Memory Lane

thumper1 · July 18, 2005, 9:02am

There were so many hilarious memories of the parents’ college days, I thought we needed a thread dedicated to this. Here are some of the things I remember…

hip hugger/bell bottoms (yes kids…your parents wore them before you).

those Indian print bedspreads. We still have ours and use them for picnics

Maid service at “hotel Bethany”.

Sit down dinners in the dining hall with waiters/waitresses.

Wearing skirts to fraternity parties…no kidding.

Potty pails…that’s what we called the buckets we toted to the bathroom.

The “Piggy Book”…a retro, low tech facebook.

Curfews, and a house mother…yep, we had both at the hotel.

Single sex dorms…not floors…the WHOLE dorm.

Carrying books, NO backpacks…they weren’t “in” then.

Making grilled cheese sandwiches with an iron…oh and using the SAME iron to straighten your hair. Unbelievable.

Typewriters.

Oh…and regarding the soap story about the washing machine…we had a princess on our floor who took her weekly bubble bath. We had one tub in our hall bathroom. She put the bubbles in one night, and got somehow distracted. The next thing we had was a huge flood with BUBBLES coming down the hall. It was actually pretty funny. I’ll bet this girl owns a spa.

UMDAD · July 18, 2005, 9:38am

1st year in an apartment in Ann Arbor and calling 411 for cooking information, such as “How long do you bake a potato?”

It’s not called “information” for nothing…

mezzomom · July 18, 2005, 12:37pm

Yelling out “man on the floor” when there was a male visitor; we evolved by my senior year and had a coed dorm (by floor).

jmmom · July 18, 2005, 1:32pm

We had “bells” as one of the jobs at the dorms in my all-female college (Wellesley). “Bells” was the person who sat at the front entry desk and announced visitors (I guess with a bell - who remembers?)

But what I do remember was that there was a code: "jmmom, you have a “caller” meant a guy was here; "jmmom, you have a “visitor” meant just a boring girl/parent visitor.

We had “sign-ins and sign-outs” if you were going to be out of the dorm after around 6pm, putting down where you’d be. Needless to say “overnights” were not part of the process without parental permission!

This stuff did ease up by my Senior year, but boy did we live in the “in loco parentis” era and did we NOT like it!

Clearly my senior year was WA-A-AY before mezzomom’s and thumper’s.

slinks off in dismay at being the elder stateswoman of the Parent Forum

aparent5 · July 18, 2005, 1:45pm

Gee, I doubt I’m any younger, but here are my memories:

Freshman year in a dorm that was coed by room, with all of us girls watching my next-door neighbor, a very hunky male model, walk down the hall to the shower with a towel wrapped around his waist;

Freshman week, when the university chaplain gave a speech in which he advised us to have sex with people we were in a relationship with. His thinking was undoubtedly that we should not have random sex with everybody in sight, but to my 18-year-old years this was a Grown-up Telling Us To Have Sex. I was stunned. Also he referred to “you men and women out there” and I remember turning around to see whether there were men and women behind us. Me, I was just a girl.

Streakers.

The fraternity quad, where late on a Saturday night there were always guys throwing up.

A guy from Alaska on my hall whose room always smelled of Alaskan meats…

Learning to cook French dishes – coq au vin, good omelettes – on the hotplate in my room and feeling very sophisticated.

Students occupying buildings to protest the financial aid policies.

marite · July 18, 2005, 2:07pm

Geez, I feel old.
No streakers in my day.

Parietal hours and curfews.
Matchboxes wedged between door and frame to conform to “open door” policy.
Panty raids in my first year in college. My application essay had been about wanting to learn more about the American Way of Life, but this was not what I had meant! I did not mention that episode to my parents.
Guy passed out drunk in the all female dorm’s bathroom.
Guy in the shower: Upon hearing about it, dean reportedly said: “at least he was taking a shower!” (fast forward to S: “Are you asleep in the shower? What’s taking you so long?”)

kinshasa · July 18, 2005, 2:21pm

OMG, “man on the floor”!!! What a hoot!

mmaah · July 18, 2005, 2:22pm

From generally the same vintage:

Freshman year women had to wear dresses or skirts to dinner (by our senior year 70-71 only clothes–most importantly shoes-- were required)!

Everyone had to attend a quarterly convocation—ceremonial, faculty procession etc

Rooms had two electric outlets and you were allowed one “stereo” among roommates. Dorms had “quiet hours”

Phone calls came to a central desk and your room was buzzed and you ran to a phone booth on the hall to take the call.

Freshmen women had to sign in and out after 9 and definitely be “in” by midnight or “Miss Snow” was on your trail. (By graduation all Miss Snows had been replaced by RAs, dorms were co-ed, and the student health center dispensed birth contol)

The times they were a-changing…

UMDAD · July 18, 2005, 2:31pm

I seem to have all the freshman year “delinquent” memories…

“Pennying” people into their rooms.

Doing “leaners” with trash cans full of water.

People on the floor coming from extremely sheltered backgrounds that couldn’t deal with Ann Arbor in the early 70s and went off the deep end, never to be seen again.

