SATURDAY November 25, 1967_____ ______ ______ _____ THE FOLLOWING EVENTS PROBABLY HAPPENED IN SEPTEMBER 1967, OCTOBER 1967 , NOVEMBER 1967 or DECEMBER 1967: I mentioned to Ernie, the boresser, while yelling down the hall to him while he was in front of his room by the fire door that my favorite Sci Fi author was Isaac Asimov and he said he was his too, "Especially the robot stories". I had forgotten about the robot stories as I had gotten into his later stuff,,,, My roomie Grant gave me his brothers white IU jacket he said didnt fit him. It fit me fine. Now the red lettering is faded and I keep it unwashed. 9/67?,,, 'Bass Weejuns" were supposedly cool shoes,,, Frank, 'the Hippie' who wasnt, made me Welsh Rabbit in the lounge mini-kitchen. Thats how I learned what it was,,, Howard Cosell hated IU and knocked all our victories. He'd be on the overhead radio in the Wright Dining Hall knocking us nationally as we ate,,, My roomie said his mother told him it was good to brush ones tongue. I thought it wasnt worth the extra work. Some time later an article appeared in the paper saying so and he showed it to me. I said that there are many little useful things to do that dentists were always telling us but theres no time to do them all. This was the era when even 'flossing' was only done by a few,,, One night I was sitting back on my bed when all of a sudden I heard a noise and little bits of something went thru my room. There were little bits of white on the walls. Someone (Ernie?) had put a toothpaste tube under the door and stamped on it,,, I never stopped to think about how many non-whites there were in baseball and I said 10:1 and my roomie said for me to name ten for his every one. He was correct. (In the 1970s and 80s baseball really got white again for some reason and then shifted back),,, I mispronounced the word 'epitome' to him and he threw open the door and laughed and told me to shout it down the hall. I didnt. Funny how I recall my mistakes more often than that of others,,, for equality, he changed the nameplate on the door. The top name was smaller than the bottom one. You could see he would someday be a lawyer,,, I used to talk about maybe someday transferring to one of the Ivy League schools that wanted me if I didnt like it at IU but I kept liking it,,, _____ ___________ ____________ DECEMBER 1967_ ________ _:GENERAL DECEMBER: We were now all just waiting for IU to go to the Rose Bowl to perhaps play USC with OJ Simpson for the national championship,,,I was really into baseball stats and their probability and statistics since getting that Strat-o-Matic game in Late 1965 and I would be into my mid-40s! Yet watching the games themselves was rarely interesting to me unlike other males,,, 1-21-2000,,,,, age 18,,, Was it early December when I was out walking in the cold drizzle at night carrying ceramic teacups and metal teapots and on 3rd street over across from Brummetts Pharmacy in front of the Music bldg we ran into my girlfriend and her friend?,,,, In the cold I had noticed that guys on upper floors would hang food out their windows in net-bags as refrigerators were not yet allowed,,,, Frank drew a picture of Grants girlfriend off a photo but the mouth was fuzzy,,, Vietnam War was bigger and Dale, I believe, spent Xmas there,,, I got some free posters thru the mail from a BIG TEN magazine mainly because one was of Al Kaline. I hung them up. One was for Arnold Palmer and said Player: Palmer and my roomie at first thought it was of Gary Player of South Africa apartheid,,, I kept trying to learn to gargle and never could without choking. Still cant,,, Leslie told me they had just had a ceremony for a girl who got 'laveliered' which was some sort of big step,,, The Madrigals were this month but I was now worried about having enough money for the future,,, While boressing I got ahold of one guys key and was thinking of making a clay mold and getting a guy at the mall to make me a key but I changed my mind,,, my stomach continued to keep me awake with what would be an ulcer,,, Was THIS the time that the wild guy on the hall 'borrowed' a city bus in Indianapolis, drove it around the city at night, and then drove it up on someones fron yard and left it there? Or was that a guy at Briscoe about a year later? ______ FRIDAY DECEMBER 1, 1967... ______ SATURDAY DECEMBER 2, 1967.... ______ SUNDAY DECEMBER 3,1967:.... ______ MONDAY DECEMBER 4, 1967: ..... ______ TUESDAY DECEMBER 5, 1967: ..... _______ WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 6, 1967:.... ______ THURSDAY DECEMBER 7, 1967: PEARL HARBOR DAY:... ______ FRIDAY DECEMBER 8, 1967:... ______ SATURDAY DECEMBER 9, 1967:... ______ SUNDAY DECEMBER 10, 1967: ...... _____ MONDAY DECEMBER 11: _____ TUESDAY DECEMBER 12: ______ WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 13: ______ THURSDAY DECEMBER 14: ______ FRIDAY DECEMBER 15: To Eastland for that boress gift later mentioned? ______ SATURDAY DECEMBER 16:Right around here had to be the Xmas Boress Party where guys gave each other weird and insulting things as well as gold-painted Monon Railroad insult spikes. I still have mine. I went to the discount clothing store that was then at the end of the Eastland Plaza, picked out a huge pair of girls bloomers for it, and had my girlfriend carry it thru the line as I watched her talking to another female. I was too shy to carry it thru myself. Besides the spike I also got a t-shirt with 'I eat Chicago meat' on it. ______ SUNDAY DECEMBER 17: ______ MONDAY DECEMBER 18: ______ TUESDAY DECEMBER 19: ______ WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 20: CHRISTMAS RECESS BEGINS AFTER LAST CLASS.,, MONDAY DECEMBER 25, 1967: CHRISTMAS DAY:.... _______ SATURDAY DECEMBER 30, 1967:,,, SUNDAY DECEMBER 31, 1967: I know that sometime around here I was back in Greenpoint at my Uncle Johnny's house. Was it New Years Eve? I dont recall why but he made the sign of being a square while staring at me. I also remember mentioning I had a girlfriend in Indiana. My parents were still in Astoria at this time so it didnt have to be on a weekend that I was back in Brooklyn. __________ _____ _____ ______ ______ _______ _______ ____,,,.Nov 5,1999, Thursday....::: __________Indiana University SCHEDULE OF CLASSES at Bloomington SECOND SEMESTER. 