University of Illinois record enrollment

Congratulations on the record breaking enrollment at U. of Illinois Champaign-Urbana.  https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/802663?  Enrollment was about 20,000 when I started in 1958, and I think the cost was about $1,000 year. It was about a 4 hour drive for my parents who lived in Mt. Morris, and it was up to me to get a ride home for holidays.

I lived in a private dorm owned by the Y right in the middle of the action, McKinley Hall on Wright St.   https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2003/10/54-how-to-find-roommate-who-doesnt.html   I found a website for the YWCA in C-U down the street from the old McKinley Hall, but now it's just bogged down in day to day SJW missions and intersectional causes. It's actually where I met my cousin Chuck Ballard when we got together so he could give me a ride home. I think he was a senior--and incredibly handsome.

William B. McKinley was an Illinois millionaire, business owner and politician (not the president of the U.S.) and I went to a McKinley Presbyterian church down the street (visited website of the foundation--same SJW), and was sick in the McKinley Hospital now a health center, taught Spanish at Urbana high school that had McKinley Field, and walked on McKinley Avenue. https://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2003/11/67-ghost-of-william-b.html

Like the wealth of many 19th and 20th century millionaires which built so many schools, churches, colleges, orphanages, funded orchestras, etc., today the source is ignored and they don't even mention his name, or capitalism, on their websites

The racism on today’s college campuses

I saw this in a closed Facebook group, so I'll only share parts. A parent posted (with the texts) that his college student son (enrolled at Berkeley I believe) was studying Chinese with a classmate. His son is white, the classmate a member of a "protected" minority, but they are friends. The friend told his son that they probably couldn't study at his dorm because whites were not allowed to be in the building although blacks, Latinos and Asians were, and he'd check, but he thought if he did come there he would have to sign some sort of form. So the 2 of them were looking for a different study space.

I attended college in the bad old days of residential segregation, employment discrimination and open racism of the 1950s-1960s, but my U. of I. dorm McKinley (owned by the YWCA) had blacks, whites, Asians, and many immigrants (most from Chicago, the daughters of refugees from both Nazis and Communists), and my roommate was Chinese. We had all varieties except boys--they were welcome only on the first floor public area and in the basement serving our meals. What amazing freedom college kids had in those days.

Update: I checked the race and gender page of Berkeley's enrollment information.  21.3% white and 32% Asian.  But to make that look better, each Asian is broken out by country--China, Korea, Japan, etc.--9 categories for Asians, but only one for whites.  Not even immigrant Irish or Swiss or English.  Just White. Like that white blob at the SOTU last Tuesday.

Different cultures, similar paths--Friday family photo

In the late 1950's my college roommate Dora and I both dated architectural students named Bob whom we married. They both had taken art lessons as children, then put it aside to practice architecture, then developed a hobby of watercolor later in life, particularly after retiring. Here's her Bob.

http://www.galleryblink.com/robert-hsiung

Lemon Lush—could it be?

This sounds a little like  Lemon Dessert at McKinley Hall at the University of Illinois.  I won’t know unless I try it, and right now I’m not doing any desserts.  Also, in the 50s, I don’t think our cooks would have used an instant pudding mix.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons chopped pecans, divided
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, softened
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 (8-ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed, divided
2 (3.4-ounce) packages lemon instant pudding mix
2 2/3 cups milk

Preheat the oven to 375F.

Combine flour, 1/2 cup pecans and butter in a medium bowl and mix well. Press onto the bottom of an 11 x 8-inch baking dish. Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes. Let stand to cool.

Place cream cheese in a medium bowl. Beat with an electric mixer set at medium speed until fluffy. Add confectioners' sugar and beat until mixture is light and fluffy.

Add 1 cup whipped topping to cream cheese mixture and fold in gently. Spread over cooled crust.

Combine pudding mix and milk in a medium bowl. Beat until thickened. Spread on top of cream cheese layer. Top with the remaining whipped topping. Sprinkle with remaining pecans. Chill, covered, for 1 hour. Store any leftovers in the refrigerator.

