About the diary writer
- Barbara McDowell Whitt
- Kansas City, Missouri, Alexandria, Virginia, United States
- ~ About: A 1961-65 Park College Diary ~ As a high school girl and then a college coed in the first half of the 1960s, I wrote nightly entries on the pages of one-year diaries. In January 2010 I began transcribing the entries into a blog and gave each one a title. I grew up on three farms within 30 miles of Iowa City and the University of Iowa with its Iowa Writers' Workshop. As the oldest of four daughters, in my diaries I sometimes referred to my sisters as "the kids" or "the girls." We helped our parents, but we also had good, wholesome fun - a characteristic I took with me to Park. Park is 300 miles southwest of West Chester, Iowa, in Parkville, Missouri, on the Missouri River 10 miles northwest of Kansas City, Missouri, and across the river from Kansas City, Kansas. In 2000 Park College became Park University. Today Park's flagship campus is in Parkville and there are an additional 41 campus centers across the nation. Park was one of the first educational institutions in the United States to offer online learning. My last post was on May 22, 2018. I may be followed on Twitter @BarbaraMcDWhitt.
Hell Week Has Begun - Wednesday, September 20, 1961
I sit here at my desk with wet hair doing biology. In the hall are upper class girls watching the "wee baby" frosh girls. ("Hell Week" began at supper tonight.) The goons and goonesses look like horror. We have to wear our skirts three inches above our knees and wrong-side out, hair uncombed, no makeup, and carry a favorite possession. It should be quite an experience. I'm still trying to get my schedule changed. Badminton and golf in phys ed is filled up so I might try to get fencing and trampolining. I'm changing speech to Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 9:00.
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8 comments:
What was your favorite possession that you carried with you?
And - fencing and trampoline sound fun! If that was what you took I will be excited to read about THAT!
Okay... this post filled me with questions...! A Saturday AM class? And, did all the girls always wear skirts?
Suzanne, I think my favorite possession was the stuffed dinosaur made of green felt I took to Park to keep on my bed. It was probably 16 inches from head to tail tip and 7 inches high.
It didn't take the physical education teacher long to realize that I was not very athletic. Her approach was for us to have fun so I didn't have to worry about getting my eye hit with a fencing foil or breaking my neck on the trampoline.
Yes, we had some Saturday classes. I was frustrated with Dr. Hampl for messing up my schedule as I sure wouldn't have chosen a class that met at 9:00 on a Saturday if I had been doing my schedule on my own.
As for the skirts, girls wore them to class and chapel during all my years at Park. Jeans, slacks and shorts were okay for casual times.
Wow, have times changed! It is interesting that regular classes met on Saturday morning. And fencing and trampoline sound like a lot of fun!
Your first class days sound like a whirlwind of juggling so many things, but enjoyable too. I love the fencing class!
Cecelia, as I think back on it, there weren't very many classes that had a TTS schedule instead of MWF.
At first the very thought of fencing and trampoline sounded intimidating but I soon found out we had a very caring and gentle instructor.
Hilary, I did have a lot going on. The whole concept of fencing was new to me. I did an online search about it last night to remember what you fence with (a foil) and found a reference to fencing in the 12th century.
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