September 1953

I had the opportunity to attend band camp and Girls' State. So I had been away from home and family a couple times. However, it was different when I went to K-State at Manhattan.

Mom and Bill helped me move into Northeast Hall, one of two freshman girls' dorms. They took Jeanette, Ruth and me out to dinner. When that was over, they dropped us off at the dorm and drove away - whether Mom shed any tears or not, I don't know. It felt like I had been abandoned!

There were five guys, besides the 3 of us girls, from Ness City. There were two girls from Brownell. There may have been others from Ness Co but I don't remember.

My roommate was a great gal. She came from a very small town (yes, even smaller than Ness City!) not far from Manhattan. Her folks owned a cheese factory so we usually had a wheel of cheese in the closet. We had crackers, too.

Our room was on the third floor. So we tromped up and down the stairs a lot! There was a cafeteria in the dorm. We ate most of our meals there. Sunday evenings we were on our own because the cafeteria was closed. Then we usually hit the cafes in Aggieville.

I went home three times during the first 6 weeks at school - boyfriend in Ness, you understand. That third trip, Mother told me I had to stay at school until the Thanksgiving break which I did.