1967-68 __________... CALENDAR..... January 30, 1968, Tuesday,, Meetings..... Jan 31, Feb 1, Wednesday, Thursday,, Counseling ..... February 1,2,3 Thurs,Fri,Sat,, REGISTRATION..... MONDAY FEBRUARY 5,1968: CLASSES BEGIN, 730am..... SATURDAY FEB 10, 1968.. DROP AND ADD,,, FRIDAY MARCH 29,1968: Mid-Term Reports Due- 500pm..... FRIDAY APRIL 5,1968: SPRING RECESS BEGINS AFTER LAST CLASS..... MONDAY APRIL 15,1968: SPRING RECESS ENDS,730am,,,,, WEDNESDAY MAY 1,1968: FOUNDERS DAY, (930,1030,1130,1230 classes do not meet),,,,, SATURDAY MAY 25, 1968: CLASSES END 1215pm,,,,, SUNDAY MAY 26, 1968: REVIEW DAY,,,,, MONDAY MAY 27, 1968: EXAMINATIONS BEGIN, 745am,,,,, THURSDAY MAY 30, 1968: MEMORIAL DAY HOLIDAY,,,,, TUESDAY JUNE 4, 1968: EXAMINATIONS END: 515pm,,,,, MONDAY JUNE 10, 1968: COMMENCEMENT, 1000 am,,,,,,, OFFICES: JUNIOR DIVISION: MAXWELL HALL (Gargoyle bldg) DEANS: MADDEN, BUCHER, DAVIS, HERTWECK,,,,, REGISTRATION: FRESHMEN: THURSDAY FEBRUARY 1, 1968: 2:30 pm for names Jam-Kar at the old Fieldhouse with the huge dirt floor and desks all around. Freshmen came first along with half of Grad Students and Law Students, then Seniors the next morning and Juniors in the afternoon, then Sophomores on Saturday, Feb 3,1968 along with the other half of Grads and Law.... DROP AND ADD on Sat,Feb 10, 1968 for me would have been at 850am or later.... My FINAL EXAM SCHEDULE was MONDAY MAY, 27, 1968: none, TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1968: GERMAN: 1000am to noon,,, WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1968: ASTRONOMY: 745am to 945am, Ireally did well on it to pull me up and get that phone call,,,,, SATURDAY, JUNE 1,1968: CALCULUS: 745am to 945am. I also had a physical ed class but I dont know if we had a Final Exam.,,,,, FEES AND EXPENSES. (Remember: No college loans then): UNDERGRADUATE: In-state: $180 ( $1,260 in 1999 dollars), Out-of-State: ME!: $495 ( $3,465 in 1999 dollars). But remember: Jobs also PAID twice as much or more in those days). These are for ten or more hours.
.__________ JANUARY 1968: _________ I THINK THESE THINGS HAPPENED IN JANUARY 1968: GENERAL: ... ... UNDER CONSTRUCTION: putting in parts in random spots... . Some guy in a car brought me in the freezing cold and snow WAY out of town (So it seemed) to where there was a liquor store and the rules were so strict that I had to stand outside on the ice while he went in to buy liquor. And there was a guard right inside the door I could see. NYC was nothing like that. (I now know that it was the liquor store east of the mall but I did not know it then),,,, The OLD OAKEN BUCKET was displayed in the STUDENT UNION BOOKSTORE: It was at the main entrance along the long hall and behind glass on the left as one came in. Thats when I first saw that it had a chain of big Ps and Is for past wins, They also sold a big softcover about every game of the football season and I bought it. I dont know where it is or if it was lost by Greyhound,,,, 1-20-2000,,, Grant had a great, expensive pair of Goodyear boots for the snow but I never found a pair out East,,, Bill was a short,wide highschool football lineman and he said that when he got in place he could be moved. He was correct, we couldnt move him. I went 'Arrgh' when I tried. He said, "Not Arggh, OORRGH",,,, Vietnam War kept getting worse and worse,,,, Bill wanted coke for his Southern Comfort. Cup machine in lounge ran out. He tried Root Beer and got REALLY sick,,, I got my Strat O Matic baseball cards and had them on my bed. Allen came in and wouldnt you know it but he squashed my GARY PETERS CARD!!. The year he had the best card in the league when he won the AL ERA title in 1966!!! I still have it with its creases!!,,, What would be my ulcer still woke me up in pain at night,,, Still avoided the stonies,,,,, The ABA was still a new league,,, Heavy industry still big in USA,,, In may have been in Jan 1968 when the guy who won Mr.IU and I walked across the campus and approached Swain Woods where we saw all the posters torn down for the contest (Was he Mr IU from the previous year or was it this contest he won?). In that era males hid any weight training they did. It was weird that in late 1967 I had made friends with the two guys I thought were far more 'studly' than I was and proably the two top guys with girls, even ahead of the guys in room 114. I have no idea why they both made friends with me. The Mr IU guy had a bit more muscle than the other guy and the other guy had a bit more money and breeding.,,,, Some guy upstairs wanted everyone to sign a big sheet of paper he put on his wall. So I signed, "Walt the Pollock" as thats how they spelled it then,,,, There was no ML King day in mid-Jan,,,,,, Guys who flunked out of IU would go to some place called Miami of Ohio to bring up their grades and apply to return,,,1-20-2000, ___________________ ______________________ ____________________ JANUARY 1, 1968: THE ROSE BOWL!!! INDIANA VS SOUTHERN CAL.: I couldnt go out there with Leslie and the others as i would tehn have also had to fly to NYC afterwards and then back to IU. So I watched it alone in my old room in Astoria, Queens. There was a big bowl game right before and another one right after. So I guess it was on at about 3pm of January 1, 1968. I saw a float in the Rose Parade of someone taunting a huge Hoosier and the word, "Its Midnight Cinderella", The number three team beat the number two team by ONE point so that was perfect for cancelling them both in the rankings. They were Oklahoma and Tennessee. Now if IU could beat USC there was the perfect chance to be number one. But it was a sad ending. They beat us 14-3. Their second lowest score of the season