Montana State University Bozeman - Montanan Yearbook (Bozeman, MT)

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3 MONTANAN: What was it like as a Spur in those days? JOHNSON: I think that one of the most traumatic experiences in college was the fact that my roommate and I, shortly before women's day... we got to talking as roommates do and she said “if I don't become a Spur I’m going to be completely crushed . And I had never even thought about being a Spur. You know. So along came the announcement and my name was [called]. So I was elected and I nearly fainted because 8

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(con't.) Union Building. Any entertainment we had was downtown, even a Coke. Mo cars. Our entertainment every Sunday night was walk to the movies. then go across the street for a cup of coffee because that's all you could afford and walk home in the snow. It was the Bungalow right across the street. It was a good soda fountain. a real fun place to go. That was our entertainment. Then we had lots of fireside dances with the fraternities. Just roll up the rugs. MONTANAN: You were a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority. What was it like being in the greek system then? JOHNSON: I do think it was important. You weren’t so lost. MONTANAN: How many independents were there? JOHNSON: There was in my class a group about as large as a sorority. MONTANAN: What did the average student know about what was going on in the world? Did people sense that a war was coming? JOHNSON: I shouldn’t say everybody. that's too general. We really didn't read the newspapers. You know. I don't think we were nearly as aware as college students are today. We didn't have television, we didn't have time for the radio. We knew about Hitler, we had lectures and things. People coming in. This is one thing that’s happening now is that kids know what's going on. You can’t avoid it because you've seen it on television or radio or something. It gets to you. MONTANAN: What about politics and especially student politics? JOHNSON: We had President Roosevelt for so long... Student politics. yes. For instance I was elected to something. MONTANAN: Student Senate your senior year. What did you do as a senator? JOHNSON: Hardly anything. Really, there wasn't too much. We worked at it. I think that there was student politics but I didn’t get too mixed up in it. Student Government positions sort of passed around the different fraternities and sorotities. MONTANAN: What did people wear then? JOHNSON: Oh my goodness, just look in the Vogue magazine it looks just like that. Horrible! Horrible! But we had lovely evening dresses. MONTANAN: What did you have to do with the Military at the university? (made in reference to a photograph of her in a uniform.) JOHNSON: That was band sponsors. Our Missoula games were in Butte. Our grizzly games were always in Butte. I'd have to march down the street with a bouquet of chrysanthemums. MONTANAN: How popular was football then? JOHNSON: We went to the games but we didn't have a team worth two cents. There was a lot of school spirit though and our basketball team was tremendous! MONTANAN: Did you ski? JOHNSON: We used to go up to Karst and I didn't have any skis so I borrowed mine. The girls would get on that little flat west of Karst and the boys would climb the hill and try to ski down. MONTANAN: Was it cross-country skiing? JOHNSON: Well no. regular. Not anything like the boots now. Skiing was... it hadn't really started. Long 7

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I had no idea. You have to have grades but you have to be a kind of willing, active person and I had no idea. I was completely floored when my name was called. I was going with the brother of the president of the Spurs at that time and I got back [to Hamilton Hall] and there were a dozen red roses in the dorm. You know this happening to a freshman, it was wonderful. Not the dozen red roses but that I was elected a Spur. MONTANAN: How many Spurs were selected? JOHNSON: Twenty-two. MONTANAN: Which movie theatres were open then? JOHNSON: The Ellen and then the one across the street. MONTANAN: The Rialto. JOHNSON: Uh-huh. off and on the Rialto was going. [It was] way down town, how far. about a mile and a half. There wasn't such a thing as a coke except down there. There wasn't a cafeteria on campus. Not even anything near it. The Baxter Hotel and the Bungalow were about the only places. MONTANAN: What kinds of movies were showing? JOHNSON: Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Janet McDonald. MONTANAN: What were some of the popular singers and hit songs? JOHNSON: Bing Crosby, big bands. One came to Great Falls when I was a sophomore. Mother let me go up and visit. A big band (trying to recall the name) name some of them. MONTANAN: Tommy Dorsey. JOHNSON: No MONTANAN: Glenn Miller, I know it couldn't have been Glenn Miller. JOHNSON: (After going through some old scrapbooks) I just threw away all the Dance Club letters, all the letters and all the things. If I don’t have them in my head I haven't got them. The one I’m thinking of was the same name as a football coach. Who was the big man in Bart Starr's.. .Green Bay Packers? Well, somebody will remember. MONTANAN: Who played at the local school dances? JOHNSON: We had some really good dance bands like Harlan Bixby's and Dick Nelson's [they were the piano players and like all the others, for example Benny Goodman and Wayne King, were just named after the leader]. MONTANAN: They were all students? JOHNSON: Yes. MONTANAN: And they played at all the dances? JOHNSON: Ah-huh MONTANAN: Was the money situation pretty tight for most of the students? JOHNSON: It's sort of hard to realize that how material things ... there weren't any. Our clothes we made or we didn't have too many. I went with a boy who never had a suit when I was a freshman but he was a tremendous artist, and I'd get the nicest pictures, fun things and you didn't have to have money to have a good time, cup of coffee or a picnic. I wonder what ever happened to him. Firesides didn't cost anything and dances, marvelous dances. It was too small, it was kind of like everybody against the world. I really enjoyed my college years, very, very much. The band was Guy Lombardo's.