“Falling asleep” in the back of the North Campus bus and being woken up by the driver at the end of his shift, after having made the complete circuit numerous times.

jmmom · July 18, 2005, 2:35pm

During my senior year, Tiny Tim of “Tiptoe through the Tulips” fame got married on Johnny Carson. This was the occasion for major kitsch-y parties among college students. We had ours in my BF’s suite at Harvard. Pigs-in-blanket in the toaster oven, similarly kitsch-y hors d’oeuvers on hot plates, electric fry pan etc. With all that going, plus the TV, plus whoever else was similarly engaged down the hall, we blew the fuses numerous times.

But, we would not be stopped! , weren’t we?

lderochi · July 18, 2005, 2:49pm

Old. I feel so old. I see where MTV (I think) is going to run a reality show where they put college-age kids in a “70’s house”. My God, the comments from the kids in the article I read made it sound like they were being sentenced to the darkest days of the Middle Ages.

my iPod is like my child!
I’ll never last without my cell phone
How can I ever write something on a typewriter without spell check?
5 channels? Only 5 channels?

LOL. I never knew my younger days were spent in such a bleak wasteland. To keep on point, I remember that whenever a paper had to be typed we would have to hire out one of the local stenos who moonlighted.

I would also be interested in hearing if anybody had to “vote” on their opposite sex visitation policies, and if so whether any of the elections were more byzantine than ours. They made Soviet elections look fair and balanced. Basically, I think 15 hours per week of visitation were up for grabs. BUT, the whole dormitory had to have an election to choose WHICH 15 hours (in three hour increments) to choose. So the ballot consisted of 40+ 3-hour blocks. And the kicker was, unless (A) at least 50% of the entire dormitory voted, and (B) at leat 5 of the 3-hour blocks received more than 50% of the vote, then there would be no visitation privileges at all. If either of today’s political parties could organize the kind of get out the vote drive that we accomplished (including some very disciplined strategic voting), they would dominate the political landscape for years!

dadofsam · July 18, 2005, 2:59pm

Times weren’t yet a-changin in my day (I am still older than jmmom).

Backpacks were only used by German or Swiss hikers in the Alps (Valderee! Valderah!).

All freshmen required to go to dinner in a tie and jacket. Naturally there was at least one clown among us (not me, though I agreed with the concept) who decided that this did not a require a shirt, and came without one.

Pretty much impossible to sneak into the girl’s dorms as all were guarded by what seemed to be the same battleax (maybe they were sisters). Severe penalties for any girl who tried to help would-be sneaker-ins.

Also no streakers, except guys who had gotten themselves locked out of their room.

Sneaking kegs of beer in for parties (we all were under the legal drinking age).

Stereos were too big for our rooms; TVs not yet allowed, so we would watch in the lounge. Arguments over what to watch. Only programs universally agreed on were the World Series and Maverick. That’s where I lost my TV watching habits.

Touch football (unisex) in the quad, rain, shine or snow.

All sorts of antics come springtime including minor riots and turning over police cars or trolley cars. (No, we did not try swallowing goldfish although some worked at stuffing VWs.). Major sport was playing pinball.

Got excited about African music when I went to an Olatunji performance; ran out and bought all his records that I could find.

Had plenty of good times despite the in loco parentis attitude of the administration (gotta have some rules to try to get around!).

evitajr1 · July 18, 2005, 3:18pm

All dorms declaring ourselves autonomous from school and were able to get rid of women’s hours and signing in and out. Poor girls in basement had to keep their windows open and screens off so we could sneak back into dorm if we were late. We yelled “man on board”, too. Piggers - roast pig and beer at the lake (not in Hawaii, but in S. IL). Card games in student center. Long, really straight hair (male and female). The Mobil horse (with neon, borrowed) on the top of the boy’s dorm. The 2-seater outhouse on the quad with a sign proclaiming it the new field house. The VFW cannon (borrowed) and pointed at the Dean’s window. The college garbage truck in the dining hall. The letters slipped under our doors from admin asking that whoever placed the garbage truck in dining hall remove it between the hours of 2-4 am without repurcussions. The sheep (borrowed) filled with ex-lax and somehow stranded in Prez’s office. The main stairwell bricked up in the admin office. on-campus off-campus theater Da-Da plays. Stills in the boys’ dorms closets wired with electricity so the admins couldn’t check it. STREAKING!!!
Yes, the 70’s were fun!!!

thumper1 · July 18, 2005, 3:26pm

Now WHAT would make you think that Actually, I transferred from the hotel to a state school for my soph year. There were some coed dorms at the state school, no laundry service (too bad), but still we had a curfew. The suite housing had less of a curfew issue. I actually got put on probation once because I was “found” in a guy’s suite about an hour after hours…honestly doing nothing but returning car keys. Funny thing was I was an RA at the time and it caused quite the “scene” in my dorm.

Ah…not when I went to college. DS often says “come on MOM…didn’t YOU drink in college”. “Sure” I say. “See” he says…“Ah but the drinking age was EIGHTEEN”. And for those of you in some states…remember 3.2 or low beer? It was really watered down beer…yuck.