but small comfort. OJ Simpson was their famous player. We still are the Greatest Cinderella team of all time but as we didnt go all the way noone remembers. They made a big deal about Northwestern in the 90s but it didnt rise anywhere as much nor did they play for the National Title in the Rose Bowl. ___________________ RETURN TO COLLEGE, EARLY JANUARY. I dont recall how I got back but I very much believe it was via train. Probably the new Penn-Central if it started by then. I think this was the train where a conductor was saying, "There's a lower method of travel than this but I wont mention it" to a couple of other college students. Many were the times that I was in that Indy train station first floor either waiting for a train or waiting after a train for a cab. Lonely wait each time. All those food stands now gone that I used to hang around alone and sip coffee.12-20-99,,, Many was the long busride via Greyhound to Bloomington with lots of other college guys back when the Greyhound wasnt just for the very poor as it is now,,, Now THIS was a debacle. These long trips lugging suitcases were always miserable on me. I was always dirty and exhausted at the end. Going around the clock without sleeping. I do recall that on top of all the misery of travel in which i was trying to save money for some reason, I just missed the bus to Bloomington from Indy. My parents said i should take a cab but I was DETERMINED to save money. I was as frugal on this trip as possible, even going without eating. (I dont recall why). So I decided that, despite being totally exhausted I would stay awake all night until the bus in the morning. So I just hung in the bus depot or wandered the freezing streets trying to keep awake for ANOTHER night. This is TWO nights sleep in a row i skipped. FINALLY, the bus came. Seemed like forever having nothing to do for so many hours. Then I take it all the way down to Bloomington. But the moment I get there it is time for GYM CLASS!!! So I throw my bags on the bed and go to gym class. I forget if it was Volleyball or Fencing or what. I change out of my sweaty clothes, still with no sleep in days, and I notice that the guy who had the locker next to mine left his lock off and it was wide open and his wallet was there. So I pushed it closed so he wouldnt get it stolen. then I went to gym. After I finished gym I returned. And someone had gotten MY lock off and stolen my pants and all the money I had in it that I went through days of no sleep and no food to save!!!! The locker next to mine had no lock on it and was still untouched. Not only my wallet was gone but also my pants!! Now how do I get home. I walked around trying to find someone, anyone, in authority. But they had all left. Now I couldnt even get home. It was FREEZING out and all I had were my gym shorts. So I opened the other locker, put on the guys pants, left his money-filled wallet there with a note, and ran back to Parks 112 for pants. Then I ran back (no sleep, hungry). He nevr returned. So I put his UNSTOLEN pants back with his UNSTOLEN wallet and went home. Unbelievable. No good deed will go unpunished. There went many of my smaller College souvenirs. I waited all my life to go to college and kept as many souvenirs as I could of my First Semester, First Year and they would almost all be stolen by the end of the second semester. I especially wanted my 1967 photo ID card and it was in my wallet. i dont know when I got a new one.,,,, I dont know when I decided I had to break up with that girl. But I knew I had to buckle down my next semester or flunk out and go to Vietnam. I may have decided during Xmas vacation 1967/68. But I believe I did break up with her between the Dec/Jan Xmas break and the Jan/Feb break beween semesters. It was a bad scene in her first floor lounge with her running up the stairs. I still feel bad about it but it was her then or both her and my whole college career gone in a few months. I never bothered with another female until 1972 which was a long time for a teenage boy: 4-5 years.,,,, ___________________ THE SUPERBOWL: SUNDAY JANUARY 14, 1968: AFL vs NFL: GREEN BAY 11-4-1, Vince Lombardi over OAKLAND 14-1: 33-14, Orange Bowl, Starr MVP: 13-24 202 yds,, 1-21-2000,, age 18,, _____PARKS HOUSE DANCE: Now I dont know if this happened before Semester Break vacation in late Jan 68 but it must have as nothing else makes sense: For some reason we were paired up with SYCAMORE, a girls dorm over in the same courtyard complex as the Kinsey Sex labs. For some reason we were all out of their place late on a very cold night throwing toilet paper all over their tree and they had to stay in due to 'Womens Hours'. They came over for a dance in the first floor lounge where I pulled those all-nighters. I had virtually no idea how to dance but I did. I recall my roommate talked me into it by just saying, all you do is sway, or something like that. I guess my 1967 girlfriend and I didnt dance. There was on girl there with the Impossible name of ELSIE S. who was a stunner and who came from out on Long Island! I recall sitting there with my roommate after dancing with someone near the door and moving towards the middle where the seats were. She suddenly said that she had a NY accent but got rid of it by taking special training and how she hates NY accents. So I said some joke about that as I obviously had one. Then she danced later with the studly guy who lived diagonally from me in, I believe 111 0r 109. She was looking, or just glancing or just flirting, at me over his shoulder. After the dance the guys were back in the hall talking about how great she looked and what a weird name she had. Someone called her and asked her out and was shut down. I left the Wright complex, walked in the cold down to the Crosstown Shopping Center and into one of the two phone booths on the side there and called her up. She agreed to go out with me but said it couldnt be the next couple of days but would have to be after the vacation