||||| > Then and Now Terms < |||||
Past Traditions
Probable Insurance Company Edicts:
- Dorm room fireplaces with free wood from the Farm
- Floor Phones: who was the “Ernestine” on your floor?
- The tunnels (Asbestos-lined heating pipes providing a nice, flaking ceiling)
- Students owning dogs (Tri and English) and cats (see NNB)
- Rooftop keggars (saw the Northern Lights for the first time on the roof of Severance)
- Bike Polo: with or without a helmet
- Dorm lounge keggars (most Wednesdays)
- Campus streaking. We didn’t have “Chip and Dale” or even “Chippendale,” we had “Marty and Dale” from Davis to Nourse and back.
- Big, loud stereos blaring in campus dorms, throughout. A student living in ground Davis had his $4,000 MacIntosh stereo stolen over Christmas break, 1971. That’s about $30,000 in today’s money. Confirmation by Bill Svrluga’s post in the NNB.
- Music and Drama practice rooms no longer have skylight windows. They leaked like a sieve in our day. The contractor who had recently built the Music and Drama Center at the time went out of business not that long after completion. Therefore, a fix would have cost more than to just plug up the ceilings.
- Saturday Night is Steak Night: I used to watch my steak crawl across the plate after too much of “something” on occasion.
- First and last generation to legally vote and drink at 18.
Things/Policies Gone Today
- We had no parking on campus by students. Student parking is now covering all the plantain.
- Using Rottblatt softball to satisfy your PE requirement. Rottblatt is still played but no credit, no more pitcher’s conferences.
- Using Karate to satisfy your PE requirement. How many know we had one of the best Karate instructors on planet earth? David Carradine wouldn’t have a chance! Our instructor was 10th Dan-awarded black belt Robert Fusaro (1933 – 2019). Amazing maneuver: knock you to the ground by moving his fist an inch.
- The “Bald Spot” is no longer bald. Plus, no more flooding that area in front of Sayles Hill for skating/hockey. For us today, the “Bald Spot” has a more personal meaning.
- Men’s Wrestling and men’s wrestling with women. The athletic program never made it to the 21st century but back in our day, we had one woman on our Men’s Wrestling team.
Carry-overs to today
- Traying down the snow-covered hill behind Evans.
- Low room draw number is still a sure thing for a nice spot in Musser or Myers.
- Folk dancing on campus
Famous quote from comedienne Hermione Gingold: “It would appear that I have tried everything except incest and folk dancing.”
New Traditions
- Ultimate Frisbee
- Women’s Rugby
- Flash Mob dancing in the Library: students tune into the same song with headphones, prance and dance in the Library on cue. Karaoke drama encouraged. But with the headphones, it’s very quiet. Hence, library venue.
- Student parking on campus. Yup, today there is not only student parking on campus, there are empty spaces for those on campus. But maybe only on Fridays when students head up to the Twin Cities like we did.