There were a couple reasons I chose to attend Bowling Green State University...

• It was as far away from my father and older brother as I could get
• It had a great reputation as a higher learning institution
• Buildings on the campus seemed closer together
• Had I gone to CSU, I'd be living at home, still victimized by father and older brother

The disadvantages were...

• Being away from my friends
• Missing the dog

If I had to do it over again, I would have attended Kent State University where my friends could stop by on weekends now and then, making me less homesick for them. But I was too enamored by BGSU. It was the only college I previewed. On the way down, me and some other students almost got killed when the station wagon driven by a Cleveland Scholarship Program counselor almost crashed into a guardrail at 65 mph. She was trying to talk to us looking back for a moment as the car went onto the berm and headed directly for the end of the rail. I looked forward, saw what was coming and got her attention where she was headed and she quickly changed her course. Thereafter, she thankfully kept her eyes on the road to and back...whew!

My mother, Mabel Rizzin and cousin Sheila DeJean drove me to campus in my mom's Oldsmobile Delta 88.

I started in the summer quarter at BGSU, I could not get away from my dad quick enough in my mind. It also allowed me to get around campus easily in my orientation. I obtained a campus map and began to see where everything was. I wish I had been able to take my 26" Huffy English Racer bicycle with me - it would have made getting around campus that much easier. However, that was not possible. The surgery I had on my legs three years earlier made it impossible for me to get on and pedal, also, the bike was broken, lying in the garage on Woburn Avenue - I haven't seen it since! So, I had to use my two feet for transportation.

My roommate was Roger Post, a second year student. We had a great rapport almost instantly, thankfully he also had a motorcycle. Roger was studying architecture and real estate. He was very high on condominiums before even most people knew what they were. Chances are he designed a lot of them during his career. We had bunks in the room, Roger thankfully slept on the top. The room had two desks and our window faced west. We had a great view of a Heinz vegetable processing plant, and on a really hot day we could smell the rotting rejects from quite a distance. One of the first announcements we had was an interesting one. Students were told if they smoked weed, they'd better do it off campus - it was suggested using a nearby cemetery at night. Hey, at least they were giving us alternatives!-)

Each floor had a lounge with a Philco 24" tabletop Color Tv Set, couches and chairs. On the top floors of both buildings were massive conference rooms. On the main floor were student mailboxes and announcement bulletin boards. The wing between the buildings had a reception area. All the residence halls were clustered with various ages. From being inside many of them, ours was the best...then again, it was the newest.

Money wise, my scholarship provided a small stipend, included in my checking account was money I had earned from jobs in junior high and high school. It wasn't much, my dad had deducted the lions share from living at home. And I learned the hard way to take off the cost of each personal check I wrote when one bounced.

Roger and I went shopping together on the back of his motorcycle. He had saddlebags and bungee cords for holding things down. I had to buy small cans of  "Hi-C" (stuff was awful, especially warm) fruit juice. We tied the 24 can box on the back of the bike with the bungee's. Now, there's one problem we discovered the hard way, carrying cans of anything in a box without a top and hitting bumps don't mix. We lost half the cans going down Main Street.

Another time Roger was headed into town and stopping at K-Mart, asking me if I wanted to ride along. I was barefoot on the grass in front of the dorm and told him I needed to grab my shoes from the dorm. Roger told me he didn't have time. So, I hopped on the back of his bike and we headed out. Bad mistake! We got there okay, but as the sun had been beating down over Wood county most of the afternoon, the asphalt was really hot - even in the shade as I discovered. I almost burned the soles of my feet in the process. It was hot, hot, hot! Next time I wore shoes.

Side note, Doug Oltmanns' was on the same campus as I at the same time, however, our paths really hadn't crossed then. Although they had crossed earlier while he attended John Marshall High School with my first cousins Kevin and Kenny DeJean.

Classes were okay, during the summer quarter, we'd have sessions on the lawn in a shaded area. It was nice.

One of my professors was black and invited me to have lunch with him. We went to a sit down affair at a restaurant. This is the first time I came face-to-face with true prejudice. My professor was dressed in a three piece suit, he drove a nice BMW, yet he was not welcome at this restaurant. The waiter was willing to take my order - but he abjectly refused taking the order of my professor. I really thought that discrimination ended at the maturing of the Civil Rights Movement - I was shocked and saddened that this was occurring. I sat there with my professor in disbelief. We decided to leave and went back to campus.

Carrying my papers and notebooks proved to be a problem. Backpacks had not gained in popularity, so the only "going to college" gift I got from my parents was a cheap $5.00 plastic briefcase. A month into usage I was walking to class with my assignments, the case flew open from the weight, and my papers blew all over the greens - picking up the paper made me late for class...not a good thing. After that the case was warped and I had to live with it.

There were some fun moments on the way to class. One female student was sitting on a ledge of a large planter next to a skunk...you heard that right, a skunk. Looking closer, she had it on a leash. I approached her and asked how it was she didn't get sprayed by the animal. She told me she had its scent sacks removed. The skunk had been raised in captivity and was actually quite friendly. However, even if it couldn't spray, it still kind of had a musk odor to it.

The college was home to a rare albino squirrel. It lived in a tree near some of the older buildings. One day as I headed to the studios in South Hall to do sportscasts for WFAL AM 680, I coaxed it towards me and fed it some peanuts. On my way back, the squirrel saw me and approached, I fed it some more nuts and went on my way. A few days later, as I headed to the broadcast center, the squrrel approached me again. The furry little rodent came a little closer and was bearing its teeth. I've got to tell you, they can be menacing when they bare their choppers. Add to that, this albino squirrel with its pink eyes coming ever closer got to be a little scary. I stood there, gently held my hands open and said, "look, I ain't got any more nuts. The squirrel wasn't buying it and continued to come closer. So I walked at a faster clip, and beat it into South Hall.

South Hall had an old rickety elevator. It was one of those that had a set of doors where you had to open the cage, then the door, close the cage and door to use it. What was truly frightening is it would vibrate violently between floors. Sometimes it wouldn't line up properly, and you had to step up or step down to egress. I felt I could issue tickets to use the elevator as an on-campus amusement ride and really clean-up!-)