a couple of days away. I said i'd call her on our return but I never did. On second thought I didnt want to be part of a couple anymore. I wanted to go back to being alone so why even try. Now here is what's weird. This was the only vacation coming up; yet it was after FINAL EXAMS. Why would we have a dance so close to Finals? And what was the pairing all about? We had paired off with Forest for Homecoming and this wasnt anything. It would have made more sense if this was before Xmas vacation but I was still with Leslie then. ________ ___________ FINAL EXAMS, LATE Jan 1968______:: For his final exams, Frank did a pile of black boxes and got an 'A' and showed me them in his room with Bill T to kid me about it,,,,, 12-8-99,,, This was when AL CAPP of LIL ABNER fame was running around college campuses telling off anti-war people,,,, Still walking to Eastland Hooks Pharmacy, Woolworths, Grants and along thin mud path to College Mall Pharmacy, Sears, gift shops, card shops, 5&10, 2-21-00,, _______________ During Final Exams, the big guy who lived in 110 left to get married. I guess he finished his earlier. A bunch of guys gave him a 'present' by swiping furniture out of the huge central lounge of Wright Quad and piling it in a U-Haul for him and then waving to him as he took off. 12-20-99,,, _______________ After Final Exams we all went home between semesters.___ At some time around here I went into that studly guys room (we usually left our doors open) and he was incredibly depressed. He went to check on his grades (or he got them or something) and despite having studied like crazy he got a ZERO POINT!!!. He could now be in Vietnam! ____ JANUARY 22,1968: NBA creates Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns,,, JANUARY 23,1968: NBA ALL-STAR GAME,,, ___THE GRADUATE: ___: I have somewhere the exact dates this was showing at the VON LEE theatre. Some guys from my hall and I were standing out on a long line in front of the theatre for at least an hour or more as everyone wanted to see it. I think it was around Jan 20, right around when Nixon was inaugurated. I recall talking to Steve Z from Long Island and he warning me for the unpteenth time to NOT ever take 'Ahluwalia' for Calculus as noone could understand him and he was all PROOFS and he couldnt teach or answer questions. Thats how it usually was- the MATH classes were usually taught by people who couldnt teach or even speak English. We saw the movie and then left threw the back fire escape as others were waiting in line behind us. "Plastic!" It was THE movie of the anti-war era yet is now forgotten on the late, late show,1-20-2000,, ____ SLIPPERY STORM???_____ I have no idea when the big slippery storm was. I just recall I left Parks House, went thru the huge courtyard towards 7th St. I approached the steps and EVERYBODY wa out between classes and it was snowy and slippery everywhere. I saw those steps in front of me and how easily everyone else did them even though they were high and steep (two sets of them actually) and figured if everyone else could do them so easily it must be easier than i thought. So to them I went. And I immediately SLIPPED and fell right down the steps to the first landing with all those people watching on both sides of it and bowling over others as my books and papers went flying and I got all banged up. Then I eventually got my senses back and gingerly went down and hobbled off. I still cant understand how all the others did it so easily. Maybe I was just too weak and puny. _______________________ FEBRUARY 1968: ____________ I BELIEVE these things happened in FEBRUARY 1968:::: ... I RETURNED TO A GHOST TOWN FLOOR in early February 1968. Our floor was half the size of a regular one in the first place. But now many had FLUNKED out from all the partying by all the freshmen. Many wound up in the military and some in Vietnam. Others quit rather than be on critical-probation and have to work their way up. Others were taken out by parents when they saw how bad their grades were and how much it cost them. There were no student loans back then. The floor was so quiet and so empty. And people changed their rooms. For example, Frank the not-Hippie moved from the far end where there were only two rooms to in with Bill T across from me and one down. Others bounced around as well. The guy from Atlanta with the hankerchief collection whom the girls liked wound up in the navy. They posted the grades on the fire door and our floor GPA was below 2.00. One guy had a good laugh as they listed him as a great student as they had him for something like a 3.70 GPA when he actually got a 0.37!,,,,, I buckled down the second semester compared to the first. I recall being at my desk from the start studying and going for help with my Calculus,,,,, Now guys on my hall were coming to me for help as I was now at my desk a lot more. I recall one guy coming to me with some huge fraction that had to be cancelled all the way down,,,,, I remember standing in the little wooden foyer of the BOOKCORNER in the center of town on, I believe, a Sunday thinking about how relieved I felt after the bad feeling of the breakup went down a bit. Being with another person just was so different for me I couldnt really handle it. Now I felt the starnge comfort of going back to the loner I was for 17 years before. Perhaps for the same reason some long-term prisoners dont want to leave their cells when their time is up. A miserably lonely existance but one I was used to. I havent had a close relationship like that since.,,2-21-00 ,,, age 20,, ,,, We still avoided the stony areas,,,,,Grant got a 1.6 and I got a 1.24,,,, The instrumental LOVE IS BLUE was a huge hit and I heard it constantly, perhaps since January,I should check and see when it first appeared in the charts,,,,,, ____________ _______________ ___________ _____________ REGISTRATION FOR NEW SEMESTER, "SPRING 1968":::: ________ OTHER CURRYS ON INDIANA AVENUE: Was THIS when I first found out