where racial and economic differences existed but made no difference. Mostly just a bunch of rednecks destined for greatness.

Looking back, there were rules but there were no adults in sight, including us. It felt like what a wild animal must feel when released from a cage…”Where are my captors?”

Like any other new experience, college takes a little getting used to. It took me a few weeks just to learn the campus and get my bearings. Learning to register for classes and other administrative duties quickly becomes mundane but you should have it easier with the internet on your side. There was no “on-line” at the time.

Enjoy every minute of it VRB. Some of my fondest memories are from my time in college and hopefully yours will be too.

Where ya going?

I cooked for my steady and his roomies who all missed Mom’s cooking. I am a great cook and pot roast with potatoes and carrots got lots of ahs, oohs, will you marry me’s?

Parties went on every weekend and homework really tried to interfere. Lots of times, all us gals burned the midnight oil in the dorm to get our papers in by deadline. But who needed to sleep? Life was ahead of us and it was so much fun.

I remember seeing the Kingston Trio perform at our College. They are the best stage act I’ve ever seen, bar none. Pizza Hut was pretty new and there was one just a couple of blocks from our dorm. We’d go there and play Scotch and Soda by the Kingston Trio on the jukebox and eat Pizza and drink beer (beer drinking age was 18 in Kansas, the only good thing about Kansas!).

My second year I transferred to the University of Missouri-Columbia. Party School. I couldn’t go home every weekend since it was farther. Had only one roommate and remember I didn’t like her all that well. There was more to do, more to get involved with, more guys to date. I walked into one pot party, smelled the stuff and walked out–not a prig, I just never got into that–I liked to drink, not get high. I dated a guy who was Air Force and was going through University paid by the AF. He was on Active Duty or would be again as soon as he graduated. He had a Triumph sports car and couldn’t afford the insurance during the summer so I took it home with me for the summer and paid the insurance and drove it. Fun! He came down to my home town to see me, and my sister sneaked a peak at his wallet and checkbook (unknown to me). Turns out he was divorced and paying child support and had failed to mention that little item. He was extremely unfaithful so by my Junior year we were kaput.

I went into the Journalism School and was having a great time. I remember running so late one morning, I didn’t have time to dress so I threw on a coat and out I went. The Columbia Missourian (newspaper) sent me to cover the council meeting and there I was with a coat and nothing on underneath and the council was doing this friggin’ program and they needed me to play one of the parts and I kept saying, No! No! I can’t take off my coat. I’m coming down with something and… So I played the part with my coat on and got the hell out of there the moment I could. I think all the council members guessed they had a half naked little gal with them and were vastly amused. Yeesh.

I had met a guy at our local County Fair and he had left college to join the AF and I think he was scared of going overseas alone so he asked me to marry him. I left school before my Senior year to marry him (big mistake). Spent the next 3 1/2 years in England.

The dorms were noisy on weekends, not quite so much during the weeks although bad enough. There was constant activity and things to tempt you away from your studies.

The Professors are so much better than high school teachers. I fell in love with history with my first course in it at College.

We had curfews in the dorms back then. Don’t know if they still do. If you missed curfew you were screwed. You either had to have a friend to sneak you in (no cell phones back then, either) or your slept elsewhere that night and if they had a bed check and you were gone…Ruh Roh.

We had Hall Monitors who were usually Seniors who made sure you all behaved. They were there to try to make things run smoothly for us, to answer questions, give advice and discipline when needed–well, when we were caught, which wasn’t very often. We were sneaky. Teehee.

In Missouri, we couldn’t drink yet so at parties, if the cops raided, we all got up to dance so that no one was sitting in front of their drink. If you weren’t attached to the drink or sitting at the table, they couldn’t touch you. Louie Louie was THE party song.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

University was great. Scarey as hell and exciting and the world was mine.