College Daze

The year was 1975 and I was a freshly-minted college freshman at Western Washington State College (soon to be re-christened Western Washington University). I lived in Nash Hall. My shirt-tail cousin, Dick Behrends, was my best pal - we hadn't really been close in Juneau; but he took me under his wing at school. And Dickie's best pals were Sue Perrault and Irene (who's maiden name I cannot put my finger on right at the moment) and Richard McConaghy. Dickie was seriously smitten with Sue. And Irene was dating - and subsequently married - Rich, another Juneau expatriate.

It was a fun time. Sue and Irene were rural folk from Eastern Washington near Yakima. I think they were somewhat taken aback by us Alaskans. Fascinated, amused and at times probably horrified. It is possible that they thought Dick and my morals, or at least judgement, just wasn't quite up to snuff in some respects.

Pish-posh.

The pics below exist by virtue of a photograhpy course I took at school. It seems they are the ONLY pics I ever took at Western. So sad...

Howdy Cuz! Cousin Dick relaxes with a beverage at Nash Hall.

Sue Perrault. I had a serious crush on Sue (did I ever mention that cuz?).

Sue and Irene at Nash Hall. Seems like just yesterday...sigh...


Irene drew the short straw to be my principal model for my photo class.


Irene was delightful...this pic captures her personality pretty well...

After my first year in Nash Hall I rented an apartment off-campus - 705 East Maple Street. I came back to Juneau to work for a bit and Eric Swanson, Doug Rickey, and Dick Behrends moved into the place. Adios Elmo's damage deposit.

The Maple Street spirit is illustrated by the excerpt below from a letter Dougie sent me on May 9, 1976.

The letter was addressed to: Brig. General E.A. "Buck" Lindstrom, Platoon Headquarters, P.O. Box 1602, Juneau, AK 99802.

The return address read: Dr. Maynard G. Krebbs, College of Useless Knowledge, 705 E. Maple Street #4, Bellingham, WA 98225

Speaking of drunk, there was a party last week at Burnham Wood and I was almost in a coma. It was at Joyce and Judy's place. Joyce is still as beautiful as ever. It was the old Southern Comfort that did me in. I have been drinking bourbon but Sue was going with us and she likes SC so I got that instead. About 2 AM I come staggering into the Hide-Away [the apartment] hauling a 2 Hour Parking Violation sign behind me. The damn thing was a good 10 feet long and as heavy as hell. Eric was just beside himself and Dick still hasn't stopped laughing. So things are pretty normal around here.

Well, dad's 94th birthday cake just came out of the oven. So I'm off to do chores and have a workout.