Eva got a new car. Finally. With help from mom & dad. Finally. 'Nough said.

I asked Jack to help me be a better person. I'm quick with the sarcastic comment or the biting response, and it's not the best character trait I have... My wonderful husband said I already was a nice person (without a hint or any prompting from me!) but I truly want to be a more compassionate and more generous and more loving person. I will try.

Okay, on with my story...

FHP year was great. Having skipped senior year in high school, I was only 16-1/2 when I started college. And a young 16-1/2 at that. I came from a very protected home - looking back at it, it was such a wonderful gift that my parents gave me. We didn't have a lot - Dad worked the night shift 'cause of the 10% differential, Mom made most of our clothing when we were younger, she was a stay-at-home mom 'til C was in high school - if I had had children of my own, I would have been so proud and happy to be 1/2 the mom mine was. And my dad? Does "perfect" describe him? Yes. He was so smart, and loving, and caring, and sacrificing...

I think Mom and Dad each deserve their own part in my story, so I'll save more on each for later...

As a FHP, I was part of a rather unique group of kids - they were SMART. Smart and weird. Most of them felt compelled to be "different" - to act differently, to dress differently, to draw attention to themselves by being what others easily considered "weird." There was Klaus, who wore his hair long and scraggly and dirty, and wore a long woolen coat even in May... There was Elizabeth (?) who walked around with unshaven legs and underarms, wearing long flowy skirts and John Lennon glasses, with her flute in hand... There was RichS (whose first and last names were always used, like they were actually one word) who, looking back at him, so obviously acted a bit strange to be the center of attention... As an adult, he was less strange and weird than he was unsure of his own worth, but that didn't help in 1977... There was Rhonda Y., my accordian-playing, felon-dating first-semester roommate...

Then there were the Wesley students we all interacted with on a daily basis - Drew R. (an older man who became a good friend of mine - 26, in college on the G.I. bill - whose "What I Did over Summer Vacation" report was entitled "How I got V.D. in Greece."), Dana P. (basketball player and extremely nice guy), Nancy M. (my ex-second-semester roommate), Buddy N. (my freshman year crush - he was from Kenilworth), and many more...

I remember the Amish coming in their buggies to the little deli on the other side of campus, near Williams and Gooding Halls. I remember the guys in Williams putting a sign out when the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crashed and Ronnie Van Zant died. I remember snowball fights between those two dorms. I remember meeting Chris the first time on the steps of Carpenter Hall, on the way back home from breakfast the day before Thanksgiving, when he made a joke about the donuts I had for breakfast. I remember the guys from Budd Hall lifting Buddy's car (a Celica) out of the snowbank so he could go get food. I remember the campus being quarantined due to the Russian Flu - I WAS SO VERY SICK THAT WEEK. I can barely remember EVER being THAT sick EVER. I remember hanging out in the College Center lounge, with Chris, until all hours of the night. I remember the girls who had crushes on him - Ginger, Lorna. I remember a party at Drew's room, with microdots (I left when I found out they were drugged with LSD). I remember being in the boys' bathroom with Jeff F., helping him get ready for the Halloween party. I remember driving home in Sue L.'s little VW bug, with Drew. I remember Sue and Melissa L. rooming together next door in Carpenter Hall. I remember them dressing up for Halloween. I remember Nancy's birthday party. I remember mystery meat and scrapple and spam. I remember the salad bars in the cafeteria at Wesley College.

I remember.