Monday June 25, 2012
My College Years
1959 to 1961
The University of South Dakota
Vermillion, South Dakota
USD College (2 years)
Things I Remember: College at USD
Sometime during my last year of high school, I made the decision to apply for admission to the University of South Dakota. A friend of mine had been a big influence on my decision. This friend was a good acquaintance of the Dean of Men, (Howard Connors) there at USD.
I remember that when I was applying, I had gone to visit the campus and I had met Dean Connors at that time. I had thought that I would major in psychology.
Time came for me to pack for college. My parents drove me to Vermillion, South Dakota the week that we were supposed to be there. I don’t remember the specific ways that I knew the dorm room that I was given, but I think when I received my letter of acceptance to the University I was also assigned a dorm room number.
When I got to Vermillion, South Dakota I was so excited. The dorm I was to live in was called Julian Hall. I recall we moved all of my belongings into the room. Shortly after I was all moved in, my roommate arrived. His name was Denny Williams and he was from Sioux City, Iowa. We got acquainted in a short time. I also remember that right across the hall was a boy that was from Spencer, Iowa. His name was Dick Latch. His roommate was also from Iowa, Smithland, Iowa.
My memories of Julian hall and events that took place my first year are many.
I am going to just write as I think of them and try to keep them in some sort of order.
Julian Hall our dormitory
My First Year Fall of 1959
Tom Lewis …. Tom was a black boy that I met very soon after I moved in to Julian hall. He was crippled from polio as I remember. He was a very funny person, always clowning around. I spent many hours in his room listing to him and just chatting with others.
My roommate Denny and I got along very well. He had a girl friend. I had preregistered as a psychology major but changed it to an art major and, of course, had to sign up for all my required courses. I remember that the requirements for an art major were much less than many others. There was no math, science or foreign language requirement to graduate with an art degree.
Denny was a business major and he was from Sioux City, Iowa not too far away. (about 30 miles).
His dad was the manager of Lincoln Feed and Seed Company located downtown Sioux City. He had one brother that was still at home. I don’t remember too much about his mother except she was a very nice lady.
I recall waking up the first morning after my parents had left me there. The feeling of “being FREE” from all my home rules was really different. I can really remember the strange feeling I had the first morning I woke up in my dorm room. I was “Free” and on my own. It was a strange feeling at first, but it didn’t take me long to get use to it. I could go anywhere or do anything I wanted at any time I wanted to.
We had a dining cafeteria in Julian Hall where we ate and our dorm was directly across from the student union where we could go to get snacks and the like.
The first Christmas was the first time that we returned home, and I was never “homesick” for the 3 or 4 months between when we arrived and the Christmas vacation.One very interesting story came out of our first return venture. It was Denny that brought an electric “hot dog” machine back with him that he had received from his parents for a Christmas present. Next is the story………
The Hotdog Machine
After we returned from Christmas the first year, Denny brought an electric hotdog maker that he had gotten from his parents. You could attach a hotdog to each end by two carbon pointed rods. Plugging it in completed the electrical circuit and would cook the hotdog.
We lived directly across the street from the student Memorial Union that served Hamburger sandwiches and many other short order things. Each evening about 8 PM they would cook hamburgers and bring them to the dorm to sell. I think they sold for 20 cents.
Denny and I got the idea of going into business with our hotdog machine. We went to the store and purchased a couple of packages of uncooked hotdogs and fresh hotdog buns, a bottle of ketchup and a jar of mustard.*
We started by going around to our friends on our floor of the dorm. Before we knew it we were so busy making and selling hotdogs because we sold them for 15 cents, 5 cents less than the hamburgers being sold by the Student Union.
We had to quit because we were not getting our studying done. We each earn 10 dollars from the hotdog sales profit.
* We purchased buns, hot dogs and condiments at a local grocery store each afternoon before evening!
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