Why I Love OSU

[cincibuck]

Last Saturday was my last trip to Columbus for this season. I always get nostalgic as I make the drive up I-71, especially once I reach the Jamestown ramp, a route I followed to and from my family home in Kettering during most of my years as a student oh so many years ago.

I got to Columbus and my secret parking spot in plenty of time to wander around the campus and take some pics of buildings that hold a special attachment for me. I thought I'd float this opening segment and if it sells I'll follow it up with some more.

1. Arps Hall... where I had most of my edu courses. Recalling Professors Ron Green and Bernie Mehl preaching with revolutionary zeal. At first it was cool. They wanted to fire us up to be great teachers, to get out there and ask the tough questions and get our students to think. Then, in the late 60s, they turned on others on the faculty- sent goon squads of grad students out to disrupt classes. They became leading voices against the war in Vietnam, agitating, encouraging students to riot. When, on May 4,1970, the campus finally did erupt over the Cambodian invasion. the students massed on the Oval and things got ugly, these two disappeared... gutless.

Arps Hall... where Dr. George Lewis held our student teaching seminar. I remember walking in on a perfect Wednesday afternoon in mid May, so happy with my teaching, so excited to share what was going on, off in the corner of the classroom sat Wendy Meyers, (name changed to protect the guilty). She was a dance major with a terriffic figure, pretty, curly, dark brown hair. She had her head on her arms, hiding her face as she bawled. She had drawn Mohawk Jr. Hi, a real hell hole, and had shown up on this day with a thin white blouse, maxi mini (she had terrific gams), and no bra. The thugs at Mohawk filled the hallway to stare into her classroom and created mayhem during class changes. The principal had dismissed her from his school. George was none to happy. I was sad as it meant that Wendy would not graduate, but it would have been a wonderful view.

 

[cincibuck]

No one seems to have objected (or approved) so I'll continue my tour.

Orton Hall: I had two classes in Orton. Fall Quater, freshman year (1961) I had an 8 o'clock, Western Civ, on the first floor, first room to the right of the bell tower. The sound of the Westminster chimes, followed by the eight bongs (back when a bong was a sound, not a mini hookrah) got your attention, even when emerging from a beer induced semi comma. Every fifteen minutes the gears and chains would begin to ratchet up to sound the quarter/half hours and the patient professor would pause and wait. I remember especially his lecture on a Tuesday following the announcement that the undefeated Bucks would not be going to the Rose Bowl. The campus went wild on Monday evening. The band led a parade down High Street to the intersection of Broad and High, hoping to get the govenor to overrule the faculty council. On this day the professor went ballistic, "You'd set fires, tie up traffic, ignore police orders and march five miles because of a football game and yet next week when this same faculty council votes to take away your right to drop a class at any time in a quarter not a one of you will register so much as a peep of discent." He was right.

My second class in Orton was again in the fall, this time my senior year (1967) [I sat out one year at the invitation of the Dean of Academics and one more for economic reasons] I took geology for no particular reason and found it fascinating. I never taught science, but I still find myself thinking of that class whenever I drive through an interstate cut in the hill and see the layers of soil and rock exposed.

 

[Oh8ch]

I approve. Keep 'em coming.

 

[KillerNutz]

Good read. I loved Orton Hall, I would take extra time to cross the oval whenever I was close to a quarter of the hour. That is one of the most glorious sounds on campus.

 

[sullie]

Great reads, thanks for posting. Not as classy and intellectually stimulating as the "which bimbo is hotter" threads but still a tolerable attempt all the same.

 

[NewYorkBuck]

Nice. I'll tell you - I graduated in 1994 - and from about 1997-2003 I didnt return to the campus. When I finally got back, I could not believe how much the campus has changed. I didnt even recognize High St or Lane Ave. Was almost like going into a time warp. Progress I suppose.

 

[OhioState49]

Do you have anymore stories? They are very good!

