University of Kansas - Jayhawker Yearbook (Lawrence, KS)

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NOVEMBER 1943 13 n 7 HNH HHHS lHl NlW bed with a Yes, sir! at six in the morning instead of saying For gawdis sake get away to the freshman call boy at nine-thirty. This business of no change in tie, no cutting classes, and no putting up the Hill in a strip down Ford, he goes on, is proving the death of his individuality. Being so much in the company of men-never having to Study' with a girl is rusting his line. Studying through the world series broadcast has made him narrow. And keeping closing hours like a female together with making beds and washing out his things have robbed him of his self-respect. Most gruesome of all-with boot camp hanging con- stantly over his head, he has been forced to learn something. Suzy is studying, too. And like Joe not from choice. If she had her way, she would be somewhat of a per- sonal USO hostess to Joe 24 hours of the day. But since joe isn't available but about U50 of that time, she ,has had to grasp for some other steadying in- fluence. Strangely enough her attention has fallen with a vengeance on the very things which the Uni- versity has been hopefully suggesting with no ap- parent success to young women for over a century- scholarship and extra-curricular activity. So while the Chancellor reaches for his smelling salts, Suzy digs into student government and the Pythagorian theorum. The war has even slipped a serious note into that heretofore witless gathering, the female bull session. When will the war be over? is a favorite topic be- cause everyone who isn't married already is going to get married then. Other popular topics are why sailors have exactly 13 buttons on their dress blues, what good an overseas cap is to its wearer, how sailors ever lace the laces in the backs of their trousers, and how to tell an army man from a navy man in work khaki's. It is at bull sessions girls now learn that the little men in front of a marching squad are up there not just so they can see where they are going, but to set the pace at a m.p.h. suitable to their limited stride--and many other equally important and intel- lectual things. Numbering among the war casualties which we are forced to report in this article is Watson library. Once a thriving social center, the building is now bogged down with supervised study halls on 2nd and at special basement desks, where ASTP boys study at night according to regulations while Hill women con- centrate with difliculty elsewhere in the building. fC0mimzed on Page 792 Remember the days when a uniform on the campus made people stop and stare? Photo by Fisher

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fx we ' Cartoon by Marshall - 1' X Regt. X 5 ,, .Ip 0 'Q kd HE UNION fountain is deep in its 5 o'clock fog. Smoke and boogie woogie mingle above the booths capping a roar of 50 separate bull sessions. And K. U. is K. U.-the school we all knew or dreamed of in '39-College. E All too soon it is 5 :4O. One uniformed figure after another feels his way out of the haze. Back in a corner Joe, who still whiffs of cords, saddles, and rum and maple in spite of his dress blues, tweeks a straw and meditates on the evacuation with dreamy eyes. Then suddenly it comes to him - 5 :4O - men leaving-MUSTER! Two coke glasses spill and roll near the edge of the table as Joe scrambles to his size 12 D's. Ohm' gawd, Suzy, Bye, he sputters, it's past time to muster! and is off. After incurring a slight case of heart strain, Joe shoves his way through the ranks, gets in a Here, sir! and shuffles off with the rest. Once in the ball room it is only a matter of routine-a very short, simple, 10 minute routine Cchew, chew, swallow, re- peatb until Joe has finished chow-joe, the man who used to drag dinner out for hours with 7th and Sth choruses. of. Show me the way to go homef, Not only has Joe ceased to sing at dinner-he has ceased to have dinner-or breakfast or lunch. Now he just has chow. Moreover, Joe no longer takes Suzy home from 5 o'clock cokes and squirms on the doorstep for Friday night dates. Somehow she is always left dangling on 7!ae lcl aaclw ngelfz- - - --by Mary .Morrill the end of her straw, a stiff breeze reminding her of the departing Joe and of the war. The war-Suzy moves over into another booth of chow-widows and all sigh in behalf of this terrible event. But the sigh is somewhat a matter of form-a respectful ritual so to speak for a departed soul which has long since ceased to be missed. Post-war .college life was ine-but war-programs college is not alto- gether unsolid, and neither Suzy nor her colleagues are ready to trade the many handsome, uniformed Hill men for a reinstatement of last year's civilians. At least not yet. The gap between the two types of college life was difficult all right-so diflicult it seemed at first there would be no spanning it at all. But with a little co- operation on the part of everyone, a few mixers, and several months time, the army, the navy and the civilians have combined forces. They have become a student body and K. U. has again become a college. Now there are few complaints-even about the most radical transitions. To some it still seems strange with virtually no cars on the Hill-University drive being a thorough fare, for blue and khaki rectangles which drone left, left, follow your left 2, 3, 4 from seven until seven. But because these rectangles are solid manpower, they are tolerated-enthusiastically. The only thing Suzy and the others do decry with bitterness is the fact that most University men have been scattered all over Lawrence while their houses are converted into PT boats and barracks. This in itself isn't bad. What's so awful is that not even down-town central knows the numbers of the PT'sor the new civilian houses, and Suzy can't call boys at her convenience-but must wait-sometimes days-until they call her. 'Because it is a change, the new regime, quite naturally works a few hardships. joe, according to Joe, faces the most unbearable. About the toughest thing in the world, he will tell you, is popping Out of