And YES…we also voted on the visiting hours. It was quite the to do…when the hours changed there were girls in my dorm who were appalled!!

evitajr1 · July 18, 2005, 3:27pm

Oh, yes, the first co-ed dorm opened - right side of bldg for men, left for women - they met only in the 1st floor common room that divided the 2 halves. Ice storms and slipping and sliding to class across the quad. All other dorms unisex. Underaged drinking at Jack’s Wonderbar (really!) White prof married black student - (scandalous!) but they still live in town, and have a beautiful, wonderful daughter! (All-white S IL farming community) Trick or Drinking at prof’s houses at Halloween - wierd night - no one had the same stuff - I remember aguardiente at Spanish prof’s. Working in kitchen and making 1000 rolls from scratch. And much, much more!!!

mezzomom · July 18, 2005, 3:39pm

Joining UMDad in “delinquent” memories: My junior year I lived in the house with five others that was the Newman Center (Catholic campus ministry) for our campus. We each paid $35 a month for rent and were responsible for taking care of the house and grounds, planning events, and having the house cleaned up for Saturday Mass (of the six of us, only one was Catholic). Naturally, a lot of our events were social…our parties were known as THE BEST on campus. One Friday we had an impromptu party and ran out of “beverages” before the party was over but after the grocery store had closed. So we helped ourselves to the wine the priest kept stored in his office. The next day, he showed up for Mass, only to discover we had gone through his entire case of sacramental wine. Fortunately for us, he was mostly upset that we hadn’t invited him to the party!

overanxious_mother · July 18, 2005, 3:42pm

Whodda thunk the University of Illinois was so liberal? I’m certain I’m in the top 10% of the oldest on this board…but our stuff was much less strict than most recalled here–here goes–

First, in 1970, we had a “three feet on the floor rule”…men had to be out of our dorm (or women out of the men’s dorms…dorms were not coed!) by midnight…and before midnight at all times there had to be 3 feet on the floor (the rule was based on a one-man/one-woman visiting situation and as far as I can tell was totally ignored by everyone, including the “police”–RAs and dorm “mother”)…that rule “died” by September of 1971 (along w/the PE requirement to graduate)…

Streaking was big for us, too…

All-night double-deck pinochle games (coed), in dorms and out…the Greek life was “out of style” (this was during the anti Vietnam, flower children, give peace a chance era), and dorms were for freshmen & sophomores primarily…after that, 4 kids piled into 2-bedroom apartments (primarily)…

Frisbee on the quad (some things never change)

Blue jeans and t-shirts, never EVER anything else…to dress up, change the color of your jeans…of course the bell-ier the bell bottoms the better…and the best jeans were patched to the max…the more (and more mismatched) patches, the better…

Bra-burning…going bra-less was the norm (whether or not it was comfortable or “scenic”)…

Did anyone out there on the parent board EVER wash their sheets?

Long, straight hair…curls were almost against the law–male and female

Probably more but those are the highlights…the freedom was heady; to this day, while my life has had many highlights, those four years in Champaign-Urbana remain the most profoundly wonderful … I just adored all that freedom…and cheerfully accepted the responsibility that made it possible…I remember religiously calling home every other night to make sure my parents would never feel like they had to call me!

parentofteen · July 18, 2005, 4:09pm

popcorn poppers (the smell brought people from the entire hall together)

only one dining option - the cafeteria

only a hall phone for my first two years (unfortunately located right outside my door)

many 8:00 classes (especially for freshmen)

matching bedspreads and even curtains (my older sis made them from bedsheets that matched the spreads!)

parties called “Smokers” at the fraternity houses (for guys only)

serenades outside the female dorms by fraternities

a Spanish professor who actually showed up at my dorm door to bring my missed work when I was sick!

Big stereos with big speakers! (and many LP albums)

Standing in long lines for class registration (now done online!)

ACC basketball - just as exciting then as it is now! I do remember how hard it was to get student tickets to certain games, though, and how my suitemates sneaked into one game by borrowing my roommate’s extra cheerleading uniforms and posing as members of the squad! Security didn’t even notice that their uniforms were totally different from each other and not even a match for the one my roomie was using that night!!!

fireflyscout · July 18, 2005, 4:13pm

Carbon paper!

Climbing out onto the dorm roof to sun.

Chicken fried steak every other day (this was in central Texas).

The joy when beer-to-go was voted in by the town.

One summer when every living soul at the college and in town got sick from (probably) contaminated water.

Seeing “Rocky Horror” for the first time at the student union (with beer smuggled in).

Popcorn poppers where the butter melted on top.

lderochi · July 18, 2005, 4:19pm

<<many 8:00=“” classes=“” (especially=“” for=“” freshmen)=“”>></many>

Oh yes. I think I repressed the memory. I had a 7:30(!) Latin class 5 days a week one semester, and a 7:30 Zoology class 4 days a week the next semester. Not terribly surprising that I had my worst year.

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