Indiana University - Arbutus Yearbook (Bloomington, IN)

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REMINUISANCES OF A RELICT YOU want me to tell you of the airlv davs — of the times, as they ust to be? Well, I don ' t say it to brag, but my mind is still as clear as a bell and if I do sav it who shouldn ' t; I can rikollect as plain as though it wuz yesterday, the first class that went out to the new College. I mind, too, the night the old College burned. There wuz a terrible storm, early in the evenin ' . Thunder an ' light- nin ' an ' rain an ' roar! I reckon it got struck — anyhow, in the middle of the night, the tire bell rang and everbuddy got out of bed and splashed down and stood around and watched the pride of the town burn to the ground. That wuz an awful night. When they built the new College in Dunn ' s woods, they wuz people said it wuz a mistake — that nobuddy would go that fur to skewl and a Brown county farmer went out to look at the buildings — there wuz only two — and asked when they wuz goin ' to clear the timber ofTen the lot? We had good old-fashioned ways then. Spanker ' s Branch run across the street and we went oyer it on stepping stones. Stepping stones for studjents, we called them. They finally built the new street oyer it and coyered the branch clean up, and they tell me that they call it the Jurdan Riyer now. Mebbe so, but we called it Spanker ' s Branch. We went into the campus, oyer a stile, and the walks wuz bored but the walkers wuzn ' t. I aint no hand at describing scenery and there ' s no need of teching up the campus like poets do — I can jest shet my eyes and see it as it wuz then. Wild flowers and Johnnie-jump-ups and spring beauties under our feet and May apples in the hollers, and grass as fine and soft as a poller sofy. Fall of the year, the purtiest red and yellow leayes you eyer saw and then the beech nuts — we ust to gether them and take them into class and crack and eat them, in the perfessors ear. They didn ' t like that yery well, but I ' ye seen eyen the perfessors eatin ' them. And snow in winter! And mud — makin ' that new street — laws! l$t5 [27]

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We had lots of frolics, too. Out to Weed-patch Hill, the highest pint in the county, I ' low, and out to the Cascades, we called ' em, though ' pon my word, it wuz like some one pourin ' water outen a pitcher fer all a water-fall it wuz. We called it takin ' a tramp, and we went in couples together as fer as Hunter ' s Hill, where the town stopped, and then we sorter sfniiiir along the pike, not separated and not together either, eggsactly, you see. And lectures. Perhaps thev don ' t appear like frolics to vou, but we liked them. We girls felt left out if we didn ' t have a beau to the whole lecture course, and we generally did, and a new hat, mebbe, and we never listened to the lecture and we sauntered home after- wards, gittin ' icecream in the summer time and oysters in the winter, on the way back, so it wuzn ' t so dull. One night we made a party to see the eclipse of the moon through the telescope. We went along getherin ' up the crowd as we went. We stopped at one girl ' s door and knocked and her mother put her head out of the window and hollered, What do vou want? We told her we wanted Trudie to go with us to see the eclipse of the moon, out to the College. She said, Well, Trudie can ' t go — she can go some other night. And one of the bovs said, Oh, yes, the moon will eclip for Trudie, tiny night. ' ' And serenades. The Betas wuz always great hands fer serenadin ' . We always knew when they wuz comin ' — it would be whispered about — 1 reckon thev started it themselves, more ' n likelv, and tlie girls kept a-hoping they would be serenaded and would go and bake cakes, in a hurry. There wuz a regular wav of doin ' when vou got a serenade. When they got through playin ' the first piece, we made a light upstairs. At the end of the second piece we made a light down- stairs. At the end of the third piece, we invited them in to cake. Sometimes when we didn ' t have cake or time to bake one, we threw our cards out of the window, but that wuz a shiftless way. I ' ve cut and served manv a cake — hoi hut tliev didn ' t know the difference. 1015 [28]