My friend Kevin has been writing about his oldest blogging friends and when he met them. He thought I was one of the oldest, but actually I didn't get to Duke until 1986 so I'm #6 on his list.
Speaking of nostalgia, I've been trying to remember when exactly he and I met. The first specific memory I have is that I was volunteering for the craft committee of the student union, and they made us take around these petitions to raise student fees. (Actually the petition was to put it on the ballot, but still the goal was to get more money for the student union.) So I took the petition to my dorm and asked everyone to sign, including Kevin. Who told me in no uncertain terms what he thought of said petition. He wasn't mean about it, just very clear. I wasn't very politically minded at the time, and I think that may have been my introduction to the idea that a lot of people don't like tax increases. Most of the students didn't care, maybe because they weren't paying the bill.
My first memory of his sweetie Nellorat is sitting with her and Kevin and another friend in a coffee shop, and her encouraging me to join C-APA, a writing group about comics. "But I don't read comics," I said. That's okay, she assured me, she hadn't been reading them much lately either, until very recently when she'd just gotten back into them. I was trying to get across that no, really, I don't read comics at all, but I can't remember what exactly was said. I do remember that the conversation led to my joining Frefanzine, so in a very real way Nellorat is responsible for my involvement with apas, which definitely changed the course of my life -- for one thing, I met both my ex and Georg in Frefanzine.
While I'm on the topic of nostalgia, that craft committee (for which I had to collect signatures) was way too much fun for the student union. We did workshops on things that could be done in an evening, like making felt or marbelizing paper or those string bracelets that everyone was wearing at the time, but mainly we hung out in the craft center and had fun. It was me (a freshman) and two senior girls. I totally felt like one of the cool kids. One of the other girls and I were talking once about where we came from, and it turned out that, even though she lived in some totally different place, her Uncle Sid lived a few blocks from me and carpooled to work with my dad! That was so weird.
3 Comments
I have absolutely no memory of the craft committee petition. Wow.
I was barely scraping by during my Duke years. Student fees were actually a significant financial burden on me. Also, by that point I'd been through the entire DUDA boondoggle (in which my student humor group had to defend its existence two years running despite the fact that we used no campus resources), and I had less than no respect for the student funding process. So I was probably pretty cranky about it then.
Well like I said, you weren't mean about it, just very clear that you had no intention of signing the petition. A little short maybe, but now that I know the circumstances it's totally understandable. I think you might have even already graduated, in which case I shouldn't have been asking you anyway.
I only remember one guy (in a frat on West, can't remember which) who was rude about the petition. My craft committee friend -- the one whose uncle drove to work with my dad, wish I could remember her name -- and I had this whole speil, "even if you don't want to pay more money, don't you think everyone should have the opportunity to vote on the issue?" This guy worked himself into a froth yelling about how much he hated the student union and no, he did not want an open vote on increased student fees.
The funny thing is, two years later pretty much all my friends would have agreed with that guy (though I'm sure would have been more polite about it).
And here I thought you joined FreF to get to know memememe better. My memories are deliberately selfaggrandizing.
Came across this researching another hazy memory, whether or not Ward Churchill was a member of FreF. Referencing your other FreF-related post, yes, membership does make you a rather high ranking crank all on its own. Embrace it.