Today I am thinking about my first year of college at the
University of Pittsburgh.
In July 1967 the parents drove me to the Oakland
neighborhood of Pittsburgh and dropped me off for my three-day (I think) summer
orientation program at the University of Pittsburgh. I don’t remember being
particularly nervous about it. In fact I believe I was eager to attend. I
remember Dad driving into the parking garage below the twenty-something-floor
cylindrical dormitories. Mom and Dad helped me get checked in and find my room
which provided a great view of the neighborhood and part of the campus. Our
parents stayed only a short time before reluctantly leaving for home. I know
they were worried about leaving me there and they were facing the reality that
I would be leaving home in September.
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| Clark in late summer 1967 Eager to begin college at Pitt |
Honestly, I was glad to be there and I looked forward to learning
more about Pitt during the next few days. My orientation roommate, Joe H, eventually
showed up a few hours later. He was a very interesting guy who lived only a few
blocks away from campus on (believe it or not) a street that was the same as
his last name. I also met other newbies, including Pat B, Charlie H and many
others, some who became good friends as we progressed through our university
lives. Between all the organized meetings and activities, I was able to explore
some of the city neighborhood near campus with my orientation comrades.
I was happy when our parents drove me, in a station wagon
full of my essential belongings, to campus in September. They helped move my
possessions into room 1104 on the eleventh floor of Tower A, which would be my
home for two years. Then I encouraged them to hit the road back to “Homeville” as
soon as possible. I was eager to embrace my college life.
I had been informed about my assigned roommate, Richard H,
but we had not had any contact and he didn’t show up until the wee hours of the
morning. I awakened when he came in and we talked for only a very short time.
Richard was from the Pittsburgh area and his father was a doctor. Therefore he
and I did not particularly have much in common. However, it only took a short
time before we became good friends. In addition, Richard’s twin brother, Jim,
was also in Tower A, but up on the 21st floor. The three of us
became and remained good friends throughout our college careers.
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| Richard H (my roommate). He always studied with his shirt over his head, |
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| Jim H, my roommate's brother |
The beginning of my college career was pretty much what I
expected it to be. It took some effort to find my classrooms on the large city
campus. I was amazed by the huge sizes of some of the lecture halls. Finding
and buying the correct textbooks and supplies at the bookstore was tedious and
very expensive. I quickly found friends that I met regularly for meals in the
cafeteria on the lower level of the dorms, and unlike most of them, I was amazed
at how much I loved the cafeteria food. I really chowed down. It wasn’t Mom’s
cooking, but there was plenty of it and I enjoyed it.
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| The view out my dorm window: Hillman Library and wonderful Forbes Field |
Of course I got to know everyone on the 11th
floor of Tower A. Amazingly, almost all of them turned out to be good guys and
some of them liked to party (believe it or not). That reminds me of an
unfortunate celebration in my room one weekend early in my college career. My
friend Trevor somehow got some hard cider and a few of our friends (except Richard
who had gone home for the weekend) gathered for a party in my room on Saturday
evening. We had a great time, but the party could be heard all over the 11th
floor and the consequences were not fun. Our “House Monitor” (alias Rat) found
out about the party, which precipitated several interrogations with me. I was
probably not interested in what he had to say and he threatened to drag me through
the campus judicial system, which could have kicked me out of school for having
an underage drunken party in my room. We didn’t like each other anyway because
I wasn’t interested in his fraternity (sorry Bill, I know you were a frat man) and
it was touch and go for a while. That did not stop me from partying but it did
entice me to be more careful about who was invited and about keeping the noise
down a little. Eventually we moved the parties to off campus apartments.
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| The infamous party: I am the one with the shades and the booze |
Football games were also a blast, even though our team was
certainly not championship caliber. We trudged up the hill to the old Pitt
Stadium with enough liquor to create a party in the seats and make it very hard
for us to walk back down the hill. Mostly we just fell down and rolled down the
hill. Amazingly we never encountered any interference from the campus judicial
system. Basketball games were also fun but I don’t believe alcohol enhanced our
pleasure as much during them.
