From the Vaults #4

This weather is making me want to curl up in bed all day long. I feel like this painting.

September 1987:

Loren MacIver, "Morning Cart" 1960

"Hey J!! Sorry I wasn't home when you called! Next time leave a number where I can call you back if you have one. I love being in school again. I've been on lots of field trips - I even saw a copperhead snake once (these things are exciting to field biologists. Today is my 1st exam and I'm quite worried about it because I haven't studied enough. I hope you are happy there. let me know how things are going. Is your roommate ok? Mine are but they have bad taste in music. Write when you can! Can't wait to see you at T-giving! love, A"

This was my first quarter in college, and my sister's first semester in grad school. I ended up getting mono the week before Thanksgiving. I spent 4+ days in bed unable to function, and had cancelled my Thanksgiving plans...but the day before I started feeling human again, and I was able to score a ride in a tiny 1960s Volvo with three other students. They wouldn't confirm my passage until the last minute because they were hoping to get someone who could share driving time (I didn't and still don't have a driver's license, which makes me a very unattractive rideshare prospect). We left well after midnight. I remember waking up as the car was drifting off the road as our driver fell asleep at the wheel - no crash, we were all fine, and we pulled over so the driver could sleep for an hour or so. We arrived mid Thanksgiving morning to rain and crankiness, and an old hippie who looked like Santa Claus came out to greet us and to ask if any of us would like to partake in some vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner. I called my sister and said "I don't know where the hell I am, but come pick me up NOW".

Of course, by my second year in college I had turned into a vegetarian hippie, but it's amusing to remember what a culture shock it was at the time.