The picture above is one of the few I have of myself during my college years. It was taken in my Sophomore year in 1966 outside my Quonset hut type dormitory at Purdue University. The photo is a copy of a copy of a copy so it is quite blurry. My college years were a time that a young/shy/naive boy finally grew up.

When I first went to college in 1965, I had been saving up for two years to pay for it. I got jobs wherever I could find them. It was mostly farm work including putting up hay in the summers and working in a gas station at other times. My first day there, I quickly realized that I didn’t have enough money to fully pay for the second semester, so getting a job was mandatory.

Before you ask, I couldn’t get student loans as my mother, when she abandoned us ten years before had subsequently married a rich lawyer. It was the 2nd of her 5 marriages. Being that she was an extreme narcissists (like you know who) she never offered to help me with my college expenses, and since her husband had such a large income, I didn’t qualify for student loans. It was the perfect Catch 22.

I found the job in the dormitory cafeteria. I would work there almost forty hours a week for the five years I was in college. I started out mostly doing “P&P”, that is scrubbing pots and pans and there were lots of them. Since I wasn’t particularly comfortable with social stuff. That was the perfect job for me. The cafeteria served about 1500 meals a day, except on Sunday when it only served about 600. By the time I was a senior, I in charge of the waitstaff of about 70 people.

Working about 40 hours/week in the cafeteria and storeroom, along with 50 – 84 hours/week in summer jobs almost paid for all 5 years I was there. I found out the first semester I was there that it was just not possible to take a full college load. If I did, there was simply no time for sleep, so that is why I spent 5 years to graduate.

The picture was wearing my usual daily stuff, white jeans and a T-shirt. I had a couple of flannel shirts to keep warm in the winter months along with a heavy coat.