there was a place to buysecond hand books? This store was next to THE GABLES and I recall going downstairs to where the scince books were. However, as I still was to use some books from the First Semester I either just got a Calculus book here OR I wasnt down here until Sept 1968. ,,, Bookstore also all had these huge desk blotters with stuff about all the stores on them __________ MONDAY FEBRUARY 5, 1968: Classes begin:: So the first time I must have seen Dr. Honeycutt was at 1030am on Mon Feb 5, 1968 _______FEBRUARY 7, 1968: Joan Payson becomes President of the NY METS ______ SATURDAY FEBRUARY 11,1968: Drop and Add: ____________ GERMAN CLASS: In Lindsey Hall, first floor, right, right next to wide stair entrance. Grad student female taught us. Pretty cute but not beautiful. Later invited us all to a party at her place but I didnt go. I would tease the girl in front of me as we had oldtime inkwell desks and Id put her pigtail in mine,,,, Guy in that German class walked around campus wearing a CAPE with a red lining,,,, I usually left the class at the end by going,not out the front, but along the first floor to the end and then to the right in a zigzag that led to a back exit. I learned that by walking with someone else. It was closer to the way I was going and fewer people. Like a fire escape outside,,,, 12-20-99,,,, RFK was on the radio from Indianapolis one day when I was there and the TA brought her pocket radio for people to listen but non-Democrats complained so she taught us German instead,,,,,, I recall telling Grant what a liar RFK was because I was standing right near him in NYC in 1966 as he swore repeatedly he would fill out his whole term if elected and definitely would not run for president in 1968 and how he then went against his word and stabbed Eugene McCarthy in the back as well. Grant said something about how he couldnt tell what the future would bring and I said that RFK knew that when he gave his word. Grant surprised me by admitting I was right. Of course, Grant was no Liberal, either,,12-20-99,,, Was also a guy on campus who had a unicycle,,,, ________ASTRONOMY CLASS A202,_______Dr. Honeycutt. So now I think there were about half as many students left in Astro as before but I may be wrong. I know I really pulled a 'B' out of my a-- by doing so well on the Final for A201 the last semester. Hell, I couldnt flunk out after one semester or change my major when I went all the way out to Indiana JUST for the Astro Dept. If not for that it would have been much cheaper and easier to go to Penn state. I recall the first day Dr Honeycutt walked into class. He seemed so shy about it I wondered if it was the first course he ever taught. I had no idea that grad students taught courses and that he must have taught something before. I never really thought about what my German recitation TA was. But Dr. HONEYCUTT came in the front door so shyly I thought he was going to scrape along the doorjam. And he had a big shy smile on his face. Well, Prof. Burkhead was a real nice guy so I figured we had another one here. Of course, I still sucked as a student. I was NOTHING compared to what I had been in the 1950s when I was Mister Whiz Kid. I had had virtually NO attention span since January 1959. My attention span from birth to age 9 was fantastic for anyone, especially a kid, but the constant daily fear and brutalization from 2/59 until 1964 knocked it out of me. It was totally amazing that I could still pull those tests out when I was constantly in such a swirling, fog-like state of mind that I couldnt focus on much of anything. I repeatedly did not touch my notes or books until I was cornered with a test the next day. Then I'd be so scared my attention span would finally click-in and I'd catch up with so much at once. When I did not have a test the next day I couldnt think straight at all. My mind was in a fog bouncing all over the place and constantly worrying and I would read with near-zero understanding and my mind extremely depressed and I just had to go out and walk, walk, walk as fast as I could for hours as I had done since 1959 at age 9. But when scared, everything quickly clicked into place for SURVIVAL although I did not leave myself enough time to actually work any problems to see where the tricks and traps and exceptions were. It was the same way in my classes. Back in Brooklyn I was the real whiz-kid in those days BEFORE being terrorized by a mentally ill teacher and her New York City hoodlums. I had hung onto every word the normal teachers had said and I blew thru everything easily. But since moving to Astoria and living in that daily Hell all I could think of in classes was survival and getting away from being surrounded by other people. That need to get away from the classroom stuck with me forever. I couldnt wait for the bell to get out and swiftly walk and walk and walk and try to calm down.,,, age 18,, early 1968,,, ________CALCULUS CLASS: I think Calc was a 200 level course. The prof was Prof. Hile. It was in the basement of LINDLEY HALL diagonally from the Physics Bldg. Up those wide, wide stone steps to get in but then right back down the totally corregated metal ones inside and then to the left to the end of the hall and then on the left side. I always brought in a coffee to that class. On his first day Prof HILE was so shy that he definitely DID bang into and scrape along the wall as he came in. The picture remains in my minds eye. The same shy smile as DR HONEYCUTT only even worse as Hile was like Wally Cox and Honeycutt was a BIG man. Proofs, proofs, proofs made that course difficult. Years later I breezed through Calc course as they were all dumbed down and had no proofs to memorize. I couldnt memorize proofs in Geometry in late 1964 at 14 either. ________ THE BIG YAWN?