Monday Memories—lunch with an old friend

We met in 1958 when we lived in McKinley Hall on Wright St. at the University of Illinois. Saturday we had lunch together at Panera’s and it was like no time had passed. Marie and her husband were passing through Columbus on their way to Florida.  But there's always something new to learn, like her parents were Swedish immigrants and she can speak Swedish. She also told me our old friend Anita, an art teacher in the Chicago suburban area, had died. Praise God for long time friends.

Deanna, Marie and Anita ready for the I.F. Ball, 1959 standing in McKinley Hall.

Balls at the University of Illinois were usually sponsored by a campus wide or large organization and held in more public places like the Armory or the Athletic building; dances were for the individual fraternity, sorority or independent residence. Balls always had a nice dance band or small orchestra; dances usually a combo. But it was always live music.  Balls during that era were St. Pat’s Ball, Sno-Ball, Beaux-Arts Ball, Military Ball, Interfraternity Ball and Panhellenic Ball.

JFK at the U. of I., October 24, 1960

Photos of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John F. Kennedy making a campaign stop at the University of Illinois. (U. of I. Archives photo.)  Can't be positive but that looks like McKinley Hall over on the far left in the motorcade photo where I lived in 1960. 801 S. Wright. However, I got married in September and was living and working in Indianapolis.

The American Elms that formed a cathedral arch over the campus walks were gone by then, in fact, I believe they had all been cut even before I got there in 1958.

Update:  looking closer, I think the motorcade is further south, nearer the library.  That’s not McKinley.

Friday Family Photo--college 1958

In 1958 I tranferred from Manchester College in Indiana to the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana to study Russian and Spanish. It didn't hurt that my high school boyfriend studying engineering was also there. However, that didn't last, but there was a young man from Indiana living about a mile from my dorm, McKinley Hall (owned by the YWCA) in Armory House (privately owned) who was studying architecture. Our first date was for the St. Pat's Ball in 1959. These photos were taken the first day of classes 1958 in the dorm room my husband shared with Lou Wozniak. This was truly Mr. Neat living with Mr. Clean. Looking at these photos I'm guessing there wasn't a pencil or hair out of place. He was about 25 lbs lighter, solid muscle (cross country runner) and had curly red hair.

54

How to find a roommate who doesn’t speak Spanish

My first visit to the University of Illinois was to attend an ROTC dance with my high school boyfriend, who was an engineering student there. I doubt that he noticed, but I wore the same formal I had worn to the Christmas dance when we were junior and senior in high school. Neither of us knew how to dance, as I recall.

I stayed at the sorority house of a high school friend for the week-end. I think she and her housemates were the first to tell me about the dorm where I would live when I transferred to Illinois. They had lived there before pledging. My relationship with the boyfriend ended before I got to school in the fall of 1958, but I thoroughly enjoyed my years at McKinley Hall.

McKinley Hall was a conveniently located, independent (not Greek, not owned by the university) women’s dorm on Wright Street, one of the main streets through that campus on the Champaign side. It was owned by the YWCA and was named for Hannah McKinley, mother of an Illinois politician and businessman, William Brown McKinley. It was built in 1913 and counting the walk-out basement, had four floors. Our dining room was in the basement, the main floor was the offices for the Y, a lounge with comfortable furniture and a fireplace, a sun porch, and a large activity room where we had our house activities like parties and dances. The girls’ rooms were on the second and third floors.

McKinley Hall was a block from Green Street where the bookstores, restaurants, and pharmacies bustled. It was across from Altgeld Hall, which many years before had been the law school and former library and from which the chimes were rung every quarter hour. Also on the same side of the street were the offices of the Daily Illini.

Mrs. Stone, the housemother, arranged for me to have a roommate from South America when I told her on my interview I had studied Spanish. Dora was born in China and raised in Brazil, so she spoke Shanghainese, as I recall, and Portuguese. However, it was a great match and our years together provide precious memories. Today she is a successful artist in Boston and a new grandmother. I have a whole scrapbook of her Christmas cards collected over the last 40 years. I haven’t seen her since 1989, but when I do, it will be like she just walked down the hall for a few minutes.