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14 T -Photo by Fisher HEY say that a college freshman leads a dog's t , life, but now, as we K. U. frosh are veterans of two 'grueling enrollments and almost two months of residence here, we can sit back and laugh and chat about those first few weeks here at the University of Kansas. About September 23, we thought that it was the beginning of the end-that we'd never get over the confusion and perplexity of our situation. The fact, that we were able to bring pop's car to school for a few days helped some, in that it got us where we wanted to go, but when we got there-it was just as bad as ever! But therels no doubt about it-it was fun'-- and we had experiences wecan chalk up as embarrassing, educational, sensational, dull, amusing, grim, gruesome, or maybe a few other private adjec- tives of our own. However, when Commencement time rolls around only too soon, we'll look back and longingly remember .... Thursday, September 23-what a day! We woke up in strange surroundings with that awful empty feeling in our stomachs that used to preface a speech in front of the highschool assembly or the minute just before we ran out on the field for an encounter with our school's big football rival. We cussed and discussed that hill we had to climb Cwe could've sworn it was perpendicular to Tennessee Street! D in order to make it to that first convocation by 9:30, and we mentally resolved, then and there, to have the class of '47 present the University with pulleys to aid the poor students who are so unfortunate as to live at the bottom of the Hill. We had our cards punched for the first time by the Jay-Janes, and wondered just exactly who they were. We wondered, too, if we'd ever, ever get our cards punched the re- quired number of times. A very grim aspect. Some- thing bright appeared on our horizon though, for we HE JAYHAWKER HHW HHH were delighted with the Chancellor-his amiability, his pleasant and friendly smile, his jokes, his good looks. After the first meeting some of us dashed over to the Student Union to sign up for the event of all events-Rush Week. There we were looked up Cand downD by our few sorority friends. Our hearts dropped right down to the sub-sub-sub basement, when we saw the hundreds of cute girls who were to afford the stiffest competition we had ever been up against. QWe still wonder how in the wide world we ever made it.D We were lectured, we reluctantly parted with our first fee money, and we departed with a longing look in the general direction of the Pan- Hellenic members who stood menacingly around the wall. Our most discouraging episode occurred the same afternoon, when we met in Hoch Auditorium to take our psychological examinations. We chewed our pen- cils over problems, and nervously contributed to the art work on the lap boards in between times. We suddenly lost our bravado and began to feel exactly like the original Lil' Moron. The sophomores bol- stered our morale by assuring us that it really didn't matter at all what we made on our exams, for they i -K ritl: '5252i2ififiei1',--'ss ... ,..-.. .i ' J cirr r X -2325532 -h +,'s,5 ' ? N 1 1 ' lll ....