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Freshman Dorm by Colin Kelly


Rutabaga

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If he isn't already doing so, Colin should seriously look into becoming a travel writer.  His eye for detail and thorough explanations would be perfect in that genre.  He has a gift for making even the most mundane details sound interesting.  I mean that seriously -- I'm not being facetious.  

I was reflecting on my own freshman experience lo these many years ago, when dorms had nothing but stairs (no elevators) and there was no internet or other organized way of selecting your dorm, finding out about roommates, etc.  At my school, the students were informed of what down they were in.  The occupants of the rooms in my dorm were assigned alphabetically by last name, and I did not find out who it was until we both arrived at the campus.  

Remarkably, in those days, the school actually had a housekeeper that came through the rooms once or twice a week to straighten up a bit and sweep up all the dust bunnies.  That ended shortly after my arrival for cost reasons, but it at least meant that the rooms did not become pig sties (is that a plural?).  It is amazing how most college students can live without some external influence!

R

 

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We didn't have elevators where I went, either, but that was back in the '50s and things were far different.  My dorm was only three stories high.  Now they're 20, 30 floors high in large universities, and kids bring things like refrigerators and sound systems and all sorts of tech paraphernalia with them, stuff that would be very difficult to carry up 30 flights of stairs.  The schools would have to provide oxygen equipment on every fifth floor. 

C

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Oh, boy, what a memory you guys have kicked off.  My college had dorms built in a previous century. Freshmen all got single rooms, approximately 8’ X 10’, each with a single window glazed with loose 19th century glass, and heated by a steam radiator.  This space was furnished with a bed fitted with a cot-sized mattress laid on boards, one chair with a rope-bottomed seat (and I still have the corrugations on my ass to prove it), a small bookcase and a stand-up desk.  We were instructed to NOT bring anything besides clothing, since that was all that would fit into the clothespress.  There were no closets.  Needless to say hotplates and the like were routinely confiscated. 

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