 

[cincibuck]

3. Denny Hall
I had Math 400 aka 'Bonehead Math' in Denny. God how I hated math. I had to figure out how to get through school without taking another math course... there goes engineering... and no way was I going to become an English major... there goes any possibility of teaching speech. Foreign language? I don't think so... there goes business and foreign service... and no more science either, thank you. A daunting task I assure you, so I decided on speech and theatre sophomore year. I postponed my decision on a minor until my junior year and then ended up with phys ed and history. I got out of 400 with a 'B.' Thank you, Jesus.


I also had my first English class in Denny, with a wry GTA who said his favorite word was "skin" and told a sad tale about taking out a pretty sorority chick who, when he reached for her hand, gave his a gentle slap and said, "that's only for med students." He also read Thurber to us; three sections from University Daze including the story of the big tackle who needed to answer a question about transportation in order to play in the Illinois game. Made me wonder why there wasn't a hall on Campus named for the master wit; an egregious oversight in my opinion.

 

[cincibuck]

4. Lord Hall: I only had one class in Lord, mythology. The building always struck me... it was the only building on main campus that was situated at an angle and it had that great opening with steps on either side forming an arch above the lower entrance. I sat next to Elaine Hairston... I think... and she later became an important administrator at OSU... I think. She had a wonderful wit and we passed notes about the lectures back and forth, making comparisons between the monsters in the myths and politicians.

The class was fascinating. Over the years I used many of the stories in my teaching, Procrustes' bed, the fox and the sour grapes, the sword of Damocles, the Medea and the River Styx. It was an interesting way to discover that though technology changes, life remains the same.

 

[cincibuck]

5. If I only had one class in Lord, Derby Hall got the overkill. When I first arrived Derby also housed the Student Book Store and a small theatre. There was a Greenroom for the actors in the basement. I once opened the door to take a look and got an eyeful of an amorous couple with "wardrobe malfunctions."

It was in Derby Hall that a sharp dressing, good looking GTA challenged us on the issue of hours for female students. In 1961 freshman girls living in dorms or rooming houses had to sign in and out. They had to be in by 11 on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, 1 o'clock on Fridays and Saturdays. They received something like 5 12 o'clocks per quarter to spend on Wednesdays and Sundays and 3 2 o'clocks. I once brought a freshman back 15 minutes late. She lost her remaining 12s and 2s. Nothing happened to me. The girls dorms also had rules about PDA (Public Display of Affection). The drom residents, counselors or another student could write a student up, resulting in a trial by a jury of your peers. It got pretty ugly sometimes. (and again, boys could not be charged for PDA)

Anyway, the prof asked us why the school had hours only for women and the response from one guy in the class was, "Because the girls would all be pregnant if they didn't have hours." The professor waited for the laughter to die down and asked, "Are you telling me that the only thing the women of this school want to do is go to bed with the likes of you? What must you think happens at 1 o'clock that makes women so sexually excited?" Interesting questions at the time.

 

[Taosman]

Great read!
I'm a Thurber fan!
"If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons."

 

[cincibuck]

U Hall: I can't bring myself to take a picture of the current U Hall. IMO they really screwed it up when they renovated the building. It's a cold, dead feeling I get when I look at it, as if all the life has been squeezed out of the place. For that reason I'm posting an old pic I took back in the 60s.

I seemed to end up having at least one class a year in the place. I loved the feel of it, the bricks had aged gracefully, the limestone steps had grooves from the millions of foot steps that eroded the soft rock on the way in and out of the place. A sense of history exuded from it and made me feel connected to the school and to that history.

In the 1890's a member of the football team, who died from an injury suffered in a game, was laid out there.

Winter Quarter of my sophomore year I had an 8 o'clock poli sci class on the top floor. You had to trudge up the stairway, full of switchbacks like a mountain road. The room had a high pitched ceiling and it seemed to trap all the steam heat. You'd walk in still shivering from the walk across campus, climb the steps and step into a sauna. The instructor was a Texas Aggie, with a Texas drawl and a monotone voice. It was impossible to stay awake. I'd pick up my notebook to study at night and see these long ink lines where I'd fallen asleep and the pen had dragged across the page. One day a girl fell out of her chair. The professor stopped long enough to see if she was hurt and then got right back to the Dred Scott Decision. A bat visited us, hanging upside down, woke up, flapped about generating screams and shouts, then settled on a steam pipe near the very peak of the roof, folded his wings and went back to sleep.