___: I was sitting in the back left of Dr Honeycutts Astronomy class and i was dead tired. Insomnia? Worrying all night? Without thinking I let out a huge yawn and everyone turned around to stare at me including Dr Honeycutt who stopped writing on the blackboard to turn around an look at me,,, ______ HOUSTON VS UCLA,:_ELVIN HAYES VS LOU ALCINDOR:______ Ucla had been winning one NCAA title after another and they were on another long winning streak and undefeated again after months. Elvin Hayes was at his height and considered to be Alcindors equal this year and Alcindor was a bit injured as well. So this game got more hooplah than any other college b-ball game I ever heard of. EVERYONE was waiting for it. We piled into one of the rooms on the far end of the hall. On the other side of the stairwell where there were only two rooms. In the room with two guys away from the front entrance side. My roomie was there with others. Hayes and Houston kept in front all the way I believe and UCLA almost pulled it out at the end but Hayes was a bit better than Alcindor that day and also playing the game of his life. Houston won! Everybody loved it. Just like everyone loved it when USC beat UCLA in football a couple of months before. Between basketball and football and the whole anti-war thing people were sick and tired of hearing about UCLA all the time. I think even THE GRADUATE was on the ucla campus. I recall on the way back down the hall my roommate Grant making some comment in which he quoted someone saying something in the media about nothing beating them and saying something like, " Unless youve got Elvin Hayes." I still remember vividly sitting on the end of the bed in a pile of people as if it were yesterday,, :1-20-2000 231pm,,, FEBRUARY 27, 1968: MICKEY MANTLE SIGNS WITH YANKEES.
_____ _____ MARCH 1968 _____ _____: I THINK these things happened in MARCH 1968:::... I was standing at my door either just before or after lunch and someone got pushed into me and my key broke off in the door and I had to wait to get it fixed,,,, I was still buying those weird monthly "MU" books about a Lost Continent I had never heard of,,, My stomach still woke me up in pain, I still worried a lot,,, This MAY have been the month I went to the dentist in a hurry. I have NO idea when it was other than it was either very late 1967 or in the first few months of 1968. I woke up once and there was blood on my pillow! I thought it had something to do with the weird pains in my stomach. But it may also have something to do with my mouth. I dont call if it was in the morning or after a nap. I then looked up a dentist in the phone book who was somewhere I recognized. He was upstairs at the WORKINGMANS building which had the big 'W' above it and where I had tried to open an account. I went there and the door opened to a STEEP staircase. I went up and there were dentists everywhere. In those days there were dentists, dentists,dentists where there are now lawyers. I went in and he just cleaned my teeth and maybe did something else. He told me I had better "give those teeth a good workout" and that he still didnt think I would have any teeth after the age of thirty! Yet I dont recall him saying that any work had to be done. (I had completely forgotten about being there until a return in the mid-90s when I looked in the door and suddenly recalled being there before but I couldnt recall his name, even with the help of the directory and I wasnt sure which office had been his.)..... The stonies were still the big bugaboos,,,, I think? it was in March 1968 that I had just crossed along the south side of East 10th Street from Brummetts Pharmacy to the Sorority/Fraternity side (where DDD was that would later be in BREAKING AWAY 11 years later) and there was a lot of thick snow on the ground but many students were walking on it. And right across the street I see a dollar bill in the snow (small pizza was $1.60) and then a couple feet later another, and then another, and then another. Did someone have a hole in his pocket??? 1-27-00,, _____ _____ ______ MARCH 4, 1968: Joe Frazier beats Buster Mathis,,, _______MARCH 12, 1968: LBJ gets 48% of vote in New Hampshire primary compared to McCarthy's 42%. Nixon gets 79%,,,,, _______MARCH 13, 1968: RFK says now assessing running aginst LBJ,,,,, _______MARCH 14,1968: RFK says wont support LBJ,,,,, _______MARCH 16: RFK announces candidacy,,,,, March 23, 1968 UCLA WINS NCAA BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP, beats Houston this time. DAYTON wins NIT,, 1-20-2000,,,, Was THIS "HOOSIER HYSTERIA" time? I was shocke to find out how fanatical Hoosiers were about their high school basketball season. In NYC noone cared about high school rah-rah stuff. In York,Pa they did. But in Indiana it was a state wide fanaticism to follow high school basketball, My roommate came from someplace called SHORTRIDGE which I kept calling 'shortbread'. I also recall one person asking me how big my NYC high school was and I vastly underestimated its size as i never cared about it all that much like these guys did. But Long Island City High School was many stories high, a block in size, and so crammed we had to go in shifts,,, age 18, Fall 1968, ,,, _____ MONDAY MARCH 25, 1968: This was proably Mid-Term week which meant All-Nighters and an especially bad week for my worrying and my ulcer. ,,,2-8-00,,, age 18,,, _____ Tuesday March 26, 1968: Wilt Chamberlain named NBA MVP,, ______ FRIDAY MARCH 29, 1968: MID-TERM REPORTS DUE 5pm _______MARCH 31,1968: (Right between MidTerm week and Easter Vacation): _____ LBJ QUITS!!!!!