College of William and Mary - Colonial Echo Yearbook (Williamsburg, VA)

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Alive with leaves and blOMomt, the campus is at its most beautiful in the spring Many students said that the greener was a factor in choosing W M, — Photo of right by John Berry; rest by Barry Long Irglnia I v onted to go to Dartmouth desper- ately. I told everyorie that it was for the ivy-covered grey stone v alls and the expansive green lov ns (I knevv ' nothing of their programs), but the real reoson was thot the fraternities hod keg porties on the streets, and stuffed mottresses out of windows, and it seemed like o lot of fun. Then someone (I ' ll call him Dad ] suggested William and Mary, but I balked. The nome itself sounded vaguely conservative and somehow re- ligious, I was looking for mattresses soil- ng through the air. But we drove down, and watched his- foricol slides of the College, ond laughed nervously of the speaker ' s jokes. The rookies in the tour group sized one another up furtively. A couple of them rec ' Ted their SAT scores and ronk- in-class shamelessly. My father leaned over and whispered, Yours were higher than that, weren ' t they ' The tour guide arrived, and we fol- lowed him doggedly oil over the place, I was thoroughly lost, but fascinated by the college students with their books and preoccupied stares. The buildings looked well-scrubbed and freshly- pointed, even the dorms seemed ra ther well-behaved. No bloring Stones, no broken lounge furniture, no abandoned keg tops. Just a lot of trees, and ducks, and wildflowers, and bricks When we were back in the car, cruis- ing Richmond Rood for a decent res- fouront, my dad turned around and sold, I ' ll tell you. Lour, that ' s a damn good school I Well, we ' ll see, I answered I wont to look of Dartmouth again, But my heart wasn ' t in it. I liked this place I told my friends that Linda Lovin had gone here, that the designer Perry Ellis had gone here (he was o Koppo Sigl], that someone from Steely Dan hod

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4 Introduction

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Lavln et al gone nere Dut naa promptly propped out W M has groduoted presidents and governors, tennis pros and gourmet sausoge makers. Even Jerry from The Bob Nev hart Show w as supposedly on alumnus. So I figured thaf even if I did sacrifice wild keg parties on the street, I wos in good company at W8cM, When, on August 26, our Toyota pul- led into Yates parking lot for the first time, I was bouncing off the upholstery There were people everywhere in little nuclear units, corrying fans, plants, and maps People were throwing fnsbees in front of the Hall and honging off the backs of pick-up trucks People drove by in red TR-7s ond waved wildly to others sitting at the curb by the Caf, I was grinning uncontrollably It only took two weeks for my grin to fode I grew tired of sweotmg and wait- ing in line and smiling until my cheeks hurt I took to wearing my Dartmouth t-shirt and moking satirical remarks ab- out Virginio And I wasn ' t the only one. A girl on my hall storted going home every weekend. She ' d come bock on Mon- day with puffy eyes, piles of unfinished work, and o new sign asking for a nde the following weekend It was too far for me to go home to New York, and Home took on mythically wonderful proportions I began to wonder if the guy m Steely Don hadn ' t hod the right ideo I never knew how it happened, but I stoyed for four years, counting fruit flies, dredging lokes for mvertebrotes, pick- ing at shark codovers, streaking bacter- lo, identifying sguid ports I agonized over popers, crcssmg out sentences, in- serting paragraphs, ond throwing owoy whole introductions, until I was satisfied, or, more often, too tired to core And for oil the complaining I did, oil the pens I 6 Introduction