Snow and the Midnight Special

Just about now in 1967, and I mean right about this week now, with no Weather Channel, no nothing except word of mouth, I was in my second year at Valparaiso University.  I had just pledged a fraternity. My  roomates, Bill Dehof, who was an artist and Bob App who became a lawyer and I shared a room in Lembke Hall - now long since gone.

Our room was on the second floor and we had no view to speak of and I've spent the last few minutes trying to remember what the view was.  I recommend to all of you who read this that trying to remember "what's out the window" is a terrific bit of fun.

Bob had the FM tuner and we could get WFMT from Chicago pretty 5x5.  They warned of snow. Big snow.

Valparaiso gets dumped on by lake effect snow off Lake Michigan...things have to be just right and

Fred Fasel...RIP

they were set up.  App had money and ate Welsh Rarebit often.  Dehof and I weren't so lucky.  We had no meal plan..just a hot plate and a frying pan.  I was living on $10 a week that I made from lessons so it was a dollar a day for food and $3 for a date on Saturday night.  We shared the washer and dryer and got out of it for a buck - but only if we were very careful.

The news of the snow moved us out into the town...we spent a few bucks on canned soup, went to Fasel's bakery and  bought bread and doughnuts and hunkered in.  It snowed as promised  The campus closed down.  Christian Anderson had a house rental nearby and was and is to this day a person who I think of as having endless goodwill. The house was called Areopagitica.

 I will let you look that up.  You should.  It will tell you what we were about.   It will speak volumes.

We trudged over, on invitation, with our soup cans and bread. He had a keg of beer.  Some of the sorority girls who lived off campus came over and we had about 30 folks in a 40x20 house.

Back then, things were a little different...this being a very Lutheran University.  We were on the honor system for everything.  We played within the rules.  I'm not saying a snowy evening and a keg didn't relax everyone but we just didn't do that.  We just didn't.

The storm raged. We spread out and talked about our solar system just being an atom and how many angels danced on the head of pins.  We talked as 20 year-olds do, listened to the radio and when it was time to go, we headed back to our rooms, houses, apartments and dorms.

That was well over a half century ago. I remember it like yesterday but I still can't remember the view from our room.