_____LBJ announces he will not seek another term!! I was in Bills room sitting on the bed by the hall-wall and the TV was to my left. We never expected it. there were a bunch of us in there and all of a sudden LBJ says he wont run again and people went "What??!! What did he say????" And we couldnt believe it. He probaly would have been renominated and had a good chance of being re-elected. (Maybe I was sitting on the end of the bed by the door),,,,, I think it was in Late March that I was in my German class at Lindley Hall and there was a big anti-war demo forming ouside. We were in the first floor classroom whose windows were just to the right going in by the wide staircase but the first floor was at the top of the stairs so they were a bit lower. They were proably there as that bldg also house ROTC which was on the top floor up the grated metal stairs that always seemed so weird to me. At the end of the class I went outside and stood at the top of the stairs. Some guy seated on the top of the very wide bannister next to me was talking and all of a sudden the biggest birdpoop imaginable hit the wide bannister right near us both and we both got splattered,,,, _____THE BIG FIGHT????__: I dont know when this happened although Im pretty sure it happened the second semester. At this time I got along well with both the studly guy who lived diagonally across from me in, I believe, 111 (Was Steve Z his roomie that semester??) as well as the Body Builder who was on the second floor. I dont know why as they were both a lot 'cooler'than I was but everything had been going weird since I grew over a foot on 63-64. Anyway, Im in my room and all of a sudden I hear BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM,BOOM really loud and really fast as if someone is pounding something against the wall very hard and very fast. I run out into the hall and I see the studly guy on the floor between the beds with his head against the wall and unbelievably groggy. The bodybuilder guy was standing to his left with an angry look. I forget if the guy who wa sdown said something insulting to the standing guy or what. In those days bodybuilders were called homosexuals and although many guys did some of it most denied it. But the guy who got hit wasnt permanently damaged or embarrassed by it, thank goodness. And I sure did not want to get in between something like that,,, ___________________ _____________________ __________ _________________ UNKNOWN TIME: THESE THINGS COULD HAVE HAPPENED ANY TIME IN JAN/JUNE 1968: One morning I got my eggs and went to sit with some people by the windows. First thing I hear is 'Try the eggs". I sat down and they were horrendous and inedible. Like rubber. They were dehydrated or something. I dont know why. Did they run out? Was it something to do with Vietnam? I had to put my tray in the big rolling tray carrier and I saw almost noone else could eat theirs,,,,, We had wind up watches and had to set them every morning, just like many shined their shoes every night there were sort of 'traditional' times to do things,,, cabs had no ads on them to make money. Most buses did not either,,,, Vietnam was still going on and always getting worse with more and more draftees called for,,,, lots of bats would circle the Bloomington Courthouse at night,,,,, I still worried a lot and had constant insomnia,,,,, The word 'imperialism' was always heard, just like 'diversity' nowadays,,,,, 1968 was the first year that more albums were purchased than singles,,,, As shoes were American made and out of leather the thing to do was to have them re-soled and re-heeled rather than get new ones. Todays plastic sneakers did not exist yet,,12-20-99,,, We used to have CANDLELIGHT DINNERS and never could understand why as it was an all-male dorm as most of them were. It was really dark exceot for the candles and we got stake but no girls. And we had to wear ties, too. Had them in Fall 1967 as well,,,, 1-21-2000,, Granny glasses and general wirerims came out and I thought they were far too radical. Now i think its unbelievable that I ever wore hornrims instaed of wirerims,,, First time I saw posters for trips to FORT LAUDERDALE and I wondered how these guys could not only afford college but also trips like that over spring break. The posters still look the same after all these years,,, I never went to DROP AND ADD. No matter how I was doing in a course I had to stick with it due to the Vietnam Draft and having to carry a certain amount of hours for my deferment and that Astronomy had virtually no leeway in what courses you could take when. good grades or bad, I was just stuck. And I had to get all my classes in by four years as I couldnt stay longer just for a couple of classes,,,, VISITATION BEGAN at OUR Quad and a few of its houses including ours as an experiment. The IRONY! When I had a girlfriend she couldnt come over legally. Now that i didnt she could as WE got picked for the experiment. The rules said that it was just certain hours of certain days and that we had to have a BOOK in the doorjamb while a girl was in so naturally guys kidded with magazines and slammed the door on them,, Once I agreed to let Grant have the room after 7pm and had to run back at 659pm to get something and he was on the bed talkin to a girl he knew from high school. _____ _____ ________ APRIL 1968 ________ _______- I THINK these things happened in APRIL 1968::::: April was the 'Monsoon Season" in Bloomington so I wouldnt be surprised if it rained 25 days that month. That was the average. This would have been my first Monsoon Season there.,, I would have had to deal a lot with SWAIN LAKE as the depression that SWAIN WOODS were in would fill with water and the black tar walk Id take down into and thru it would be inundated,,, Running back and forth from SWAIN WEST to BRISCOE was a hell of a thing to have to do three days a week, MWF, and it was especially bad when Dr Honeycutt kept writing equations on the board after the bell had rung. Even worse to have to run back on a full stomach to my next class. I wound up doing that all my years at IU. JEEZ! Did that ever keep me in shape and skinny,,, 1-20-2000,, ________APRIL 1,1968: This was April Fools Day so there must have been a lot of BORESSING,,,____ APRIL 2, 1968: EUGENE McCARTHY WINS THE WISCONSIN PRIMARY,,,, _______APRIL 3, 1968: LBJ meets with RFK at the White House,,,, _______APRIL 4, 1968: DR MARTIN LUTHER KING ASSASSINATED!!!. I recall the guy across the hall telling me about it and then asking my roomie what the 'negroes' would do. As if my wealthy roomie was anything like an inner-city black guy,,,, FRIDAY APRIL 5, 1968: SPRING RECESS AFTER LAST CLASS Joe DiMaggio returns to baseball after many years to be an Oakland A's coach!,,, 1-21-2000 ______ SUNDAY APRIL 14, 1968: EASTER SUNDAY _______ MONDAY APRIL 15, 1968: VACATION ENDS. THIS USED TO DRIVE US OUT-OF-STATERS CRAZY! Holiday vacations would end the day AFTER the Holiday itself. That meant we were expected to leave home to return to school ON the holiday we had gotten the day off for!! I would ALWAYS miss the first day of school after each vacation due to this. Luckily none of my profs would ever assign a test on that day and some time while I was at college the student govt got them to make it 'illegal' for a prof to assign anything important the day after a vacation ended. 