That freshman year was a blast and I loved mostly every
minute of it. Amazingly, I was able to perform well in my classes and finished
that year with a 3-point-something GPA. However, it also included some unique
trauma like the swimming classes I had to endure in a mandatory physical
education class. I could swim well enough, but my swimming coaches demanded a
higher level of perfection than my doggy paddle. They also insisted on teaching
us lifesaving techniques including what seemed like hours of bobbing and diving
(or jumping) off of the highest-level of a multi-platform dive tower. Bobbing
for seemingly hours was torture. Surface and Inhale, Sink and Exhale! Surface
and Inhale, Sink and Exhale!... Figuring out how to breathe wasn’t too
difficult, but forcing my exhausted arms and legs to keep kicking and pulling
was very challenging. I mean, we were not actually in danger of drowning. Bobbing
was bad enough, but jumping off the platform dive in the clouds without a
parachute was just completely ridiculous, and I said “Hell No I Won’t Go.” I
jumped off the lowest platform and took a lower grade in that class. Hey, my homies
and I had been splashing around the lake at the state park near “Homeville” for
many years and we didn’t drown. We jumped out of canoes and row boats and
whatever, and I didn’t attend college to kill myself jumping off a man-made
cliff in a physical education class. Clark doesn’t like heights.
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| Charlie H (Herbie) sitting on my dorm bed in front of my bulletin board |
Getting to know Pittsburgh was also a fun process and having
friends who grew up there helped me find my way to wherever I wanted to go. Of
course, we Pitt students thought we owned the Oakland neighborhood around the
Pitt campus. However, my friends and I also got to know the Shadyside area
where the “Hippies” hung out and the shops were expensive. I also learned to
“squeeze” onto public-transit to visit downtown and other areas.
Scott M (a high school classmate) attended Carnegie Mellon
University a few blocks from the Pitt campus and we got together a few times, which
was nice. However, we had each embraced a new group of friends and the ambiance
of CMU was radically different than Pitt’s. I also occasionally saw my good
friend from elementary through high school, Duane L, who was attending Community
College of Allegheny County and worked at a Sears Automotive shop on the North
Side of “The Burgh.” He had a car and I occasionally rode back to “Homeville” with
him for some weekends and holidays. During one late-night trip back to “The
Burgh,” his car broke down on a very dark and lonely road. Luckily, he was
mechanically adept and was able to get us moving again, but not before we were
hassled by some local juvenile thugs - not fun but we survived.
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| Duane L before a late night trip back to The Burgh |
I had a wonderful time during my freshman year at Pitt. That
campus, and the city of Pittsburgh, became my home and figured I would stay
there forever. I even stayed there for part of the summer after my freshman
year to get another required class (or maybe two classes) out of the way. I had
to move out of my room on the 11th floor of Tower A and into a room
on the 17th floor of Tower B. That floor was populated with many Pitt
football players and my temporary roommate (Paul N, who I believe was a
linebacker or lineman – a big guy) was one of them. I will never forget that
wild dormitory experience. Those football players terrorized us poor normal (nerdy)
guys. It really was an endurance test. However, my roommate and some of his
friends protected me. I have to admit that it was funny to see what they did to
some unprotected guys. I had a great time living with Paul and hanging with him
and his friends including Larry W. who became a good friend of mine.
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| Larry W on top, Richard H (my roommate) on bottom |
Eventually I went home for a month or so that summer feeling
very good because I had survived my first year at Pitt. It was also nice to
have some home time with the parents and hang with my “Homeville” friends.
However, I was eager to return to Pitt after my short summer break.
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| Clark early freshman year |
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| Richard clipped this, added the comment at the top, and posted it on the bulletin board behind my bed. I kept it there all freshman year and reposted it sophmore year. |
Bill, I know you also had wonderful college years and I
would love to hear about them.
Take care.
Sincerely Clark
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