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.
Awakened at 4:00 for Hell Week - Thursday, September 21, 1961
What a day! It started at 4:00 this morning with a screaming, banging arousing by the goons and goonesses, tramping around the parking lot and chanting [the Hell Week chant], walking single file to all the dorms, and carrying on on the athletic field till breakfast. I had to lie down on the blacktop for my funeral, was spanked twice with a long black paddle, and told numerous times that I was a "stupid frosh," etc. We also went through "air raids" and "floods" in Commons, etc. Some of the bratty freshmen were given a pretty rough deal, but I've had a lot of fun. I was almost too tired though to stay awake for the all-student chapel lecture. I've got a freshman skit practice to go to at 8:30.
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4 comments:
Barbara, thanks for being so kind to visit my blog. I'd love to return the favor. I'm thinking that you are about the age of my mother, so perhaps I can learn a bit about what her life must have been like through your reflections. Thanks for taking time to share them! This last one was written seven years before I was born. :)
College sure changed by the time I arrived. I don't recall anything quite like "hell week" but there were a few panty raids during my freshman year. But even that was going by the wayside as students were beginning to live off campus, and in some places there were even co-ed dorms (not where I was.)
Thanks for sharing your diary with us.
Roxanne, that is an interesting connection you made about your mother's and my ages. And Happy Birthday to you!
Readers, by clicking on Roxanne's name you will find her beautiful blog of commentary and photos, "Peace Garden Mama" which she writes in North Dakota. One you arrive on her Blogger blog profile, scroll down until you find "My Blogs" and click on "Peace Garden Writer."
Cecelia, Park has not allowed a "Hell Week" for many years but it was fun for the most part when my class of 1965 experienced it.
Visitors to my blog, you can find one of Cecelia's beautiful blogs, "Inspired Vision" when you click on her name where she left her comment on my blog.
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