1-24-00 ____ APRIL 16, 1968: Mets play 24 inning night game. ________ APRIL 20, 1968: JW Ryan appointed Vice President in charge of all 6 regional campuses (Will later be IU Pres after Stahr and Sutton). 2-1-00 _______GENERAL APRIL 1968: Went to the cleaners on North Walnut Street with the guy in, I believe, room 109 who had money and who was good-looking and who Elsie liked. He had a car. Interestingly, I had NO idea it was there. This showed how I avoided certain area. He had a car so he was proably a sophomore. That cleaners was still there in 1994 looking the same. He had all his clothes done there, not just coats but shirts, pants etcetera. It was between the theatres of N.Walnut and 6th/7th streets and N.Walnut/10th that I knew so well yet I knew NOTHING of the streets in between. I also knew NOTHING of the streets north of 10th including a 'Roto-Lite' restaurant a half-block up,,,,, The 'radicals' were trying to get more student bulletin boards all over campus and the Administration didnt want them, especially outside. It took many years to get one in front of the Student Union outside,,,, The Peanuts comics were still going strong,as was my stomachache,,,,, Stonies still out there,,,,, "Generation Gap", "New Left", 1-20-2000,,,
... ______MAY 1968 ______THESE MAY HAVE HAPPENED IN MAY 1968::::... My future/presemt ulcer kept me awake at night,,, still worried a lot,,, stonies still out there,,,, _____MAY 1, 1968: Founders Day, no classes until 130pm, USSR marches for MayDay on TV, _____MAY 4, 1968: DANCERS IMAGE WINS KENTUCKY DERBY, THEN DISQUALIFIED, TITLE THEN GIVEN TO 'FORWARD PASS". Typically weird 1968,, 1-20-2000,,, _____ SATURDAY MAY 25, 1968: Classes end,,, _____ SUNDAY MAY 26: Review Day,,, ____ MONDAY MAY 27, 1968: NO FINALS _____ TUESDAY MAY 28,1968: GERMAN FINAL 10am-noon _____ WEDNESDAY MAY 29, 1968: ASTRONOMY 202 FINAL: 745am- 945am (The tougher the class, the earlier the final) ______THURSDAY MAY 30, 1968: Memorial Day, HOLIDAY, NO FINALS ______ FRIDAY JUNE 1, 1968: CALCULUS FINAL: 745am-945am ___ Did I also have a Physical Ed written final? I think I did. I recall taking a test in the ancient little dark classroom they had downstairs in the fieldhouse next to the dueling area. _____ I PROBABLY LEFT PARKS HOUSE FOREVER ON SATURDAY JUNE 2, 1968: ___________... I needed boxes to ship my stuff back to NYC. The guy who took me to the cleaners offerred to take me to a furniture store downtown where he said the boxes were much better than the supermarkets. He even drove me down there and led me in and asked them and they trotted them right out. I guess they knew him, I think this may have actually have been during finals week itself on one of the days I had a 745am final,,,, My gut still hurt me nightly,,, Stonies were still out there,,,, I was still the constant worrier,,,, My roomie spoke of transferring to Connecticut Wesleyan, which I had never heard of.______ ,,, 1-20-2000,,, I may have pulled all-nighters for those finals. Still using No-Doz? ________________ NOW HERE WAS A SHOCK!__:: DR HONEYCUTT PHONED ME!!! An Astro prof phoning a slacker like me! I think my roommate called me down the hall when he did OR told me he called and to call him back. Dr. Honeycutt called to tell me I made a 'B' in his class which meant I made the cut somehow again!!! Thats how tough the courses to be an Astrophysicist were compared to the Dumbo Degrees,, Friday 1-21-2000,,, ,, Thursday 1-27-2000: On some day near the end of my freshman year I got a notice from the housing department that, despite my applications to live in Briscoe each time they had once again assigned me to Parks House and I wanted out. There was just TOO much of a good college time in Parks House for an ASTRO major. All it was was constant partying and girls which was great for those who were majoring in easier things or didnt care about flunking out and winding up in Vietnam but I had been bringing my grades up since the First Semester debacle. I was only able to do it because the worst of the partiers flunked out after the first semester and left a much quieter hall. But come the next semester in Sept 1968 there would be a whole new pile of freshmen coming in to live in the deserted rooms and they would party all night and it would be once again very noisy and distracting. So I went to the Dept of Astronomy. I dont recall if that was my idea or someone elses. I was shocked to be ushered into the office of the Chairman himself and I explained what I was trying to do and how noisy the hall was. I recall standing there as he said, angrily, how it was unbelievable that theyd let such a place exist. He got on the phone to the housing people and asked where I wanted to live and I told him on Briscoe ten, which I thought was the highest floor, and I dont know if it was at that moment (I think it was) or soon after but just like that I got my wish and for a private as well!,,,,, While packing up to leave I found my missing coffee pot which was under a bunch of junk on the floor in the back of my closet and all moldy from old coffee. I had to throw it away.1-27-2000,,, SO I PROBABLY LEFT PARKS HOUSE, WRIGHT QUAD FOREVER ON SATURDAY JUNE 2, 1968