The Fall Rains have begun. Things are quiet in the City after a boisterous weekend. Family Weekend for the University. Many Sauluki shirts and sweatshirts. Old folks laughed like kids as they returned to the crime scene. Imaginations inflamed with the College Experience. SIUC was known as a Party School. In fact, national news covered Carbondale’s Halloween Celebration on more than one occasion.

When I began working at Southern in 1978 it was a bit difficult to drive down the Strip to my Elkville home after I got off at 1:00 A:M:. In those halcyon days, there were well over 20 thousand students attending Southern Illinois University. They along with the residents of Carbondale and surrounding communities dressed up for a massive Halloween Party. Folks came from surrounding states to attend the noteworthy event. Once the festivities were squashed by the city fathers and University administration…enrollment fell. Kids enjoy a good time…

Attending University classes along with working full time was a vivid experience. Most of the professors complimented me for endeavoring to achieve higher education while working. I was a little older than the conventional students…but not much. I quickly learned that University Culture and Academia was very different than what I was accustomed to.

In October of 1978, the Grand Theatre in the heart of Carbondale advertised on their flashing marquee X-rated movies. In those days I did not own a television. I worked in the Allyn Building in 1979 and observed that many of the paintings and drawings were of life-sized nude men and women. I was similar to Dorothy of the Wizard of Oz…I was not in Kansas anymore.

I think that my love of Fine Art began in Allyn cleaning the charcoal. The Art students and faculty treated me like one of their own. These were the days of Jimmy Carter and the Iranian Hostage Crisis. There were many drawings of Ayatollah Khomeini… Often I worked overtime in what was affectionately called the Blue Barracks. The Blue Barracks were brought on Campus around the time of the Vietnam War as temporary accommodations for the School Of Design. It was difficult to ascertain what was trash and what was treasure. Rock and Roll music played at full decibel level all night.

October 10th will be my 46th anniversary of being hired at Southern Illinois Unversity @ Carbondale. One of the greatest days of my life!

I began as the youngest in Building Services and left as the oldest in seniority often chronologically. I recall the crisp cool air of the evening of October 10, 1978. I understood something special had happened. MJ and I were finally in the Game.