Junior year I was in a children's theatre production in the U Hall theatre. My best friend from college days, Amy Kunkler, and I had to exit stage left in one scene and enter stage right in the next. The stage was so small there was no room to walk behind the backdrop. We had to go outside and walk around. Since we were supposed to be poor Chinese villagers we acted in bare feet. Amy put on a pair of Bass Weejuns to make the outdoor trek, then forgot to take them off, so we had a Chinese peasant in gown and cordovan loafers. Another time a snow storm began just after the show started and I fell while making the transfer, playing the last half of the show in soaking wet costume.

 

[CleveBucks]

good stuff. keep it coming

 

[cincibuck]

H&F: I guess they renamed it Townsend Hall. What a strange history I have with the place. Fall quarter, freshman year. I'm living in a rooming house on 14th and my roommate is this Mortimer Snurd kind of kid from Cardington. On Sunday before the first day of classes he asks me, "Hey, I got this here class in H&F. Where's that at?" I explain it to him. He then says, (and I swear this is true!) "H&F. What's that stand for, Horses and Farmacy?" Honest folks, absolutely honest.

He probably graduated years before I did.

H&F, where I had the mandatory freshman health course taught by a female Phys Ed teacher who had a bigger 'five o'clock shadow' problem than Richard Nixon. She would open lectures with questions like, "Anyone in here ever have head lice?" A hand or two would go up and she'd say, "You know head lice happen when you don't keep your environment clean."

Or, "Anyone in here ever have athlete's foot?" Hands go up, pause. "You know the only reason you get athlete's foot is because of poor hygiene. If you wash regularly..."

And, "Anyone in here ever get ring worm?" I'd had ringworm back in junior high so my hand went up along with several others... what can I say? I have a STEEP learning curve... "Well, ring worm comes from not bathing regularly and not..." I stopped raising my hand.

The apex of the health course was the mandatory watching of "Life Birth of a Child." They locked all the entrances except the main one and you had to check in with your individual instructor and march directly into the lecture theatre. The lights dimmed, the screen lowered, the camera began to roll and the picture begins with this poor woman rolling in on a gurney, and she's writhing in pain and moaning, they put her legs up in the stirrups and the camera gives us a tight shot. She convulses, spases, the crown of the head begins to appear, before you know it this whole kid miraculously passes through that tiny little... well, you know what I mean... and I'm queasy and take a breath, when she moans again, a last contraction and out flies the afterbirth.

I wake up to the distinct smell of ammonia, look around and see maybe four other male companions also sniffing ammonia sticks and my nurse says, "You know, I've been working this class for five years now and I haven't seen a single female pass out. It's always you big, tough men."

May week, 1964, end of my sophomore year. I was sharing an apartment on Neil and Akerman. I put on my ROTC uniform (no way was I going to take an extra nine hours of advanced math, science or a foreign language to get out of ROTC) for the May Day parade. "This is the last damn time I'll ever wear a uniform!" I tell my roomie. I take a grocery bag and fill it with Jack Purcells, a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. I sneak into the bushes on the north side of H&F and put the bag on the ground and then walk over to the oval and take my place in the ranks for the massive parade. As soon as the review is over and we are dismissed I run over to the bushes, tear off the uniform, throw on the shorts, t-shirt and tenny boppers, stuff the uniform in the same grocery bag and head for the ROTC building and turn it in for my $40 uniform deposit which I know my parents will have forgotten from fall quarter and head for High Street. Do you have any idea how much beer $40 would buy in 1964?

A month later, finals over, I pack my VW bug and head for home. My mom hands me a stack of mail she has collected over the three months, saying, "You better look at the one I put on top first." Sure enough, it was an invitation to take a free physical courtesy of the selective service system. I called ROTC and managed to get a hold of the commandant, "Sir, is it too late to sign up for advanced ROTC?" Two hours later I was standing in front of him, right hand in the air and taking the oath. I would wear "that damn uniform" again.

 

[Taosman]

I know that guy!