Chapter 07 - Synopsis
After graduating from Fletcher High School in June, and working Jacksonville Beach Patrol until September, I attended the University of Virginia in Charlottesville for one year. It was very hard, an all boys school, way too far from the beach, and you had to wear a coat and tie to class every day. I had some good times there, but I wasn't really happy. You couldn't have a car your freshman year, although I brought up my 1956 4 door Lincoln (orange with a white top) sometime in the Fall and kept it off campus at a Sigma Chi brother's farmhouse he rented. I pledged Sigma Chi, but didn't return my sophomore year for initiation. After getting in the Lifesaving Corps, fraternity hazing was pretty ho-hum. I remember one night the pledges were in the basement of the fraternity house with the lights off. The members came in covered in sheets and waving flashlights and yelling and screaming. I tried to act scared. I had an academic scholarship, which was a good thing, since Dad borrowed money to buy me clothes for school. I always thought a lot of him for that. I would have been happy going to University of Florida, but my counselors told me I was too smart for a state school (I graduated #6 out of a class of 373 with a GPA of 3.867) I should go to a better university. I probably would have finished college, had I gone to a state school. I did later get an AA from Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California in 1970. Mother and Dad had just moved to Georgia, so I may not have qualified for in state tuition in Florida. It's all water under the dam now. I wouldn't mind having a 4 year degree, although I'm not sure it would have helped me financially. I have worked at trades and for myself most of my life.
My first semester classes were English, Spanish, Geology, Calculus, and Speech. Speech was an elective that some students took as an easier class.The teacher knew this and announced the first day of class that if you weren't in the Thespian Club, the highest grade you could get was a C. I got a C. I failed the Calculus final, but my teacher had mercy on me and passed me with a C. I got B's and C's in the other classes both semesters and finished the year with a 2.389 grade average. I needed a 3.0 to keep my scholarship. Dad would have borrowed money to send me back, but I was over it. I went to DeKalb Junior College in Clarkston, Georgia, the next year to continue my education and stay out of the draft.
I took the Lincoln back to Atlanta, probably at Thanksgiving, at the urging of my fraternity brothers. I entrusted George and Dad to drain the radiator and block when it froze. I remember specifically telling them to drain the block. They got lazy and didn't drain the block. They said they didn't think it was going to get that cold. The block cracked and I told them to have the Lincoln hauled off. I was really bummed out. I liked that car. We had some good times together and it was a killer ride. I had plans to fix it up right. I bought it from Bill Lampp that summer for $150. I drove it 110 mph down Seminole Road, in Atlantic Beach, past 15th Street one time to see how fast it would go. It was around dusk, and all 4 wheel covers spun off in succession after I hit 100. I spent about an hour looking for them and finally found them all. There were only 3 houses on that road then, Rogers Mansion, Bobby Jacobs' house, and one other. We used to have some terrific beach parties up there between the road and the beach in the scrub hammocks, but that's another story.
February 12, 2010
