TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2024 - IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR - PART II

 TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2024 - IT WAS A VERY GOOD YEAR. (WHEN I WAS TWENTY-ONE)

With the new year, I am doing reflections.

From Frank Sinatra, “It was a very good year”.

When I was twenty-one

It was a very good year

It was a very good year for city girls

Who lived up the stair

With all that perfumed hair

And it came undone

When I was twenty-one

*****

COLLEGE - WOW.  

I became real in college. 

First - going off to college. As a not-very-strong student in high school, I could see myself flunking out. I was petrified of flunking out. I’d have to go back home - and be a nobody. (I sure didn’t want to go back to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and have people point their finger at me and say - “There’s that neer-do-well Bruce White,”

I had an attitude change. I could do this. Gone were the kids who weren’t going to college. I COULD DO THIS. But - I had to work on it. My mother didn’t ask me, “Did you do your homework? It was my responsibility.  

I started with a different attitude. I was “Bruce White” - before college, I was “Woody and Helen White’s son, Bruce.”  I was an adult—time to act like one.

So, I entered college in 1965 with a record number of incoming students. This group was the first of the Baby Boomers - born in 1946 or 1947 when the soldiers returned from World War II. On my floor in the dorm, the study room was filled with bunk beds, and eight guys lived there. Eventually, some quit college, some moved off campus, and they found actual rooms.

Many students did flunk out at the end of freshman year - but I wasn’t one of them!!

So, I did little besides study during the first semester of college and got excellent grades (except for a “C” in Freshman Composition). I WAS A GOOD STUDENT (and still scared of failing).

  

My sister was so much more social than I was. She was in a sorority and begged me to join a fraternity. So, in the second semester, I rushed to a fraternity - and somehow was selected (as was my high school friend GM). I don’t know if they liked that I was a good student and would help the overall GPA of the fraternity. In later years, as a senior fraternity member and we met to discuss new prospects, we would sometimes comment, “John Doe is just coming out of his shell. He’ll be a good fraternity member. Well, I was definitely coming out of my shell. I was still oblivious and nerdy but coming out of my shell.  

In my second semester - rushing and joining a fraternity, playing in the college band, and getting a part in a college play - I thought maybe my grades would slip, but they didn’t. I had to become more social and ask girls to join fraternity events. My fraternity brothers were experienced in the whole dating game. Even my friend GM seemed to get dates quickly. I agonized about asking girls out. 

I got a girlfriend, LN -in my Freshman Composition II class. And, she was - well - much more experienced than me. One night, we drove an hour (in GM’s 57 Chevy) to visit LN’s family. GM was in the front seat, and Linda and I were in the back seat - making out. She slid her hand down my pants - and (how do I say this in a public blog) - ah - exciting the nerdy guy she was dating.  

WOW - what a hot (and short-lived romance). After dinner in the cafeteria, we would make out in the dormitory entryway - and she kept exciting me. BINGO. (And I similarly excited her.)

But, her old boyfriend showed up - and I was single again. 

I learned to drink alcohol (we never had alcohol at home) - but in a college fraternity, drinking was the norm. I would go with the brothers to one of the local bars. It was a 3.2% beer bar; you could drink it at age 18. (That changed to 21 while I was still in college.). I was active in many campus organizations and on my way to becoming a BMOC - big man.

I’ve seen bumper stickers saying, “I once was cool.”  I was cool.  

I was a dorm resident assistant (RA) by junior year and got on the Student Senate. I was a student member of some joint faculty/student committees - like A2C2 - Academic Affairs and Curriculum Committee. (That was valuable for later in life as an academic). I was treasurer of the fraternity - and I could get dates easier. (I still agonized over asking girls out - but I got a girl who was social enough to be a steady date - but not a sexual partner. (Oh well).

I also got into 60s music - I listened to all the great music - Beatles, Mamas and Papas, Simon and Garfunkel, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and so much more. (I can listen to Sirius XM radio and sing along with most hits).

*****

The highlight of my junior year was falling in love with SH. We were a match made in heaven - with one exception - religion. Over the summer, I wrote letters every day. She visited me in Cedar Rapids, and I visited her in Guttenberg, Iowa. (And it was the site of my worst sunburn ever as we went canoeing on the Mississippi).

And, somehow, my grades kept strong.  

I had no car in my junior year but walked to the College of St. Teresa to visit SH. One weekend, she was in a wedding in Caledonia, Minnesota, and I hitchhiked to the wedding. (Boy, was I in love.)  I’m not sure how I managed to get rides as I had a beard and longer hair, but I did have a tie and a suit - on the side of the road with my thumb out. Ah, to be young and crazy again.  

My senior year was truly amazing - I was in love with SH, and I had a car to go to student teaching in math and history. I was inducted into the Purple Key Honor Society (like a Phi Beta Kappa at Winona State University) and graduated with high honors. (Pretty good for a guy worried about flunking out as a freshman. )

It was a “VERY GOOD YEAR” (or a very good four years). I wasn’t ready to graduate. But, late in spring 1969, I realized I was graduating and took my first “real” job - teaching high school math at West Grant High School.  

I graduated with excellent grades, fantastic experiences - and NO DEBT.

Yes, When I was twenty-one, it was a very good year

It was a very good year for Bruce and Shirley,

A good year for failing in love 

With a girl from across town

With perfumed hair 

That came undone (when we were stopped for parking and making out)

When I was twenty-one.

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

Karen Anne White, ©, January 9, 2024